Barry Witten

The right Reproductive Endocrinologist for you can be the difference between success or heartache. Therefore, I want my review to be as honest as possible so others can make an educated choice. My experience with Dr. Witten spans about a 2 year time frame and if I had to do it all over again, I would most definitely choose a different RE. We were struggling to conceive so I was instructed to see a RE by my Ob-Gyn. She gave me a list of RE's that came recommended but I settled on Dr. Witten, who was not on her list. We wanted to be seen by an older RE, thinking his years of experience would be an advantage. Under Dr. Witten's care, I received an HSG, which revealed one of my fallopian tubes was not spilling any dye. Dr. Witten said that he thought the other one was fine He recommended a laparoscopy surgery. Dr. Witten does not do surgery, he did not tell me this, I just figured it out after he advised me to have my Ob-Gyn do the surgery. My Ob-gyn said she preferred him to do the surgery so they went back and forth. I had been complaining for the majority of my life how awful my periods were but no one would ever listen. After 2 months in lingo, Dr. Witten referred me to the gynecological surgeon he apparently sends all of his patients to. So off I went to surgery with a different doctor, who ultimately discovered endometriosis and a damaged tube. He removed the tube and removed the endometriosis and sent me back to Dr. Witten. Dr. Witten continued to monitor me, we'd do ultra-sounds constantly but not much direction was given, other than he kept wanting us to do timed intercourse, which is what we'd been doing for the past 1.5 years with no luck without a RE. I felt like we needed medication but he wouldn't even discuss it. It took so many ultrasounds-2-3x a week, traveling 60 miles one way to his office and leaving work early just to hear the same old spiel. One day, during an ultrasound he mentioned IUI but he said I needed to do it right away because I was about to ovulate. I had not been on any medications but trusted him so I received 1 trigger shot and had an IUI the next day. It failed. I was told at his office that the IUI would cost $525 but once I got to Sher Institute, which is where he does the IUI, they told me the price was $1000. They did honor the original price I was told but informed me any future IUI's would be $1000 a piece. Then the next 2 cycles he put me on clomid, with no pregnancy resulting. He then suggested IVF, which is not in our budget no matter how bad we want to have a child. We were devastated and felt as though he did not give us enough time on medication early on to try an IUI again. He waited over a year to even attempt any medication, even after telling us that we had to rush because I have very low ovarian reserve. We are devastated and haven't been back. We are currently doing research to find a RE that better fits us.

Ask questions and demand answers. Do research before your appointments and ask about medication and treatment options starting with your first appointment and everyone thereafter. I regret that we didn't push harder, wasting valuable egg quality time.

I usually was made to feel like a human being. There were times he was busy and I felt somewhat rushed but that was not the norm.

IUI, with 1 trigger shot. Clomid with timed intercourse. His treatments are very reserved, not an aggressive go getter type.

There were so many nurses running around. I had a different nurse at every appointment, especially once he permanently moved his office to Sher Institute. I had no idea who was coming and going in my room.

They did not offer late appointments available for those of us that work. Latest appointments were 3pm. When you live 60 miles away and work, it made it very frustrating for my employer to work around this doctor's schedule. The receptionist was very loud when talking about my appointment when I would arrive. Which I found very embarrassing. She was also very loud when asking for my payment at each appointment. Anyone sitting in the waiting room could hear the receptionist utter things like, 'So, we need your full payment for your 'IUI' or 'oh, you are here for your vaginal ultrasound?'. That's jus awful to blurt it all out right there. She never seemed to know what was going on and everytime Dr. Witten would tell me to schedule another appointment she had to ask me what it was for. I would think most places would just read the chart and make the appointment without asking 20 personal questions in the reception lobby for all to hear. Also, the clinic is extremely busy. Nurses speed walking everywhere, seems disorganized, phones ringing and only one person answering. Hard to get anyone's attention...

At least $5000, maybe more for just doctor appointments, very little medicine and 1 IUI.

Dr Witten is a pleasure to work with through this difficult life journey. Compassionate, knowledgeable, and personal he made this entire process so much better. He is dedicated to ensuring both my husband and I understand every step, but always makes sure we don't get ahead of ourselves. He is a rock during a very difficult time and I would recommend him to anyone.

Dr Witten not only ensures timely and personal appointments, but he is committed to explaining the processes to both my husband and I - always ensuring we are both invested.

I have PCOS and annovluation. I was not responding to clomid so he immediately switched me to low dose femara where we had great follicle growth. When he found out we weren't ovulating he adjusted our protocol by adding an hcg trigger shot to force ovulation. He performed all tests to ensure we didn't have any other problems but felt an IUi would still improve our chances of a positive cycle so we proceeded with that. After numerous failed cycles (just not the right genes!) he took us into the next step where we used follistim. He was very in tune with my bodies reactions and while we ultimately had 3 great eggs, none took and I showed signs of OHSS which has led us to begin ivf.

I've only had one meeting with Amanda (since we just moved onto ivf) but she was extremely organized and prepared. Alerting us of all our choices and answering all of out questions. She presented us with a calendar of medications and other appointments bringing some serious organization and dependency to this chaotic life challenge. She is positive and bubbly which makes a big difference!

The clinic is great, the appointments have good timing always doing ultra sounds and blood work before 10 am allowing me to get to work no problem. They have been able to answer all of my questions and have also assigned a doctor for my monitoring.

$10,000 is our estimated total cost to date which was composed of co pays, medications not covered by insurance, iui (also not covered by insurance).

Dr Witten is open to a single or double embryo transfer because I am young, have an optimal body weight, and in overall good health. We haven't made our decision yet but he has provided information so we feel very informed

I was so scared and nervous to start the IVF process. As soon as I walked into my first appointment I knew that The Lord put Dr. Witten and his team in my life for a reason. They made me feel comfortable and happy every time I saw them. This is a very hard and long processto go through but I always felt so much better and so hopeful after every appointment. It's like I have a extended family that knows me and greets me like they see me everyday even when I haven't seen them in weeks. I absolutely loved my doctor and am so thankful to have found Dr. Witten and the other ladies at the Sher Institute. They truly have been a blessing to me and my family & have made this process so much easier.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. He will tell you everything and anything you want to know.

They are like family. They knew who we were every time and remembered things we told them. Just made us feel comfortable and relaxed.

I started on birth control and Lipton gonal f and menopur for my egg retrieval. My dosage was very low because I'm so young and my body reacted fast and well. I had my egg retrieval and Dr. Witten retrieved 24 eggs. 15 made it to fertilization then we were able to freeze 8 day 5 blastocyst. I was very sore and in pain after my retrieval but Dr. Witten gave me antibiotics and pain meds that helped. I healed for the next month and started back on birth control and now I'm starting my transfer meds. Dexamethazon, Lupron again, Estrace, Prenatals, Folic Acid. My embryo transfer is scheduled for the end of this month. I couldn't be more excited and anxious.

Friendly. Loving. Informative. There whenever I needed her

I love Sher. They are friendly and kind. They greet me just like family when I walk in. They all communicate with me, not just my nurse. They all know me and what I'm going through. They have taken great care of us, I couldn't be any more blessed

My insurance told us that I was covered until two days before I started medication. We were going to cancel the entire thing but my mom decided to pay it on a credit card. She paid $8,000. Luckily my insurance paid most of my medication fees, we only paid about $200 out of pocket for those and probably less than $500 all together for other tests like bloodwork and ultrasounds. We live 3 hours away from clinic and it's the closest one so we did have to stay in hotels so that is about $500 in hotel costs through the entire process.

I agree with what Dr. Witten wants to do. If he feels like he should just do one I trust him.

He is very thorough and wants to make sure his patient understands fully what is happening inside their body. He was always very optimistic and had just a great overall energy about him. He was extra caring and accommodating for different circumstances that arose along the way.

He does have an accent because he is from New Zealand I believe so just keep that in mind. But I don't think it negatively affects his communication.

He always remembered my name and the name of others who came with me and the recreational activities I talked about during small talk from the previous visits. He always asked how each of my family members were doing.

He wanted to make sure I was ovulating so we started out the first few cycles with just clomid and timed intercourse. Those all resulted in negative pregnancy results, but after the first few cycles of my body not responding, he decided to do a tubal X-ray to make sure my tubes were open. He determined they were open and I was in fact ovulating. So the 4th cycle I was on clomid and timed trigger shot. This was also negative. The next three cycles have been clomid, timed trigger shot, and IUI. The first two resulted in negatives and I am currently in the last cycle in the two week waiting period. If this results in a negative he wants to move on and do other tests and for me to lose weight.

They were all very accommodating to my needs and requests. They got back in touch with you very promptly and with the answers you needed.

They are very compassionate and caring. Great communication. Negatives are it's a very very small clinic in a large hospital.

An IUI costs $525 there and it was not covered by our insurance. It could be covered under another's. $50 for each visit. $89-110 for each trigger shot About $400 to test for tubal blockage.

I felt like, once moving from IUI to IVF, Dr. Witten did not have much input on my treatment. He does his IVF through Sher, and so I believe he is bound to their medication protocol and monitoring. Dr. Witten seemed genuinely disappointed by my results. He was honest though in that IUI would not work for us and did not waste our time with months of IUI's. He did not prescribe me unnecessary medication as all of my levels were good and I ovulate without meds.

He is good for testing and IUI.

Dr. Witten seemed kind and enthusiastic about our treatment. He was very encouraging when we saw him. I do want to point out though that, during my stimming for retrieval, I did not see him but was monitored by Dr. Dayal.

Dr. Witten does IVF through Sher and so he is bound to their treatment protocols. I do not believe he had any input on my medication protocol.

Mickey at Dr. Witten's office in the hospital was very informative and kind. She always returned our phone calls and explained our steps for each process. The staff at Sher were also kind, but difficult to reach and took days to return phone calls.

Strengths: Short waiting times for appointments. Weaknesses: Poor communication. Generic protocol that does not work for everyone (our only infertility is male factor, yet my protocol yielded MANY immature eggs). We also paid for services in advance that we did not receive, and our refund for that is still "in process" several months later.

The monitoring appointments went very smoothly. They got me in quickly and I did not have to wait long for Dr. Dayal. She explained what she saw during each appointment.

We have insurance coverage. We had to pay up-front for the treatment and were told we would be refunded for what insurance covered. I believe we paid around $7,000 and are owed a refund of around $6,000. Still waiting on that to process.

Dr. Barry Witten was vary compassionate from the beginning. He understood the long journey we had already been on and was very realistic while also giving us optimism that we could achieve our dream of a family. I enjoyed his analytical approach to the science side, but he always said they can get everything there, but God has the final say. When we had a chemical pregnancy, he could not find the words and his nurse stepped in and comforted us. But later he was able to give us his condolence. On the second round when we got a positive blood test, Dr. Witten personally called me to congratulate me. He saw us through 8 weeks and then handed us off to my obgyn. But when I brought my daugter by two weeks after giving birth, he remembered us and was so delighted that we visited.

He might be short on words but he makes it up with his genuine caring of you physically and mentally.

After our chemical pregnancy, he personally called me to give his condolences. Then he dug through all the data to figure out what went wrong. He then had an appointment for my husband and me to discuss everything and to assess our mental status to assess when we would be ready for a next round.

All if the nurses were amazing. They are not just doing their job, but they are walking with along the way. MerryKay made sure all my calendars were up to date. She stayed in touch with me during the critical days and made sure I did not miss anything. After the emplantation, I was handed off to Mickey in Dr. Witten's office. She helped me through the first failing pregnancy, calling me every day to amke sure I was ok and to inform me if what is going on. During my successful pregnancy, Mickey was my personal cheerleader and she was so excited during every ultrasound. She also remembered me when I visited after giving birth, and made such a big deal about seeing my daughter.

Dr. Witten is not located at the Sher Institute so you sometines have to juggle two different offices. But the comnunication the Sher Institute has with his office is fantastic. The clinic does a lot to reach out to the community so you know you are not alone. They hold talks and seminars, and just recently started a private facebook group where people can get answers to questions, receive support from current and past patients and watch videos (both live and recorded). Everyone knows you at the clinic and you feel like part if a family. It is very clean and organized. And they follow procedure throughout. My husband did say that the room he had to use was a little awkward, but really what room would not be awkward. A big plus is that there is a lab right next door that they use for all the blood work, making it really handy to go to one location for two appointments.

The cost was not covered by my insurance. The first thing Sher Institute did was have you meet with the financial person. She explained the set cost and the varible costs. She detailed all of the companies that help with the cost and showed us what we needed to supply those companies with. She made sure we were ready financially before proceeding. I had and HRA through my work and she helped me figure out if that would be able to cover some of the cost. Everthing had to be paid in full before the treatment could begin.

Dr. Witten was always kind and put things in terms we could understand. When our first round didn't work he sat down with us and explained our options and what he felt was best. Never once discouraged us or made it feel impossible. He gave us hope.

Get as much information as you can. Be prepared for anything and no matter what keep trying.

He always called us by name and had a great sense of humor. He made it a lot less stressful.

I started out on birth control pills then had the intralipids infusion for the Natural Killer Cells. Started with the Dexamethasone then went to the injections. Cant remember the names of all of them but I know I did Gonal-F, Progesterone in oil, Estradiol Valerate, Menopur and Vaginal Suppositories. Then once I got a positive test I started Prenatal Vitamins and did another round of Intralipid Infusion.

Everyone was so friendly and when I was panicked and wasn't sure about a medicine they walked me through it.

I loved it there. Always greeted with a smile and were very nice.

We were lucky, our insurance covered a lot. We had to pay for the intralipid infusions which were $300.00 a piece so a total of $600.00. Also had to meet our $300.00 deductible for both so that was $600.00 total. We paid for a portion of the medications which with both treatments came to about $800.00. We also had to pay for the anesthesia twice so that was $590.00 a piece so a total of $1180.00. We may receive more bills from different tests we have had done but we haven't received a bill yet.

Dr. Witten is obviously a very intelligent and experienced fertility doctor. I felt he had a very specific way he liked to do things and he didn't stray from that very much. When I would bring up questions or concerns, my concerns weren't heard or I was told I didn't need to worry about them. I felt like he would hear what I was saying but didn't want to listen.

Be prepared to do a lot of self research. He isn't an overly empathetic person and isn't great at answering questions.

The support staff in both his Mercy and Sher offices were very nice and helpful. Dr. Witten himself was friendly, but cryptic in his wording and didn't seem to want to answer my questions. He brushed them off most of the time.

My stim cycle was an agonist protocol. I have normal ovarian reserve but we were only able to get 5 eggs out of about 16 follicles. 4 were mature and all fertilized with ICSI, one arrested a day 4. My fresh cycle resulted in a chemical pregnancy, and my 2 subsequent frozen transfers resulted in negative pregnancies. I was never given any rationale for the protocol chosen for me.

Nutsing staff was always friendly and helpful. Sher nurses weren't the best at placing IV catheters and I usually had to be stuck 2-4 times when I needed IV treatments.

Thecinic is nicely furnished, clean and inviting. The staff is helpful and there is an on call nurse for any after hours medication questions. Sedation for egg retrieval is through an outside contractor and she doesn't accept insurance, so if you have insurance coverage you will have to submit the claim yourself which is a huge pain. The anesthesiologist is also somewhat flippant and didn't care about my comfort. She pushed drugs through my IV quickly and it burned horribly. She just laughed it off when she noticed she had hurt me. If Dr. Witten is your primary, some of your ultrasounds will be done with Dr. Dayal who also practices at Sher. She is sweet and very knowledgeable.

I have full insurance coverage. This covered all my diagnostic workup, IVF cycles and most medications. We had to pay out of pocket for my egg retrieval sedation as well as cryopreservation services associated with embryo freezing.

At the outset we thought the doctor was very professional although a man of few words. Over the course of the following few months, as we started to visit more and more we found ourselves getting comfortable with his particular style.

I don't have any advice.

Everything was explained in a personable way and over the months of visiting, we felt like we knew them. There was a congratulatory call upon discovering pregnancy and he seemed genuinely happy for us.

The estrogen intramuscular injections (2 Ml) daily was tough to get through for a period of about 6-8 weeks. They produced the desired outcome but it is a long and sometimes painful commitment. The subcutaneous injections were easier to tolerate, however this too was a daily commitment. There were so many drugs needed, I couldn't possibly list all of them and their dosages. Lupron, Gonal, Estradiol, dexamethasone, suppositories, are just some of what I took.

Mickey was nice, however was unorganized and didn't have us follow the initial steps in proper order. Calendar management was extremely confusing and could have been communicated better to us.

Amy was professional and a very kind and relatable down to earth kind of person. She was always available for questions and support.

No idea. We got hit with so many bills from so many different places it was impossible to keep track of.

Dr. Witten is one of a kind. He was very caring and compassionate towards us, and went above and beyond to make sure we never left an appointment with questions. He used pictures to describe what was happening. He always remembered to ask about our son and made an effort to support my husband through this experience as well.

Interview him first, and take the time to learn to trust him...you will be much happier leaving things in his hands

Dr. Witten and his entire staff treated my husband and I like family. They took a real interest in our situation, and did everything they could for us. Mickey his nurse was honest and encouraging, we loved her!

Mickey was amazing. She has a nurturing and "mom" approach. She always made sure we understood everything before leaving, and didn't mind at all when I called her back 3 hours later with the same questions.

Strengths: excellent staff, easy to get appointments Weaknesses: you have to do IVF at Sher Institute, but they are fabulous as well!

Dr. Witten left these decisions to us, we chose single both times

He is flat out an awesome human. He did everything he could and wouldn't do another cycle until he looked me in the eye and told me the slim chance we had. Admitted when he had tried everything and advised that we explore NYC.

If you like fast paced, that is not Dr Witten.

Dr. Written and his staff were all so kind and caring. He spends so much time with his patients.

Antagonist is all I can remember.

Long wait times sometimes. Very friendly. Very clean and nice. Lab right next door. Must pay for antheshia desperate. Believe in natural born killers cells and those treatment cost extra and take a ton of time.

Must be a 5 day embryo.