Westchester Fertility & Reproductive Endocrinology

One strength about Dr. Blotner and the reason I stayed with him so long despite the negative experiences is that he is very good at accurate diagnoses. He diagnosed me with two conditions that all of my previous Ob-Gyns had missed and further time without those diagnoses would have been a problem. He also insisted before treatment that I see a hematologist about a condition that showed up in a genetic screen that could actually have an effect on my health and it is a good thing he did. However, overall my experience with him was very negative. I often felt like he was rushed and could not be bothered to explain conditions or options to me. He often made me feel bad for asking questions or seeing if we could look into another option. He often gave the impression that he saw me as unintelligent and unable to understand details of my treatment (which he often failed to provide unless pressed, and even then, reluctantly). He often got me confused with other patients and assumed certain things had already been done in my care, making me feel like there were components missing in my care. He often ignored medical literature that did not fit with the way he understood the mechanisms to work and relied on poorly done studies that were not verified. He always portrayed everything as black and white with no controversies or options. He rarely told me about medical risks. He never even mentioned the possibility of overstimulating on injectables (but thankfully someone outside the clinic had warned me that it could happen), which ended up happening to me in a nightmarish manner (last minute IVF rescue, moderate OHSS). I think my OHSS could have been prevented or at least less severe if he had prescribed cabergoline before the retrieval and done a Lupron only trigger. I feel that I was hurt by the way he runs his practice multiple times and in many ways.

Honestly, just don't go to him. I really wish I had not.

He started me on Provera to induce a period because I was not ovulating and to make sure my lining was starting at a neutral place. He then started me on 50 mg clomid. 50 mg clomid did not stimulate, so he stair-stepped me using 100 mg clomid next. It still really did not stimulate so he gave me 50 iu gonal f per day which finally stimulated. I then got an early LH surge so he had me trigger than put me on progesterone suppositories (he did not explain why). This cycle ended in BFN. He wanted to do combined clomid and injections for future cycles, but the side effects from the clomid were dangerous for me. He then said letrozole would not work for me because it works through lowering estrogen and my estrogen was already low without stimulation (we have since tried this at a new clinic and it has proven to be untrue-- I have now ovulated 3 times on letrozole at my new place, twice with at least 2 lead follicles, with minimal side effects). We then started a gonal f injections only cycle because I was lead to believe letrozole was not an option. He started me at 50 iu. No response. Then upped to 75 iu. No response. Upped to 100 iu. Minimal response. He then increased to 150 iu. That finally got a good response, but suddenly small follicles shot up and soon enough it became clear we had to either cancel the cycle or convert to IVF. We converted to IVF because it appeared our only option to stimulate was injections and the lowest working dose of injections for me led to this overstimulation, making it appear that future attempts would have similar results. He gave me a Lupron and low dose hCG trigger. I am not sure why he did not give me cabergoline before the retrieval or do a Lupron only trigger as these things would have reduced the chances and severity of OHSS despite the fact I was clearly high risk for it (43 eggs retrieved, estrogen very high, young age, PCOS). I developed moderate OHSS a few hours after the retrieval. I was in severe pain, vomited whenever I got up, and had trouble moving (even started to have trouble breathing before things started to improve). It was the worst experience of my life. I ended up getting a UTI after because it was so difficult for me to use the restroom. I had my embryos PGS tested because he claimed it would increase our chances of a successful transfer and would decrease our chances of another miscarriage (turns out for my age, under 30, there is no benefit to PGS so I wish we had not wasted our financial and emotional investment on this). Before transferring an embryo, he did a mock transfer (which went smoothly) and an endometrial biopsy to test for endometritis and other things. We had one FET of a PGS normal embryo. It failed (technically chemical pregnancy with a positive home pregnancy test that led to negative bloodwork by the time I had the beta). He then planned to do an EFT to see what went wrong, but I do not think this makes sense based on the medical literature. We then switched clinics.

It was always a very long line when you go at the beginning of monitoring hours (later is faster, but even more disruptive to your day). I would miss hours of my mornings from appointments (about 45 minutes before the blood draw and some time after that before the ultrasound and a long time before seeing the doctor to discuss the results/changes in treatment plan). I missed several meetings and several hours of work. They did give the option to leave after the ultrasound instead of meeting with the doctor, but even with that option, it was a very long time. I never chose that option because he was terrible about getting back to me with results.

Thankfully. my insurance covered all bloodwork, ultrasounds, mock transfer, semen analysis, and endometrial biopsy. I had to pay for the IVF. It was ~$15k not including anesthesia and PGS testing. In total with meds, PGS, ICSI, anesthesia, and all we paid about $25-30k from a single round of IVF and one transfer.

There is no compassion from the clinic and everybody running it as their daily routine. It is like a step by step process to complete, there is no personalized thoughts behind it. And doctor is not patient to listen what are the symptom I have and he would just want to pursuade me go along with his plan. He is the only doctor in the clinic but all of the ultrasound is not performed by himself but another step-in physician, who come to the office only for the monitoring time. I would definitely not recommend this doctor. Nurses are fine

if you are willing to accept a universal procedure, go ahead.

i was not told on which specific protocal at all. I started with 10units lupron and then added 225 Follism and 300 Menepour. responses are fine as i have retrieved 11 eggs but eventually not a live birth. I think that's the most important measurement.

monitoring process is fine. but it's just not your doctor would check the ultrasound for you.

over 10,000, probably 12,000

i transfered two embryo