San Diego Fertility Center

Our first meeting with Dr. Chuan was very simple and clinical. She was very receptive to our feelings and carefully looked through the stack of paperwork from our previous dr about the treatments that we’d already done. The appointments that I did see her, she was very kind, informative and had great bedside manner. If she saw that I was nervous, she always reassured me and let me take my time getting my emotions under control. Overall it was a wonderful experience, but I don’t think that I saw her as much as I expected to

Ask questions… Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification on things.

Injections and treatments leading up to anger triple were pretty standard, when my egg retrieval occurred they found polyps in my uterus, so they decided to freeze my eggs, scraped my uterus and allow time for my levels to go down before embryo transfer. They did a biopsy on what they found in my uterus, it came back clear and as soon as my next cycle came around we prepared for embryo transfer. All went as planned and I received a positive pregnancy test two weeks later resulting in a full term birth of my son.

I love my nurse stated that she was amazing. All my expenses are wonderful

20,000-30,000

I only had two embryos to transfer, so we decided to transfer both… We didn’t have a need to select a specific embryo, as long as it was healthy we are ready to transfer.

Dr. Chuan spent an extensive amount of time on our initial consultation because I was in shock by what I was being told and had so many questions and needed her to repeat to me again what she said . She explained all our options. She was very sincere and empathetic. She kept me focused and reminded me to take it day by day. I would highly recommend Dr. Chuan.

Read everything you can about your situation, I know it's hard because your depressed or like me in shock, but try to read up and come prepared with your questions, any question you have are important.

We did 1 cycle of injections d/t my age= no follicle response canceled 2nd cycle of high dose injections same as above no response from my body canceled. She gave me the option of trying Clomid pill; so far 3 cycles on this Cycle 1 ovulated before retrieval, she decided to keep a closer eye on me. Cycle 2 led to egg retrieval and 2 frozen embryos Cycle 3 ovulated 1 of the 2 follicles we decided to save our money instead of going after 1 egg and try another cycle Waiting to start my next cycle.

6,000 for medication 11,000 for cycles and egg retrieval

Being a woman I was looking for a female doctor, and found exactly what I was looking for. Professional, very personable, warm and caring, smart and funny. She would always make me feel at ease and safe. I knew right away I was in great hands. She creates the woman to woman connection, which is very comforting.

Trust the process and the doctor, she would do the best for you and would tell you exactly what your chances are.

It was suggested we do 2 cycles of frozen embryos, considering my age (42) and my test results. We retried 10 eggs total, 3 embryos and after the PGS testing got one good quality, male one, exactly what we wanted. Waiting on the transfer in 5 days, then positive pregnancy test!!!!

around $23,000 for 2 rounds of frozen embryos transfer, $4,600 for genetic testing, $5,500 for meds

Sandy is absolutely the best. She is warm, friendly and extremely knowledgeable of all procedures, medicine, outcomes, surgeries, etc. Each time she meets with you, you're greeted with a hug and she's always sincerely concerned with how your body is feeling and yourself mentally. I always felt very cared for and I never felt any form of anxiety, going through any of this. Something I can say is very comforting, considering this is an extremely emotional process to go through. I left everything in the hands of Dr. Chuan, having her definitely lifted a weight off of our shoulders- knowing we could count on everything to be taken care of, in the best way possible for myself, my husband & our future child.

Prepare to be hugged.

As I said previously, this is a very emotional process with a lot of moving parts. My husband is active-duty Military and was set for a deployment. We had to do a freeze-all cycle, with my eggs- as my husband has fertility issues & we were on a time crunch. The Clinic was very accommodating of our schedule and worked diligently to make sure I got into the next egg retrieval cycle- to ensure we could create the embryos, prior to his departure. During the course of my treatment, I was monitored closely for all of my levels doing blood work/ultra sounds continually. There were times my levels would go too high & we would adjust medications accordingly. I would always receive a call the evening of the change, prior to administering my medications to let me know how to proceed. The day of my 'trigger shot' prior for my egg retrieval, my levels again went a little high. So we had to change course and order a new trigger shot. We were able to go to a nearby pharmacy and adjust for my body. Dr. Chuan and her staff were always very informative as to why the change, what it would mean & how to facilitate.

Again, she was great. During our egg retrieval cycle, we were out of the state. Due to being at a different clinic, we had to pay an 'offsite monitoring fee' payment to the OB/GYN clinic we attended. Dr. Chuan deducted what we paid to the other provider, off the balance at her clinic. It is obviously an expensive procedure, but they were very helpful with picking the plan that worked best for our family and our finances.

I was very lucky to find Dr. Sandy Chuan. Being a younger patient it was all very scary and confusing. When I first met her, she was so kind and professional. Her knowledge of my issues and her ability to explain it so my husband and I could understand was greatly appreciated. She took the extra time to help us and never made us seem like we were holding her up and she never tried to rush us, which is something we so greatly appreciated. She was not only professional and sensitive she was also willing to work with my work schedules so I did not have to take extra time off work. I would recommend her to anyone having issues with fertility.

To get in ASAP because it will be the best decision you ever made.

I cannot remember the first part of treatment and what they were called, but I do know she tried two different methods that failed before moving to egg retrieval and embryo transfer. I have only done the embryo transfer once, and it was successful with one egg that split into identical twins, but I lost them at 16 weeks. I am in the process of doing my second transfer with Dr. Chuan now.

$20,000 one time fee, success guaranteed or money back.

We could not have loved having Dr. Chuan as our doctor any more than we did. My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for over two years by the time we first saw her. She was warm, friendly, and extremely knowledgeable. She took the time to explain everything to us in terms that we could understand and relate to. The month before we were to start the IVF process we ended up pregnant naturally and I miscarried at 7 weeks. The first time I saw Dr. Chuan after she found out she couldn't have been more sympathetic and caring. We decided to skip IUI as an option due to my age, 37 at the time, and the fact that we had been trying to get pregnant for so long at that point, we all agreed that IVF would have a higher possibility of success. We initially were going to do just one retrieval due to the high cost of IVF (our insurance covered nothing of course) and ended up with 3 fresh blastocysts of poor quality. We transferred all three and received a negative result which was obviously emotionally devastating. My husband and I decided to try again and the clinic was amazing in working with us. They offer a discount if you buy a three retrieval package and they rolled over the money we spent on the single retrieval into the package so we saved a lot of money. We did two more retrievals back to back and froze everything. For every new cycle of treatment, Dr. Chuan changed the protocol to try to find what worked best for us. Our first retrieval she was only able to get viable eggs from one ovary so she changed our medications the next time and got better results. She tried a change to the medications for the third retrieval as well to try to give us the best odds. Our second transfer ended up as a blighted ovum miscarriage. Another devastation. Our third transfer resulted in a negative result. By this point I was pretty frustrated and concerned about the quality of my eggs. We spoke to Dr. Chuan about possibly using an egg donor even though we still had six of our own five day blastocysts frozen. She was very empathetic and understanding about our frustration but urged us to give it one more shot with our own eggs and to try transferring three (they normally only transfer a maximum of two) blastocysts. So, we gave it a shot and I honestly fully expected it to fail since I was pretty disheartened at this point. I couldn't be more thrilled to say that I am 24 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby girl! To say that I was shocked by the positive result would be an understatement. After all of our HCG numbers came back and we were where we were supposed to be, Dr. Chuan called me to congratulate me. At this point in the process generally the fertility doctor is done but she knew how much we had struggled and wanted us to know that she truly cared about us. I have never dealt with a doctor who cared more about me and everything I was going through. If Dr. Chuan could be my lifelong doctor for everything I would be thrilled.

Always be honest about your feelings. I am fully aware about what a serious process fertility treatment is but my husband and I always use sarcasm and humor to deal with stress. Because we joked around, Dr. Chuan adapted fully to our personalities and that really helped us through the process. Had we been super serious about the whole thing, she would have been also. We were able to be ourselves around her which made the process infinitely easier and more comfortable.

I remember that Dr. Chuan changed up our medications during each retrieval to try to get the best results but I don't remember exactly what she changed. I do know that I responded very badly to Estrogen during the egg transfer process and so she tried three different routes for me to take the medication to make me less ill, i.e. patches vs. orally. I was very grateful because taking the pills orally made me horribly nauseated.

The IVF three egg retrieval package was $26,790. Our medications per cycle were about $6,000.

Dr. Chuan was one of the most compassionate doctors I have ever known. She treated me like you would a good friend, yet she remained professional. She was positive, kind and caring. I was extremely confident in her medical and fertility knowledge. We had to make several changes in my protocol over the 2+ years I saw her. She was always accommodating with my requests. I had some reactions with either birth control pills, hormone creams or injection medications that she would work with me to figure out new protocols to try. I felt like Dr. Chuan worked so hard to find the right protocols that would work with my body each cycle.

Stay patient and eliminate stress from your life as much as possible

Dr.Chuan thought we would reach the best results if we started right away with an egg retrieval due to my age, 40. Our most successful retrieval was the first. After a month of birth control pills to suppress my ovaries, we then stimulated the follicles with injections and retrieved 6 eggs. My husband and I wanted to do genetic testing and the clinic charged same fee whether you had one or eight embryos, so over the next 2+ years we tried to retrieve enough eggs to fertilize into embryos so we could have eight embryos for the testing. It took 2+ years due to my body reacting to the protocols. The protocol that worked perfectly the first round did not work again. I think we tried around 6-10 different protocols over the whole process. The first egg retrieval resulted in the one embryo that genetically would be a viable pregnancy. We implanted the one embryo that was a success!

Over the 2+ years the total cost of medications and clinic procedures was $60,000

From day one she made my husband and I very comfortable. She explained everything she planned on doing with risks and expectations. Every major procedure was done by her. Even though my husband and I had unexplained infertility she never gave up, wanted to make sure we got pregnant-and here I am, 6 1/2 months pregnant!

Although she explains everything if there is something you don't understand don't be scared to ask. This is a big confusing time-she will go over everything so you understand

At first my husband and I did ever test possible to try and determine why we were unable to conceive on our own. We decided to skip IUI and go straight to IVF because there is a better chance of success. We did a normal protocol for egg retrieval and froze them to give my body time to recoup. For our first FET the protocol was normal and unfortunately neither of the two stuck. For our second FET we changed protocol to use drugs like an egg retrieval to try to use my own bodies hormones. It worked, of the two used one stuck.

I would say that we were lucky having fertility coverage through our ins. So we only paid a co-pay for drugs and a small percentage for procedures because the center was out of network

Dr. Chuan is very dedicated to her profession. I appreciated the way she made me feel like that our dream of conceiving a child would come true. I had a really hard time going through everything, but thankfully Dr. Chuan always lifted my spirits when she entered the room. Her optimism kept me going!

Your journey started long ago, but now your future awaits you. Don't be scared of the process and take everything one step at a time. Ask whatever questions you have, even if they seem like silly ones. Dr. Chuan's experience and knowledge will help guide you through. Be confident that not only will she do her very best to handle your case delicately, but that you will meet you bundle of joy soon!!! My motto through everything was "Where hope grows, miracles blossom."

The only thing that stands out to me was my initial reaction to the progesterone tablets I tried. I told Dr. Chuan that they made me bleed uncomfortably, so she had me try progesterone in oil. Well, the needles in my backside didn't work either, because I don't have much muscle or body fat in that area and it hurt way too much! So, then she had me try the cream, which was way more comfortable and I was able to get through the entire length of dosage prior to my transfer.

I believe we spent roughly $5,000.00 total in medication; Medication for the egg retrieval and 3 transfers. I did end up with a little more medication than I needed for my last transfer, and I donated it back to clinic. The overall cost was about $20,000.00.

Dr. Chuan has very nice shoes. That is what I remember as she always seemed to talk about her very high end shoe collection and we certainly felt like we were paying for those shoes with each expensive visit. The clinic would give us pricing estimates on tests and we would receive invoices for thousands more than we were told. We were frustrated by our experience since we were not taken seriously and decided to move on to another specialist after a few months of working with Dr Chuan.

Be prepared for more costs than you are initially told. There were charges for every visit, monitoring visit and blood test for our clomid cycles. We ended up paying more than we would have paid for an IUI for a clomid cycle.

Since we were young, I was prescribed clomid and tried at home. We had monitoring appointments every other day up until ovulation. We repeated the same exact protocol for the second month without any adjustments.

We ended up paying about $12,000 for initial fertility testing since our insurance covered $0. The clomid cycles ended up costing about $2500 each due to all the monitoring appt

Dr. Chuan was great! Honest and I have recommended her to many friends. She was great at explaining everything that was happening. It was great to have a clinic closer to Riverside instantly of having to drive all the was to San Diego every time.

Make sure you go to the informational meeting the clinic holds about once a month, before your consultation.

I don’t really remember, but for the successful cycle I had Testosterone gel, clomid, menopur, Gonal- F. I had fewer eggs retrieved (6) but they were all mature and 3 made it to embryo. 1 day 5, 2 day 6 and we had a full term daughter with the transfer of the day 5 embryo.

For the retrieval and transfer it was about 15,000 and then the medication was about 5,000. Each time.

Dr. Chuan was with me through my entire journey. She showed general concern and was pragmatic and honest with her treatment plans. She was always honest and gave realistic expectations. My favorite quote from her was “every embryo is precious and we treat it as such” this made me feel like she felt the same way I did about my frozen embryos.

Trust her treatment plan. She honestly cares and wants you to get pregnant as much as you do.

22k for retrieval and first transfer, 4700 for frozen embryo transfer and 500 per year for embryo storage

Our experience working with Dr. Chuan has always been very positive. I always tell anyone going through what we are what an amazing Doctor she is and how much she cares for us. I'm so thankful she has been our doctor through this whole experience.

Dr. Chuan is an amazing Doctor and to trust her professional guidance and decisions. She always has your best interest in mind.

I don't remember all the meds but I do know it was important to take everything as directed so I did.

Very easy to schedule and attend. No wait time at all.

The costs were well communicated to us and that part was absolutely fine.

Dr. Chuan is very knowledgeable and I trust her opinions. The nurses were great too but the receptionist does not communicate well. I felt comfortable with the doctor and nurse Michelle. I just wish I saw dr chuan more often instead of just when we were going over any test results.

She is amazing but ask her nurses for clarification when needed.

Two medicated cycles and then two medicated cycles with IUI. After that she wanted to move on to IVF.

$700 per cycle after initial testing was completed.

Not applicable. We haven't gotten to that point yet.

Sandy is very caring and has always had our best interest in mind. She always explains what's going on and why. She leaves the decisions up to us but always gives us her honest feedback and advice. I trust her completely with our care.

Trust the process and the doctor!

Our first Stim cycle my body did not respond to the meds in the way the dr had hoped. She highly reccommended we cancel the cycle and give my body a chance to heal and produce better results. She put me on a new protocol and always talked me through the process.

Dr. Chuan was so supportive at every visit. She always took the time to answer the many questions that I had and to thoroughly explain each process to my husband and I. I really felt like she always had my best interest.

Don't give up!

I believe our IUI were about $600 then we did them with injectables and it went to like $1100.

It's been two years since the ivf cycle where we conceived our son every nurse and doctor remembered me. Sdfc is expensive but I wouldn't go anywhere else. I feel the nurses and doctors truly care about me, my husband, and the family we desire.

Be sure to always communicate what you want and what is important to you, in my experience if you do this the employees of sdfc will do everything possible to get it for you.

Dr. Chuan treated my husband and I as if we were her only patients. She is warm and caring but also scientific and precise.

Don't give up hope in your quest to have children!

He had great bedside manner. Seemed to genuinely care about helping us become parents.

It's normal once treatment starts that you no longer see the dr at each visit.... Which is fine because the staff are awesome and knowledgeable

Aggressive protocol due to being age 42. Used Bravelle and Menopure twice a day

We did a program they had where I could do two cycles using my own eggs then transfer to a guaranteed donor egg cycle. It seems like it ended up being approximately 50k

She is a very caring person. She really wants to be able to give patients a baby and is very good about explaining every aspect of your treatment

Go here first. Don't bother with anywhere else. It doesn't get better than this

We did 2 rounds of clomid and IUI. After the second round I was pregnant with triplets!

Not sure

Sandy Chuan is very knowledgeable about the field. She focuses a lot on IVF and really explained statistics to us and outcomes. She was very professional but at the same time because it was a free consult not a lot of time was spent on us. It felt a bit rushed.

Have a list of questions ready to ask so that you don’t feel rushed and forget

Treatment protocol was to go straight to ivf. We however have not been able to proceed because it’s roughly 25k to do it and we just don’t have the finances right now.

Cost were really frustrating. For one single round it was roughly $12,500 which includes monitoring, add $850 for PGS testing. And roughly 10k for meds. Other option was 25k and you got 3 try’s. Plus meds and PGS testing

Doctor was not willing to adjust my protocol based on poor results. He had a one-size fits all approach, which does not work. He dismissed my concerns about aspects of the protocol, and referred to my aging eggs as the only cause. I am seeking IVF because of my age, and IVF is an inexact science. I expected him to be open to trying different approaches after getting poor results. He does not care if you succeed or fail - there is no empathy.

Do not expect any empathy or openness to trying different things.

Antagonist and Lupron MicroFlare with BCP suppression.

35,000 for 2 cycles

eSET only

Dr. Chuan is an incredible doctor that can present information to you that is honest and accurate but also kind at the same time. With fertility, sometimes it can feel really harsh hearing the cards you're dealt and I think Dr. Chuan walked the line of being upfront and honest with you but also knowing how to wrap the details with compassion and kindness. One thing I didn't realize going into it was that I would not see Dr. Chuan for every appointment. That didn't end up being a big deal for me since her staff was incredible and supportive BUT I know for some families, that is important and I think it should be shared if that is a concern for you as a patient.

I don't really have any. I don't think you need advice to see her. She was honest and factual with my husband and I and that was most important to me.

I don't remember the specifics BUT I do remember we skipped trying IUI with Dr. Chuan specifically. We had been working with a "natural" fertility specialist for the year leading up to deciding to go to Dr. Chuan. I had done exploratory surgeries and medications with the prior doctor that Dr. Chuan explained basically acted like IUI treatments even though they hadn't been presented that way. For that reason, Dr. Chuan recommended jumping into IVF because we had been unsuccessful thus far with the other interventions and essentially had unexplained infertility. I am dumbing this down a lot but we jumped in fast and I appreciated that because we had been trying for multiple years before that point and I was ready for answers and actions and that is what Dr. Chuan provided.

I don't remember the exact dollar amounts but we did not qualify for the success guarantee package which means that you pay a one time price for treatments (medication is never included in the cost-you pay that on your own) that I think was around $25k and you can have as many transfers as it takes to get a successful pregnancy. We ended up having to do a pay as we go program where we paid $15k which included a retrieval and transfer but since out first transfer didn't take we had to pay for a second one which I think was around $5k. Medications were probably between $6k-10k total for the retrieval and two transfers.

Dr. Chuan recommended single embryo transfer for us because of the rate of success and the fact that it is typically safer for both mom and baby. We had really wanted to do a multiple embryo transfer but we are not fertility specialists and are not well read on how the technology has changed. When she explained how much everything has improved and how much higher the chances are for implantation with a single embryo transfer, we followed her lead and guidance because we trusted her and it logically made sense.

I did not see my Dr as much as I expected, but I learned quickly that this was the norm and you see your Dr for the really important stuff. She was always straight forward with the information and answered all of my questions. She was compassionate and was never rude or hard to communicate with. She understood exactly why we were doing IVF and allowed us to make our own path.

Go in being open and honest, the more information you give her the better the feedback and treatment options you will have.

My egg retrieval was standard, towards the end my medication was reduced due to high estrogen levels and the risk of OHSS. The outcome was no OHSS. For my first transfer, I also think it was standard protocol. It failed. Before my next transfer I requested an ERA, she told me they usually don't do those until multiple failed transfers but honored my request and I had ERA/Receptiva completed. After my 2nd failed transfer, she offered to use the same protocol but also offered me a more medicated process similar to the process of someone who had endometriosis since my ERA/Receptiva results were borderline and the option for blood thinners, more steroids, and intralipids. I opted for this method because I wanted to do all we could and not wait for another failed transfer to try these things.

Most of it was covered by insurance, out of pocket I think we paid close to maybe 10K including prescriptions.

My insurance only covered single embryo transfer, but my Dr said we could discuss multiples at a later time if needed.

Very professional and knowledgeable. The staff in her office was the best. Her NP, Monica, and the other assistants, both Jenns included made me and my spouse feel very welcomed. I would recommend her to anyone who is trying to conceive. She went with the best program for me, not immediately to IVF.

Be patient of any setbacks and stay positive! She has your best interest at heart.

I was initially told to try IUI first as I've never tried to conceive. I had a HSG performed along with genetic testing to make it easier to find a sperm donor who wouldn't share a genetic abnormality. I had donor sperm shipped to main facility and it was ready for use for insemination. I did one normal unassisted cycle but ovulated prematurely. For my next cycle I used Clomid to increase the odds of healthy follicles. After the second cycle I had a positive pregnancy result.

I paid out of pocket for my expenses. For my HSG it was between $100-175. I had my lab work done for free. For my first cycle it was $700, it was cancelled before insemination. For the next cycle it was $250 and was fully completed. I paid $80 for the Clomid and trigger shot, as it was partially covered by insurance. I also paid for genetic testing of my blood which was $250.00.