UT Southwestern

Dr. Babayev is knowledgeable, however, I feel that he really limited me. Based purely on my first AMH test, he first told me that it appeared I had no eggs left, have no chance, should look into an egg donor, etc. When he finally did an ultrasound he found that was not the case at all. It was very frustrating in the meantime. Even afterwards, he decided that I have low ovarian reserve and would not be a good candidate for IVF. I have since had other opinions that are the exact opposite and my treatment has also proven so. I also wasn't crazy about Dr. Babayev recommending at least 6 IUIs. Other clinics will not do more than 3. I feel like he just keeps churning you through the process. I also feel like they don't really push for you to have a successful result. There is a goal of pregnancy with fertility and you pay a lot of money and I didn't feel any urgency with him to get us there. He is also very very conservative in his approach which can be good, but after a couple of rounds I needed something more. I felt like we would never get there with his guidance.

Push for more answers. Push for what you want.

I went through 2 IUI cycles with Dr. Babayev and team. For my 1st, he started me on 37.5 iu of menopur. This resulted in basically nothing happening and after 5 days increased my dose to 75iu. I had 1 mature follicle before trigger. For my 2nd IUI, he had me on 75 iu for 10 days and resulted in 2 mature follicles. Both resulted in negative pregnancy tests.

The IUI cycle, including monitoring ultrasounds, labs and the actual procedure (without meds) was $1050 out of pocket.

He is extremely knowledgeable and experienced. I trust him with my care. He is very thorough with explanations and answers all questions. I do not feel rushed with him. My husband struggled a little with his accent.

Bring something to write things down. It’s a lot of information. Write down any questions you have.

Lab work, HSG testing, ultrasound I did min stim IVF with ICSI and embryo freeze Orally I took estrace and clomid. Subcutaneously I took cetrotide, menopur, chorionic gonodotropin Result after 1 cycle: 1 frozen embryo

Monitoring is between the hours of 7:30-10 am. They would give you a specific time to come to avoid long wait times but as long as you’re in this time frame you can have your testing done. I never had to wait more than 10 minutes to be called back.

Cycle management, physician consult, psychological consultation Sonograms and cycle monitoring lab tests Oocyte retrieval including anesthesia In-vitro fertilization, ICSI, extended culture and embryo freeze $3800 Medications at outside pharmacy ~$1000

N/A

Dr.Babayev was a god-send for us! He’s definitely the best doctor I have ever met. Not only is he extremely competent and knowledgeable, he is very patient and warm. He has excellent bed-side manners and always cracks goofy jokes before a procedure to calm you down! I felt like he was quite involved in the process with us as we overcame every fertility associated challenge. IVF is a very stressful process in itself and without Dr. Babayev we might have given up too soon. He kept us motivated while being very realistic. I definitely miss him..now that we have been transferred to an ob/gyn.

Be patient with the staff. Sometimes you might not get your instructions/prescriptions on time.. but it all works out at the end.

I was diagonosed with severely diminished ovarian reserve for my age. Dr. Babayev initially recommended mini-IVF for us. The insurance however did not approve and recommended full IVF. So, Dr. Babayev went ahead with 2 full IVF cycles. These two cycles did not produce desirable results. We did a fresh transfer with the first cycle which did not work. The second cycle did not produce any viable embryos. Dr. Babayev then moved onto mini-IVF. We did two cycles which were both successful. We transferred 2 frozen embryos and I am now 12 weeks pregnant with one.

The treatment was covered by insurance. We paid for medication for 3 out of the 4 cycles and then for the transfer medication.

None

Overall, Dr. Babayev has a pleasant and patient personality which helps to soothe the stress during treatments. I did somewhat feel as though I was being taken through a sales presentation during my initial consultation b/c he still wanted to talk about my odds if I used a donor egg even though I told him donor eggs were a definite no as soon as I sat down to speak with him. I had some issues with the clinic and Dr. Babayev was responsive and apologetic and assured me that things would be resolved. Also as I mentioned in one question, I don't see him often. I spoke with him during initial consult, he helped another doctor perform my IUI and finally I spoke to him after a complaint with staff. It would help to build patient confidence if Babayev at least peaked in the room to say hello during some of the scans and labs.

Advocate for yourself. If you are not interested in a treatment option they suggestion then advocate. Do not be coerced into treatments that you are not ready for. Wheter they be donor eggs are skipping IUI and moving to IVF. Of course listen to doctor but at end of day, it's your decision. And do your own reading and research so that you are not coming into the conversations with no background information.

Due to my age and AMH/FSH levels. Babayev suggested I go straight to mini-IVF. However, I started with an IUI as I originally thought IVF was not covered under my insurance. The IUI was a negative pregnancy test. Per Babayev initial recommendation, I am now doing my first treatment of mini-ivf with 100mg of clomid daily and then Menopur and Cetrotide injections. I have been on clomid for like 5 days now and will start injections tonight. Again, mini IVF was chosen b/c of my age, AMH and FSH. I also have only have about 3-4 total antral follicles during my scans.

I really can't remember itemized pricing but general pricing shared from finance was about 8k for Mini IVF and 1500-3k for meds.

I don't recall him speaking on an approach. I did ask if I would do a retrieval after first cycle and he mentioned that i would likely not produce many eggs in a cycle and his goal was to try to collect 7-8 eggs after a few cycles.

He very knowledgeable and does not use generic protocols for everyone. He takes a lot of blood work and tells you what to do the day before. If you are cycling with him you must be open to appointments everyday because he gives you a calendar but does not follow it. So be aware that changes are dependent on your sonogram and blood work from the day before.

He speaks with accent and many people say he hard to understand but I understand him. He doesn’t have other programs like egg donation. He limited to what utsw allows him to do.

I did mini ivf with him. Once you are ready to start. You do baseline to make sure you are surpressed, after that you take clomid for about 4-5 days with cetrotide. Then you have mix of menopur and clomid until follicles are ready for retrieval.

4000 per mini cycle- 12k for traditional but prices change yearly. It has gone up every year. I guess since they are more busy they charging more.

He always suggested single embryos transfers

Bukulmez is the chairman of the department and one of my main reasons for seeing him was that he is at the forefront of the field, individualizes his protocols, and takes the toughest cases. He does communicate at a very high, medical level. I am a physician so I liked that, but it could possibly be challenging for people not in the medical field or going through this for the first time. My only complaint is I would have liked to get more detailed updates during my IVF cycle to more fully understand what was going on. He is very responsive to the portal messaging via his nursing staff

Estrace priming followed me Antagonist protocol with follistim, menopur, cetrotide. His goal is quality over quantity and we were shooting for 8-14 quality eggs

$10k not including meds

He usually only recommends single embryo transfers in my experience. We only transferred >1 bc they were concerned we wouldn’t make it to blastocyst stage

My first fertility clinic tried to push me to IVF after my first visit strictly from blood work. I had given up on trying and one day I just couldn’t stand it. Made an appointment and showed up a day early I guess from not paying attention to date or just was too anxious. They still saw me. Waited maybe 10-15 mins saw Dr Haas and he told me he would do an ultrasound to check to see if he saw any eggs. All this time I thought I only had maybe 2. He said there were other options besides IVF and I’m just dying to see. I am a single mother and I can’t afford IVF and I’m just ecstatic to know there are other options

Always get a second opinion. Find a Dr. who wants to help not someone who’d rather help themselves($)

Haven’t gotten that far yet :(

My insurance covered my first visit. He did a free ultrasound. My next appointment I have to pay 350$ for HSG

Dr. Bukulmez seemed to be a good doctor. Never rude or mean. But he told me up front that I had only a 17% chance of having a baby with my own eggs. He recommended mini-IVF to focus on quality of eggs and not quantity. We went 4 rounds of mini-IVF. 1st round - 2 eggs retrieved, both fertilized, neither made it to blastocyst. 2nd round - 1 egg retrieved, 1 fertilized, made it to Day 3 only. 3rd round - 0 eggs retrieved. (I was given a $1,000 credit towards my next IVF because none of the sacs contained eggs.) 4th round - 1 egg retrieved, 1 egg fertilized, made it to Day 3. I think the one thing I wish would have happened was more trying different options. I felt like we were repeating the same protocol each time and hoping to get a different result. I could have pursued it further but after 4 rounds I was out more than $25,000 and I just couldn't afford to continue. Each round was looking less and less promising. Had it been the other way around and I felt like we were making progress I may have continued with Dr. Bukulmez but that wasn't the case. Not a bad doctor, I just didn't feel like his recommendations were very specialized based on my tests or outcomes. We tried one option and that was it. I probably should have pushed more, but I didn't see him often. Usually working with assistants or nurses.

Be pushier. Ask more questions. Insist on more options.

Mini-IVF was recommended because I was over 40. It did result in fewer eggs but I don't believe it improved the quality. Over 4 rounds I had 4 eggs retrieved and none made it to blastocyst stage or were ever frozen, so I never made it to a transfer.

Mini IVF round would have run about $7,000 to completion including the transfer. I never got that far. So I paid about $4,000. Each cycle was billed as a lump sum fee that included all visits, ultrasounds and retrieval.

Dr. Babayev met me initially with hesitation on my end. He took the time to explain everything to me and why I was a candidate for IVF. I had never imagined I would be a patient that needed assistance with having anther child since I had a child before. He was very nice, respectful and personable. I actually am looking forward to seeing him again for my next child (if need be).

Be open minded and trust the process and your body. Ask questions if you don't understand and be a good patient by doing exactly what instructions say. Patience is key when dealing with science and nature coming together.

eSET was suggested for me due to the grade of my embryos and he always put the health of my future baby and myself when considering number of embryos to transfer.

Dr. Babayev was a great listener and explainer of information. He never got frustrated with questions we asked and took great care of us. I fully trusted Dr. Babayev and am thankful he was recommended to us.

Always ask questions because he will answer them fully and in detail. Never hesitate to tell him something going on with your treatment or feelings even if it seems small.

I went through 2 IUIs using clomid and letrezole, one for each round. Neither of these drugs gave us the result we wanted so we discuss further options. We then did IVF. We did two frozen transfers. The first did not take but the second did!

IVF with ICSI was about $10,000

Dr. Babayev suggested we transfer one embryo at a time due to our situation.

Dr. Babayev has been nothing but beyond amazing from the first consultation to every single office visit. He is very knowledgeable in his field and doesn't do unnecessary tests/procedures that hasn't been proven to work. He is easy to work with and responds incredibly fast to all my messages and phone calls.

I’m almost 34 years old, but the functions of my ovaries is over 45 years old. All the hormones are not balanced and it’s very hard to predict the time of ovulation. Tried 1 time only 5 eggs were retrieved. So I took the change to only transfer one egg… They did it at the first shot!! Many thanks to Dr. Babayev. And I will be trying again for the second baby.

He's very thorough in explaining the process of mini IVF's, benefits and goals. He shows compassion and specialized care/approach for each patient. Even though UTSW is a teaching hospital, nice to know he does all surgeries and transfers.

Be sure to clear your schedule and be flexible from days 5-14 of your cycle for doctors appointments.

He wanted to do mini IVF retrievals in order to get fewer but better quality eggs. He explained that every cycle is different with some months being better than others. Results have been positive so far with 4 frozen embryos.

My insurance, BCBS of IL has been good, with all benefits met so no major charges yet in 2017

I'm not to the transfer part yet, although we have discussed implanting 2 embryos

When we first met Dr. B, one of the things he said about infertility being like other diseases and why people should look at it that way made a difference to me - showing how he looks at and approaches our situation. He is open about our chances but maintains a sense of hope that he can get us pregnant. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand him but overall we had minimal issues.

Ask questions - he is always open to our questions which is important

Single transfer recommended due to my unicornate uterus

Very intelligent and thoughtful. He spoke in very technical terms, which was ok as I am a physician. He has a very good reputation. I really like his current nursing staff and front desk workers, who always make us feel so welcomed. I found appointments very convenient and on time.

Keep asking questions.

IVF cycle ~8500 + meds. Transfers ~2500 + meds. Insurance covered IUI

The clinic prefers single embryo transfers, prefers to avoid genetic screening unless necessary. We did end up doing two multiple embryo transfers, but after the first one failed.