Angeline N. Beltsos

I came do Vios at a very vulnerable time in my fertility journey. After 10 transfers with a gestational carrier, and 6 retrievals done by me and a late miscarriage at 16 weeks, I was emotionally exhausted. Dr. Beltsos and team, not only listened to me but were aggressive in treatment and really truly cared about me along the way.

I highly recommend Dr. Beltos. She's super smart, aggressive and incredibly caring! She's a trailblazer in what she'll try and is super up to speed on the latest research. I tell everyone I talk to in the fertility world to come prepared with questions and she's no different. She will never rush you, the only downside to that is sometimes you have to wait a bit at her office or for phone consults, but I'd rather that, than feel rushed in the critical time you have with the doctor.

After being a fertility patient for over 6 years (2 years with our first, 4 years trying to conceive a 2nd child), I've never felt more taken care of by Dr. Beltsos and staff. They go the extra mile for you, and truly make you feel like you are a part of the team. They are extremely open to your thoughts and opinions ( I know a lot after being a patient for so long!), and really do care for their patients like no other fertility clinic I've seen.

IVF: my last 4 cycles have been a bit all over the place so Dr. Beltsos wanted to get really aggressive as she knew my emotional and financial resources to keep going were growing thin. Meds: Primed with estrogen patches and pills, and testerone Lupron for 2 weeks before stimming Follistim (started with a very high dose, 750 for 2 days)...then it went down to 250/150 for the remainder menopur was mixed in half way through gainerelex triggered with ovidrel

Fran was amazing! After working with many, many nurses over the years, Fran went so far above and beyond. I knew all along she wanted this to work for us, and I never felt like she was on a workday schedule where I couldn't get her after 5p or on weekends. She was amazing!!!

Vios is new and growing rapidly. There aren't a ton of locations and the NS office (in Glenview) is only open a few days a week. With that said, I traveled down to wicker park and it wasn't a big deal. The office space is really nice and definitely has a calming vibe to it which is nice when you are getting poked all the time. :) My favorite part was that you could meet with the nurses right after labs in a consult room to discuss results and next steps. Such a nice change of pace from having to wait all day to hear from your nurse!

IVF was around $15,000 but that included some costs for screening our surrogate.

we only had 1 normal after pgs to transfer so we went with 1

Dr. Beltsos is amazing! She is extremely intelligent and compassionate. She has excellent bedside manor and sincerely cared about me as her patient. Whenever I had questions or concerns, she addressed them. I followed her from FCI to Vios because I really liked her and trusted her. Thanks to Dr. Beltsos, we now have a beautiful, healthy baby girl!

Dr. Beltsos' practice at Vios has grown substantially because she is very good at what she does.

Dr. Beltsos met with me and my partner to explain everything. She answered all of our questions. She always took the time we needed and never made us feel rushed!

We started with 2 rounds of IUI. These were both unsuccessful. Due to my age and low number of eggs, we proceeded to IVF. Unfortunately, we had multiple unsuccessful rounds of IVF (fresh and frozen transfers). Ultimately, we decided to go with an egg donor. We did a fresh transfer from the egg donor and froze the rest of the embryos. We did PGS testing on the frozen embryos. Although the fresh transfer resulted in a pregnancy, we unfortunately miscarried at 6 weeks. However, since we did PGS testing, we were able to use the best frozen embryo for our next IVF cycle, which resulted in a pregnancy. We gave birth to a healthy baby girl earlier this year.

The nursing staff at Vios is excellent! Some of the nurses are more responsive than others, but after some persistence I was always able to get a response to my inquiries.

Vios is great! I definitely felt as though I received more individual attention at Vios than at FCI (where I felt more like a number than a patient). However, the Vios clinic has grown substantially since they opened, so I don't know if that has changed.

I appreciated that I could schedule the appointments early (before work).

I mostly paid co-pays. However, due to all of the appointments, it added up quickly. I reached my out-of-pocket maximum for insurance 2 years in a row.

Our doctor believes in helping you achieve one healthy baby, which is what we wanted and achieved.

Dr. Beltsos is very knowledgeable and smart and warm. She will take the time to sit with you during your initial consultation and also for an IVF Checklist appointment. I also saw her when she did my saline ultrasound. But those are the only 3 times I've seen her and I've been going to the clinic for about 8 months. This may be totally normal because most of the time I'm there is for baseline and ultrasounds. She did diagnose me with endometriosis and PCOS, both of which I had no idea I had. I'm very grateful for her knowledge, confidence and convenient locations and ability to know what will work best. She did tell me very early on that IVF would probably be my best bet and I now realize she was right. I took the fertility treatments very slowly and as naturally as possible at first.

Be sure to write questions down ahead of time so you get the most out of your appointments.

The staff is very warm and remembers me as soon as I walk in. They are all very personable and Dr. Beltsos always has a warm smile even though I know she's very busy.

I did 3 Clomid cycles with 1 IUI. I think I cancelled one because I was afraid and I chose to try naturally for the other. I'm now undergoing IVF and will have egg retrieval soon.

I love all the nurses, but there's a lot of them and they change every time you're there. There is now a patient portal that they ask you to send messages through. The nurses respond on there, but sometimes multiple nurses will respond to the same question with different answers. This becomes confusing and frustrating when you're trying to find out who called in a medication order and who will be following up on the medications. You will almost always meet with a nurse after your bloodworm and ultrasound and these experiences can vary from very rushed with little explanation as to how you're doing, to very detailed. But they are all very very nice! This might seem silly also, but when they reply to messages on the portal, the grammar is very bad and it makes it look very unprofessional. I've been given instruction on medication changes with abbreviations and spelling errors and all lower case text. :/ This happens to be the norm unfortunately. Maybe a template should be used when replying to patients.

Strengths: cleanliness, location is great, parking is free and usually plentiful Weaknesses: not all phlebotomists check your name and label with blood which I require, communication through the portal is very informal and when lab results are uploaded there is no reference range posted next to them. So you have no idea if the numbers are good, bad, etc. I've seen other fertility sites that explain everything - this practice does not explain where you should be or what your numbers mean. They'll just upload the results and either call or message you with next steps. It would be nice to know where I should be during a certain time in my cycle or treatment. Reference ranges and more educational materials on each step would be a huge help.

most was insured, except for the cryofreezing of embryos, which was approximately $1200 for initial freezing and $500 each year thereafter for storage.

The only time this was discussed was during the IVF Checklist meeting which was with another doctor in her practice, Dr. Jeelani. She did say that they only transfer 1 embryo at a time. I appreciate that and didn't press further for why.

Dr. Beltsos is warm, welcoming, and attentive - she is always so approachable! She was clear about risks and expectations, listened to my goals and addressed my concerns, and always explained things in ways that made sense. Whenever there was "big news" to discuss, she discussed it with me personally. I never felt like a number, even though she has a LOT of patients in her clinic. She really is an amazing provider - and so very knowledgeable and experienced.

Honestly, my advise in regards to Dr. Beltsos personally is to go with an open heart, listening ears, and have faith... and you won't be disappointed. About Fertility treatments in general: Use your employee FSA for deductibles and co-payments, since you'll easily use it up with frequent monitoring appointments and procedure deductibles. The clinic has amazing staff that can explain insurance coverage and billing, as well as offer insight into assistance programs.

Dr. Beltsos is a darling! She was thoughtful, attentive, personalized my care, remembered my and my partner's names, called or texted me with important results/updates, and always made me feel like she was fully present with me when we spoke.

Egg retrievals: Labs and U/S are done at baseline, and every 2-3 days. Methylprednisolone and doxycycline, follistimAQ (FSH), Menopur (FSH/LH) for stimulation, ganirelix for preventing ovulation, Lupron trigger for PCOS (like myself), Pregnyl/ HcG for folks not at high risk for hyperstimulation. I was advised against fresh transfer because I overstimulated each cycle. 40 eggs were retrieved and 33 preserved on my first retrieval; however, my second cycle which was planned for embryo preservation yielded much fewer follicles and poorer egg quality (16 retrieved, 12 were mature, 10 fertilized, 2 resulted in blastocysts). I was advised to add myo-inositol and CoQ10 for egg quality on my last cycle of COH. On the third (and hopefully last) retrieval for embryo preservation, 25 eggs were retrieved, 20 were mature, 16 fertilized, and we are still awaiting the final count for blastocysts. Timed Intercourse: Clomid, then follistim and pregnyl trigger when I wasn't responsive to Clomid alone. U/S monitoring was used to confirm follicle maturation and ovulation.

The nursing staff are compassionate, knowledgeable, and attentive. They speak with patients at each appointment, can be reached by text or portal, and are always eager to answer questions and concerns.

The clinic has multiple locations which are clean, welcoming, and the staff are top-notch. There is parking at some (but not all) of the locations. The staff - from the front desk to the admin staff to U/S techs and lab team are professional and friendly. I always felt like a person and never a number.

I was fortunate that my insurance covered much of the costs once I met my out-of-pocket expense and deductible. Without insurance, I would never have been able to afford my care. Honestly, it was costly even WITH coverage.

Unsure.

Dr. Beltsos is very sweet, almost to an in-genuine level. My consult appointments were generally pretty useless. They just involved her going over the results of my previous cycle, which I was well aware of, and then making a plan for the next cycle, which was usually changed, unbeknownst to me, and communicated via one of her nurses once the next cycle had started. She never really seemed that concerned that I had so many failed cycles when in treatment with her, and the only change in treatment approach was slight tweaks to stimulating drug doses. She also had a revolving door of nurses which was was concerning (how hard was she to work for?), not to mention, since the nurses were the medical professionals I regularly dealt with, it felt like I was constantly having to acclimate myself with those whom I was working with.

You will have to self-advocate. Keep your own records of everything and don't be afraid to ask questions if your treatment plan doesn't seem quite right.

I felt fairly regularly like my treatment wasn't individualized. There were a number of occasions where I obviously confused with another patients (one phone consult started "I heard about your bad news (test results)" when I hadn't yet had my test done, it was scheduled for the following day). Nurses would assume I was taking drugs that I wasn't medically cleared to take. I had to self-advocate a lot.

The initial strategy was just to increase the amount of progesterone in my body as I came into treatment with a couple chemical pregnancies under my belt. It started with Clomid and timed intercourse, then adding oral progesterone after 2 cycles, then adding IUI after one cycle. Three IUI cycles with Clomid and progesterone support, then FSH injectables added into the mix for the 4th IUI cycle. All resulting in negative betas. IVF was next. The first cycle was Antagonist protocol which yielded a whopping 4 eggs. Two day 3 embryos transferred, leading to a negative test. The later 2 IVF cycles were Lupron Microflare protocols which were more successful, but still lacked the outcome which we were hoping for.

Dr. Beltsos had many nurses while I was under her care. It started with Fran and Jen. They were awesome, but soon transferred to a different department in FCI. Then there was Emily and Jessica, Emily is perfectly nice and on top of things, but was never my main nurse, Jessica left suddenly and was replaced by Betsy. Betsy was awesome and always there if I needed a question answered. She transferred to a different doctor at FCI after my second IVF cycle. Since then I've not really had a nurse that seemed as though she was assigned to me.

This is a big clinic with a lot of patients. It's a pretty well-oiled machine. I'm easily able to get in and out for monitoring in the morning and get to work on time. Being a big clinic though it can feel impersonal, but I've managed to build relationships with the staff, so it doesn't feel that way anymore.

Monitoring appointments are so easy. They have early hours and you're normally in and out in under an hour. You start in a main waiting room, are called back in groups to the ultrasound waiting room and, after ultrasound, you go to the lab waiting room, then get your blood drawn, and go on your merry way. If you need to speak to a nurse, the phlebotomist can normally flag one down for you too. No issues.

Thankfully I have very good insurance and state-mandated fertility coverage. Out of pockets costs were comparatively minimal (Freezing fees- $1200, biopsy fees- $2200, and prescription meds.)

Dr. Beltsos was a great doctor; however, I only interacted with her on my first and last appointment - so I interacted with her as a counselor, not a performing doctor. I interacted with nursing and admin staff 99% of the time and I was not given good enough guidance and instruction on what to do with the many at home tasks I had to complete (mixing medicine and injecting it). After I brought these problems to the clinic's attention, they immediately provided me with support to correct them, took steps to adjust their larger program to incorporate the feedback I provided, and gave me a discount on my procedure. Due to the way in which they immediately and comprehensively course-corrected my experience, I recommend working with this clinic again. However, patients should recognize this is a big business, and no matter which clinic/doctor you use you will feel like a number in the sense you will primarily be interacting with nursing and admin staff, not your doctor. The nursing staff is excellent, so you will be in good hands, but it is helpful to have this expectation set from the beginning.

However, patients should recognize this is a big business, and no matter which clinic/doctor you use you will feel like a number in the sense you will primarily be interacting with nursing and admin staff, not your doctor. The nursing staff is excellent, so you will be in good hands, but it is helpful to have this expectation set from the beginning.

I told Dr. B I wanted candid, direct, non-emotional information/guidance - she adjusted her more sympathetic bedside manner to provide this to me.

I cannot recall this information

I interacted with nursing and admin staff 99% of the time and I was not given good enough guidance and instruction on what to do with the many at home tasks I had to complete (mixing medicine and injecting it). After I brought these problems to the clinic's attention, they immediately provided me with support to correct them, took steps to adjust their larger program to incorporate the feedback I provided, and gave me a discount on my procedure. Due to the way in which they immediately and comprehensively course-corrected my experience, I recommend working with this clinic again.

I was not given good enough guidance and instruction on what to do with the many at home tasks I had to complete (mixing medicine and injecting it). After I brought these problems to the clinic's attention, they immediately provided me with support to correct them, took steps to adjust their larger program to incorporate the feedback I provided, and gave me a discount on my procedure. Due to the way in which they immediately and comprehensively course-corrected my experience, I recommend working with this clinic again.

Treatment ~6-7k / Medicine ~6k

I did not have this procedure

I don't need a lot of hand-holding- I just needed someone to get me pregnant and that is what Dr. Beltsos did after IVF cycle #1. I felt like she did listen to me when we met and answered all of my questions.

Come to any appointment with questions.

One month Lupron shot in preparation for IVF #1. Daily Lupron shots, Gonal-f, Menopur, Crinone. Cycle produced 10 eggs, 6 mature, 3 fertilized with ICSI, 1 transferred, 1 frozen. Cycle was a success and daughter was born in 2013. Frozen cycle #1- daily Lupron shots, Minivelle patches, Estradiol, Crinone. 1 frozen embryo transferred, resulted in miscarriage at 7 weeks. IVF cycle #2- Gonal-f, Menopur, dexamethasone. Slow to respond and I only have two mature follicles; cycle is transferred to a IUI. BFN. Prior to IVF cycle #3- Schoyer protocol with Ganerelix and Minivelle patches to hopefully stimulate ovaries to make more eggs next cycle. Amazingly got pregnant naturally during this protocol so no need for IVF.

Stephanie was amazing. I just wish that she worked full time!

Thankfully they scheduled monitoring appointments for early in the morning so that you could get your ultrasound and bloodwork done before heading into work. A couple of times it was difficult to get an early appointment though.

Insurance paid for everything but the drugs.

We liked working with dt beltsos. She was aggressive in the treatment and we trusted that she wanted us to be pregnant as much as we wanted to be. It seemed like we rarely saw her, buti did feel like she was involved in the treatments.

Ask questions and ask her to explain things differently if you aren't sure you understand. She used many metaphors which were helpful

I appreciated the nurse i worked with. I felt like i could always ask questions and that she knew me well. The time with the dr was limited.

I dont entirely understand this question (sorry...)

I found the nurses to be incredibly compassionate!

I found the clinic to be efficient and easy to work with. I had no complaints!

My insurance covered everything except egg retrieval and embryo transfer

She preferred to transfer one at a time - which is what we did in the first round. We pushed to do two the secind round and it resulted in a singleton birth

She seemed very knowledgeable. We tried many different approaches until one worked. She is very friendly and has a good bedside manor. As a woman, I felt very comfortable with her. I liked her enough that I followed her when she left to start her own practice.

Come prepared with questions! Sometimes it was hard to get a hold of someone later on if I forgot to ask something in the moment.

Treatment wss individualized for me, and I vent that everyone I interacted with cared about me and my results.

It's a big place with lots of patients. Be prepared to wait with a lot of others. They are fairly efficient at moving people along through their appointments despite how many purple are there.

About $12,000 for an IVF cycle not including medication.

No comment really. I had unexplained infertility and her recommendation was to transfer two embryos for our best chance of success.

She is warm and caring. New us by our names and remembered us. She would sometimes call us from her personal cell phone to check in on us. She is kind and will not give up, you just have to stay the course.

Be ready to be a self advocate.

At times I felt like just a number. There are hundreds of patients but when you are alone with Dr. Beltos, you feel like family.

#1 attempt canceled-lining was too thin-froze 5 #2 canceled lining too thin #3 canceled lining too thin #4 canceled lining too thin #5 egg retrieval-transferred 2, BPN #6 egg retrieval-transferred 2, BPN #7 egg retrieval-transferred 2, PREGNANT :)))))

Stephanie was kind, compassionate, and answered all of my crazy questions with grace and patience. She never once made me feel that I was nuts and always made me feel she had time for me.

My husband and I are lucky because we both have fantastic insurance but even with insurance paying 90% it adds up. We spent total of $7,500 for meds, freezing and 10 % of procedures.

She was a great doc. With her, I got nearly twice as many eggs at retrieval compared to my prior doctor. Very informed. Very kind. Up to date. Not sure if a lot could be changed about our embryo outcome though ...

See her before any other docs

She spoke to me and my husband intelligently. Very warm person

Androgen priming. Poor responders protocol. Growth hormone. 750 follistim for 3 days, then weaning of follistim and adding Menopur.

Very informed. Never had to wait long for a response.

Parking. Convenient location. Clean. Friendly. Very efficient. Never had to wait long for an ultrasound or blood work. They were always able to get me in quickly. Could schedule around my work schedule

Copays

Single because we don’t have many embryos

Very clear and direct in communication. The importance of that cannot be underestimated.

Bring a list of questions. She will answer all of them.

She spent as much time with my husband and I as we needed.

All my hormone levels and blood work were good for someone my age, 43. My husband's sperm analysis was not good. She chose IUI because they could select only the good sperm and bypass the cervix increasing the likelihood of pregnancy.

They are super busy so you have to follow up on everything and be an advocate for yourself. Faxing stuff to them never works.

My out of pocket expenses maximum for the year is $2,750 and we definitely met that during the process.

Dr. Beltsos has a wonderful bed side manner and was willing to look into some concerns I had that my previous clinic would not. Because she was flexible with treatment I was able to be treated for those issues and finally have a successful cycle.

I rarely saw Dr. Beltsos and the monitoring was like a cattle call.

Awesome! Very compassionate and never made me feel like I was dumb or taking up their time if I needed questions answered. I never felt rushed by them.

Cattle call.