UT Southwestern

Strengths-individualized care, quick response to portal questions Weaknesses-nurse turnover, not as much hand holding like you would get at a private practice(but that was largely ok with me), they don’t do a high number of cases Things to know- reproductive endocrinology fellows perform the tracking ultrasounds, not Bukulmez. That was fine by me since most other places they are done by ultrasound techs. The fellows are board certified obgyns already so this was a bonus. Bukulmez does the transfers and retrievals and the early work up procedures

I chose Dr Bukulmez given that each patient receives personalized care and protocols. Bukulmez is extremely giving of his time during my consultations, much more so than the 2nd opinion I received prior to pursuing IVF from an outside physician

This is an academic institution so there is significant turnover of the nursing staff or the nurses are float nurses and not permanent. Bukulmez was very open that this was the case. I believe all the nurses now are permanent. They are usually extremely quick to respond to portal messages. I did have to advocate for myself sometimes so that I could speak to a fellow when it was a question above the nurses head.

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

Advice would be to plan ahead on having extra medicine when doing an IVF, better to have extra. Don't schedule travel during a cycle and keep schedule open/flexible if possible. Emails thru my chart has been effective with getting questions answered

More specialized care, plus more monitoring and appts than previous dr.

They're organized, timely for appt, compassionate. Weaknesses-since dr is monitoring closely medications are adjusted daily. I ran out of Menpour first round of mini IVF due to no communication and planning on their end.

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

The finance department does the minimal - it seems like they are best at taking payments. If you have insurance, they do little to assess your benefits or coordinate any required pre approvals without a lot of effort on my part to ensure all the paperwork is provided and timely.

He spoke to us with empathy and respective to our specific situation.

None of the same nurses are at the clinic compared to the day we started. This makes it difficult to rate because they have varied - some better than others.

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