Shady Grove Fertility

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.

Dr. Mottla is able to communicate effectively and show compassion. I had a lot of confidence in his recommendations. He monitors all of his patients even though one may not necessarily see him at every appointment. I traveled across the country to be treated by Dr. Mottla, based on a friend’s recommendation and SGFC’s reasonable picing and shared-risk program.

You can trust him. He takes his job very seriously.

I don’t recall the specific protocols. They were different for every cycle and tailored specifically to me.

I used outside monitoring with a RE on the West Coast. I scheduled these appointments easily with the dr.’s medical assistant. They were happy to monitor me because I was paying cash for each monitoring appointment.

Several cycles: Multi-cycle IVF plan (ie one price included 2 cycles): $17,500 (not including any medication) Frozen Donor eggs with Shared Risk Plan: $40,000

For my first transfer with Donor Eggs, Dr. suggested eSet. My husband agreed with Dr., although I wanted to transfer two. On second transfer, we transferred two embryos and conceived twins.

He’s amazing. He took the time to talk to us about all the risks of transferring more than one blast. He was kind but was straight to the point about everything. I Highly recommend him. He reassured me that my husband and I would get pregnant with the numbers we had and we did the first time we did Ivf! I owe everything to Dr.McKeeby and his staff, they were all amazing and kind. I don’t know what else to say so I’m just going to type until I hit the minimum word requirements. You do know I have one year old twins and I don’t have time for this long ass survey...

Relax because you’re in good hands.

I don’t recall.

2k I had infertility insurance

He warned me. I didn’t listen.

Dr.McKeeby is very pro-active with his treatment plan and has ability to understand what you are willing to go through and make the plan fit your needs. He made us feel relieved that there was hope and thoroughly explained all avenues

Dr.McKeeby has a great sense of humor and he knows what he is talking about. I would advise to listen to his treatment plan and go forth with whatever he suggests

I was diagnosed with PCOS and we started with doing clomid, injectables and IUIs but eventually conceived on our second round of IVF. He advocated for IVF since I was successfully pregnant on our first IUI but had a miscarriage.

Monitoring appointments were set for specific times in morning everyday. Other than living 2 hours away they are very convenient and did not wait long at all

I had insurance but added a secondary once we realized the bills were stacking up. My insurance covered 80% which is great

Very nice doctor but he did not take enough time explaining procedures or our next steps. Our visits were only 10-15 minutes that felt rushed. He was not very compassionate or caring about our diagnosis and how that effected us. He did not care to ask what we wanted or how we felt. Always confused leaving his office, never confident in the plan he had chosen for us.

I would not recommend Dr. McKeeby if you are looking for a doctor who is compassionate or willing to give you the extra time to explain further or answer questions and concerns.

19,500

My doctor had a strong preference on elective single embryo transfer and did not explain in detail why.

He takes his time to know you and your partner first before even getting to the medical treatment. His understanding and takes his time explaining everything and answers any questions you have about the treatment. He will call you if you can’t make it to your appointment and keep in touch with you through out the process.

Aslways ask questions and never hold back

He started me with estrogen patch and provera pills. Soon I will start the progesterone shots

Currently waiting but it will be around 30k

He suggested that i would only transfer one embryo because of my small size

Dr. McKeeby never left me feeling alone in the entire process, he was there for me the entire time. He was easy to talk to, held my hand when it needed to be held and told me to just do it when I needed that blunt attitude. If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have our daughter.

To give time to warm up to him.

Due to a genetic disorder we had to do IVF. After my second loss we did an ERA to see if I needed more time on POI, which I did. Everything was always explained in detail

We did shared risk at the cost of $26,000

Dr. Mottla was exactly the doctor that my husband and I needed during our infertility journey. He's compassionate, but he's also candid about the realities of your particular case; although we went to him fully expecting to be told there was nothing he could do to help us build our family, his optimism that we would be able to have a child gave us the strength we needed to continue moving forward. He was very easy to get in touch with during my cycles (his nurse, Dana, is amazing) and wrote to us when we lost our first son (we got pregnant on our very first IVF/ICSI cycle with him) at birth - we'd communicated to Dana that we hoped to try again one day, and he wanted us to know he'd be there for us when we were ready. Dr. Mottla is one of the best doctors I've ever had.

Trust him - he knows what he's doing.

I thought he was very understanding and I liked his approach to things. He was a good listener. He talked through the options carefully and did not discourage me from skipping IUI (due to being age 41) and going straight to IVF.

He was great, but the nurse who I mostly worked with was a bit scattered and did not communicate as well as I would have liked.

I paid about $3,000 for medications, plus about $13,000 or $14,000 for one IVF cycle. I can't recall the exact total.

Dr Mckeeby is an amazing doctor. He is patient and kind. If there are as bad news to deliver he made sure I fully understood what was going on. He took the time to make me understand the next steps.

Ask questions if you don't understand.

Dr Mottla was very knowledgable and took the time I needed to process the challenges in my journey. He went above and beyond. He is direct and to the point. He is efficient and on time. His new office is lovely and much nicer and larger than the prior one.

Listen to him.

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

I was recommended by a former patient and decided to send Dr. Mottla an email. I had already gone through 4 iui cycles (1 cancelled) and 1 miscarriage. He responded quickly but asked if it was ok to call me since he was leaving town for a conference. We decided I would come in for a consult for IVF. Turns out I had submucosal fibroids. Well 5 months and 3 surgeries later I am finally ready to get started. Today Dr. Mottla called me to reassure my decision to do IVF and I couldn’t be happier to have him as a doctor. After my first failed transfer I’ve started to feel more like a number. He’s still a great doctor but I do often feel rushed.

Ask all the questions you have. He is always willing to answer.

I am in the beginning stages. I will begin birth control in a week then proceed to injections. I don’t know what meds I’ll be on yet.

Dr. Mottla will transfer 1 embryo.

He takes the time to explain the information and even draws pictures upside down from across his desk so we could see anatomically where the numbers were coming from and he gave up detailed information about the hormone levels.

Don't expect to be able to retrieve eggs for IVF and set some of those eggs aside to freeze.

We tried IUI and get 4 follicles and a high sperm count, the office told us it was excellent but we still didn't get pregnant.

My insurance does not cover any fertility treatment, so everything was out of pocket.

As mentioned before he is kind, compassionate, and honest. He helped us to better grasp what is going on and gave us realistic expectations. He showed compassion for the struggles we have faced in this journey but provided hope with our next steps. He has gone above and beyond to be present, inform us, and share care at times of need. He has been truly wonderful to work with.

Very polite and communicated the whole process fully. We never felt judged or treated differently for being an lgbt couple. Our nurse always followed up with more information and left room for questions.

You are in good hands

IUI with medicine was about 2000 with a discount.

Dr. Reh was just the person we needed on our team during our fertility journey. My husband and I were diagnosed with unexplained infertility and Dr. Reh was so direct and clear with information and options, yet also positive and optimistic. Her team is amazing and I always felt like I was able to get into contact with the right person when I needed. She listened to me, validated me, and gave me options when options were available - I felt like I had space and respect to make decisions that were best for my husband and I. I appreciated her direct nature and honesty throughout the entire process. During monitoring appointments, I didn't always see her, but a) I loved the team so much that it didn't matter who I saw and b) if I ever needed to see her directly or speak with her, it was easy to do! Currently 37 weeks with a little boy thanks to Dr. Reh, her team, and IVF!

She is willing to consider all options!

For IUI cycles, Dr. Reh prescribed Letrozole with a trigger shot. All 4 IUI cycles resulted in at least 1-3 appropriately sized follicles. None were successful. For egg retrieval, I followed a "standard" protocol and had a successful retrieval with 19 eggs, 13 mature, 11 fertilized, 6 day-5 embryos, 4 PGT-A normal.

I was an out of pocket patient. An IUI cost about $2,000 per cycle with medications. I paid for the Shared Risk Program with PGTA testing - this cost about $26,000. Medications for egg retrieval were about $4,000. Overall, I paid about $40,000 throughout treatments.

Dr Malik is a very methodical, practical doctor. She approaches things with a level head vs. being emotional and lays out multiple paths that you can consider (including the risks and benefits of each). I had a few other fertility specialists that I knew in other states that I got second opinions from, and she always welcomed that other feedback/insight and never felt overly protective of doing things "her way" if I felt strongly about doing something else. When our IVF egg retrieval went poorly (we retrieved eggs but discovered poor egg quality and did not get to the blastocyst stage), she came prepared with a new treatment plan for us to adjust with this new data. Ultimately IVF is a long process and each new test / result is a new data point to customize in the future. I felt like Dr. Malik was in it for the long haul with us. We did get spontaneously pregnant after our failed IVF cycle and Dr. Malik made sure to be the one to do our ultrasound at 7 weeks. She also made sure to be our doctor on days where I needed certain procedures done since she knew my chart the best. Overall, I felt like she was very invested in our journey and I trusted her. Even though we got spontaneously pregnant, I would have felt comfortable going forward with another IVF cycle with Dr. Malik despite the first one not going well because I felt like she had a customized plan as a next step. Would definitely recommend her to others.

Do your own research and ask questions - Dr. Malik will lay out all the facts but for us she relied on us to make the final decision on how to move forward. This allows the patients to have control over the situation but I think it's good to understand a bit on your own before going into appointments.

I can't compare costs to other clinics but their financial team gave me a full breakdown prior to every treatment / procedure so I was 100% clear on what my costs would be

Dr. Nair was not very thorough or compassionate, and our visits with her felt so harried and lacking in clarity. During our post-initial testing visit where she gave us our diagnoses and outlined next steps, it was very rushed. Each time we tried to ask questions she ushered us along, stating "We only have 30 minutes today". Thirty minutes to provide us each with a new medical diagnosis and discuss options and next steps was simply not enough time. She hardly went into any detail about our diagnoses, didn't listen to our concerns, and, again, didn't allow for questions given the time constraints. As a medical provider myself, I couldn't believe that a physician would provide patients a new medical diagnosis without going into much detail about what that meant for them. She didn't even leave us with written handouts or links for us to read and understand better. At one point when I asked a question, she replied that we didn't have time for questions today, but that if I had questions to schedule a follow-up visit. So I went ahead and scheduled a follow-up visit (which seemed absurd that I even needed to do so just to be able to ask questions), and when the consult started she couldn't have come off as being more annoyed that she was having to meet with a patient again simply to answer questions. She came off as very cold during this consult and gave awkwardly short, non-detailed answers to my questions. At one point during the consult, she appeared to be looking down at her phone as I was talking. It felt extremely dismissive and lacking in compassion. Dr. Nair seems like she has taken on WAY too many patients than she can manage. My husband and I decided to switch care under a different physician at the clinic, and we felt so much better taken care of after that.

If you're not okay with having extremely limited contact with your healthcare provider, then consider switching to a different fertility doctor.

Tests, procedures, and medications covered by my insurance with co-pay required

She was nice, but we only interacted with her twice during seven months of treatment, once at the consult, and once in a video appointment after our first few rounds of treatment failed. She was very optimistic, which when everything failed made us feel like the optimism was unrealistic.

Insist on a frank and realistic explanation of your chances of success.

We did seven Clomid cycles, adding Gonal F after the first few failed, but it did not help the number of follicles. In six of the cycles we did IUIs, all failed.

My insurance covered half of most costs. It added up to thousands of dollars out of pocket. Our treatment failed, but we’re still getting bills for $100 here and $130 there, and those will continue for months as they work through it with our insurance. The bills are depressing reminders of the failed treatment.

Dr. Reh is very professional and sensitive to how emotionally fraught infertility treatment can be. She always treated us and our decisions with respect. She was understanding when we initially sought treatment at another clinic for financial reasons and also understood that finances affected other decisions like opting out of PGT-A testing. I also appreciate that from the beginning she emphasized that my behavior or diet or supplement regimen was not contributing to my infertility. I was confident that she was trying the treatment that had the highest odds of success.

Don’t expect to be able to reach her directly. I have heard that other doctors in the practice are more accessible. She would call to give important results but otherwise all communication is through her nurse.

Lupron stop protocol yielded 1 abnormal embryo, antagonist with estrogen patch protocol yielded 1 embryo and miscarriage, micro lupron flare yielded 2 embryos and miscarriage. The goal with each was to increase my low number of mature eggs but changes in protocol did not yield a different outcome, despite trying different trigger times/types.

22,500 for shared risk plus cost of medication

eSET is preferred but two embryos transferred due to multiple failed cycles.

At this time I have only met with Dr. Reh once for my consultation. She made recommendations but also allowed me to make my own informed decision. Due to having endometriosis and one blocked tube IVF is the preferred treatment. My insurance does not cover IVF so I decided to begin with IUI for a few cycles. Dr. Reh moved forward with my desired treatment. Following initial ultrasound she reported to her staff that I would have to take birth control for one month prior to proceeding. I just started Clomid cycle with Gonal f injection

Have all documents in order to present to her so that she can review them with you in the room. If she has questions she can ask. Make notes of your questions and ask them at the end...once she is finished talking

Initial ultrasound, one month of birth control, Clomid (5 days) and Gonal f injection plus trigger shot, IUI. I am currently still taking the Clomid

Kaiser insurance: thus far $377 for Rx, $450 for IUI, $30 office visit

It was explained that single embryo is preferred. I am not at this stage yet so we will see what happens in the future

Dr. Reh was honest in her assessments, if not a little conservative in her estimates of our chances of conceiving. She seemed up to date on the latest literature. She answered all of our questions. She made adjustments to my treatment as we went in response to how I was progressing. Overall, I was very pleased with my experience.

Dr. Reh was not especially warm, but she was extremely knowledgeable and competent.

Gonal-F (225 IUs) and Menopur (75 IUs) evenings; Cetrotide in the mornings; Lupron trigger; 27 eggs released; 21 mature eggs; 12 embryos; 7 day-5 or day-6 blastocysts; 2 chromosomally normal blastocytsts; 1 male child

We did the shared risk program (guaranteed live birth or most of the fee is refunded). I believe that was $28,500 (due to my age). Meds on top of that for one cycle were ~$4,000.

Dr. Reh preferred single embryo transfer and we agreed

Dr. Reh seemed competent and was friendly and good to talk to. I did feel at times like she was obligated to try to sell extra services. However, this is only based on one in-person meeting, one phone call, and one voicemail. Most of my interaction were with other staff at shady grove, which were not always as positive.

Try to get more time and check in more with Dr. Reh herself— she seemed like she knew what she was doing, but it got lost in translation being relayed through multiple layers of staff.

I did three unmedicated IUI which resulted in negatives. (One of these was monitored, with a trigger and prometrium after iui, but I’m not sure Dr. Reh had anything to do with that protocol choice— it seemed to come from the nurse.) the next planned steps were/are a medicated iui and then she suggested an IVF cycle with PGD.

With 50% coverage on my insurance, the cost for appointments was $105-$135. (However, when the insurance snafu happened, I became aware that the self-pay option was actually about 5-6 times that amount.

I was worried that Shady Grove would try and push us into treatments that I wasn’t comfortable with/we couldn’t afford. Dr Reh listed to our concerns and took time to explain the pros and cons of each treatment option. She was also honest about questions we had that she couldn’t answer. We never felt guilted, pushed, or pressured into making a decision.

I would say have know that she will be honest with you and have faith in the decisions you make together. At least in our experience, we met with Dr Reh to lay out a treatment regime but then went through the rest of it under the care of clinicians at other facilities that were closer to work, so we didn’t get to see her as regularly as we did in the beginning. We asked a lot of questions of Dr Reh in the beginning so that we fully understood our path forward and that helped us navigate through treatment. This was important as the treatment can feel very factory-ish and the other medical personnel you’re dealing with may not have the time or insight to answer questions specific to your treatment.

We had insurance that covered 50%, and they had an excellent financial counselor (Grace). We knew the cost of treatments before proceeding with them, so we were able to make informed decisions.