Penn Fertility Care

She really took the time to hear out my concerns and gave me honest feedback. She also was open to changing course if necessary. I felt and still feel like I could discuss anything with her. I would go back to her at any time to continue treatment.

Voice your concerns to her but do your own research prior to each appointment to have an educated discussion.

She gave me HRT for pre-menopause symptoms and anovulation. She gave me a very low dosage she said I coukd take for the rest of my life.

Dr. Edwards was extremely nice, and took a great deal to talk to me during my appointment to answer any questions I had. The issue was it took forever to get an appointment with him, rather than the nurses, even as an existing patient.

Letrozole at 2.5mg for the first 3 cycles followed by Letrozole 5mg. All 4 cycles I used a trigger shot but only the first two we did IUI as my lining wasn't thick enough for the second 2 cycles. We also tried adding vaginal estrogen for cycle 3, which caused extreme irritation for one cycle, and estrogen patches for cycle 4, which did not help in thickening my lining.

Always candid conversation, and I appreciate his conservative approach. I never felt like procedures or tests were ordered for the sake of it; and if I showed a concern in an area, he would include testing. My experiences are always part of the conversation.

He takes a while to get into as a new patient, but once the plan of care is established, things feel like they move along in a reasonable timeframe. Decisions are made by him as your doctor, but often times, tests are done by the doctor that is assigned to the service at the time of your appointment (example, he does retrievals on Thursdays ... if it's another day, a different doc will do it), but that is also what keeps the process moving forward.

This is an unfair question - each treatment strategy should be different based on what is impacting infertility. Standard tests were done (HSG, SGH, Mock Transfer, more bloodwork than ever in my life, many baseline ultrasounds).

Penn is in-network with our kick-ass insurance provider. . . I paid $1500 out of pocket and didn't ask the rest.

Again - each medical situation is different. He approaches every decision from an individual approach.

Dr. Kalra is extremely bright and up-to-date on the latest recommendations. She continues to be involved in several research studies and is on the board of key reproductive endocrinology societies. I felt that I could trust her recommendations 100% throughout the course of my treatment. That being said, I also felt that she was extremely receptive to my input. I was incredibly fortunate with my retrieval protocol - 49 eggs were extracted and 18 turned into high-quality blastocysts. I was disappointed when my first transfer resulted in a negative pregnancy test (although Dr. Kalra had informed me that there was at least a 50% chance this would be the case), and I spoke with her at this juncture. I asked for additional workup - a hysteroscopy as well as PGS testing. She thoroughly explained the risks and benefits of each of these additional procedures, and suggested another transfer prior to proceeding with these. At this point, I wanted a baby as soon as possible, and I voiced my interest in proceeding with both of these before the next transfer cycle. While this was not her recommendation, she respected my wishes - my hysteroscopy demonstrated a uterine polyp and PGS testing brought our yield down to 7 normal embryos. I became pregnant with my second transfer and am currently in my second trimester. Dr. Kalra is incredibly well-informed and has an evidence-based approach - both qualities I really appreciate. What I came to love over the course of my care was that she also VERY much cares about her patients' interests and chose to ultimately go along with what we hoped for as long it did not lead to any additional risk to me or the embryos. I couldn't have asked for a better physician!

Trust the process and trust your doctor. IVF can be a mentally taxing process - all the waiting, the unknowns, the expense, etc. Dr. Kalra and the rest of the physicians at Penn Fertility are the best of the best. Let them take the reigns and carry forward. Don't hesitate to ask questions and voice your concerns - they will listen to you.

The antagonist protocol was used for me as I was at high risk of OHSS given PCOS. I was monitored closely with labwork and ultrasounds.

We were fortunate to have insurance cover 90% of consults, procedures, and medications.

Dr. Kalra will only perform single embryo transfer for women my age as per ASRM guidelines. Transferring additional embryos is not an option unless you face extenuating circumstances.

I liked working with Dr. Edwards up until our miscarriage. We went to an ultrasound with Dr. Edwards where he told us he pregnancy wasn't viable and without what even felt like 2 minutes to recover from that news he started to discuss options for miscarriage. It felt too soon and also his super positive happy demeanor felt very at odds with having to deliver bad news.

Dr. Edwards is very much a cheerleader however we had to pursue asking a lot of questions and ask about options for what to change when we had multiple transfers with either no result or chemical pregnancy, he was find just keeping doing what we were doing without adjusting anything to help improve outcomes. Finally after we asked if there was anything that could be changed he brought up some other options.

We did two double embryo transfers with Dr. Edwards. The first was just standard care but we had already had one negative result from a fresh transfer, high-grade embryo and one frozen high-grade embryo. The first double transfer results in nothing. After that, and much discussion, he decided to push the transfer date back by a day for the second double transfer. That resulted in an early miscarriage at around 7 weeks.

We paid for both transfers out of pocket with Dr. Edwards, both were $2,500 each which we knew up front. As I mentioned in another section, I really was not impressed with the financial person whatsoever. She was cold and unprofessional, didn't follow through on some requests and talked to us like we were children.

He was comfortable transferring two embryos after we had been through two transfers with no positive outcome.

I often felt like I was bothering her when I asked questions. It's clear she was busy but also I was a patient of hers for a long time and it really never felt like we made a connection. It always felt rushed and like she was talking to a child. I work in women's health and reproductive health research, I understand a lot more because of my line of work and it still felt like she dodged some questions when I asked about more scientific or specific things.

You might want to wok with Dr. Kalra is you really don't want anything sugar-coated. We found her bedside manner to be cold and not sympathetic for two people who are trying to keep hope alive after a lot of failure and much heartache. Ultimately, this is why I asked to be reassigned to another doctor within the practice.

I did 6 medicated (clomid/letrozole) rounds and IUI before we were approved for IVF. All were negative. I went throw two egg retrieval rounds with her. We were lucky enough to have insurance coverage so we asked that she be as aggressive as possible because we didn't want to waste the coverage. She said she "was" but then after our first retrieval all embryos arrested after 5 days. The next time around she changed the medication, added in a course of HGH and we ended up with 6 embryos after 6 days of development. I did one fresh transfer which was negative and then one additional frozen transfer with her which resulted in a chemical pregnancy. After that point my husband and I both felt we didn't want to work with her anymore and asked to switch to a different, warmer doctor within the clinic.

I was very lucky in that we had 6 IUIs, 2 retrievals and 2 transfers covered by our insurance. We had to pay for ICSI out of pocket as well as for embryo preservation. Those costs were reasonable but also weren't totally disclosed to us up front. We didn't realize that certain things were covered by insurance and others were not. ICSI was decided on the day of our retrieval so we were hit with a bill later which we were not expecting. It was okay for us but I could imagine for many couples it would not be.

She was very set on eSET but this was also preferred by my insurance so we did follow through with two single transfers with her.

She is always very kind and took the time to answer all my questions, especially when I had bad results. I have since learned that I didn’t always get all the details I would have needed, and I think she was less inclined to think outside the box regarding m case (i.e. taking supplements, knowing my hormone levels and what those meant), but she was a great person and I think for more cut and dry cases, she is fabulous.

Read up about infertility before you go in and ask her all the questions you have regarding things like antral follicle count, hormone levels, etc., so you can track them and also understand where you fit. Chances are she has the info but she doesn’t always share it unless you ask.

After a few Clomid/IUI cycles where many were canceled because my right ovary was working but my right tube had been removed, we moved onto IVF. The first protocol was the high dose protocol of Gonal F and Menopur with a Lipton primer. It was canceled due to poor response. My second cycle was the Lipton flare protocol. We went to retrieval expecting 2 eggs but the one follicle was empty and the other fell apart overnight. I have never been pregnant. Since then, I had my endometriosis removed and have read about low stimulation protocols working better in patients with DOR. I spoke to her about that and she didn’t agree and said donor eggs would be my best bet. She may be right, but I’m not ready to give up on myself yet, so I am switching clinics.

IUI was covered by insurance, so I’m not sure if that. One complete IVF cycle - $8,000 plus approx $4K in meds

N/A - I never had an embryo to transfer

My initial experience with his clinic was after two subsequent miscarriages, but I had only been TTC for less than 6 months so I don't feel that my IF was taken seriously at first. After my third m/c confirmed d/t chromosomal issues my care and the attention paid to my case was greatly improved. Dr Edwards took the time to explain all of our options to us. One of my medicated cycles my CD3 labs came back with an extremely elevated FSH, and Dr Edwards called me personally to discuss the results with me.

Educate yourself as much as possible and bring notes and your previous labs results to your consults.

Clomid 100mg x3 w TI resulted in 2-3 mature follicles w BFP then miscarriage for 2/3 cycles. Currently starting IVF w a Lupron overlap/follistim protocol.

IVF cycle $8,500. PGS biopsy $2,000. IVF meds administered via hospital pharmacy at a discounted rate for OOP patients.

In the case of PGS testing Dr Edwards recommended a single transfer

I could not have asked for a better experience with Dr. Kalra. She was knowledgeable, direct, and I always left appointments feeling like there was a plan or next step. I truly believed she cared about me as a person and was looking out for my best interest. She was trustworthy, compassionate, and just overall a wonderful person to be around during a process that is otherwise very emotionally draining.

Ask questions. She was always willing to take extra time with me if I had more questions or wanted to talk anything through.

Given my issue was ovulation and PCOS, Dr. Kalra put me on a high-responder protocol which worked well. While she warned me about OHSS and said up front they might have to do a "freeze all" given the amount of follicles I had, because of the protocol, we received 26 eggs and I was able to do a fresh transfer. leading up to the retrieval I was in the office every day and she did my final ultra-sounds herself (instead of the ultra sound tech) and gave me rational for why she wanted to wait one more day and then ultimately when I was ready for my trigger. I feel as though her care leading up to my transfer was why I was able to recover quickly and was able to have the transfer 5 days later (which ended up as a BFP :))

I have good insurance so IVF was covered at 80% for me. I was also able to get them to cover a large portion of the medications needed for stimulation so I believe it was around $1200 total.

I met Dr. Scott for the first time in 2014. After I went through my first of fourth heartbreaking miscarriages. Dr. Scott gave me his time and full attention for almost 2hrs. He listened to me, held my hands and promise to help me through every process. He is very attentive, a great communicator, passionate, very pleasant and easy to talk to. He treats the whole patient. I am still waiting for my rainbow baby but I couldn’t have been under the care of a better doctor.

Be honest with yourself. Trust Dr. Scott’s plan and protocol.

I did lupron 10 units every morning for 12 days, then gonorilex I think. Not sure

It is always efficient. A quick in and out. I could go for a monitor and get back to work without being late for work

Almost almost 25 thousand

Dr. Scott told me he prefers one embryo transfer due to the risk of multiple, but it is completely up to the patient

I wish I did see her more but she is split between 2 offices- now that I'm in ivf monitoring I can't choose my day since it's as needed. When I do see her she's very warm and considerate. See seems really involved

To trust your dr. I think a ton of people try to dictate their treatments.. doctors know best and if they are taking a slow approach it's for a reason

3 iuis and then ivf. For ivf she did long Lupron, honestly I'm not sure why!

So far insurance coverage

I'd love more insight on why a protocal was chosen for me

Dr Edwards helped our family achieve our goals. He kept us well informed, took time to explain options, risks and odds. I always felt safe in his care.

Be your own advocate. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

We explored many options before we achieved our goal - including IUI, drugs to enhance egg production, etc. I also had a surgery to have a large fibroid removed (myomectomy). In the end, we used an egg donor and, after a miscarriage, had a successful live birth. It was a long road but Dr Edwards helped us at every step along the way.

Doctor Barnhart was very thorough with details of my condition and what we can expect. He is very friendly and truly cares about his patients. He was very open and honest with what we should expect. He answered all of my questions even if i called later with follow ups.

Very compassionate and honest doctor. He has helped two of my friends successfully. I would recommend to any friend. Dr. Edwards tried different things with me, but I was unsuccessful. He still checks on me and is interested in my progress.

Be your best advocate with any doctor out there.

I can’t recall exactly. He used clinks for IUI and froze all embryos for PGS due to my prior natural miscarriages. All my FETs were controlled (medicaged).

$30k maybe.

I was 34 and he fevimmended we don’t transfer two at a time. I am now almost 39 and still not pregnant...

Dr. Shah was honest and open with me about the risks and the chances of these treatments working. She took time to determine what my expectations were and whether I wanted to pursue IVF treatments before recommending them to me. I always felt like she listened to my concerns and took time to go over studies I found and give me her honest opinion about them. But she was quick to let me know if she did not agree with something, and to give me her reasoning. I felt this was fair, especially since I am also a physician and I deferred to her expertise with the understanding that it was much greater than mine in this field. When we disagreed about next steps, I switched to a different physician in the clinic. But there was no animosity involved with the switch. It was simply a difference of opinion after I experienced two miscarriages with PGS normal embryos. I wanted to pursue further workup for endometriosis and also to try prednisone and Lovenox for my next transfer. Dr. Shah disagreed with this course of action because she felt that there wasn't enough data to justify trying this. I understood her point of view, but I ended up switching to a physician who was willing to try these interventions even without the absence of strong data to support them. Every doctor is different, and I respect their right to practice in the way they see fit, as long as they provide evidence based and compassionate care. Dr. Shah did provide that, so I have no misgivings. For what it's worth, the additional workup and interventions did not end up yielding a pregnancy, so we are now pursuing surrogacy as our next option with the embryos we have remaining.

Don't take Dr. Shah's sometimes blunt or brisk manner as a lack of compassion. She does very much care about the outcome and wants it to be successful. But she is data driven and will not pursue treatments that she feels may do more harm than good, especially if the evidence for these treatments is weak at best.

For each of my four IVF cycles with Dr. Shah, I was treated with an antagonist protocol. I used the highest dosages of stim treatments due to my diminished ovarian reserve (AMH of 0.08 ng/mL). I used 450 IU of Gonal-F alone initially. I then added in 150 IU of Menopur and decreased the Gonal-F to 300 IU after a few days. I used 250 mcg of Ganirelix to prevent ovulation for the last week or so of each stim cycle. Due to my low AMH, my stim cycles were significantly longer than average, between 13-17 days. I triggered with 10,000 IU of HCG 36 hours prior to my egg retrievals. Below are the details of each cycle with Dr. Shah: IVF Cycle 1 (February 2020): Gonal-F 450 IU x 6 days, then 300 IU x 8 days; Menopur 150 IU starting on stim day 7 x 2 days, then decreased to 75 IU x 6 days; Ganirelix 250 mcg starting on stim day 9 x 7 days; HCG trigger 10,000 IU on stim day 15. Started progesterone 50 mg on night of retrieval in preparation for fresh transfer. Retrieved: 6 eggs, Mature: 3 eggs, Fertilized (ICSI): 3 eggs, Fresh transferred 2 day-3 embryos which ended in chemical pregnancy, froze 1 embryo on day 5 (mosaic trisomy 18). IVF Cycle 2 (May 2020): Gonal-F 450 IU x 3 days, then 300 IU x 13 days; Menopur 150 IU starting on stim day 4 x 13 days; Ganirelix 250 mcg starting on stim day 10 x 8 days; HCG trigger 10,000 IU on stim day 17. Retrieved: 8 eggs, Mature: 4 eggs, Fertilized (ICSI): 4 eggs, Froze 1 embryo on day 5 (PGS aneuploid), Froze 1 embryo on day 6 (PGS euploid). IVF Cycle 3 (August 2020): Gonal-F 450 IU x 4 days, then 300 IU x 11 days; Menopur 150 IU starting on stim day 5 x 11 days; Ganirelix 250 mcg starting on stim day 8 x 9 days; HCG trigger 10,000 IU on stim day 16. Retrieved: 12 eggs, Mature: 6 eggs, Fertilized (ICSI): 6 eggs, Froze 4 embryos on day 5 (PGS mosaic and aneuploid), Froze 2 embryos on day 6 (PGS euploid). IVF Cycle 4 (February 2021): Gonal-F 450 IU x 4 days, then 300 IU x 9 days; Menopur 150 IU starting on stim day 5 x 8 days; Ganirelix 250 mcg starting on stim day 7 x 7 days; HCG trigger 10,000 IU on stim day 13. Retrieved: 15 eggs, Mature: 5 eggs, Fertilized (ICSI): 5 eggs, Froze 4 embryos on day 5 (PGS euploid), Froze 2 embryos on day 6 (PGS euploid), Froze 1 embryo on day 7 (PGS mosaic). I also had an ERA done in October 2020 before my first FET since I had a small amount of PGS euploid embryos to work with (I requested this and Dr. Shah agreed). It showed I was pre-receptive so we added in 24 additional hours of progesterone for my FETs. Frozen embryo transfer protocol involves taking OCPs alone for 10 days, then adding on microdose Lupron injections (10 units) for another 7 days, then continuing microdose Lupron alone for 3 days, then decreasing microdose Lupron to 5 units and adding in Estrace 2 mg daily x 4 days, then 2 mg twice daily x 4 days, then 2 mg three times daily x 7 days, followed by a lining check and labs. Goal estrogen level above 200, goal lining above 7 mm. FET #1 (December 2020): Transferred PGS euploid day 6 4AA embryo. Miscarriage at 6 weeks (heartbeat detected in ER where I went after I started bleeding, due to SCH, but miscarriage completed). FET# 2 (May 2021): Transferred PGS euploid day 6 3BA embryo. Miscarriage at 6 weeks after heartbeat detected in clinic (no heartbeat on subsequent US, did have SCH but no bleeding this time). I proceeded to try another FET with a different physician. It ended up with a negative pregnancy test.

I had insurance that covered most of the costs of IVF. My final IVF cycle involved some more out-of-pocket costs after my insurance was maxed out. I believe that an IVF cycle out-of-pocket costs around $11,000. And I did have to pay for a couple of my transfers after my insurance was maxed. Each frozen transfer is $3,500 out of pocket. This includes all the ultrasounds and bloodwork through the first pregnancy test. My medications were also all covered by insurance, but they have an on-site pharmacy that offers discounted rates if you are paying out-of-pocket. My ERA was not covered by insurance. This cost $795.00 with Igenomix. And PGS testing with Cooper Genomics was $1,950 for up to 8 embryos, $250 for each additional embryo.

Dr. Shah encouraged eSET with PGS tested embryos, and I don't believe she would be willing to transfer multiple embryos if they were PGS tested. We did do a fresh 3 day transfer of two embryos after our first IVF cycle. This was recommended by the embryologist and not at our request.

Dr. Shah was always friendly and available when I had questions and concerns. She listened to what I wanted and felt was best for my body. She never pushed for something I wasn’t comfortable with. While we were unsuccessful, I was pleased with our experience. I felt she did everything she could.

Don’t be afraid to speak up and voice your concerns and ask questions.

Our first cycle with Dr. Shah we kept our doses lower to avoid OHSS. As a result I ended up with a small amount of eggs. This led to an unsuccessful day 3 transfer and no remaining eggs to freeze. The second cycle we doubled my meds, yes doubled. This resulted in 21 mature eggs, which was awesome! But our fresh transfer was canceled due to borderline OHSS. We ended up with 4 embryos to freeze. After 2 frozen embryo transfers (1 embryo and 2 embryos respectively) were unsuccessful we decided to take a break. We have 1 frozen embryo remaining.

A single cycle with fresh transfer was $11,000. A FET $3,500.00.

Dr. Bachman has always been willing to answer my questions, though I did have to often ask for a phone call. I have only seen her in person about 3 times, but it was clear that she was following my progress. Though my egg retrieval was a success, ultimately, we did not get any sperm from my husband's TESE procedure that happened concurrently. That was very disappointing, and even though Dr. Bachman did not have a role in that procedure, she still reached out to check in with us. She then guided me through the sperm donor process, which ultimately led to my current pregnancy. If you're looking for a doctor who will be present and hold your hand every step of the way, Dr. Bachman probably isn't for you. That's not her fault, but rather the way that the clinic runs. I think if I had asked for her to reach out to me more, she would have. She did answer her cell phone on a Sunday to talk to me when I was upset about our canceled cycle. Considering how big and busy they are, she makes a considerable effort to communicate with you.

Advocate for communication if you have questions or concerns.

For my egg retrieval, I stimmed with Gonal-F, Menopur, and Ganirelex. I was also taking baby aspirin and Lovenox due to an unrelated blood clotting disorder. I did a Lupron only trigger due to my risk for OHSS as a PCOS patient.

We chose to do a package that included one egg retrieval, embryo creation with ICSI, one year of storage, and one transfer. That cost roughly $12000. We spent roughly $3,000 on medications. Nothing was covered by our insurance.

We only transferred one embryo. There was never any discussion of transferring multiple embryos.

Dr. Gracia was kind and she clearly knew what she was doing. She explained to my husband and I that she recommended having donor sperm as a backup in case his TESE was unsuccessful or only partially successful. She answered all of my questions during the two times I met with her personally.

Ask about the logistics of how the practice works, how often you will see her and who will perform your procedures.

For egg retrieval: Gonal-F, Menopur, Ganirelix, Lupron/hCG co-trigger. For embryo transfer: estrace and PIO.

Everything was covered by my insurance except storage.

When we saw Dr Shah she would always let us share our questions and provided very detailed (with notes!) explanations of her answers and, at times, what would happen next in our treatment. Unfortunately, we only saw Dr Shah in the office twice (an initial consultation and a meeting before starting IVF). After failed transfers, it would take at least a month to see her and so it felt like she didn't really know us and wasn't closely following our journey. She was conservative in her practice and was adamant at continuing the same protocol even after repeated failures. You need to be an advocate for your own needs and protocol because issues that might come up for you or your health might not be closely monitored or addressed if they're outside the standard protocol.

Choose Dr Shah because you're looking for a safe, researched-based practice that won't be aggressive and make sure you speak up and advocate for your own needs.

FSH / GNRH Antagonistic Protocol - the plan was to do PGS and frozen cycle(s) so the goal was to push my body a little harder than if we were doing fresh. The Dr wanted to be careful since I have a higher AMH about OHSS/over-responsiveness. We had around 12-15 mature follicles in each ovary prior to retrieval but they were only able to get 7 eggs out.

Retrieval & biopsy - $9,000; FETs $2,500 (these prices have now been updated & significantly increased)

Our Dr strongly encouraged single embryo transfers, it didn't feel like there was an option for anything else

Dr. Divya’s strengths include showing compassion, being detail oriented, knowledgeable, and thorough. I haven’t had any negative experiences with Dr. Divya. She explained what would happen every step of the way and also explained the results to all of our testing. She also explained the potential treatments before the results were back and then explained then gave options for treatment. She gave me her opinion, but let my husband and I decide what the best treatment would be for us.

My advice to anyone would be to be prepared with questions. Plan on having some testing done after the consultation as well. We had our consultation, then had blood work, genetic testing, and an ultrasound all in her office minutes after the visit.

We haven’t started any treatment as of yet, but she recommended IVF for us. We’ll be going over the details at our next appointment.

I haven’t completed treatment, but I believe IVF will cost about $15,000. Medications alone will cost a couple thousand and egg freezing will cost about $500 for 3 months (I believe).

She stated that for young couples, I believe under 35 years of age, she would recommend single embryo transfer, but I think it would ultimately be the patient’s decision.

When we started seeing Dr. Shah we had come from another fertility clinic who told us that IVF was the only option we should consider. Instead of just moving us along to that process, Dr. Shah ordered new rounds of bloodwork and some additional tests to round our our history that the other clinic hadn't done. Once we had those results, we were presented with two options - continue trying Clomid or move onto IVF. Given our current financial situation, it was a blessing to hear that Clomid was still a viable option for us. Since that first consultation I've seen Dr. Shah twice more. Each appointment she takes the time to explain to me in very simple ways what is going on in my body and how that impacts my fertility. She's patient and willing to explain things multiple times to make sure I feel comfortable with our plan. She's the best person we could have guiding us through this process at this time.

It took us over a month between when we initially called for an appointment and when we were able to schedule one, so I'd consider calling early. I also don't see her at every appointment, but have been able to (and encouraged by the nurses) schedule other appointments with her if I need to.

I have been taking the highest dosage allowed of Clomid coupled with an Ovidrel shot to trigger ovulation and timed intercourse. That combination works best for me - other options have not worked. Because I have PCOS and annovulation, she has not recommended that we move onto Clomid and IUI. IUI isn't going to increase our chances all that much more and because it isn't covered by my insurance, she doesn't think it's something we necessarily need to consider. This treatment combination has produced one strong follicle in 4 of the 5 cycles we've completed. We had no reaction in the last cycle which caused us to take a break for the summer. We just resumed last week and are in the middle of a sixth Clomid cycle now.

She is a wonderful, honest, thorough physician and she never got frustrated with my thousands of questions. She did everything she could to explain each step of my treatments with me. She also was extremely honest with me in regards to my fertility issues and what my realistic expectations for pregnancy were. I never felt like she would push me toward something she didn’t feel would work for me.

Come prepared with your questions and have an understanding of the process. I feel like having a handle on things and knowing what to ask shows that you are ready to make informed decisions and that you are completely invested in the process. She will explain and re-explain anything you don’t understand. She will give you realistic expectations and she will guide you toward the best options for your specific situation!

I did two iuis with her using an antagonist protocol, then we did and hsg which showed I more than likely have a blocked right tube. We tried a microdose Lupron ivf protocol which never led to a retrieval and was cancelled on cycle day 13 after no growth. I am currently in the tww after a succeful ivf cycle called the estrogen patch protocol and an antagonist protocol.

They were scheduled times with a first come first served policy. Through the years I got to know both the sweet lab technician and the wonderful ultrasound tech! They were always understanding and excited when all was going well or on the harder days too!!

I have insurance coverage to a certain capped amount, so I only paid a copay for dr visits and for donor sperm related costs. Medication coverage limits were reached so I pay all Meds out of pocket.

Because of my low amh and my age, we decided to transfer two eggs to give me the best chance of a positive pregnancy test. I completely agree.

Dr. Shah is excellent at communicating what's going on. She breaks things down for "non-science people" and will re-explain something as much as you want. She is kind, compassionate and has been rooting for us since day 1. She is open to my concerns and suggestions (one example is that I wanted to try a natural FET instead of a medicated cycle). She explained the pros and cons of each and ultimately let me decide. This is just one example of many where she has helped me make a decision.

Be prepared to acknowledge that the office is run much differently than most other clinics because UPenn is a teaching hospital. Once I figured this out, it became much less stressful. You will be on hold a lot. You might have to follow-up with the nursing staff. If you miss a call, it's a huge pain to get the team back on the line. Having said that, Dr. Shah ALWAYS called me back in the same day that I asked to talk directly to her and there is ALWAYS an on-call doctor that you can reach (even at 3am). You just have to know that Dr. Shah is managing your care and that every single doctor at UPenn is fantastic, as well. I never had concerns about my care, it was just annoying the way their communication system is.

Antagonist protocol for egg retrieval (BCP, Follistim, Menopur, Ganirellex). For transfers BCP, Lupron, Estrace, PIO, but ultimately what worked was a natural FET with only Crinone.

The clinic follows the national recommended guidelines for embryo transfer. Due to my age, we transferred 1 embryo each time. Dr. Shah never pushed me to transfer more than 1 and I never asked to.

She was very empathetic and clearly knowledgeable. My only negative is that she was more cautious than I would have liked, after 22 cycles all negative tests- I’ve learned I would’ve like to be more aggressive a year ago.

She will do whatever you choose - so push if you feel like you’re not being aggressive enough with your treatment.

I did the first 8-10 cycles taking letrozole and times intercourse. We moved to letrozole and IUI because that did not work. Due to my PCOS, ovulation was unclear so we introduced ovidrel shots as well. I reacted fine to all of this, the 2.5 mg of letrozole day 3-7 just made me a little more emotional than usual. Then we moved to gonal-f injectables with IUI. This cycle was longer because we started on too low of a dose. At this point we are back to monitoring with oral meds and times intercourse while saving for the inevitable (IVF).

My insurance has covered everything except the gonal-f to date. IVF begins at $8,500. PGS testing is an additional $6,000 and meds between $2k and $5k.

Dr. Shah does not perform multiple embryo transfer to my knowledge.

Dr Shah is genuine and compassionate and although we rarely saw her, we felt like she was monitoring us closely from afar. She didn’t do any of my procedures and I think that played a part in feeling like a number and not a patient at this clinic.

Trust her and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

I was on a high-responder protocol. I was on Follistim 150 daily to start. Eventually added in Ganirelix and menopur. Eventually we attempted HGH because of a cycle that resulted in poor quality embryos, howevery retrieval was cancelled.

We paid separately for the egg retrieval ($12,000), FET ($2,500). PGD was paid directly to the lab and meds were separate. I must also say that the Financial coordinator is extremely unhelpful! We were better off googling. At my first meeting with her, I asked her what options there were for paying (do people ever take out loans, are there assistance programs, any opportunities for discounted meds, etc) and she looked at me like I had 12 heads.

We got the lecture about risks of multiples to the nth degree. I was told I would be the next octomom if we transferred two embryos!