Dr. Zimon was inaccessible and I felt like I was scared and frustrated that I didn't know why they were growing so slowly and no one talked with me about it....Dr. Zimon spent over a year getting to know me and guiding the process of IUIs and IVF....Dr. Zimon will meet you at your level but she doesn't exceed expectations. If you show her you're working hard to understand your infertility, then she will match you on that. Unfortunately, she doesn't go above and beyond to understand your unexplained infertility.
The clinic struggled with many administrative tasks....Boston IVF has any doctor on any given day do any procedure even if your doctor is managing the case...[nursing staff] Incorrect information conveyed, inability to count cycle days, inability to really know what they were doing...During my IUIs, one time the stirrup moved A LOT and I felt that this impacted the administration of frozen donor sperm. The clinician did not listen to me as I was telling her the stirrup was moving too much. I felt extraordinary pain afterwards. I expressed upset/concern to staff.
How was your experience with Alison Zimon at Boston IVF?
Dr. Zimon was extremely personable, but when it came to certain things, she didn't have much faith in me. For example, after working with her for a year scheduling and doing natural IUIs, when she challenged me to decrease my BMI to a certain number so I could do IVF, she exclaimed she didn't think I'd do it - after I lost all the weight she required. It was disheartening. She is a compassionate doctor, and very much interested in seeing you do well, but there was always something off about her care.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Alison Zimon at Boston IVF?
Dr. Zimon will meet you at your level but she doesn't exceed expectations. If you show her you're working hard to understand your infertility, then she will match you on that. Unfortunately, she doesn't go above and beyond to understand your unexplained infertility. She assumes it might be an age issue, AMH issue, but she doesn't really try to find out if there's something wrong with immunology or other things that could explain it.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Alison Zimon at Boston IVF?
Dr. Zimon spent over a year getting to know me and guiding the process of IUIs and IVF. She strongly advocated for me with IVF failed. It failed partially due to human error, because the doctor assigned to do the retrieval only spent 5 minutes trying to retrieve the egg on the left ovary and gave up trying after 5 minutes. That was Dr. Alper doing the retrieval (Boston IVF has any doctor on any given day do any procedure even if your doctor is managing the case). Dr. Alper didn't know my case or how hard I worked to losing 60 lbs prior to egg retrieval. He didn't know how hard I worked for over a year and a half leading up to IVF. So this is partially a negative report on him as much as it is a positive report on Dr. Zimon. My left ovary had the most mature follicles, but the doctor didn't retrieve them. Regardless, the doctor retrieved the right ovary follicles and even though I was 43, the immature follicle fertilized and became a 4b embryo on day 3. When my insurance refused to cover IVF a second time because I was just about to turn 44 (maybe 3 weeks shy of my 44th birthday), Dr. Zimon advocated that I had lost 60 lbs, and her colleague didn't obtain the mature follicle for my first IVF. Unfortunately, just after this, Dr. Zimon left Boston IVF and I was without any way to move forward with appeals. The whole thing ruined my life because now I can't have my own kids. I gave Boston IVF way too much time to get through the 6 IUIs to finally get to IVF. My fertility numbers got worse over the year and they should have strongly advocated at the very beginning to start with IVF rather than waste time with 6 IUIs.
Describe the protocols Alison Zimon used in your cycles at Boston IVF and their degree of success.
My first and only IVF was estrogen priming micro dose lupron flare. I was stimming a bit longer than expected, the follicles were growing slowly. Dr. Zimon was inaccessible and I felt like I was scared and frustrated that I didn't know why they were growing so slowly and no one talked with me about it. In the end, there were some beautiful follicles on my left ovary, and the best was unable to be retrieved due to the other doctor on the case (Dr. Michael Alper), spending literally only five minutes and failing to retrieve the best follicle on my left ovary!! He did not even try to get it, didn't seem to realize this was the most important thing in my life -- that 5 minutes was not enough time to spend getting it. The right ovary had the more immature follicle, so it was retrieved, miraculously fertilized, resulting in negative pregnancy test for my only IVF cycle ever. HOW AWFUL!!!
Describe your experience with your nurse at Boston IVF. (Assigned nurse: all of them at Boston IVF)
Incorrect information conveyed, inability to count cycle days, inability to really know what they were doing
Describe your experience with Boston IVF.
During my IUIs, one time the stirrup moved A LOT and I felt that this impacted the administration of frozen donor sperm. The clinician did not listen to me as I was telling her the stirrup was moving too much. I felt extraordinary pain afterwards. I expressed upset/concern to staff. I was called by a head nurse or ombudsperson and expressed my concern. Absolutely NOTHING was done about this and they denied that this was ever an issue. I was so upset at the entire community of staff that denied it was a problem and their insistence that this was a successful IUI. How could they deny it? Surely, they didn't care about patient safety or adequate procedures.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Alison Zimon at Boston IVF.
IUIs not covered ($450 each), IVF was covered by my insurance. I paid for frozen donor sperm.
Describe Alison Zimon's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Boston IVF.
n/a
What specific things went wrong at Boston IVF?
- Failed to call with results
- Failed to order appropriate test
- Failed to send your chart to another clinic
- Provided conflicting information
- Failed to convey critical information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at Boston IVF.
The clinic struggled with many administrative tasks. They let me know my prolactin levels were elevated, but they actually were not. They provided low quality information, incorrect information, misinformation.
3
Clinic
Boston IVF
South Shore