Shady Grove Fertility

She was great and very detailed during one on one consultations, however, during treatment cycles she was MIA and we never heard from her directly. When she did call, we often would hear her typing in the background which often felt like she wasn't really paying attention.

Advocate for yourself. Just because they recommended something doesn't mean you have to go through with it. Stick with your gut.

Dr. Browne was a fill in, as our original physician passed away unexpectedly. Beginning with our first visit, we did not feel positive or hopeful after meeting with her. She conveyed a sense of bewilderment as to what our problems might be regarding our infertility. She also treated miscarriages with very little gravity. She lacked compassion. In addition, after the front desk failed to process my new insurance, she made snide comments during future appointments about how hard her staff worked to fix the error (despite it being their error in the first place).

Be clear about your expectations of communication.

She recommended Clomid and IUI. She did not explain why she thought this protocol would work, other than she figured that producing two eggs would improve our chances. If it didn’t work, then she said she would recommend IVF.

We paid $1800 for each IUI cycle, for a total of $3600.

My husband and I have multiple factors effecting our fertility. We should have never been counseled to start with IUI first. It should have been recommended to go straight to IVF. She provided conflicting protocols, at first saying femara would be best because of my PCOS but then having me on clomid. The few appointments we did see her for she was always late and by more than 10-15 minutes.

You’re going to be doing a lot of waiting. Make sure you ask about the chance of each procedure being effective for your situation and why she thinks the protocol is the best course of action.

Use of clomid to treat annovulation. Completed two failed IUIs without much change to protocol.

$2000 for two rounds IUI. Even though monitoring was basically the same every day, I had varying costs in bills due to how the procedures were coded to my insurance.

NA.

He seems like a nice guy, but there was never any real follow up or interest in my case. He arrived to an appointment unprepared and clearly didn’t review my test results... as they were incomplete and required a follow up exam. This somehow slipped through the cracks (one of many times overall with this clinic). I’m still trying to figure out if this was the fault of Dr. Mckeeby, the nurses or the clinic’s organization. Either way, it’s super disappointing. Finally, Dr. McKeeby was supposed to follow up with me after our final meeting regarding the next steps and he never did...

Insurance covered most costs.

Dr Doyle is mild-mannered, friendly, carrying, informative, accomadating and more.... :) He is always there for me! If I was not sure about something! If I was unhappy with the nurse because she wasn't responding to my voicemails & emails! If I was too scared!

Trust him! He's absolutely amazing!!!

I don't remember the first one but the second is called the Antagonist-Vivelle Protocol. It's slightly different from the first one

Around $35,000 for two IVF cycles or a pregnancy

For my age he strongly recommended a single transfer!

Treated me as if I was a younger patient. I am older, so treatments selection may have been too harsh on my eggs. She adjusted protocol which yielded more, poor quality eggs. She didn't listen to my concerns and my money went down the drain along with precious time.

IF you're older, find someone else. If you're younger, you may stand a chance conceiving.

THe first cycle was standard protocol- Gonal F , menopur, centrotide. HGH. The second included the previously mentioned but also a lupron stop..yielded more eggs then previous protocol. Overall, over 41 eggs retrieved but none were of quality.

Over $25k

He has a pleasant personality but as far as feeling like an important patient we felt like just another couple. We had and still have many unanswered questions and no baby. My protocol was wrong for me and never adjusted and had dangerous post retrieval consequences.

Ask questions and remind him that you are a person who is very important to someone not just another face in a practice. If you feel that something is wrong press the issue until you are satisfied with the answer.

Out of pocket we have spent over $20,000.

While he was reluctant to transfer 2 embryos he still supported it.

I don't know what all else he has going on in his life, but Dr K is not a good doctor. He doesn't have much compassion when things go wrong, he fails to communicate vital information and then blames you for "not reading all the paperwork" that you ever got on this fertility journey. He claims he had know way to know there was a problem with your progress during a treatment when it was a hormone level that was regularly checked. He is quick to pass blame on anyone but himself and not quick to come up with helpful alternatives. My experience with him was frustrating and disheartening to say the least

Find a different doctor. Not all Shady Grove doctors are the same. It's worth the added drive to another Shady Grove location (added over an hour to my drive when I switched locations) but it was well worth it to get a Doctor who had compassion, organization, and good communication.

While I was pregnant, she ordered me to stop taking endometrin, because she did not think my Beta's were high enough and could not see the sack in my uterus. I begged her to give me more medication, but she refused. Shortly afterwards, I started bleding and lost the baby. Afterwards, I showed my Betas to two other fertility clinics - both were shocked at Timmreck's decision to stop a potentially viable pregnancy.

Get a new doctor - I did and was treated MUCH better by someone else. Plus, I now have a baby!

Started with a natural iui, then progressed to three standard iui's, then to two ivf's with ganeralix, gonal f and menopur. Second ivf resulted in a pregnancy, but Timmreck had me stop the endometrin due to low Betas, so I lost the baby.

I was mostly covered by insurance and had to only pay for medications, which ended up to be a few thousand dollars in total.

She was fairly rude, dismissive, and seemingly uncaring. I did not find out until much later that it is a company policy that they do not treat overweight women (based solely on BMI). Not upfront with information.

Know that you are treated as a walking BMI, not a person.

I could not have treatment because I did not fall under their BMI limit.

Pending

The doctor did a great job of explaining everything to us and we felt well prepared. I would definitely recommend him to a friend looking for a fertility doctor. I haven't seen him much but nurses handled monitoring appointments in an expedient manner with few exceptions.

Don't despair and keep trying!

Letrozol, 6 IUIs

$3000 deductible each year plus $50 a visit.

He made me feel like I was just money to be made at shady grove. He missed diagnosing me with endometriosis even though I had the symptoms and complained about a very specific pain. I had a second opinion and right away she found an endometrial cyst and said it appeared (based on my pain) that I had endometriosis. She suggested a laparoscopy which confirmed her diagnosis.

Find another doctor

He said since nothing was found wrong that IUI and IVF would be our only chance at getting pregnant.

Very expensive testing and procedures. IUIs were $1800 plus medication.

Dr. Levy has a long track record of several decades treating patients for infertility. He is affable and personable and confident in his abilities. For those with less challenging or complex fertility issues, I believe he would be a good fit. I did not feel in our case, as we discovered we discovered we had challenges, that he was flexible or open-minded in our chances for a successful round.

He has a long history of treating patients and I believe there is something to be said for this depth of experience. However, if you discover you are a more challenging case, I would encourage exploring other doctors.

Dr. Yazigi retired he was not heavily invested in my treatment. He was kind and friendly. He over prescribed tests that were already performed elsewhere. I had to go back to my obgyn for a second opinion of his diagnosis.

Do your research, you are your own best advocate.

$15k for one in vitro cycle. 25k for two in vitro cycles. $3000 for embryo testing.

Our first visit, we really liked Dr Mottla. He has a warm manner and was reassuring. He was pretty realistic about success rates, which I appreciated, though I did have to press him for specific numbers. We had issues as time went on, particularly with communication and with my partner being included in the process. I am a Primary Care Doctor, so I may have been seeking more explanation of treatment plans than other people, but I was disappointed with the lack of explanation when plans would change after an IUI cycle didn't work; for example why we were switching medications. There was also a big misunderstanding where my partner and I thought we were only doing one cycle of IUI and then moving onto IVF, but after our first cycle of IUI didn't work, Dr. Mottla just created a treatment plan for a second cycle of IUI with new medications and his nurse told us as if this was the plan all along, so we didn't feel like our unique situation or past conversations were being taken into account, ie, we felt like a number. It is also fairly difficult to get timely appointments with a provider to discuss our questions and treatment plans; it definitely has not been offered or recommended and we have had to advocate for ourselves to schedule and schedule pretty far in advance, which can be stressful during the very uncertain journey of infertility treatment.Once I voiced my concerns about wanting more explanation for treatment decisions, Dr Mottla and our nurse did try to share more of the clinical thought process with me, which I appreciate greatly. I would like to see the default approach be to ask patients what level of information and explanation they appreciate. The staff at the Annapolis location also provides more explanation than the Columbia office. At the Annapolis office, the nurse meets with me after each labs/US visit to go over the plan and see if I have questions, which I LOVE, but the Columbia office doesn't do that, and I have to go to both offices due to where I work, so there have been miscommunication and misunderstandings esp when I go to the Columbia office. Finally, my partner has felt very removed from the process which has been hard on both of us. For reasons still somewhat unclear to me, Dr. Mottla called me initially to discuss my partner's semen analysis results instead of my partner, and wasn't planning on calling my partner until I asked him to; this felt very inappropriate to us and like an effort wasn't being made to include him. They say that they treat us "like a team", but all that really means is that everything falls on the woman, which leaves me feeling stressed and alone and him feeling excluded and ignored. Citing COVID protocols, my partner was excluded from my IUI ultrasound. We had been excited for him to be more involved and he is scientifically-minded, so I thought it would be cool for him to see the dominant follicle and be more involved in the process, as well as to be there to support me. Unfortunately, we didn't realize he couldn't come in until we were at the appt, so he spent the appt stewing in the car for 45 mins and I felt more alone than ever. I take COVID very seriously, but it is April 2022, he is fully vaccinated including booster, and I know firsthand that most offices and hospitals are lifting their restrictions, so it was all around upsetting and seemed to have little medical reasoning.

Advocate for yourself early and often. If you want to see him/discuss your treatment plan, schedule an appointment with plenty of advance notice. If you want to know the actual chances of success, ask for specific numbers; fertility care in general tends to default to toxic positivity which was counterproductive and upsetting for my partner and me.

IUI x3, first clomid, then letrazole for last two cycles due to thin uterine lining (6mm) at day 8-9. Also used vaginal estrogen for first two cycles and menopur for last cycle. HCG trigger shot and vaginal progesterone used for all three cycles.

No insurance coverage, paid $1440 for each IUI cycle and extra for meds

Unknown

Strengths are that she makes herself available to her patients. Weaknesses is that she doesn't review charts appropriately and has patients repeat the same tests multiple times. She also allows her personal bias to cross ethical boundaries. She essentially delayed my treatment because I refused to approve genetic testing. I am African-American they screen for sickle cell anemia at birth. She heard my husband say he has a history of it on his side of the family and took it upon herself to tell me she wouldn't select an embryo with sickle cell trait or sickle cell anemia for transfer. This is beyond medical advice and crossed into telling a client what they should and shouldn't do with their own embryos. At this point imaginary embryos that have not possibility of developing sickle cell anemia. I essentially was discarded to the side because I didn't sign a consent form for genetic testing.

Advocate for yourself.

Didn't make it this far. Dr. Li and her nurse gave me the runaround and then disappeared before the lab closed for quality assurance.

Initial workup was 2000 for the testing and repeated tests. Mostly covered by insurance. They quoted me 10000 for IVF.

N/A

As a patient I felt protected under her care. I felt that she had our best interest at heart. She was patient and kind. She made sure every question we had had a response. she was overall great. She unfortunately spent a lot of time apologizing for the mistakes that a shady grove fertility location had when it comes to my care. She made sure we left every appointment with a clear understanding of every step in the process

No advice. She's a great doctor

My protocol included Gonal F, Menepur, Progesterone and a trigger shot

My cost was covered under my insurance. I paid for donor sperm which was $600 each we purchased 3. I also paid for medication first cycle it was a few thousand 2nd and 3rd cycle it was covered

On the first visit in the office with my wife, the doctor took one look at me and implied that we would never be able to conceive because of my weight. As if this was enough of a slap to the face the staff at this facility informed us on the last visit that our insurance would not cover fertility treatments. It seems to me that health insurance should of been the first thing that was checked but it was not. Ultimately you would think a doctor with several years in fertility medicine would use more sensitivity, candor, tact and professionalism when dealing with families that are having issues conceiving naturally.

Find another clinic if you don't feel comfortable in your first interaction.

Never made it past testing and consulting phase.

She is a bit cold and not terribly helpful, but the thing that bothers me the most is that she knew that we lived in Maryland and never asked if we had thought about getting secondary insurance through the state (MD is 1 of 4 states that offers this option). The practice's financial representatives hounded us for over a year and never mentioned this option either. It made us feel like the practice is a business first and care provider second. We never felt great about Dr. Moon, so we ended up going to George Washington University IVF & Fertility instead. It was the FIRST thing our new doctor mentioned. This saved us an incredible amount of money and gave us peace of mind as we weighed our options. I want other Shady Grove patients to know about this option and I thought that FertilityIQ was a good way to share.

It was mainly consultation.

I believe it was a $50 consulatation

Dr levens was great. I wish we spoke more. When we did speak he was kind, helpful and full of answers to my million questions. But we only spoke before the process started. After that it’s onlu been 2 phone calls where he gave me results

Egg retrieval with genetic testing due to my many miscarriages

Thumbs up.easy In and out.

$6-$8k with insurance and genetic testing covered by participating with a study

I want the IUI procedure to be done by Dr.Browne.. she takes interest in doing the right way! My first 2 IUI’s were performed by a nurse in Fairfax hospital as my dates were on a weekend. The nurse did not care as much as Dr. Browne did. Dr. Browne was very specific to get it right. I could literally see the compassion between a nurse practitioner and Dr. Browne. I feel all my pain has gone waste for my 1st 2 IUI’s.

I want IUI procedure to be performed by Dr.Browne. She’s very particular and makes sure she’s doing it right. I couldn’t see the same thing in the nurse practitioner. The nurse did iui in <5 mins.. Dr. Browne was so specific while doing the procedure.

1200$

consult was informative but I have not proceeded due to predicted costs being higher than expected and inability to get information at this point about other options that I believe might be available to me

in consult it was suggested that due to lower AMH that a hormonal patch would be used at the beginning of the egg retrieval process rather than birth control to synch my menstrual cycle in order to maximize eggs; did not follow up to get more details

I was given an estimate of at least $60,000 (about half of which would be medication) for 4 cycles of egg freezing that I would recommended to pursue