Southeastern Fertility Center

The clinic does not hold your hold through this process. It is largely up to you to put out fires and unforeseen circumstances and figure how to manage your health and protocol. It takes a while for questions and requests to be answered so you have to prepare ahead. A lot of patients are coming from out of state, so the clinic is not close to consult with. You have the do all the legwork on your own in your hometown. It is a second full time job to pull yourself through this process.

The clinic is great, clean, cozy, and smaller. I’ve seen photos of very stark clinics and my old clinic had snobby women at the desk. This clinic is nothing like that. Everyone is friendly and caring. The fees are reasonable and they’re weren’t any unexpected fees.

Strengths- very friendly, organized, helpful with questions. Weaknesses- returning phone calls, not explaining things thoroughly. Just assumed I knew what the deal was and this was my first iui. I go in tomorrow for the procedure and hoping it works. The other procedures I have had they were very nice and as gentle as possible.

They are really good and have proof that they are good at what they do. I wish they would just go in to more depth about the treatments then just handing me a paper. Other than that they are amazing. Friendly and caring! I also love their Christian values! That is very important to me

Strengths: Knowledgeable, ability to do IVF and not send elsewhere, friendly front staff, great lab tech Weaknesses: Communication, overwhelmed staff, limited schedule for IVF/FET, lacking bedside manner

The receptionist can make you feel dumb sometimes and she isn't very compassionate. The staff are mostly all sweet and helpful. I wish they did explain more, I feel they expect me to know what they mean when I don't. I always have to get them to explain more and feel ignorant.

They do not provide inspiration material in the sample room, so if you have to give your semen analysis or deposit in office (like we do, because of our physical distance from the clinic), then come prepared with your own stash. No TV or DVD player, either. They have free WiFi, but the signal ends about half-way into the room and a few feet from the chair. Cell signal is strong in the building, though. They have a phlebotomist on-site, which is really convenient. She's AMAZING, and always hits you on the first try, and there's never more than a 3 minute wait for her. No appointment necessary for blood work, either, which is great when your schedule is in flux. Also, they will email you the results of your blood tests as soon as they're in! Most of the time, I know my scores before the nurse ever calls me, so I can review the numbers and do some Googling about the analysis before I speak with them, giving me time to think up all the questions I have. The office is beautiful and very clean. The equipment is well maintained and they even have flat screens so you can see what's happening during ultrasounds. It's really interesting. They default to latex probe covers and gloves, so if you have a latex allergy (like me), be sure to let them know. They have non-latex available, so no worries.

This clinic is extremely busy. It can be hard to make an initial appointment, but afterwards the process is very smooth and fast. The staff communicates best through email. The front office staff is very nice and appointments have very little waiting time before being seen.

The clinic's strengths are that they do not destroy embryos as all patients undergoing the cycle sign a consent form saying they will use all their embryos or donate them. I feel very fortunate to have found this clinic as one woman in my fertility support group shared that her sister refused to do IVF due to concerns about embryo destruction and never had children. The state of Louisiana supposedly does not allow embryo destruction, but clinics may not care about creating extra embryos or may destroy embryos if the laws change. Many clinics only know how to fertilize all the embryos and donate the leftovers or say something oversimplified like, "You can just implant two and have twins." This clinic can fertilize only a small number of embryos that you need based on statistics, have a child, and freeze leftover eggs and has more experience with how many to fertilize that will make it to stage 3 or blastocyst. In a time when many clinics that offer egg freezing have never even thawed any eggs, this clinic has also thawed over 1000 embryos in their embryo adoption program and are very experienced with fresh IVF cycles as well. Also because they don't always create all the embryos at once and freeze eggs, they know how to handle the thawing of eggs, which are supposedly harder thaw than embryos. The freezers are in the same place as the National Embryo Donation Center which receives millions of dollars in grants from the federal government. They are also a holistic practice although not in an alternative medicine and herbs way. I also had to explain to them that I preferred to take my high dose vegan vitamin D over what they prescribed which they approved of after I explained. They have general advice on their website like how to lose weight that included going on an Atkins diet, but they told me I did not have to follow it as my BMI was fine and I am not a morning exerciser, don't eat a lot of meat based proteins, etc. Also they told me I didn't have to take prenatals. I really liked Sherry, the Phlebotomist, who gave me advice about how to inject myself so it didn't hurt and was really good at giving shots, and Taylor at the front office, who always answers the phone. Dr. Keenan is generally responsive to concerns, for example, agreeing to let me cycle with him even though he thought I should go to a local clinic, changing my protocol to use Ovidrel which is subcutaneous instead of intermuscular Pregnyl, when I told him it was painful, redoing my protocol to accommodate my vacation, asking me questions that indicated that he had read my emails after I was upset that they ask to sign the consent form, etc. I have never felt coerced into signing something. The patients in this practice are friendly and supportive. I became Facebook friends with a woman who was cycling with me and we had a retrieval the same day. A husband gave me a bracelet that said, "He >I John 3:30" and encouraged me that, "My wife and I wanted to remind you that God performs miracles every day" when I shared that there weren't as many eggs in ovaries as I had hoped. The weaknesses of the clinic are they work somewhat on their schedule, not yours as all patients are synced and they didn't operate super quickly as they were understaffed, but they are much better now than before. They only have egg retrievals on specific days in September, January, and May although they did a March one for me. If you have a commitment during that time and you let Lynda know, they can schedule your baseline ultrasound earlier. Plus to be on those cycles you have to be taking birth control one month before. When I made my initial appointment in May, I asked if I could join their May cycle and they were like, "Oh no, these people have already been taking birth control for a month, etc." This may limit options such as going on your natural period and possibly certain protocols. Their reason for syncing has to do with cost savings supposedly. Even in September, their November cycle for embryo transfers is already booked. The clinic recognizes that they are swamped and has been actively looking for another RE and affiliate clinics that subscribe to the NEDC's charter of beliefs, but this has been tricky. Their office hours are 8 AM-4:30 PM with lunch from noon to 1, which means that they are open when you are working, although Autumn does take evening appointments and they do work weekends during their September, January, and May cycles and as needed for their March cycle. It really only matters for making the initial appointment though as when I filled out the web form I never heard back for two weeks and then after I didn't hear back about the second form called to find out it was broken. Once you visit the clinic for your initial consultation, you get access to emails, etc. But five days after my initial consultation, when I was waiting to hear back about whether or not I could get into their July cycle and should start taking birth control, I did not hear back the day before I was supposed to start taking it. Turns out, they were discussing my care and how they could fit me in, but I was not privy to the information. I still had all these unanswered questions which Lynda told me to email to her. Ultimately I needed more time to gather information, but by the time I decided it was too late even though it was still June. To be fair, I had lost the patient packet, which answers a lot of questions. I had asked about the September cycle dates and mentioned the dates that I had booked my hotel in e-mail and no one ever told me those were not the dates until my protocol came out. Also Dr. Keenan thought I had anxiety and I told him about how I went for acupuncture and the therapist told me I needed more information, but by the time he responded to me months later, it was way too late for me to seek counseling before my first cycle. I felt like I had to scramble for medication multiple times during my first cycle, but I did not run out of medication during my second cycle and got fast response during my third cycle. The first time, they moved my protocol 10 days early to accommodate my vacation with Lupron starting Sunday and I hadn't ordered my medications yet as I was still shopping around and did not realize that I would need it so soon. They emailed me Friday at 4:45 PM, but I did not check my email until after office hours and the doctor was on vacation. The doctor on call told me it was not an emergency even though the pharmacists at Freedom Fertility Pharmacy told me it was, but later Lynda called and ordered for Monday delivery as there was no Sunday delivery so I started my Lupron one day late. Another time, I had emailed Thursday night saying I only had 5 vials of Menopur since I was double dosing which means I would run out Sunday and asked about how many to reorder. I didn't hear back by Friday afternoon after calling and leaving message multiple times and waiting all day for a response, so I drove to the clinic to borrow more of their Menopur. Lynda had told me not to reorder Lupron as someone in the clinic had donated it, but then later when I realized it was the 28th day since piercing my Lupron and that is the shelf life and wanted more, there was none on hand in the clinic as the Lupron donated was a different kind of Lupron. Even though Dr. Keenan thought it was fine, Lynda ordered more for next day shipping but I still had one day expired Lupron. (But I should have given Lynda a few days notice as I did not realize my Lupron was expired.) Dr. Keenan said my trigger would be Thursday or Friday and Lynda told me on Wednesday that she wanted to know what pharmacy to fax to. I told Benita that I wanted it called into MRX pharmacy and it needed to be done before 7 PM for overnight shipping as I needed it Thursday and to let Lynda know. Benita assured me that she would tell Lynda that day and it never got called in as Benita left a note on Lynda's desk which she didn't see or had already left. I am hoping that Lynda knew that my trigger was on Friday so she didn't need to order it on Wednesday, but nothing was ever communicated to me about my care. Since half my eggs were still immature when retrieved, I am thinking that my trigger was not Thursday. I found that as a mostly cash paying patient, I had to navigate my own price comparison for medications, except for the referral to ivfmeds. Dr. Keenan uses Avella specialty pharmacy, but other places are cheaper. You also get your estradiol results days after the lab; it would be nice to know in real time. For my March cycle, I never got any lab results. The one advantage of being a cash paying patient is that even though ivfmeds is a pain to deal with, using an international pharmacy saves money as some clinics do not allow you to use an international pharmacy.

I honestly think they have very awesome strengths. They are very well organized and has great communication between all staff. The clinic is cleaned and a great location. So far I have not seen Any weakness.