Spring Fertility

I was seen at both Danville and Oakland and I was impressed with every single person I came in contact with. Everyone was always friendly, upbeat, and generally happy to see you/be at work. I always received prompt professional answers, and always felt like the only person they were treating. There is not one single negative to report.

Convenient location. Easy parking. Clean space, Offered snacks and drinks and all staff was friendly and polite. The environment was pleasant, equipment seemed clean and new . No weaknesses that I can think of.

I have recommended at least 5 people at my company to Spring Fertility because of how incredible the clinic is. They are organized, efficient, effective (have some of the highest success rates), and the culture and team are incredible.

Spring has a very organized system: billing is straightforward, their patient portal where we get all communications and updates about our treatment is quite helpful and user friendly, the facilities are very clean and modern and since they have different locations you could use for your monitoring, you never have to be commuting too far to get your care. Parking in the Danville office was always good, but in the Oakland office it was a bit difficult so it was good to show up with enough time to be able to find a spot and still make it on time for my appointment.

Very friendly. I almost felt like I wanted to come back to see them later at my last appointment! Having multiple locations also helped as I could choose the closer location for quick visits. I also loved how quickly they moved. I was looking at different clinics and Spring was able to move fastest and get me started sooner than later.

The clinic is great, after a failed retrieval I was upset and blamed the clinic yet then got two opinions from other clinics that said the same thing as my clinic so I was reassured how good my team is.

The clinic was always very clean, welcoming, bright and cheery. All the patient representatives were pleasant and attentive. The payment process was easy and clear. The rooms had very high tech monitors and computers. All the nurses who took my blood were very positive and easygoing and made me feel comfortable. I have no negative experiences with this clinic.

I will probably do one more round of egg freezing at some point and I will definitely come back here for it. I’m not local to NYC, so I was really nervous about flying across the country to stay in a hotel and have a procedure under general anesthesia in a facility I’d never even heard of before I started this whole process 😂 but the experience and the results were TOTALLY worth it.

Strengths - definitely felt like state of the art equipment especially during the egg retrieval and also seeing the embryologists work in SF made I was visually able to see the state of the art facilities. Extremely clean and comfortable and I could tell all the nurses and drs were extremely professional while also kind and caring. The extra touches such as the sparkling water and snacks/chocolates was definitely a plus. Though for me what is most important is the knowledge and professional of the team which was a 10/10 and the healthcare equipment which was also a 10/10. Weaknesses - the billing team was not as organized or responsive. Sometimes I had to follow up with the billing team on certain questions and one time I was told I had an outstanding payment when I did not. Right now I am resolving an issue with them where a third party billed me for more than what I was told my maximum bill would be.

Clinic was in California, I live in Utah so I started off in Utah and the last two weeks were spend in California in a hotel. I saw the doctor a couple days after I got to California and I didn’t see the next doctor until a week after that, and it wasn’t my main doctor. It was another person because she wasn’t there. So I feel like one of the weaknesses is that I could’ve done one more monitoring in Utah so that I wouldn’t have to spend two weeks in California with one week of nothing. When I did see them, they were very nice and mostly thorough. Retrieval and transfer Or great. I was treated really nicely and it was a great experience.

I give Spring Fertility a 1000 percent with strengths! The only weakness was me not getting a survey after my procedure to brag even more about the facility and doctors that took such great care of me.

The clinic was great. The wait was never more than 10 minutes to be seen (usually less) and appointments went very smoothly. Their care-team system is very effective and the staff is very communicative and easy to get a hold of. I wasn't able to get a hold of the on-call doctor they said to contact if need be by calling the main line after hours but I may have chosen the wrong options.

I had experience with UCSF (from an egg freezing round) and I found the doc a little insensitive. (After I froze 13 eggs he told me that gave me a 39% chance of a live birth and therefore I should “just go get pregnant now”. Obviously I would have gotten pregnant on my own if the situation were right, otherwise I wouldn’t have been freezing eggs!) I didn’t get any similar weird comments from spring and the clinic was super well organized. I especially loved that since this all happened during the pandemic, the clinic was great about emailing out information about COVID risks in the clinic and during pregnancy. We had to put our treatments on hold for a month because we wanted to start in March 2020 but all medical facilities shut down non essential treatments for a bit. Dr Minjarez called me personally to explain that we needed to pause treatment due to the pandemic which I really appreciated. I also appreciated that there was more continuity with nursing staff at Spring than I experienced at UCSF. It helps to have a familiar face so many of the blood draws. Overall the clinic was clean and professional, all staff we worked with including the other docs were great, and although we were based in the Oakland clinic we had the retrievals and implantation in SF and all the docs and staff there were warm, competent, and proficient as well.

Dr Dovey took a couple days off so I saw a couple other doctors at Spring. They were both great and I felt like I was in great hands, no matter who I saw. Though it’s too early to report success or lack thereof, I would still rate Spring and their staff a 10/10.

Convenient location - few other options in Oakland area. Strengths: clean, well organized Throughout several transfers, I interacted with multiple Spring doctors. The one downside was that for the transfers, I have a challenging case due to my cervix and more than once it wasn't communicated to the Dr doing the procedure about my specific needs, which led to discomfort during transfer. Being used to more transparent medical records, I find their online system not the most clear.

My overall experience was truly wonderful. With the exception of a staff person who is no longer at the company, every person I interacted with was kind, professional, and courteous.  Dr. Fisher is truly a gem- from our first interaction to our transfer, he treated us with respect, consideration, and warmth.  I really appreciated the time he took to answer questions and his excitement at our promising results.   And although I never met Nurse Mel in person, during our phone interactions she exuded care, competence, and patience - she is truly an exceptional provider.     2. The guidance throughout the experience was, for the most part, excellent.  I really appreciated having access to the portal, and the portal is well-organized and information is easy to access.  While sometimes it felt like I was getting the same information explained to me multiple times, I appreciated the reassurance that I was really clear about what to expect.    Things that could be better: 1. The financial documents seemed excessively confusing.  The fact that the same information would appear in multiple places (see attached document) made it hard to know what we were actually responsible for. On the attached cost letter, there are things on it (like the medication) with dollar amounts listed that we didn't actually have to pay for, and other things, like the copay, which were much more than what was listed.  I would strongly recommend making the financial documents clearer and easier to understand.   Relatedly, the costs we paid for semen cryopreservation weren't included on this letter, but should have been.  If you're going to present a cost letter it should include all the charges.  2. The requirement that a known donor submit both a negative covid test and a negative antibody test conducted by Spring is both not medically indicated and an onerous requirement that places a further burden on people who are using donor gametes.  In my (totally unscientific) survey of other clinics, there aren't any that are requiring this.  3.  There were several instances in which my gender-non confirming spouse couldn't choose a box that reflected their reality, and I would encourage you to review your forms with an eye towards inclusivity of queer clients and gender non-conforming clients.(These forms were updated and resent to us).   4. The requirement for psychological counseling is both discriminatory towards people who are using donor gametes and not actually required by any accrediting body as far as i can tell. In the context of the family building process, there are certainly some people who might benefit from counseling, but I would strongly urge you to consider changing the counseling requirement to a recommendation.  Supporting the mental health of your clients who are undergoing fertility treatments is commendable, creating burdensome hoops that people who need donor gametes must jump through is not. 

Spring has great facilities and a very helpful patient portal where they post treatment calendars, medication instructions, pre & post visit specifics and where they publish all of your findings and results. The facilities are clean and modern with impeccable safety standards for COVID.

Over the course of my treatment, I met almost every provider. It was nice to be able to know each doctor personally. However, I could always choose to see Dr. Fisher for all procedures (except the egg retrieval which is more time-sensitive) but felt comfortable with the skills of all the doctors at the clinic.

Great clinic. Very organized and communicative. The chocolate at your procedure is a nice touch. Your doctor might not be the one who does your procedure, the doctors have a schedule that is fixed ahead of time abs the on call doctor is the one who does your procedure. The have a treatment calendar that you can access online and they have video tutorials for the various injections you’ll take.

The finance department could use help. As far as I can tell, this is one person trying to manage it all. She just seems, busy. The front staff are nice, at all the sites I’ve been to as well. Everything is clean.

Strengths- easy location in Oakland, clean and cozy clinic, amazing staff. The SF clinic is similar. Things to know- parking at the Oakland clinic is difficult but not terrible. We only went to SF for the weekends and the day of procedures and found parking easily. If you have any questions or concerns with finances work with your coordinator to manage them. Spring basically has packages and we had no surprises with our costs.

Clinic is excellent with doctor patient communication. Most sessions are with your assigned physicians and the doctors are very easy to reach by phone. The nursing staff varied in level of experience, but for the most part were very good. Less experienced nurses seemed to have less pivotal/demanding roles

The clinic is great. The layout, is modern, the receptionist is super friendly, it is spotless/clean and very easy to find. Each time we went there, the entire environment made us feel calm, which is a great feeling when stepping into a clinic. It was honestly one of, if not the best office I've ever been into.

All the staff are friendly and responsive. This clinic relies on the RN for most patient communications, so if you want more access to your doctor you need to push. I recommend meeting with the financial counselor regularly to assess payment options. I had a tricky insurance situation and we were able to get advice on how to minimize out of pocket expenses.

Spring is great - it was always very convenient to schedule appointments and the staff were always friendly and calm. They do their best to make it not feel too much like a hospital, which made it a little less stressful. I really liked the Oakland office.