Richmond Center for Fertility

There is merge/buy out happening with the clinic so they are changing the policies and procedures. But it appears to be a good change for all. There are a lot of hands in the clinic so there is always someone there to help with a specific role.

We are so thankful for Dr. Tidey. He has a calm, quiet demeanor that is very focused. He is extremely patient and warm and has always answered our questions without ever making us feel that he is hurried or bothered. I have seen many RE’s and he is by far the most gentle and precise and will do all he can to help you succeed.

Kim Beasley is absolutely an angel on earth! She has made this emotional time so comforting and warm; I just cannot say enough about her. The nursing staff in the OR are also so incredible. Wendy is hilarious and kind and so skilled at what she does. Ruth, the phlebotomist is so wonderful and gentle. I have yet to experience anything, but compassion and professionalism with everyone at VFA/SGF Richmond.

We are so thankful for Dr. Tidey. He has a calm, quiet demeanor that is very focused. While he has a quiet nature it’s not be mistaken for anything but determination. We loved that he isn’t arrogant and just aims to be the best each visit. He is extremely patient and warm and has always answered our questions without ever making us feel that he is hurried or bothered. I have seen many RE’s and he is by far the most gentle and precise and will do all he can to help you succeed. He really is an incredible doctor, an excellent surgeon and strives for excellence. I would highly recommend him!

If you are one that needs to have a lot of information, get your questions ready, he will answer them gladly and patiently. Trust him! He may not be extremely talkative, but he is an expert and very smart. I have had the most successful retrieval with him after several rounds.

12 days of stims, Gonal-F + menopur+citrotide with Lupron trigger.

Ministering appointments are done by your doctor during morning time slots. I believe 7:30-9:30am.

Shared Risk program $28k which includes PGS testing.

We haven’t gotten there yet.

It seems to be a very busy clinic, so I imagine there may be issues with calls/returning calls but I've never experienced this. My call was always answered, appointments always made, and just generally no issues.

Dr. Shah is incredibly warm and genuine. I never feel rushed when he's talking to me. He really takes his time to ensure I understand everything and that he and his team are going to support me through this process.

I worked with two different nurses when I went to see Dr Shah and both were great. One assisted during my HSG and was very supportive and comforting during the procedure.

This is probably the best experience I have ever had with a doctor, which is significant considering the reason we had to see him. He is amazing. He is very friendly, and quick to answer any questions or concerns we have. He was very calm and supportive when we had to change treatment, and explained every single step.

Go see him!! He is the best there is. It is evident when he talks about what he does how much passion he has for fertility and IVF.

My script I carried over from my OBGYN before I went to see Dr Shah was for provera. I then started taking 50mg of clomid due to my anovulation related to PCOS. We tried this for six months then he upped the dose to 100mg. After this failed three times, we moved onto 5mg femera with the ultrasounds to check for follicle growth and a trigger shot when they were mature. We tried this for five months. He recommended we move onto IUI, but with my anovulation I felt IVF would be more appropriate. He was very supportive and we had our consult appointment to plan and schedule my hormones, retrieval and transfer this summer.

Up until this point (we are headed towards IVF), most of our treatment has been partially covered by insurance. There is a financial coordinator working with us for IVF. Additionally, they helped me get in touch with a pharmacy who had affordable medications when I was doing the trigger shot as that was not covered at all by insurance.

The clinic is beautiful, it's decorated nicely, there's a nice energy to the place. The front desk staff were always courteous. As mentioned in a previous question, they need to work on how they handle calls from patients because it was hard to get a hold of staff/nurses when I had a question (I'd call, they'd send me to a voicemail, then I'd have to wait for them to call me back but this process usually took about 3 days for me to speak to the nursing staff. So this to me seems like an issue with the way the clinic is run). Other than that the clinic staff were always professional and courteous.

Everyone in the office was nice, Dr. Shah was especially nice and personable, and he was always willing to answer all our questions without rushing us.

My experience with the nursing staff was mixed. I had a negative experience with one nurse whom I found condescending (this was when I went for the HSG). However, on the following visit I had a nurse who was absolutely wonderful--she was personable, compassionate, and made me feel comfortable. I always had difficulty with speaking with the nursing staff on the phone however. I would leave a voicemail and often I would not be able to speak with anyone until about 3 days later, which was very frustrating (they would call me back the following day but if I was not next to the phone and missed their call I'd have to call them back and and leave them another voicemail and wait for their call again, which may not come until the following day). We did discuss this with Dr. Shah and he apologized and said that was not normal, would look into it.

I had a great experience with Dr. Shah. I loved that I saw him every time, even for ultrasounds he was the one performing them (which is not the case in all fertility clinics). I also loved that he made time to talk to us and answer all our questions (I think both times we sat down with him, at the original consult and after all the diagnostic tests had been performed, we spoke for over an hour; I'm the kind of patient who wants to know and understand things well). He was also extremely knowledgeable and seem to have a strong grasp of data and scientific studies. He was very personable, great bedside manner, and I felt he was going to work hard to help us get pregnant. We had to wait a long time for the original consult, but after that everything happened relatively quickly (which again has not been our experience with other clinics). We ended up doing consults and diagnostic tests (ultrasounds, HSG, etc) and right when we were going to start treatment with IUI we moved out of the state, otherwise we would have undergone treatment with this clinic. Another thing I'll say is that after we started seeing Dr. Shah and I had to go to other doctors for other health conditions, several women (physicians, nurses) upon hearing I was seeing Dr. Shah would tell me they loved Dr. Shah, or that they had been his patient and were able to have a baby or knew someone who had, so he seems to be well respected and well regarded.

I would tell every prospective patient of any doctor to not hold back and ask as many questions as you have! He's really smart and he knows his stuff. I didn't always have a good experience with the nursing staff but don't let that deter you. I also liked that he recommended other specialists for other conditions I had who turned out to be top notch, so he seems to be well connected.

We were going to move forward with Clomid and IUI if things looked favorable upon starting Clomid. We planned on starting with Clomid/IUI for about 4 cycles and if we did not get pregnant to then reassess.

We ended up moving right before starting treatment but our insurance covered all consults and diagnostic tests. We were going to have to pay for IUI out of pocket (our insurance did not cover it), and I believe the cost was in the mid to high $300s, can't remember the exact amount.

He educated us on the tradeoffs of eSET vs multiple embryo transfer.

Now that they have moved office locations and joined up with some other doctors in the area, they are much more organized. Getting an appointment is easy and they are always able to fit you in depending on how the dates of your cycle fall. The wait times have improved greatly. The office is very nice looking and well taken care of.

Dr. Tidey’s bedside manner is not the best and he doesn’t have the most “warm and fuzzy” demeanor. I did get pregnant and had my son under his care, but I felt he was very quick to push us to IVF without exploring other treatment options.

The nursing staff is wonderful. Valerie takes lots of time to make sure you know what the medication schedule is and how to do the injections. She’s compassionate and caring, and you can tell she loves her job and her patients. She is easy to reach by phone and email.

Dr. Tidey is very educated in his field and he does care about his patients and it is clear that he is dedicated to his job. However I feel that sometimes I would have to be sure to ask important questions or else I might not find out the information I needed to know. He can be somewhat wishy-washy about what the plan is, and he doesn’t always have a definitive answer to questions about treatment plans. Most of it comes down to bedside manner and the fact that he is somewhat awkward to talk to.

Be your own advocate and ask lots of questions. It is important to do your research before appointments so you understand what is going to happen and what questions are important to ask. Know that he is somewhat socially awkward but he is a very good doctor. If bedside manner is important to you, a different doctor might be a good idea.

When stimming for my retrieval, he was conservative about medication dosages. Our infertility was “unexplained” and I was 28 years old, so he thought I’d be a high responder and wanted to avoid OHSS. We ended up with 6 embryos making it to blast, so this worked for us. We were doing a fresh transfer and we wanted to transfer 2 embryos, but he was insistent on only transferring one. His rationale was that FET’s were slightly more successful at the time so he didn’t want us to waste 2 embryos on a fresh transfer when the odds were better on FET. So we transferred one which resulted in my son. We were glad that we didn’t transfer 2 and followed his advice. Now we are in the process of baby number 2, and we did an FET with 2 embryos. This was successful with one baby but unfortunately resulted in a miscarriage at 6 weeks. He was fine with us transferring 2 embryos on the FET and we will probably do 2 again at our next transfer. He did not recommend PGS testing for us because I was young and he didn’t think we’d have problems with embryo quality.

Full IVF cycle with fresh transfer and ICSI (no genetic testing), and including medications was about $17,000 in 2016. FET was about $4000, not including medications in 2018 IUI with injectables was about $1000 in 2016

See previous response.

The clinic is the most stressful part of the whole process. I had several appointments cancelled at the last minute. It’s hard enough taking off from work and then having to reschedule to the next day. It was also nearly impossible to reach a person at times. The phones would keep ringing or go to voicemail. I had the office manager’s direct number and that helped immensely! There is now a direct line to the IVF nurse.

We had a very important appointment scheduled to confirm a heartbeat after a previous loss. At the last minute, our appointment was cancelled and rescheduled to the following day. I told the office I couldn’t emotionally wait another day and would wait all afternoon if needed, or see another doctor. Dr Shah then drove across town from a medical emergency to see us because he knew how important it was to us. We are definitely people to him and he is rooting for us just as badly as we are.

Valerie was very helpful with guiding us through IVF. The other nurses were compassionate. Sometimes the voicemails left were vague and it would be hard to reach her or any nurse, ending up in phone tag.

Dr. Shah is my favorite doctor ever! Aside from God, he is the reason we have a family now and our lives are filled with brightness. He has excellent bedside manner and explains each step of the process. He was accessible 24/7 with any emergent questions or needs. Our road to parenthood was hard and he guided us with his expertise, compassion, and honesty through every step of the way. He was spot on with his percentages and helped us to make the best decisions necessary for our unique needs. I’ve recommended Dr. Shah to everyone I’ve met who is going through infertility. You will be in good hands under his care.

Listen to all of your options, ask about odds/percentages, and trust in his recommendations. Following two losses, he knew with certainty that our child was among our remaining embryos. It was hard to believe in that due to the loss, but he was right.

Endometrial patch was used to beef up my lining prior to my successful transfer. Progesterone injections caused painful side effects and he let me switch to injections ever third day, suppositories every day. Baby aspirin daily. Heparin or Lovenox for first and second trimesters.

We did a shared risk program. With ICSI and using our own eggs/sperm, it was $22,000 + medications. For three transfers, including meds it was around $30k.

Dr. Shah educated us on all of the complications, financial and medical, related to having multiples. He did not pressure me to transfer more than one embryo at a time. On our third transfer, he did offer to transfer two embryos but respected our decision to use only one.

The clinic seemed like an average, "fine" clinic. I have no complaints regarding the clinic, but also had no experiences there that led me to believe it was anything special. It was clean and new feeling, and I had absolutely no issues with it. Having not spent much time in clinics, maybe this does actually make it special.

Dr. Shah was very understanding and empathetic during the process. He gave me the responsibility of passing information along to my wife, and kept me involved in the process heavily.

The nursing staff was very nice in person and made us feel comfortable while in the office, but seemed to forget where we were in the process or lose track of where we were when we called in. There were no mistakes made that affected the procedure (to our knowledge, at least) but it is disconcerting to call in and talk to someone who does not seem as organized as you had hoped - especially when considering the cost of the services.

Dr. Shah is an excellent doctor who gives the appropriate level of detail to make treatment explanations thorough but also understandable for non-doctors. In addition, he clearly has an evidenced-based ideology which I personally agree with. Facts - and not emotions or impulses - are what drives his decisions. While even he admitted that there were steps that ended up not working during our cycle, I do believe that he gave us the best possible chance for success.

Dr. Shah is an excellent doctor and trustworthy person. The main drawbacks remain his office staff service.

The costs were high but normal for the procedure.

I would rate this clinic as a 10 out of 10. The lobby is warm and inviting, easy to find. The receptionist keeps your information private and wait time has always been top notch. The only weakness I would speak of would be to maybe try doing follow up calls to the patient once a procedure is over such as follow up 15 days after the IUI to see how the patient is doing to see if the next menstraul cycle has began or any positive pregnancy results. You kind of have to call them if you need to know what the next step would be.

Good bedside manner, very busy practice. Feel a little rushed or that I have to ask questions to really know what to expect.

June is a good communicator. She calls to inform me of medications prescribed and calls them into my pharmacy. She handles my ultrasound appts as well.

Dr. Shah lets you know that you are not alone and assures that pregnancy is an option. He has explained the best case scenario for our situation and he makes sure his staff stays on top of scheduling and ultrasound appts.

If I had to give one piece of advice, I would let someone know that Dr. Shah is personable and you can trust him.

Thus far, Dr. Shah recommended my husband have labs done to make sure he was healthy. He stated that we can't blame the infertility entirely on the female. With that being said, my husband found out he was diabetic, and also has low sperm count. He is currently being treated by a urologist and endocrinologist. He has also had surgery. Dr. Shah suggested for me to be treated for PCOS and recommended a healthy diet. He has recommended me to take Femara for ovulation and be monitored for IUI cycles.

My insurance covers my IUI, ultrasounds and medications except injectable meds. My husband has to pay out of pocket for his wash.

I have not done IVF.

So far, I've been happy(my husband as well) with our experience. The office staff is polite, answers questions(with the exception of a few nurses), and is willing to answer all your questions patiently without rushing you. While it's certainly not expected, I've noticed everyone remembers your name!

Dr Shah sat patiently with us while explaining our options, allowed us to process the information and ask questions before proceeding. We have had an ongoing dialogue from day one that never felt rushed or inadequate.

I am a nurse and hold my fellow colleagues to a high standard. I felt that at times, I was brushed off and have expressed this with the office manager.

I very much have enjoyed working with Dr Shah and while we need to move onto IVF, we plan on staying with Dr Shah through that process. He is open mined, willingly to share professional studies(I'm a nurse and really wanted to know this info) and has always been available for questions or concerns.

Make a list of all your questions prior to your visit in order to maximize the conversation.

This was our 3rd IUI with the practice(the first two were with Dr Tidey-who was fine, I just wanted a fresh set of eyes for round 3). We mutually decided that after round 3 of IUI we would move onto IVF. We are currently preparing for that now with a start date hopefully between now or spring 2019

For each round of IUI(we did both meds and shots) it was roughly $2-3,000

we haven't gotten to this discussion yet

The clinic is unorganized, I do not think I have ever had an appointment that wasn't moved at the last minute (nearly every single appointment was rescheduled even during a cycle). They are all individually quite good at what they do, but the collective effort is extremely poor and unorganized. There are serious order of operations/organization issues.

The clinic is extremely unorganized as a whole, which at times make you feel like a number vs. a human. Overall, they all individually have the right intentions, but the collective effort tends to be very unorganized and the patients feel that the most.

The nursing staff is extremely unorganized and impossible to get a hold of, it's not their fault, the clinic hasn't figured out a process for patient's that makes sense. They are overburdened and inaccessible.

Dr. Shah is very good at what he does, the only setback is how unorganized the clinic is run. If we are only rating Dr. Shah individually and not looking at the entire process, then I think he deserves a high rating. He is very much an expert in his field and also compassionate, the only issue is they are all veryunorganized and this sometimes makes the patient feel as though Dr. Shah isn't quite "on top of things" with the process.

Be assertive and don't always "trust the process" as the clinic makes mistakes (forget to order meds, lose chart, call you with other patient's info) that you have to point out to them pretty frequently . . .

Around 15,000

eSET

For a weakness, it's kind of a small practice so you will be in the waiting room forever. On the positive side of being a small practice , the doctors and nurses will get to know you and vice versa so that it doesn't necessarily feel like doctor's visits each time. You also always see the same doctor every time which I think is a plus.

Dr.Shah was very easy to talk to and always positive. He explained everything I was going through and answered all questions as needed.

There were only 2 that I met. They are both kind women but one is more personable than the other. Although, they are both helpful if you need anything or have questions.

Don't be nervous! He is a very kind man and is willing to work with you and help you understand your course of treatment.

I would get an ultrasound at cd3 for every cycle when on injections. Pills -- I got an ultrasound the first round on cd3 to check my lining. Every other round, I'd just pick up the pills and get an ultrasound on cd10. If my body wasn't producing any follicles at cd10 then we would up my dosage of whatever treatment I'm on and come back around cd12-cd16. Most every time I had one or two follicles. The last cycle I did, I had too many follicles mature so we had to cancel it.

It really depends on your insurance so it's hard to say what other people will be paying. Each cycle I took pills, I paid $1. For injections, I paid $24 per injection pen. Each cycle I also needed a trigger shot and that was an additional, $20.

The only weakness was the my leftover embryos were frozen with a slow freeze process which has caused issues with thawing them and decreased the quality. However, I believe they now use vitrification which is much better.

Dr. Tidey always consulted with us after every visit. He was very straightforward but listened to our ideas.

Compassionate, caring and always willing to answer your questions. It was always possible to speak to someone or receive a call back shortly. I never had to wait a long time for results.

Dr. Tidey was amazing. He was always trying to work out a good course of action for us. He did a consult after every single appointment and never made us feel badly about questions. I always felt like everyone in the office cared about me and treated me amazing.

Write down all of your questions. He will take the time to answer them.

We did four donor egg cycles. They were natural cycles so I was only on estrogen and then progesterone during the cycles. He did monitoring ultrasounds throughout the process to ensure the lining was building. At one point, I had to do an estrogen patch as well.

We spent a lot. 38,000 for donor egg ivf. However, we did the shared risk program so we got six fresh cycles. Because of miscarriages, we had to use two fresh and two frozen cycles.

Very busy and often runs behind schedule. A tip would be to book your appointment as early in the morning as possible to avoid wait times. There are a variety of doctors to choose from. I do not know if different doctors specialize in different diagnoses, and would have liked to have known that.

Dr. Shah always called us by name, remembered specifics of our treatment plans, and was engaging in our lives.

Nurses were helpful, compassionate, and informative.

Dr. Shah is extremely knowledgeable and has a great bedside manner. He is willing to answer questions, listen to input based on my own research, and try new protocols. He explains things in a manner that is understandable to an average person.

Ask as many questions as you can and be your own advocate. The practice is very busy, so be sure to be on top of your own treatment protocol.

Max dosage of Gonal F & Menopur. IVF & ICSI with genetic testing

$22,000 for IVF with ICSI (shared risk program) $5000+ for medications per cycle

Single transfer recommended if embryos had PGS. He would consider multiple if embryos did not have PGS testing.

I love that they offer so many plans/programs to help make treatment more affordable. They also have so much data that it helps in making the big decisions. Their doctors are top notch as well. I have heard that their billing department can be difficult to work with.

I didn’t feel rushed at all with any interactions I had with the doctor or staff. All questions were answered and everyone is so nice.

Everyone was very kind and patient and answered messages in a timely manner.

She has a fantastic personality and bedside manner and helps put me at ease when I visit. I tend to be anxious when I’m at the office! She is patient and willing to answer tons of questions. She can also back up answers with solid clinic data which makes me feel confident in her advice.

Go see her. You won’t be disappointed. She’s worth a long drive!

I am still in the early stages of treatment. I have completed all my tests to start IVF but she discovered an issue with my thyroid. So we are currently trying to get my TSH under control with Synthroid before we can proceed.

I have not started IVF yet but I will be paying out of pocket through their Shared Risk Program which runs about $30K.

I am not sure of her approach.

The clinic is very pretty, clean and comfortable. Dr. Shah's office is spacious and it is nice to sit at eye level with the doctor. The lab is conveniently right underneath. We have not had any negative experiences so far.

I feel like I was treated more like a human than a number with Dr. Shah by his honesty and his personal time he spend after working hours.

The nursing staff has welcomed me but not any different than any other general office visit. There was one negative experience where a nurse didn't know how to use the scale to weigh me which is a sensitive subject for me as most people are towards their weight however I am not positive if this was an actual nurse or someone else helping out.

My experience with Dr. Shah has been great so far! He tries to get to know his patients on a deeper level than just their medical journey. He has great communication skills and is quick to respond. He is encouraging and does not sugar coat anything. I have not had a negative experience yet!

To listen to him and believe that he is making the right decision for you.

They have a money back guarantee program but it costs more than single cycle around $30,000 including medications and genetic testing.

The clinic just merged with another in richmond and they now have double the doctors. New facilities are wonderful and all the doctor’s are great. The lab and place they do the procedures is in the same building and just downstairs, so it’s super convenient.

He’s very caring, explains things well and has a great bedside manner. He called me to check on me multiple times

They are always caring, answer questions, and available to talk via phone.

This far, I see no weaknesses. We did not achieve the result we wanted due to egg problems. He’s a great doctor — very caring, answers all my questions, and calls to check up on me after procedures and when we get results back.

Know all your risks, do your own research and be prepared to ask questions— he’ll answer everything thoroughly.

We did ivf because we had a special morphology problem. We were advised of the chances of success due to age. We did a retrieval and ended up with 5 embryos, which when tested were all genetically abnormal. We did a second round with the same results. Advice now is to do donor eggs.

Ivf multicye- $18000 initial payment. Once all meds and other fees were paid- approx $28000

Really nice facility, and very clean. Comfortable waiting room. Very rarely had to wait long to see my doctor. Sometimes hard with getting phone calls returned or paperwork filled out (for things like short term disability after my surgeries).

Dr. Shah was so compassionate and always made me feel informed.

We had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but I always felt like I could trust him to be honest with me, even with hard news. I had to uterus surgeries done by Dr. Shah and he put me at ease and treated me with respect. Our IUIs were not successful, but Dr. Shah didn't give us false hope - he was honest with us that they would likely not result in a pregnancy. That honesty helped us with the process, because we could keep our expectations realistic. When we finally conceived after our second embryo transfer, Dr. Shah and his staff were genuinely happy for us.

Be ready for a difficult journey - but trust that he will guide you through it.

Costs were high. The lab used for IVF was not covered by our insurance, even though Dr. Shah was in-network.

Dr. Shah explained that he likes to start with single embryo transfers first, especially when genetic testing was performed, as a pregnancy with multiples could lead to a higher risk for complications.

Everyone is very friendly. Hard to get an appointment in the near future as a new patient, but worth the wait. All doctors are kind, intelligent, and patient, which is important as you may need to see whoever is on call if it is on a weekend.

Always made sure my questions were answered. Also greeted me by name. Always asked about anything abnormal/discomfort after treatments.

Fantastic. Always greeted me by name and asked how I was doing, both as it related to fertility treatments and life in general.

Clearly very intelligent and answered all questions. Didn't mind breaking complicated medical answers down into language I understood. Very trustworthy. Only saw another doctor when days fell on weekends and had to visit on call doctor. Made sure I was always comfortable and knew about procedures/medicines I was taking, etc. Only reason I stopped seeing this doctor is because we decided to take another path towards building a family. Overall great experience.

Ask lots of questions.

The practice was very communicative and reliable. Nurses always responded within the same day of me contacting them. I was impressed with their ability to schedule on weekends, holidays, and in inclement weather.

Dr. Shah was an incredibly compassionate doctor. He did a wonderful job with our initial consultation and adjusting treatment when necessary. Should my husband and I decide to pursue fertility treatments in the future, I would definitely go back to Dr. Shah.

I originally responded to 7.5mg of Letrozole and stayed on that dosage through all treatment. I had an ultrasound between days 12-14 to see if follicles developed and if so, in which ovary. If the results were what was desired, we triggered ovulation with Ovridrel. 3 cycles we then did IUI. Unfortunately, we did not get pregnant.