2019 - 2020, Unsuccessful
Review of
Dr. Kelley is very warm and explains every detail thoroughly. She definitely was honest with my protocol and setbacks and made me feel comfortable along the way. My only "weakness" for her is that you don't get to see her for every monitoring appointment along the way and other doctors in the practice are not nearly as thorough and understanding as she is...I have low AMH (1.5) and my husband has low sperm count, motility, and shape. Therefore, IVF was our best option. For my first retrieval, I did a Lupron lead in + Microgestin birth control..
All female staff [at Aspire Fertility] including doctors and nurses. I love Dr. Kelley & Dr. Crawford - they are both very compassionate and knowledgeable. Dr. Crawford is wildly popular in the instagram community...Monitoring was between 7-9 am. That worked well with my schedule because I could go in before work...
How was your experience with Angela Kelley at Aspire Fertility Austin?
Dr. Kelley is very warm and explains every detail thoroughly. She definitely was honest with my protocol and setbacks and made me feel comfortable along the way. My only "weakness" for her is that you don't get to see her for every monitoring appointment along the way and other doctors in the practice are not nearly as thorough and understanding as she is.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Angela Kelley at Aspire Fertility Austin?
My advice with any doctor would be do some research before-hand, so that you have a list of questions to ask. Dr. Kelley will answer all of them and put your mind at ease.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Angela Kelley at Aspire Fertility Austin?
Dr. Kelley is very kind and patient with explaining every detail and answering every question. I never felt like she was rushing to get to the next patient. She remembered me and my situation and was very warm every time I saw her. This is different from another doctor in the practice.
Describe the protocols Angela Kelley used in your cycles at Aspire Fertility Austin and their degree of success.
I have low AMH (1.5) and my husband has low sperm count, motility, and shape. Therefore, IVF was our best option. For my first retrieval, I did a Lupron lead in + Microgestin birth control. There was a mix up on how long I was supposed to take BC, so I had to push my cycle out a month. Then when we started back, I had two lead follicles at my baseline, so we had to continue Lupron for a few days. Then I started a Gonal-F (300 daily) and Menopur (150 daily) protocol for about 10-12 days. Dr. Kelley retrieved 7 eggs but only 2 were mature and produced 1 emryo that made it to Day 6 blast and tested PGS Normal. For the second cycle, Dr. Kelley suggested we add a couple of days on stims to give the eggs more time to mature and we also added Omnitrope (25 units daily) to help with egg quality. This time we got 7 follicles, 5 were mature and 3 made it to blast. We got 1 PGS normal embryo, 1 low mosaic, and 1 abornormal.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Aspire Fertility Austin. (Assigned nurse: Morgan Weaver)
I loved working with Morgan. She was always available and prompt to get back to me with any questions I had. My only issue with Morgan was that we had a mix up on how long I was supposed to take Birth Control, which caused me a month delay in my cycle. Better communication and extra explanation on the timing/making sure I understood the ramifications if we messed up would have been helpful here.
Describe your experience with Aspire Fertility Austin.
Pros: All female staff including doctors and nurses. I love Dr. Kelley & Dr. Crawford - they are both very compassionate and knowledgeable. Dr. Crawford is wildly popular in the instagram community.
Cons: Dr. Skillern is the most tenured doctor there, but she has a terrible bedside manner. I always felt like a number at the meat counter when she was doing my monitoring appointments. Another con is that they have a schedule between the three doctors for monitoring, so I only saw Dr. Kelley (my doctor) a couple of times before my retrieval. By far my BIGGEST issue with Aspire Fertility is the way they have handled COVID-19. MY assumption is that because they are part of a large network (Prelude), my clinic doesn't have a tone of control over their response. While they squeezed my second retrieval in, we had to bump it up a couple of days. This was concerning as my first retrieval was too quick and we only had 2/7 eggs mature. Since then, they have been closed to all treatments, while the other big clinic in Austin (Texas Fertility Center) remains open for business. Like I said, I blame this response on being part of a large conglomerate and the cowardness of Aspire's legal team. If I had known this would have been their response to the pandemic, I would not have sought treatment here in the first place, as I have now had my embryo transfer put on hold for a month and am still waiting.
Describe your experience with your monitoring appointments at Aspire Fertility Austin.
Monitoring was between 7-9 am. That worked well with my schedule because I could go in before work. I generally had to wait, which was annoying. The other negative I had was that I rarely saw my doctor, as each of the three doctors rotated on a schedule. I think this is a miss. One of the three doctors, Dr. Skillern, definitely made you feel like a number at the deli counter and I had to stop her from leaving before I could ask her questions.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Angela Kelley at Aspire Fertility Austin.
I use Progyny insurance, so I'm unsure of the out of pocket costs. I did have Aspire quote me on an additional cycle if we needed to do a third egg retrieval. I don't have itemized costs yet, but the total for an egg retrieval cycle with all monitoring, genetic testing, assisted hatching, anesthesia, ICSI, and cryopreservation for a year was $17,999. Meds are an additional $5-6k.
Describe Angela Kelley's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Aspire Fertility Austin.
Dr. Kelley and the other two physicians at Aspire lead with eSET. I agree with this approach.
What specific things went wrong at Aspire Fertility Austin?
- Failed to send your chart to another clinic
- Failed to convey critical information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at Aspire Fertility Austin.
I already mentioned them - we had the miscommunication on the number of days that I was supposed to take birth control. This cost me 2 weeks of Lupron and an additional month.
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