USC

During our initial consult and throughout our treatment, Dr. Ketefian has been patient, empathic, and understanding. She speaks calmly, carefully, and with purpose. I never feel rushed and she always makes sure I don't have any more questions. I thought her recommendations were a little on the conservative side (e.g., having us wait a full 12 months of trying to conceive naturally before running any diagnostic tests, recommending IUI before IVF despite male factor infertility diagnosis), but I understand the value of trying less intensive treatments first. I liked that Dr. Ketefian called me to give me an update on our embryo development after our egg retrieval. Our results were worse than I anticipated, so I appreciated that Dr. Ketefian called me to tell me the news (instead of the nurse), but I wish someone (Dr. or nurses) had prepped me for the full range of possible outcomes, good and bad, just so I could've been more prepared. Overall, great doctor. Highly recommend.

Ask lots of questions. She's nonjudgmental and never made us feel like we were asking dumb questions. Also, anticipate that you probably won't get to see Dr. Ketefian during all of your monitoring appointments. She did about 25% of my monitoring ultrasounds.

I was prescribed Gonal F, menopur, and ganirelix. 15 eggs retrieved, 1 blastocyst.

Cost of egg retrieval including meds: $12,950

Dr. Paulson is fantastic. The only drawback is that the clinic gets very busy so sometimes a fellow will do your monitoring appointment. He also lectures at a lot of conferences so will occasionally be out of the office for travel. However, there is always another doctor on call, which is important for me because as someone with DOR being put on birth control can cause over suppression. I like that Dr. P is direct, but compassionate/truly sorry when results aren't as expected. I generally only have 3-4 follicles and one time I had eight and Dr. P was so excited for me-- it was great to feel like we are part of a team and in this together.

Don't feel that your questions are stupid. After four rounds, I've asked a LOT of questions based on information I read on the internet. Dr. P is great at explaining why something will or won't work and doesn't make you feel like an idiot for asking. I also recommend writing all of your questions down on your phone so that you don't forget them when you see him. He's always on the move and you don't want to forget your questions!

Cycle 1: Clomid, 2 vials of menopur; 300IU Gonal. Cetrotide added around day 7. Triggered with Novarel. Also had a Novarel boost added around day 7. Cycles 2-4: Clomid, 450 IU Gonal. Cetrotide added around day 7. Triggered with Novarel. Also had a Novarel boost added around day 7. Cycle 5: 225 IU Gonal (haven't started this cycle yet)

The monitoring appointments are pretty efficient. I feel like USC has got it down to a science. They are pretty cognizant that people need to get to work so they are good at getting you in and out of there.

It's about $8,500 for an egg freezing package. Subsequent ones are at a discount (approx. $5,500). If they cancel your cycle then you pay a la cart.

I haven't reached the transfer stage yet. hopefully I will soon!

It would be dishonest not to admit that if our results were different, we may have a somewhat more positive view of Dr. Paulson's care. But we are writing this before transfer so there is still a chance our one embryo will succeed. In this purgatory period, our honest assessment of Dr. Paulson is of someone staring closely at the data and his published papers on the science with only a passing glance at his patients.

Make sure he will be in town for the duration of your IVF cycle. He travels quite a bit and can be extremely hard to track down. However, we were told he would be there throughout and he wasn't. So not sure if his schedule is all that predictable.

First, fibroid removal surgery. Then IVF cycle which produced 6 promising follicles. Unfortunately, only 2 eggs were retrieved and only one of those eggs became a viable embryo.

Monitoring appointments are done within a very early time range. Other than the ungodly hour, the appointment ran smoothly and with care.

$15,000 for IVF cycle. $4,000 for retrieval. $4,000 for transfer. Unknown additional costs for embryo freeze.

Dr. Paulson's belief is the more the merrier.

I believe Dr. Dhesi is skilled and precise -- I trust her testing and procedures fully. She takes her time and is thorough. My ultrasounds, retrievals and transfer all went better than expected. She focuses on evidence based treatment plans, gets input from others and shares the statistics with her patients so they can make an informed decision. She doesn't take a forceful posture when discussing options -- she shares thoughts but lets us make the decisions. Sometimes my husband struggles with that and wants her to show more leadership in navigating the complexity. Also I don't always feel like she is tracking the various moving pieces with my treatment. Which is complicated and involves other doctors, but I would feel more confident if she seemed totally current on what I'm taking (especially if she prescribed it) when I'm done, etc. On a few occasions I saw doctors with significantly more years of experience and saw the value there. I'm a tricky case and might have benefitted from someone who had worked with a number of other patients in similar situations and had direct, rather than theoretical experience.

Dr. Dhesi will treat you like a full partner in the process. She's receptive if you do your own research, bring questions and engage in dialogue about options. If you're looking for someone to take control of your IVF journey and just ride along, you may not be happy with her.

It was a few years ago, I don't recall offhand.

USC Pricing: Retrieval -- IVF: Package: $11,902 + ICSI, AH, Cryopreservation, Meds FET -- $4004 + Meds

My 16 embryos were retrieved when I was 44, and my doctor recommended transferring 5 at a time. We opted to do 4 to slightly reduce the chance of multiples and to give us a few more "at bats" in case there are issues with the uterus or transfer. She helped us evaluate the factors in this decision and accepted our result.

Dr. Ketefian is a fantastic doctor. She was honest with us through all of the procedures. After our 3 IUIs she told us that it would be in our best interest to move to IVF. She was clear with us throughout the process so we would understand what would be happening. She was always open to answering any questions we had. On our first transfer, she even agreed to call us on day 2 to let us know how the embryos were doing even though they do not normally do that. She called us personally, not just the embryologist or a nurse. Her protocol worked out and we got pregnant with that first transfer despite doing a 3 day transfer. During our second cycle, our retrieval was much more successful and we had more eggs to fertilize. She listened to us and allowed us to transfer 2 embryos again. For this fresh transfer we were blessed with another successful pregnancy. We were so lucky that despite having diminished ovarian reserve, we were able to freeze one embryo. About 3 years later, we went back to her for one last time. She again answered all of our questions and reviewed options for this frozen embryo transfer, since this was our first frozen transfer. Agains she listened to us about what we wanted and what we didn't want. In the end we got pregnant again for the 3rd time. 3 transfers, 2 successful live births and one current pregnancy. I can not say enough about Dr. Ketefian. She is a wonderful fertility doctor.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have about your treatment.

For our IUIs because of the diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), the first cycle was medicated with clomid. The 2nd and 3rd cycle she mimicked IVF with injectable medication which did result in one chemical pregnancy. For the two IVF cycles we used birth control and then injectable medications at the highest level due to the DOR. We also needed to take Vitamin D, baby aspirin, estrogen and progesterone.

It was on par with out fertility locations.

She was always open to what we wanted in addition to giving us her thoughts and opinion. She allowed us to transfer 2 embryos for both fresh cycles.

At other places there’s a million middle men between you and the doctor but Paulson always contacted us directly and while the embryos were cleaving he called us every day with updates and sent us the reports. He never gave up on us and knocked it out of the park with the first transfer.

Look no further this is the best in the world.

Previously HRC had used an extremely aggressive treatment and resulted in fewer eggs and fewer embryos. When we reached a similar stage he pulled back on the follistim and others and had significantly better results. I believe he gave careful consideration to a personalized course of treatment and didn’t apply a cookie cutter approach.

Fair pricing and didn’t try to upsell us on everything. They also set us up with financial assistance for the drugs.

He did tell us that a single embryo transfer would be better if it can result in a pregnancy and lo and behold it did!

Dr. Chung is a compassionate person and knows her stuff. This is her passion and she treats each patient individually, I know this because another friend has gone to her too and our protocols were completely different. She is supportive and kind. I would definitely go back to her again.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions or send an email she responds or one of her nurses will right away.

I went in knowing we were doing IVF. She checked my tubes, did a saline sonogram, we started IVF injections and then retrieved. At retrieval I had liquid in my uterus, so we had to move to a frozen cycle. I was sad, but glad we did because I was better prepared for it. Now I’m currently pregnant. In preparation of my frozen transfer I started PIO and estrace, took them till I was 13 weeks.

I went in for monitoring first thing in the morning and it was so convenient. The clinic was open and ready by 7am. Dr. Chung wouldn’t always do my monitoring, but I was ok with that. She did always come in after to say hello and check in.

$17,000 with meds

At first she recommended transferring two, because she thought the quality of my eggs would be low, but since they were high she changed her mind to recommend only transferring one. She left the decision in our hands. We went with one and we are glad we did.

Dr Chung sat down with us and explained in great detail our options, risks, and benefits of treatment. She went over every possible detail and answered every question we had. We never felt rushed or dismissed. At the appointments where she promised to meet with us, she always kept her word. She predicted we would get 4 embryos and we ended up with 7, exceeding our expectations which made us very happy.

Go in with a list of questions, ask everything you want to know. She has all the answers and will take the time.

I completed a typical egg retrieval cycle using hormone injections daily and for the first week had appointments every other day at the clinic. After that, it was every day to monitor progress. Dr Chung used the best method for our situation, including ICSI to create embryos. She recommended we do not risk harm to the embryos by testing them with PGS and we agreed, because we have had no abnormal embryos in the past through our recurrent miscarriages (cause by a uterine septum).

The waiting room was pleasant with free coffee and plenty of seating. There is a sign in sheet that is used to call patients in order. Some days were busier than others but we never had to wait an intolerable length of time.

The consultation was $350 I believe, but went towards our treatment once we decided to move forward. The clinic offers a 40% discount for the fertility preservation treatment due to my cancer diagnosis. This was very helpful to us. We also had to do a FDA screening because we likely will have to use a surrogate in the future. The clinic also set us up with organizations that provided free medication to cancer patients which was so incredibly helpful, they took a lot of stress off our shoulders. Our total costs after discount was around $7,000.

Dr Chung recommends we transfer 2 embryos when we decide to move forward with IVF, to increase our chances of having one baby. I agree with this.

As I am an older patient, Dr. Baker was compassionate in explaining to me the risks I face with my egg reserve. In no way did she ever make me feel bad for waiting so long to try for a baby. She has such a beautiful manner, almost like if we have known each other for ever.

Keep in mind the game plan can always change. Be open to those changes.

My 2 IUIs had similar protocols using Menopur. The 1st one, my dosage started high and was lowered as I got close to the procedure. My 2nd one, my dosage remained the same until the procedure. I responded very well to the medication both times. Unfortunately my IUIs didn’t work. I was warned in advance that they probably weren’t the best choice for me but I still wanted to start there. For IVF, I did 2 bottles Menopur and 300 iu Follistim for 4 days only. That resulted in 2 huge follicles & lots of little ones. Dr decided to have me trigger and my IVF was officially cancelled. On my follow up visit afterwards, ultrasound sound I had a cyst on my overy. I am about to go back on Sep 26 and see if the cyst has gone away so that I can start Stims hopefully soon.

For the IUIs, my insurance covered 25% minus medications and I paid the rest out of pocket, in total about $2000 for each IUI. For the IVF, so far I’ve paid $2900 in medications alone.

My clinic will do single or multiple.

My experience as a patient has been wonderful. I came from another clinic that was just terrible. They focused on the money and you were just a number it was a once size fits all approach and there was no thought given to individual patients. Dr. Paulson tailored my treatment to ME. I wasn't even approached for payment until well after the cycle had ended and he was just a real human being. When my pregnancy wasn't looking good he told me he was concerned and why but also to remain hopeful because he also had patients that had similar markers make it out with a happy, healthy baby (didn't happen in my case but he was honest and kind). He is approachable and handled all of my 1,000,000 questions with ease. He is truly one of a kind and I have referred others to him. My only regret is that I ever went to the other clinic and wasted time, money and my emotions on it all. I wish I had found Dr. Paulson sooner. He is worth the commute up to LA from SD county. He is real, honest and approachable and truly cares for his patients.

Ask about natural cycle or mini stim! There is no reason to be pumped more full of drugs that your body may not need to do the job so to speak and he is an expert in that type of treatment!

Natural Cycle - didn't use any drugs just monitored my own body and ovulation! Actually created embryos like this!!! I had a negative pregnancy test but it could work! Mini stim - menopur (75 iu) and gonal-f (75 iu). Then triggered after 6 nights of stim (I tend to respond a little quickly). Got 4 eggs - 3 were mature and fertilized beautifully. Transferred two - got pregnant and miscarried at 10 weeks. One is still frozen.

Well run - basically had a very small wait time if any and was in and out pretty quickly.

I believe each round was 10k. Medications of course are extra.

Dr. Marsha Baker is intelligent, well spoken, knowledgeable, warm, compassionate, and has an amazing bedside manner. She is a rockstar in her field and definitely the best RE I have encountered. She has always answered my questions honestly, intelligently, and kindly. She treats me like a human with actual emotions and needs. She keeps me in the loop and takes into account what I want/need when deciding on protocol. She also doesn’t stick with the same protocol over and over. When we don’t get results, she switches meds or dosage. I always feel like Dr. Baker genuinely has my best interest in mind when making decision, even when I don’t like it (a cancelled cycle for example). I have never felt like she makes a decision “just because.” There is always sound reasoning and she’s always willing to explain it to me. I wouldn’t want any other RE treating me.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions! She’s not intimidating and she will answer, either directly or through staff. I’ve never had a question go unanswered.

My first two IUI cycles were unmedicated except for the trigger (ovidrel). Dr. baker, my partner, and I came to the agreement that it was the best place to start since I was only 28 at the time and had all the infertility testing done with a clean bill of reproductive health. We thought this would be a “one and done” deal. We used donor sperm. I triggered when I had a single mature follicle and had the IUI done 36 hours post trigger both cycles. Negative pregnancy test followed both. 3rd cycle I did clomid CD4-8. I didn’t respond as well as we had hoped (I only had one very mature follicle @ 26mm). We triggered and did IUI the next day. Negative beta 2 weeks later. We then moved on to menopur. First cycle of menopur I did 1.5 vials for 5 days, triggered, IUI 36 hr later. Negative. For the next cycle we did back to back iuis with 4 days at 2.5 vials of menopur and 2 days at 1.5. Then trigger. I had 3 mature follicles. IUI was 12 and 36 hours post trigger. Also negative beta. The cycle after that I hyperstimulated and the cycle was cancelled. I did 6 days of menopur on 2.5 vials, and 2 nights on a single vial and my e2 levels went from 700 to 1861 in only 36 hours, something that was very unexpected for all of us. My body just over responded, and it would have been too risky to do an IUI (higher order multiples were extremely likely). Dr. Baker put me on birth control to calm everything down before moving on to the next IUI cycle. For our next cycle we plan to try to find the happy medium medication-wise between the cancelled cycle and the cycle preceding it. This will be my 7th and hopefully last IUI.

I haven’t started the cycle yet. But I was quoted $15,200 for everything except meds. This quote includes 100% icsi and pgs testing, all lab fees, physician fees, freezing, etc..

Dr. Baker plans to transfer only a single pgs tested frozen embryo if I move on to IVF. This is due to my age and the fact that I don’t really want multiples.

So far, I am very pleased with Dr. Paulson. He made me feel confident and safe from the moment and I met him and I find him to be very knowledgeable and has a good personality. We are in the early stages of my fertility treatment and I am very hopeful that he is going to help me reach my goals. I have found myself getting very emotional while at the doctor's office and even feeling like a "failure" in that I cannot get pregnant naturally, however, he has helped me put my mind at ease and helped me explore my options and figure out a plan of attack. My biggest regret is that I did not start on this journey earlier. My husband has also been coming with me on appointments and it is great to have him there and see that he also has faith in the doctor and what they can do for us. I currently need to have a large fibroid removed, which my OB-GYN had identified but not made as big of a deal out of as Dr. Paulson has. I have had a much greater opportunity to discuss my treatment in detail with Dr. Paulson, where normally when you are at the doctor's office you feel as though the doctor's time is limited and you cannot have a thorough conversation. I sit with Dr. Paulson in his office and do not feel rushed in the least.

You are going to really enjoy working with him. Stay confident and patient and take things one step at a time.

So far, we are removing the Fibroid and I had a Hydrosonogram to identify it in addition to an HSG Xray. Once removed, I will be going through with IUI cycles.

$350 initial consultation, $350 for Hydrosonogram $1500 for IUI

no comments

From our first meeting with Dr. Chung for a consultation, we knew she was a great fit for us. She is incredibly knowledgeable in her field and extremely thorough. That day she took the time to explain everything, but also approached the interaction with us in a way that made it feel like we were a team. Moving forward in our journey, she always provided a wealth of information and support. She was always supportive and hopeful through our three failed IUIs. Now that we are working through IVF, I could not imagine working with another doctor. She has been so supportive! Always available when I had questions during my egg retrieval process and when I had concerns afterward and leading up to our fresh transfer. It ended in a chemical pregnancy, but throughout the time where we were tracking our beta, she was realistic, but optimistic which was super helpful because it was such a sensitive time. We just saw her this week for our frozen transfer. It is always a pleasure to work with her and we always feel at ease.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. She is so kind, thoughtful, and thorough. She always put our minds at ease.

For my egg retrieval we used a long protocol. I was on birth control and Lupron then Gonal-F and Menopur. I responded very well and 25 eggs were retrieved, of which 5 reached blastocyst stage.

Monitoring hours were very convenient for both mine and my husbands schedule. They are early from 7:30-9:30 on weekdays and around the same time on weekends. There were options seven days a week which was incredibly helpful. If I had any conflicts, the clinic was willing to work with us. There was sometimes a long wait, but it varied and did not impact my work schedule.

Since I am an employee at USC, I did receive a slight discount on select portions of our IVF retrieval/fresh transfer, but not on our Frozen Embryo Transfer. The IVF retrieval, fresh transfer and medication was around $15,000 and the Frozen Embryo Transfer and medication was about $3600.

Our doctor used standard guidelines for our transfers given my age and diagnosis. She was very clear about the potential outcomes of transferring two embryos. We felt very comfortable with the information provided to move forward with her recommendations.

As a patient I felt completely taken care of with Dr. K. I trusted her knowledge and opinion . If she thought something would help us or was concerned about something we went with her advice . I never felt like she didn't have our best interest in mind. We never thought we would need fertility treatment but we were so Thankful to have had Dr.K as our Doctor. She has been the best Doctor I have ever had .

ask every and any question you might have . I had a lot of anxiety about certain decision I had to make but I always felt better after Dr.K and I talked . I would just ask her for her honest opinion and what she would do . She always made sure I understood everything and that we had a plan for the next cycle that we were both comfortable with . We both had the same goal :)

I

costs were expensive but actually very reasonable compared to other clinics . I think any type of medical out of pocket seems like a lot at first . I looked into other clinics and USC was actually one of the most reasonable

From the very first time I spoke to Dr. Bendikson and I was anxious about my high FSH and low AMH results, she spoke with so much confidence as I hesitantly asked if I could get pregnant? Her ‘this is what I do!’ Response was just the boost I needed in that moment. From that point forward I knew if I trusted the process, no matter the end result I would be pleased with their effort and my commitment to be a good patient.

Listen to what she tells you because she has experience in the field.

I don’t really remember.... I just remember not taking any medication for my uterine lining

There was a window for an appointment. Sometimes the wait was a bit long.

About $15-$17K I also received a refund check about a year later for about $1200

During my pregnancy I learned that a lot of clinics no longer transfer multiple embryos. I was very pleased that my clinic chose to transfer all three of my embryos. I really felt like I was treated like an individual patient and not a statistic or anything else. I felt the correct decisions were made for my individual circumstances.

Dr. B was great at first, during our initial consultation taking a lot of time to explain things to me. But was not always the one conducting my US's and the US's themselves were extremely painful. After about 5 of them she mentions off-hand DURING the US that I might have endometriosis, something she had never mentioned before and is not part of my medical history. When my ovaries did not seem active after only about 3 months off of OCP (after 20 years on them) she wanted to start me on Clomid and just plow forward with a cycle. After leaving her and seeing my current RE, I realized that that course of action would have been completely wrong and ineffective given my hormone levels. I am very happy that I left then and did not waste any more time. Because she was ultimately totally incorrect about the course of treatment that was right for me and her abrupt manner and painful US's, I would never recommend her to anyone.

Find someone else.

Her strategy was to let my ovaries recover after years of OCP, and then administer Clomid which would have had NO effect given my hormone levels. I had zero results.

Costs were pretty similar to other providers in this area.

Dr. Chung treated me exceptionally well, she always explained everything in detail when I didn't understand the procedure or had any sort of question Dr. Chung and her staff was always a call or email away. I never felt as if i was just a "number" or "another" patient I truly felt like Dr. Chung really cares for each and one of her patients, we felt she was helping us reach our #1 goal to have a family..

I would advice a feature patient to walk in with an open mind. Dr. Chung will load you up with information like no one else she will make sure you understand everything as well as have answered all your questions. Follow all advice given by Dr. Chung and nurse.

As a male fertility factor one of our protocols was to try the semen analysis protocol to try and get pregnant naturally since husband suffers of retrograded ejaculations do to cancer and the first time we tried this protocol his sperm reversed,so we were told to try it again which consisted of being abstinence 3-5 days. 1. Begin Sudafed (with pseudo ephedrine) 2 tablets (30mg each) three times a day starting three days prior to semen analysis 2. Take 2 alkaseltzer tablets in the morning.

our estimated care cost is at about 8k.

our Dr. recommended that we get two embryos transfer. why? because or odds would be greater incase one doesn't attach maybe the other one will, and if they both do then we'll be blessed with twins.

Dr. Bendikson is a very thorough doctor. She is very knowledgeable as well and I would describe her as a top doctor in her field. She is caring and kind. She is very understanding of how emotional this situation is. She is very blunt and up front with what is going on and what she thinks of it which I think is good because she doesn't set false hope. On the flip side of it, if something is good she doesn't hesitate to say that either. I think this just makes her trustworthy. I prefer a doctor who just tells me the truth. She is good about answering emails from patients as well. On rare occasions she has been a little rushed with us so we haven't felt able to take our time and ask questions but calling or sending an email solves that.

Definitely go with Dr. B. You will not be sorry you did. And of course, if you are a prospective patient for infertility, I wish you lots of baby dust and hope.

I was prescribed 2 estradiol 2mg tablets per day and 2 microprogesterone inserted vaginally morning and night initially to thicken my lining. I did not experience any side effects from these medicines. My lining thickened very quickly and early on. My dosage of progesterone was increased to 3 a day, morning, noon, and evening. This was sufficient hormones to support a pregnancy according to Dr. B. I had a transfer of a single fresh embryo using a donor egg. I did get pregnant but sadly the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage due to blighted ovum. We did the genetic testing on all embryos so it is unclear what happened to cause the blighted ovum. I had frequent blood work and ultrasounds done to check progress.

The clinic gives you a price sheet up front with all associated costs at your very first consultation. The consultation does cost $350 but you get so much information. You meet with the doctor, nurse, and billing personnel. We paid roughly 20k to the clinic for the egg retrieval from our donor, icsi and fertilization of our eggs, transfer, follow up ultrasounds and blood work.

Dr. B recommended a single embryo transfer due to my age and size. She felt I could carry a singleton fine and it would make delivery easier to have one. I expressed my desire to have a natural birth and she agreed a single was the way to do this.

He is really compassionate and has a great bedside manner. He reviews your chart thoroughly at each visit. The only problem is that you do not see him every visit. You often see a fellowship student.

Go there if you need basic iui or Ivf. Do not go there if you are interested in pgd/pgs or if you need surgery. The office does not do pgd/pgs routinely so there is some doubt regarding their skills doing the biopsy procedure.

I was put on high dose stims due to DOR. I am not sure if these doses were a little too high or not.

The costs are reasonable but the billing staff is horrific. If you ask for a receipt to submit to your insurance company, you may wait over a month to get it. The billing staff always answers calls when they are collecting your payments but send you to voicemail when you need copies of bills or receipts.

The doctor likes to transfer all available day 3 embryos on the over 40 crowd. It may be a good approach because it gets every embryo a chance at implantation. However, you need to be prepared for potential abnormalities that may cause miscarriage. Worse yet, you may have to make a heart wrenching termination decision.

Dr. Bendikson is truly a Godsend. She took it upon herself to befriend me, while helping us to achieve our dream. She is compassionate and loving and it shows with her care. She hurt when I hurt and helped in every way possible. She communicated everything to me, and when my husband was unable to attend an apt, she made herself available to him to explain treatment. She listened to all of my ideas and considered them in my treatment. When I was hospitalized she made herself available to the doctors on staff to help manage treatment. She also made the trek 25 miles to the hospital and visited me. She goes above and beyond. I'm not sure if this was just for me, but believe this is the type of person she is. She engages other doctors when she needs a second opinion and bounces ideas off them for the best course of treatment.

Know that she will go out of her way (for you) to ensure the best possible care.

I underwent my first IVF with Dr. Bendikson June 2015 due to severe endometriosis, as a result, hydronephrosis and multiple endometriomas. Medications used: Gonal f, Menopur, Ganirelix. I responded very well and opted for a freeze all - 38 eggs retrieved, 25 fertilized, 15 frozen blasts [13 PGS tested (9NL, 4ABNL) and two untested]. Although we froze all embryos, I overstimulated and was admitted due to pain management and hydronephrosis. Retrospectively, performed NGS and mitochondrial levels screening of embryos (I had an extremely high number of embryos with abnormal mitochondrial levels). AUG'15 we transferred one normal embryo and suffered a chemical pregnancy. The following three cycles results in negative results. During monitoring, my uterus appeared enlarged and globular and Dr. Bendikson recommended an MRI to look for adenomyosis. MRI showed endometriosis and adhesions from pelvis to diaphragm, adenomyosis and hematosalpingx. On Lupron depot from August to February. Underwent surgery in February to remove tubes (tubes were open and did not need to be removed), remove as much endometriosis as possible, remove adenomyoma (this was done outside of RE). Moving forward in May'17, will undergo a mock transfer and ERA.

Monitoring occurs within a time frame by physician, which works great for those of us who work. This was we are in and out. This also means that we get results mid afternoon and don't have to wait until the next day.

$27,185 excluding meds

Based on my medical history, initially it was determined that due to acute renal failure, we would only transfer one embryo. After the second failed transfer, we discussed the possibility of transferring one normal embryo and one untested embryo. While the decision was ultimately in our hands, we trusted Dr. Bendikson to help us make the decision based on optimal health.

She was extremely knowledgeable and made me feel completely at ease with her management of our cycle. She also came well recommended. She did have me do an endometrial receptivity assay, which I understand is not common, but it did come back showing our best day for implantation was 1 day later than expected. She also had me use progesterone suppositories instead of injections, which I greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if these things affected our success but so far so good.

We used a donor egg. There was a mock cycle to assess my response to estrogen patches and progesterone suppositories. This included several ultrasounds and 2 endometrial receptivity biopsies. We also did a genetic screening for my husband and our egg donor. My cycle was started based on timing with the donor and my biopsy results. I've stayed on 2 estrogen patches and progesterone suppositories until 12 weeks of pregnancy.

$1600 for IVF cycle with a donor, around $3500 for meds.

She gave us the opportunity to decide and we opted for single transfer due to lower risk of prematurity and better outcomes than multiple gestation.

Very knowledgeable and helpful. Set appropriate expectation while remaining neutral to do his job. Willing to respond to all of my questions to make sure that I understand the implications and procedures. Make me very comfortable to ask questions and share communication with him

Make sure you know what you want and ask questions.

Had been trying to get pregnant with my significant other for over 3 years. As I was approaching the age of 40, started seeing a fertility dr to find out the I have multiple issues. First time meeting Dr. Jabara, he was able to order different test in order to diagnose me properly. Also, he would explain the results of the tests to me properly and tell me the implications and the procedures. He was straightforward in regards to my situation, but also able to deliver the message with compassion, straight facts, without making me feel uncomfortable. Also, he would spend time to discuss different options and explain very detail on the results/expectations for each choice.

Going through the whole IVF cycle with embryo implementation is about $15,000. Eggs freezing procedures is about $12,000

He followed the medical guideline to transfer the max. embryos based on my age, even though I was reluctant to do it.

I only saw Dr. Kristin Bendikson for my initial consultation and initial appointment. The rest of the time I saw different doctors for monitoring and treatments. My impression of her is that she's intelligent, thoughtful, competent, and warm. She was recommended to me and I'd recommend her to others. I also particularly liked one of the other doctors I saw a bit more often.

If it is important to you to consistently receive most of your treatments from the same doctor, I would ask about how that is handled at this clinic. I'm not sure that it's standard.

1st, lots of diagnostic tests. Then, because of financial considerations (was unemployed at the time), I started with trying Clomid + timed intercourse without monitoring: 50mg a day. She actually prescribed 100mg but I didn't follow it (I Know - bad patient!). I am usually really sensitive to meds and had a feeling it would be rough. Sure enough, I had a strong negative emotional reaction to the 50mg of Clomid (the horror to imagine what 100 would have done!). Having twice as much in hand, I stretched it over 2 cycles. No luck. Decided to go for IUI + full monitoring for the 3rd cycle and she recommended I switch to Letrozole which was much better for me (no side effects - modest dose). Only got 1 decent follicle and no one was super optimistic about it, but the 1st IUI worked! I feel EXTREMELY lucky. I think we would only have been able to afford one more IUI and probably not IVF, so were on the verge of giving up.

Letrozole, Bloodtests, 3 monitoring ultrasounds, HCG trigger shot, 1 IUI treatment = about $1600