Anate Aelion Brauer

Dr. Brauer is confident and backed by credentials. I appreciate her directness and ability to be aggressive. But for me, I felt like my diagnosis and treatment was all following a protocol without a real consideration for my unique situation and reaction to meds. I've gone through each cycle with a lot of doubt about it actually working... and as someone paying 100% out of pocket, it is a tough decision to continue coming back without the confidence that Dr. Brauer is considering me, specifically, as a patient.

Don't be afraid to keep pushing back and asking questions, even if Dr. Brauer acts like your question is silly.

My diagnosis was very generic, without much interest in root cause. I felt like she was just interested in prescribing the same course of treatment for everyone. Each interaction is brief and because of the way the clinic is managed, half the time you will see a different doctor anyway. The other doctors prefer you ask questions to 'your doctor', which ultimately means speaking with a nurse.

Dr. Brauer used very standard protocols to induce ovulation. She started me with Clomid + Ovidrel + IUI + endometrin. Then, because my lining was thin switched me to letrozole + Ovidrel + IUI + endometrin. When I asked to try a timed intercourse cycle, she only recommended letrezol because "I would ovulate on my own" (which I didn't) we also used 1mg Estradiol to improve my lining, starting when my follicles were >14mm. In that final cycle I never ovulated and she recommended I consider IVF. None resulted in pregnancy.

There were two nurses I really liked (Molly and Alisa), the others were cold and rude to me. The nurses appeared to rotate along with the doctors, so I never knew which nurse I would see.

Strengths: Easy to schedule appointments, online portal with all test results Weaknesses: rotating doctors and nurses, the only time you can speak with your doctor is to make a follow up appointment, otherwise you will speak through a nurse, and when you speak with a nurse (not necessarily one who knows your situation), hours are M-F, 7:30am-5pm only

About $3500 for an IUI cycle. $4500 for my failed cycle with extra monitoring.

From the get go I felt like Dr. Brauer was the right doctor for me. Everyone in my life tried to get me to go to NYC but my gut (which is very accurate) always felt confident in Dr. Brauer's care. Her personality made me want to grab a cup of coffee with her yet her brilliance was evident. Dr. Brauer called me personally for my exciting positive pregnancy test and my disappointing news of a chemical pregnancy. Both times she shared in the emotion of the call, super excited for the good news and leaving me with a positive outlook after the bad. I have trusted Dr. Brauer's game plan implicitly and have complete faith she will get me pregnant. I have and will continue to refer Dr. Brauer to anyone who is looking for a doctor with the total package, great personality and brilliant.

Be present through the fertility journey ..take one day at a time

When I ran into Dr. Brauer at Whole Foods she gave me a hug. It doesn't get more human feeling than that. In the office, we will connect on a person level like notice we share the same nail color then get down to business.

So far I have done 3 iui. Each with clomid and ovidrel trigger shot. I usually have about 3 mature follicles. One IUI resulted in a chemical pregnancy.

Molly is absolute perfection. She and Dr. Brauer appear to be a real team. Molly is friendly and on top of her game always making sure I leave with clear direction for next steps.

The greenwich office front desk is perfectly fine but Dana at the Tuckahoe location is on point. She is so knowledgeable and very friendly. It does not get better than her.

So far my appointments were mostly co pay only with the exception of the actual IUI which I believe was $725...IVF is $10,500

I really felt that Dr Brauer was personally invested in getting me pregnant. She hugged me before the retrieval and again after the positive pregnancy test. She shared details of her own story that put me at ease and allayed my fears. We had a very straight forward and successful IVF, but her upbeat attitude told me that even if we had a setback she'd have a plan b and another path to success.

Working with her office means taking some appointments with other doctors in the practice and they do not all have her bedside manner.

The office was wonderful. The nurses were all quick to share their own stories as a means of reassuring me of the probability of success. Dr Brauer was always quick to return a call or see me whenever i needed to come in. Her bedside manner put me totally at ease. She communicated all steps in the process in our first meeting and at every step reassured me that this will work- and she was right!

I had a 100% tubal blockage after a ruptured appendix and subsequent abdominal infection. There was no discussion of IUI or other treatment options. I began with 10ish days of birth control, then began a stimulation cycle of gonal and medipure. I had an hcg trigger, a successful retrieval of 11 eggs, which developed into 9 initial embroys and four 5 day embryos. We transferred one fresh embryo and froze the other 3 for the future. The transfer was successful and i am now 9 weeks pregnant.

The entire staff was fantastic. They are always asking how I feel and offering advice on how to cope with the side effects of treatment. I never had to call and chase anyone. They called when they said they would and always gave results promptly and with full details. They were happy to sit down and go through all the financials and review our insurance coverage. The entire office made the process as easy as it could be.

It's inevitable that you won't always see the same doctor because they operate more than one location. As a result some of my key procedures were performed by other doctors, all of whom I was meeting for the first time during the procedure. While that was frustrating, I've been told it's standard at all the clinics. Most of the doctors were great. There is one that has a terrible bedside manner, although i'm told he's an excellent technical doctor. Having him perform a procedure isn't a bad thing knowing that he's very good at what he does, you'll just need to call Dr. Brauer later to get the information (and compassion) you're looking for.

The office feels very private. There were rarely more than 1 or 2 other people in the waiting room when I was there. I rarely waited more than 10 minutes to be seen and once they called me to say the Dr. was running behind and to come later. They didn't want me to sit in the waiting room for an hour so they let me reschedule for later the same day which I really appreciated. Monitoring was fast and I expected it to be a bigger time burden than it really was.

I believe the total cost was close to $20,000 (including drugs, copays, egg storage, etc), but fortunately our insurance coverage was substantial and our out of pocket was less than $5,000.