Alan S. Penzias

He was very educated and informed, and able to explain things without going over your head when he talks. I personally appreciate somebody who is very honest, so Dr. Penzias was a great doctor for me. He's very straight forward if you ask him a question and confident in his responses, when your dealing with infertility at first you usually come across doctors that don't know much about it, so it was comforting for me to not hear any hesitation when he spoke. By breaking down my personal experiences with my diagnosis of unexplained infertility, he was able to say with confidence that IVF could be a good solution for me and he was correct. I could never thank him enough.

Listen to what he's saying when he discusses your condition with you.

He was very thorough in looking through an extensive medical record and breaking it down as to where all my information put me, he answered all my questions honestly but with care and hope. He helped me feel better about my situation by being direct and informed about my diagnosis of unexplained infertility and what my specific history meant for this. I had previously been told by doctors that nothing was wrong, that recurrent miscarriage just happens and to keep trying which just seemed so unrealistic and inhuman to say, Dr. Penzias recognized what had been been happening right away as a problem and concern, he found me a solution and provided hope with a very uncertain condition.

I've had one IVF cycle, and I am currently 8 months pregnant with my first child. IVF was determined to be the best course of action, I previously had lost 5 pregnancies over 2 years, giving me a diagnosis of recurrent pregnancy loss and unexplained infertility. I had no issues getting pregnant, but could not carry past 6 weeks. I was given progesterone to help maintain the pregnancy until 11 weeks gestation. Ovidrel was the drug used to cause ovulation. Menopur with gonal-f were used during egg stimulation producing 14 eggs in total.

I didn't see a nurse often. I saw more medical assistants and sonographers than anybody during my cycle. They were all great and I never had to wait around, my appointment times were always met or even early if I was there early.

They are an extremely compassionate and educated group of people. They are a timely clinic, I never waited around past my appointment time. With that said, if I was there early they could usually get me in sooner, or the one time I was late they didn't make me reschedule, told me they would see me when I got there and to drive safe, and they did in fact see me within 15 minutes after I showed up late. I just can't say enough good things about this clinic.

My insurance covered the cost of most of it.

They insisted on a single transfer, it's common practice in this clinic and they have high success rates with it. While I would have rather transferred 2 embryos to start, the risks with multiples in pregnancy was enough that I didn't argue it, and we had a successful single transfer.

Dr Pandas was very responsive to questions and requests, even while traveling He is accessible thru the nurse or via email. He was also flexible with us as far as having conference calls when we couldnt meet at his office due to schedule conflicts. We found him as he came highly rated to us from a Chief of another department Even though I was 40 and had low reserve, was a poor responder he didn't tell us donor eggs were the only choice. He know how we wanted our own child and he said out what our chances were. He has worked with us to optimize how many eggs we get but my eggs are not fertilizing. He is not encouraging or promoting of alternative therapies or naturopathic treatments to improve quality as he thinks they make minimal impact. But he will approve them and supplaments that I chose to do. I always keep him in the loop with what I am taking. He does like the use of acupuncture for transfer. We are looking to do another cycle or two with him at this point and looking at different treatment options. He has also gone to bat for us more than.once with the insurance company.

He is a down to earth person and a straight communicator that relies on data and proven methods. He is not on the cutting edge but it up to date on everything going on out that and looks to reliable data of success before recommending it to patients. He is very professional. Go in with lots of questions and you will come out with solid options to choose from.

He is very fact based but also very personable. He encourages questions and looking at new treatment plans and will discuss it all in detail and give you approx. Success rates of different options.

For my first cycle we did menopure and gonal f with Cetrotide to suppress, and during the cycle my dosing was upped as I was a poor responder. I ended up ovulating thru the Cetrotide is the cycle was candles. My next 2 cycles (the first I did immediately after the fist cycle as some research indicates that works better for older women) we switched to micro Lupton and stuck with the m &g. The first cycle we got 1 mature egg that did not fertalize naturally. I took a cycle off then the next cycle we used the same protocol and got I believe 3 eggs. They did not fertilize with ICSI, for the ones it could be used on. We switched to mini IVF since I was at max doses for stimulating meds but not getting good responses. Used Clomid with a hcg trigger (same as all the others) and got 6 eggs, 5 mature, none fertalize with ICSI. Took another few cycles off and did another mini IVF where I believe we got 3 or 4 eggs, nothing fertalized again. It has been attributed to my poor egg quality at my age, even though they look good at retrevial. Dr.P told me at my age less than maybe 1 in 12 eggs are chromosomaly normal, so it is a numbers game.

Sara is wonderful. Very compassionate and responsive. She was out for a while and we experienced other nursing staff. Most we great! At my first ERA biosposy, I was disappointed in the nursing as the 2 we not very professional, but my second biopsy was the exact opposite. It is a very large clinic so you will have interactions with many staff, but you also have a main point of contact.

Their strengths are that due to their size you can cycle any time and they do egg retrevial and transfers every day of the year. I also love the Domar Center located at their Waltham location. Acupuncture there is awesome with all practioners and the nutritionist was very helpful too. You do not usually get your doctor for retrevial, but mine came in once special to do just mine or a weekend morning. Billing is frustrating as you never get an actual bill or breakdown, and now we are paying out of pocket so you pay ahead for the whole cycle and get reimbursed if you did not use all of the plan treatments. You do need to be on top of things as far as your treatment as there is not someone to walk you through the process once you are on treatment or remind you. Follow up is also on you. But nurse communication is great and so was the coordinator.

Our first 4 cycles were covered by insurance, but the PGS testing was not. He did appeal to insurance and got 2 cycles covered that were initially rejected by insurance. Out of pocket IVF was $7750 for the cycle plus 2500 for icsi and 980 for the embryoscoping (which was at our request). PGS was $3300 For 7 to 8 embryos and went up and down from that number For the mini IVF cycle it is $4950 and that includes ICSI but not PGS testing.

We haven't gotten to that point, but we originally talked about doing only FET transfers of PGS tested embryos and at my age, 1 or 2 at a time.

Dr Penzias seemed to be very knowledgeable and had a scientific and statistical approach to everything. He would explain things thoroughly in statistical terms, which is great if your mind works that way, but sometimes I would've preferred more layman terms. We were pleased during our times with him, but the main problem was we could rarely get a hold of him for any ad hoc questions, and appointments with him took a while to schedule out. We also thought he would be performing our procedures (ie egg retrieval) but that was not the case.

For the first 75% of my cycle I was under the care of a rotating stream of nurses. I would get monitoring result and other related calls from a different person each day, and they were not always on the same page. Some of the nurses were very nice and some were curt. I'm not sure if this was sorted out and they now have 1 dedicated nurse for Dr Penzias, but the rotating care was frustrating since i had to re-explain a concern or re-ask a question constantly to different people.

Dr Penzias put us on 6 months of medicated cycles (he gave us the choice of IUI vs just timed relations each month - we did the latter due to our travel schedule) before we moved on to IVF. I was on standard Gonal F, ovidril, cetratide prior to egg retrieval and then progesterone in oil prior to embryo transfer.

The latter reviews for primary nurse are specifically for Sara and Ashley. In the first portion of my time with Dr Penzias I was treated by a rotating schedule of nurses which was frustrating. But when Sara was working she was very attentive, compassionate, super responsive and helpful and then when Ashley took over she was also amazing.

Even though Boston IVF Waltham is a large center, it was a little clumsily run. Every time I would check in at the main front desk, there would be three employees sitting there chatting and I would rarely be pointed to the right place for secondary check-in. Oftentimes I was sent to wait by the blood testing wing and they would be calling my name in the other wing or vice versa, and have me marked as late for my appointment. The staff that were at the payment windows were also terribly unfriendly more often than not ... they'd be on their phones and roll their eyes when I approached asking if I pay for my appointment there. If you can look past these administrative issues, I was happy overall with my doctor when I got to see him, and the latter dedicated nurses I had were very helpful and caring.

Our insurance ended up covering our IVF cycle, but we were quoted about 15k for the cycle. Diagnostic testing that was not covered by insurance amounted to about 2-3k, which came as a surprise to us and I would've elected not to do some of it (like for STDs).

As a patient there were times where his eagerness definitely encouraged me. He listened to me when I told him I had a really hard time being on Clomid and he suggested Letrozole. When I started Letrozole he was very interested and concerned about how I was doing on that (I did very well on it). He explained to me why he thought Letrozole was a better fit for me than Clomid and that helped me a lot. He also explained why I wasn't ovulating every month and did a really good job going through the idea of sub fertility (people who are experiencing infertility with a diagnosis). At times I felt frustrated by our lack of diagnosis, but because he spent so much time explaining that we were not infertile but sub fertile, it made me feel much better.

Ask questions. Any questions. He can answer them!

He really took the time to explain every part of our care. He even met with us in between treatments to talk about next steps if our IUI did not work. He showed us a power point with different statistics concerning sub fertility and seeing it on the screen really helped me understand the process. Had he just spoken to us with no visuals, I would have had a really hard time following along. He was also available for phone consultations which were really helpful.

During our consultation he knew we had done 4 rounds of clomid without any pregnancies, so he suggested we try Letrozole for one month and then an IUI. I was very fortunate that my IUI worked on the first round. I have no idea if it was the Letrozole that helped more or the IUI. For my second pregnancy, I want to try going on Letrozole for a month with intercourse to see if that works.

I worked with MIchelle primarily. She was the person I spoke with the most. She always called me back same day and was really good with answering all my questions. She was good with giving me all the information that I would need, but not overwhelming me either. I also really liked that my clinic had a portal where all my information was stored. That made it easy to upload blood work orders, instructions for injections, etc.

The only frustrating part about the clinics were the locations. I went to the Boston IVF Center in Syracuse initially but the clinic doesn't have their own location (they share a building with Upstate Medical Center). Often times my doctor wasn't available to meet in Syracuse (because he was actually based in Massachusetts!) and so at times for treatment, I actually would have to travel to Albany (over 3 hours from my house) to do the procedures. When I initially contacted Boston IVF- Syracuse, I thought everything would be done in Syracuse. However, if I wasn't willing to drive to Albany, my care would have been delayed. So we made the sacrifice and traveled to Albany.

Our insurance covered mostly everything (we have amazing insurance). But I do remember looking at the EOB and between blood tests, genetic testing, prescription, the sample collection, and the IUI- we were close to $5,000. We only paid deductibles in the range of $20-40.

Dr. Penzias did take the time to answer my questions but I felt as though I was expected to perform my own research on the IVF process rather than being provided with options to consider. I do not feel as though the IVF treatment was tailored to my husband and I's specific fertility challenges. I was not able to contact Dr. Penzias directly during the process and was required to work with the nursing staff. We had a Day 3 fresh transfer in round 2 without prior understanding of this strategy being utilized. The Day 3 fresh transfer felt like a financial decision to ensure complete billing of the cycle rather than a decision that would result in a successful pregnancy.

Consider a second opinion.

During my cycles I only had contact with the nursing staff, despite a change protocols the drugs ordered were incorrect, we did a day 3 embryo transfer on cycle 2 despite prior poor embryo survival in the first round.

Bicornuate uterus requiring single embryo transfer. Cycle 1 started on 06-Jul-2017: OCP/Antagonist - birth control, 375 Gonal F + 75 Menopur, cetrotide, ovidrel. Crinone vaginal progesterone. Resulted in retrieval of 9 eggs, 5 fertilized (ICSI), 3 embryos made it to Day 3, 2 embryos made it to Day 5. Fresh transfer of 1 embryo at Day 5. Acupuncture twice after embryo transfer. Remaining embryo did not survive for freezing. Menstruation occurred 4-5 days after transfer. Negative pregnancy test. Cycle 2 started on 08-Oct-2017: OCP/Microdose Lupron - birth control, microdose Lupron 10 IU (am & pm), 475 IU Gonal F, 75 IU menopur, Ovidrel. Resulted in retrieval of 12 eggs (10 mature). Intramuscular progesterone injections twice a day. Two eggs fertilized (ICSI) with fresh transfer at Day 3 of one embryo. Second embryo was necrotic at Day 5.

After completing the birth control for cycle 1 the nurse informed me that we would not be abel to proceed with the cycle because my husband had not completed the Counsyl screening. At no point had this testing been communicated as a contingency for proceeding with the cycle. I asked to speak with the Dr. Penzias but received a call from the nursing manager explaining that Amanda had mistakenly not given me the correct information regarding the completion of the Counsyl testing being a requirement. The nursing manager gave me the option to either waive my husband's testing or to have the testing done as soon as possible while the IVF cycle continued. After my embryo transfer I was not told to schedule a follow-up visit with Dr. Penzias which resulted in my not being able to proceed to the next cycle until an additional month had passed. Before cycle 2 I shared my concerns with Dr. Penzias that Amanda seemed to be disorganized and the communication was not ideal. I met with Amanda to discuss the next cycle and I asked her whether I was able to combine the drugs for the second cycle and if it was possible for me to utilize any drugs I had left over from the previous cycle. Amanda indicated that she did not know and referred me to the pharmacy. The pharmacy stated that my clinic should provide a response about mixing of medications. The second cycle started with my receiving Cetrotide despite this medication being removed from my protocol. It was confirmed that the error was in the orders coming from Dr. Penzias' office. For both cycles I was given the incorrect time for my embryo transfer.

Strengths: Ultrasound and blood testing begins early in the morning which is convenient for testing before work. Testing is done quickly and is staffed to support each patient even when they are early for their appointment. Billing and insurance verification is efficient. Domar center provides nutritional counseling and acupuncture in one location. Weaknesses: You never see the same surgeon or embryologist. Contact with your doctor is extremely limited. Results of ultrasounds and blood test results were not discussed regarding the implications of fertility or responsiveness but only put in the context of the IVF progress.

$1200 for the first cycle including preliminary testing. I have not yet been billed for the second cycle.

Utilized single embryo transfer due to bicornuate uterus making multiple pregnancy a risk to my health.

I can’t imagine having a better doctor and guide through this process. He was kind and warm and so knowledgeable. We felt comfortable every step of the way. Dr. Penzias really knew what to do each step and with each misstep, knew how to change and divert and redirect our focus to keep us positive. He was truly wonderful and is a clearly intelligent and talented physician.

Trust in him. Trust that he has your goals in mind and is working for them as hard as you are.

After an attempted IUI that was cancelled day of (husband’s sample had no sperm after multiple positive semenalysis) he looked at us and said “this is what we do. We will be successful and you will have a baby. You deserve a baby.” It just helped let go of so much anxiety and give us the strength to move forward

We needed full IVF treatment with semen retrieval. The retrieval went smoothly and we still have samples left from that. Because we were male based infertility, my body responded to the hormones quickly and well. The egg retrieval process was a little scary for me as I’ve never had surgery previously but the staff was great and comforting. The day or our embryo transfer was smooth as well and we were lucky to have a positive result on our first cycle!

Sarah was super responsive. We never waited long for answers if we called- even with little things. She was so kind and helpful and we were both glad she was a part of our team!

The only weakness we found was a sometimes lack of communication from some of the billing staff. But for the most part, all team members from the greeter to the office staff, nurses, OR care teams, and most of even the billing staff were kind and understanding and lovely to deal with.

Our insurance covered a good portion but we still had to cover a lot on our own.

Our dr suggested only using one embryo on the first cycle. Our health led him to believe it would be successful and we trusted him. Very glad we did!

Dr Penzias was a great RE. I feel he had a lot of experience and was still ready to try new approaches. He did an ERA for me when nobody had really heard of it. In fact my sample was sent to Spain for analysis! He did the killer cells test at my request even though at that point I had not had a miscarriage. He asked my opinion on whether I would prefer a controlled or natural cycle transfer and then discussed why he thought my choice was the one he would have recommended. I felt as in control as you can in an out of control process! He didn't do all of my transfers or retrievals but controlled all of my cycles.

Ask questions. He has a factual rapid fire way of giving facts. Don't be scared to ask him to repeat or elaborate. Take notes if you need to!

Dr Penzias really spent time talking about my unique situation (unicornuate uterus) and reassured me that pregnancy was achievable with my own eggs. He appreciated my need to have as much information as possible and never made me feel as if I was being stupid or asking too many questions. In fact he told me to always call if I had any questions. He said that something that could keep me awake for days could be answered in two minutes so to always call. After consults with him I sometimes thought of another question and he would always pick up, tell me it was a good question and answer it thoughtfully. He's a nice man, very factual but with a good bedside manner and a reassuring smile!

I did estrogen priming followed by menopur and follistim (aka gonal f) I did Ivf 3 times and each time my doses were increased as my age also increased. My final and successful cycle I was taking 525 follistim which is very high but it did the trick. As follicles reached their size I took cetrotide to stop ovulation followed by Ovidrel. My protocol did not change but my doses always did. I always got more than 8 eggs and many made it to day 5 each time.

I felt Sarah Tanner was a wonderful nurse. She was compassionate when delivering bad news and kind. When she had good news I could hear the excitement in her tone. She was excellent at returning calls promptly. I had a different nurse for my PGD and she was awful. Terrible at returning calls, I had to call Sarah Tanner frequently to get info. Once she failed to call me back to tell me if my protocol had changed. I had to call out of hours to get the information.

Boston Ivf is a well oiled machine. You may feel like cattle but for me I liked that this is all they do. I love that they have satellite offices so I didn't always have to drive to Waltham. The PGD nurse I had wasn't good at calling back and nor was she compassionate. Find out the name of the nurse who works for your RE and call him/her if you're not getting answers from the PGD Coordinator. I didn't love the financial department either. Check your bills. They seemed to have some glitches there.

Around 10,00 for a round of Ivf plus meds. About $300 for FET

I had to do eSET because I only have half a uterus so multiples can be high risk. When I had multiple negative tests we became more brave and transferred 2, then 3 embryos. When I did PGD testing and had a viable embryo we only transferred one

Dr. Penzias is a very caring doctor. He explains things well and doesn’t give false hope. He is optimistic but truthful. He also genuinely seems happy when things go well and celebrates along with you.

Listen to what he says and trust that he won’t steer you wrong.

He seemed to really care and celebrate our wins while keeping us motivated and encouraged during our losses.

We were told that Ivf with icsi was our only option because the count and motility was so low. For the ivf cycle I was put on birth control for one month. On day 3 I started final-f. I took that for a few days and was monitored. When the follicles were ready I was told when to take the hcg and when to come back for retrieval. The eggs were retrieved, fertilized and left to grow. We did a day 5 transfer of two embryos. That cycle ended in a negative pregnancy test. The next cycle we did a fet. I was put on a pill, I forgot the name, but it was to help my lining grow but keep me from ovulating I think. When my lining was thick enough two embryos were transferred. I got pregnant with one baby and had my daughter from that cycle. A year later the same thing was done but that ended in a negative test. The doctor thought my lining my have been too thick. The next cycle was the same protocol but that one ended with betas that didn’t double so I was told to stop taking meds. The last time things were done differently but I forgot that protocol. I took a pill and then transferred when the timing was right. That was our last two embryos and it resulted in my second daughter. Each transfer we transferred two embryos.

They were all amazing. They make the process a little less stressful and make you feel like family.

The clinic is really nice. The staff is all caring and the clinic is organized and clean. They manage to make a scary, stressful time as livable as possible. They also offer supplemental things like acupuncture an massages to help you relax.

Thankfully most was covered by insurance. I think by the end of all of the cycles we paid around $5000 out of pocket.

He was kind, friendly, compassionate, good sense of humor (very important to us), handled tears and emotions from us really well. He moved at our speed which was somewhat aggressive. Encouraged us to do a mind/body program at Harvard which was happening in 2001.

Dr. Penzias treated us twice- 3 years apart- when we were trying to get pregnant. With unexplained infertility, he was ready to be aggressive when were were and slow down when we wanted. He fought with the insurance company to get a GIFT cycle approved but we found out we were pregnant (naturally or post IVF cycle, who really knows?) and didn't need to go that far. He was kind, personable, compassionate, friendly...

This was a long time ago. I know that I did 3 cycles of chlomid with my ob/gyn and then she referred us out. On the 3rd IUI cycle in 1998, we got pregnant and had a child in 1999 (after a chemical pregnancy the month before). 2 years late we went back and after 3 failed IUI cycles, we did 3 IVF cycles, None worked, but the following month after the IVF cycle, we were pregnant (we had been approved for a GIFT cycle and were pursuing adoption).

I don't remember the name, but she was kind and funny. We have a strange sense of humor and joked with her about being in the room with us while we were trying to get pregnant. When she called with negative pregnancy results, she was so warm and understanding.

It was so long ago, it's hard for me to know or remember. Also they moved towards the end of my treatment.

Everything was covered by insurance in the great state of MA

He was willing to put in a few embyos based on our comfort level with multiples

I thought Dr Penzias was outstanding and I am happy he is my doctor. The clinic is big and due to the nature you only see your doctor at office appointments to go over results/next plan- and he calls. I wish in a way I saw him at a retrieval and I wish on my last round where I had so many eggs that we talked about a 3 day transfer given my age

Ask questions- I didn't and go in prepared

He was wonderful. He called me on my second cycle when I had 8 good embryos on day 3- and then none made it to day 5/6. He was positive that I had a good chance and should try again and that it was a numbers game. I was quite upset and I thought he was great at explaining things.

e2-antagonist because I was DOR and it worked in that I had a decent number of eggs retrieved. I liked the idea of freezing embryos and doing a transfer later

The nurses at the egg retrieval were amazing!!!!!!

It was a distance from where I lived so I used a remote monitoring center -they were fantastic but it felt like things weren't well connected all of the time. I liked all of the people though

The monitoring site was amazing with incredible staff in Providence Ri! They were incredibly caring, professional and generally a cheering squad

$15,000 out of pocket per time and I did it twice so far

I wish I had also considered a 3 day transfer

He will always be regarded as one of my best doctors. He took the time to care for us and helps us through this difficult journey. He was patient, kind and well rounded. He followed a well balanced approach (medical, physical and emotional)

Don't hesitate to schedule with him

Dr. Penzias is a kind, gentle man. He often reminded me he was on our team and there to support us. He is very knowledgeable and patient. He can easily reached and always followed up with a personalized letter.

3 rounds of IVF (estradiol -> injectibles -. retrieval -> embryo transfer) 1 round of IVF (estradiol -> injectibles -. retrieval -> assisted hatching -.> embryo transfer)

I think the clinic is great, recently renovated. Clean building and friendly staff. Strengths - welcome desk greeter (Debbie); flow of the building; well oprganized Weaknesses - hard to identify any weaknesses

Knowledgeable but didn't have a great bedside manner. He was uncomfortable having conversations with me and I felt rushed. He did however respond via email which was nice. He promised to provide me with follow up information after my three failed IVF cycles but I nevermind heard from him.

Don't expect him to be there every step of the way. He is only there behind the scenes. You almost never have contact with him.

Great hours. Always available for help. They are big so there's not too much personal care. I wish they provided free counseling after the failed cycles. I also wish there was more follow up after my treatments. They dropped me like a hot potato after the third failed round.

With my insurance, I paid 7-10k for 2 rounds of IVF.

He put me on clomid three times, one of those times I got pregnant. He told me "call me when you have the baby." I miscarried a few days later. He is kind and compassionate but didn't seem to go the extra mile to really figure out if this was the right course of action.

Ask many questions

He and the team were caring and friendly.

I don't have strong memories of the nursing staff since I didn't do any major procedures at this clinic.

Dr. Penzias was throrough and detailed and thoughtful. I appreciated his honesty and patience. He was confident yet caring. He seemed very busy but always gave us sufficient time. I would highly recommend him.

Ask any question you have and make sure to tell him everything. Use his expertise.

Although he was busy, he cared and took time for us

I got OHSS and the nurses took amazing care of me. very thoughtful and compassionate