Aspire Fertility (formerly RMA of Texas)

Dr. Failor is really sweet and understanding and makes sure you truly understand what is happening and does not move on until she knows you do not have any further questions.

Dr Balthazar was very warm and understanding in how much I have gone through in my journey to have a baby. She is determined to achieve that goal for me. She called me not only from the clinic but her personal phone when we did not have success.

We felt like a human, Dr. Balthazar and her nurse Amy, are an amazing team and they explained every detail of the IVF process and answered every question througout our first IVF cycle. Unfortunately, the Aspire Billing department at Stone Oak is not on board as the other staff, has made numerous billing errors inluding not billing the correct insurance that's located on our authorizations. We've sent countless of emails to Aspire billing supervisor and nothing has been fixed X 3 months- now we feel like a number .

For the most part she’s very gentle with her words and she takes her time. Yet there are times when asking a question we receive a very broad answer. I am unsure if this is a technique to ensure that no promises are made but I feel like questions are sometimes avoided. Don’t get me wrong she’s a very nice and caring doctor.

She took the time to explain the diagnosis and her recommended next steps in great length. She never seemed in a hurry, and fielded many questions from my husband and me. Her explanations of each step of the IVF process were broken down into terms that anyone could understand. Because of these reasons, it took what was a very nerve racking consultation appointment with very negative expectations, and turned it into a hopeful and positive outlook on the future family we're going to create together. It was challenging to find reliable information on the web. Based on what I learned from Dr. Crawford, there's a lot of outdated and misleading information that I ran into on the web. My hope is that someone will find their way to this review and feel the sense of comfort that I got after my visit with Dr. Crawford.

Before we had entered the room, she had read our background and knew what she wanted to discuss with us beforehand. Though it was our first time speaking to her it felt like she had been aware of our issues and past treatments from the very beginning. Dr. Balthazar was incredibly warm and welcoming and was very open to answering our questions.

Dr. Brownee and her staff took the time to explain everything to me, and during that time they constantly reassured me that things would be ok. They always support me, listen to what I have to say and cheer me on along the way.

Dr. Balthazar is exactly the doctor I needed and never knew. I decided to pursue single motherhood shortly before my 36th birthday and Dr. Balthazar has been so encouraging and supportive. As a former surrogate I have worked with top R.E.'s in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills and my experience with Dr. Balthazar is above and beyond. She is so welcoming and upbeat, but also very knowledgeable and capable of delivering the hard facts in a human way without diminishing the accuracy. I am so happy with Dr. Balthazar as a doctor and a person and would recommend her to anyone with the utmost confidence and enthusiasm.

Dr. Balthazar has a way of making you feel like you’re her only patient. She has excellent bedside manners and remembers each person by name. She makes you feel like you are her #1 priority.

She has great bedside manner and you can tell she genuinely cares about you. She is warm, kind, personal, and takes her time. You feel like her only patient when she is with you. She is so positive, yet realistic, which I think makes a huge impact on her success rates.

RMA of Austin makes you feel like a person and not like a number. Dr.Mak will personally respond to emails. Her team will talk you through everything and don’t make you feel bad for not being able to afford treatments. They work to find you alternatives instead.

Dr. Arredondo is a very welcoming individual and does find his ways to keep you calm (as I'm an anxious person) but I dont like how on the go he is. Sometimes a bit more detail during this time would be much more comforting.

He took the time to contact you back by email or phone when I had questions, and would explain what he saw or was looking at during the check up appointments once on medications. However, many things he did push off to the nurses to explain more. We live 3 hours away from the clinic (closest one to us) and at the time it was difficult to take an afternoon or day off of work to go to appointments and only be there 20 minutes. There were several times my husband and I thought this is it? We felt rushed in and out and then like we had too many questions on our list to ask. But this was our first time to go through IVF and as much money as we had to pay out of pocket, we wanted to spend time talking with the doctor, the expert in his field, not just the nurse.

Dr. Browne would personally call me to check on me during the injectable stimulation process and also called to give me the results of the PGS testing. Although we didn't have any viable embryos for transfer, she was delicate and understood my frustration and pain. She was also candid and honest in providing me reasons why our IVF cycle may not have been successful and what we could do different with the next cycle.

The office itself sometimes made me feel like a number, but most interactions with Dr. Browne I felt like a human. There was one IUI where I was in a gown waiting for her to come and do the procedure for almost an hour...that time I felt like a number.

Doctor Balthazar is so kind and has a great bed side manner. Very encouraging and positive through our whole experience. Through our whole process she’s was very straight forward with expectations.

Dr. Balthazar always makes you feel comfortable and remembers things that you have asked or said previously. She makes you feel like she truly cares.

She always knew everything going on with me. I never had to re-explain my situation or my history as I had with my OB. She always took as much time as I needed to answer my questions and explain everything in depth to me. I never felt like she was rushing to get me to leave. You can tell she cares about you as an individual.

Dr. Balthazar takes her time with us. She listens and answers all questions. She is warm and humorous and definitely puts thought into her patients’ care even when they are not directly in front of her.

THEY FAILED TO INFORM ME I WAS A CARRIER FOR A GENETIC DISORDER. The quality of staff reflects the standards of the doctors running the facility. That’s where their problems begin. I felt very rushed through the entire process, like everyone else knew what was going on, but since this was my first time discovering that my husband and I had fertility issues, no one really took the time to really explain the process at each visit. On several visits my husband or I were cut off by Dr. B when we were asking questions or explaining something. By the time we actually got to performing the IUI, I had already had an uncomfortable feeling, but since I had nothing to compare it to, I tried to push it out of my mind. On the day of my IUI, as you can imagine, I was very nervous. The procedure went well enough, and the MA told me to lay there for 10 minutes to allow the sperm to enter the fallopian tubes. I tried to cover my eyes and I didn’t pay attention to the time because she put an alarm and it would let me know when to get up. I heard the beep and I thought it was early, but I got up and started getting dressed. I was almost finished when I heard another beep and looked at the wall, it flashed 3 minutes and was counting backwards! Apparently, it had a warning bell at 5 min and 7 min. I got scared and went back to lay down on the table, then the 10 min alarm sounded off, and I finally got up. I wish someone had informed me about this, but as with the rest of my experience it had been rushed and there was little attention to detail. I left the room and went to check-out, everything had already been paid for, but I wanted to get a copy of all my lab work to show my PCP. I took the copy and went to my car and looked it over quickly. Right on the first page, there it was, “Carrier For Cystic Fibrosis and CFTR-Related Disorders.” I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was in my car, so I called the office right away on my way home. Perhaps I was misreading the results. I was transferred to the nurse, but she didn’t answer and so I left a message at around 10 in the morning. I finally got home and I emailed a few people in the office to see if any of them would respond. Dr. B didn’t call me back until after 1 pm. Over 3 hours of hell. I was a wreck. Why had no one told me about my carrier status, why had my husband not been asked to get tested as well?? Why did I have to find out about this on the DAY OF MY IUI. The risk of both of us being carriers was very very low, but the risk was still there. I felt like it was going to be a failed attempt due to all the stress right away, and it eventually was. All Dr. B could say was she was sorry and that the Genetic Counselor was supposed to call me 3 months ago when they had the results. Apparently, they tried to call “me” 3 times, but that was incorrect. They had my husband’s phone number because he was the first one to have an appointment at the office. My husband did receive a call and he told me about it, but we had an appointment with the doctor in a few days, so I didn’t think much of it. Dr. B would tell me about whatever they were calling about. WRONG. Why did she tell me about my low Vit D and not the carrier status? All I can think of was she didn’t want to spend the time talking about it because it would have been an extensive conversation. She had treated me nicely through the process, but was not thorough, and that’s what you’re getting with this facility. There were several instances where I felt like I was just being pushed through the system. From the gaps of information and lack of attention to detail. My IUI was not successful and as we all know, stress is a huge factor. They CREATED the stress I endured after the procedure. I refused to go back to get my blood test because I got my period. It was a very painful situation to go through, and I truly believe that I’m not the only one that his happens to, I was just unfortunate to find out. I had my first meeting today with my new fertility specialist, and she had informed me that starting the clomiphene on day 6 really didn’t do anything to improve my chances. So, when I asked the MA to inform me about the repercussions, and her stating that ‘it’s fine’ was very misleading. I did ask for my money back because I felt like it was all a waste. Of course, they only gave me back the 160 dollars for the blood test and nothing else. This place would probably be an acceptable place to go if you have experience with infertility or have already been through the process. If you’re new to it though, you will leave with many gaps in knowledge. I would never go back, nor would I recommend this facility to anyone.

Going to this clinic they always knew our story and were always on top of where we were in the process. They are honest and made us feel like they want the best for us. Always felt comfortable.

Dr. Balthazar is a very warm, friendly and enthusiastic doctor. She will call you and your partner by name - and actually knows it, not just from a chart. She knew our case well, indicated that she thought about our case often, and even walked us through her thought process for each procedure. She has a warm, energetic and upbeat bedside manner and is willing to answer any question you have of her. She is also very good at responding to emails.