How was your experience with Beth Malizia at Alabama Fertility Specialists?
I described her very well in the segment about being treated like a human. She has been wonderful over our journey. We have been with her for over five years and are sticking by her to get our miracle baby. We have not always seen her for our IUIs. She has been right by our side every step of the way for our IVF cycle. She even contacted us personally to give us updates. She has done all my other procedures and explained everything thouroughly. We love her!
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Beth Malizia at Alabama Fertility Specialists?
Dr. Malizia has a calming bedside manor. She is forth coming and doesn’t sugar coat information. She knows her facts. She is a good listener and spends time with her patients. The wait time might be long at times but she is not going to rush her patients. She is only available certain days of the week for appointments, therefore scheduling can be a challenge. So far appointments have not been a problem for me. She is always available if you have questions. She gets back to you in a timely manor. My husband and I have been pleased with her. We have stuck by her over 5 years. Still working on our miracle baby.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Beth Malizia at Alabama Fertility Specialists?
My husband and I have been with Dr. Malizia a little over 5 years. She has been wonderful. She spends time with us making sure all our questions and concerns are addressed. She has personally contacted us on numerous occasions to give us news/results. She has a great bedside manner and truly understands what we are experiencing through our fertility journey. She wants the best for us. We just went through our first IVF cycle. We had 10 eggs fertilize out of 14 eggs retrieved. Dr. Malizia kept us updated on days 5 and 6 of the growth. She stated, “I waited until the last minute to call you because I was hoping they would grow more.” She checked them multiple times on day 6 to make sure of their growth. We had 1 embryo make it out of the 10 fertilized. Cell biopsies have been sent to Igenomix to be tested for genetics. We are in the wait time. Dr. Malizia stated, “I will call you as soon as the fax comes through.” This shows she really cares. We have been extremely happy with Dr. Malizia and the whole AFS team. We feel like we are apart of their family since we have been going there over 5 years. We are still working towards a miracle baby. It makes me nervous only having 1 embryo. This has been a process. I feel like it is one chance and it’s not 100% guaranteed. My husband and I are older and we would love to be parents and have our own biological child. Unfortunately, our insurance does not cover fertility treatment. This was a huge jump to do IVF. It stresses me out financially. We do not need the financial stress.
We have been extremely patient through the infertility journey. I don’t know what we will do if this 1 embryo does not work. We would like to have multiple children one day. The financial stress is not needed for those who are having trouble conceiving. We need as little stress as possible to make our bodies healthy and stress free.
Describe the protocols Beth Malizia used in your cycles at Alabama Fertility Specialists and their degree of success.
Dr. Malizia prescribed medication with our first treatment. We used clomid. Everything looked good on paper. Unfortunately, it did not work. Then we tried a second IUI with clomid. It was unsuccessful. We used the letrazole protocol and trigger HCG with our third IUI. It was unsuccessful. Again, everything looked good. No explanation of why the IUIs were not working. She explained the increased chances of IVF at the time. We were not financially able to take on the cost of IVF. She stated we could do another letrazole protocol IUI. We waited a while to do it. It was unsuccessful as well. We met for a consultation. Dr. Malizia talked to us about Invocell and IVF. She stated we could do another IUI if we wanted. My husband and I chose to do IVF due to the higher risk of possible conception. It has not been easy financially. We now have one chance with one embryo. We have exhausted all funds. I am not sure what we will do if this does not work.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Alabama Fertility Specialists. (Assigned nurse: Kendall B)
Kendall is our IVF coordinator. She is great. She handled orders for our medications. She had a calendar all set up for our injections. We communicated well via email. She was prompt and answered every question thouroughly. She went over the process of giving medications if we needed instruction.
Our Doctor has had two nurses during our 5 years at the clinic. Both of them have been great. They relay our messages to the doctor in a timely fashion and get back to us quick. We have been happy with all the other staff. It’s a smaller clinic. They make you feel like part of the family.
Describe your experience with Alabama Fertility Specialists.
I feel the clinic runs a tight ship. They are on top of it. Everyone is welcoming and genuine. Most staff members have been through infertility. They know the shoes we are walking in. I love that the clinic is small. You don’t feel like a number in a cattle car. They used to only offer IVF certain times a year. They are more flexible now and are offering it more. I love AFS.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Beth Malizia at Alabama Fertility Specialists.
My insurance paid for some of the visits and lab cost. Everything else is out of pocket. My insurance does not cover fertility treatments. Our IUIs were 324.00 out of pocket. The IVF with ICSI was over 10K. This is out of pocket. We decided to do genetic testing so an additional cost of 2,210.00 will be needed for the frozen transfer. Plus, we will have to pay the fee for Igenomix. I think it will be 1,500.00. My husband and I are still trying to come up with the money for the transfer of our one embryo if genetics deems it viable. Still waiting on results.
I don’t understand how some insurance plans will pay and some will not. This is not elective for us. We cannot help we are in this situation. We are not made of money and we don’t want to put ourselves in debt. It’s so financially draining and causes stress we do not need.
Describe Beth Malizia's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Alabama Fertility Specialists.
Dr. Malizia has stated, “she is not in business to make an octomom.” She prefers to transfer one embryo. She was willing to transfer two for us. She was ok if we wanted an instant family. My husband and I would have chosen to transfer two embryos if we had them. We are in our late 30s. We are eager to start a family. We cannot help it has taken so long and we have unexplained fertility at this time. Unfortunately, we have one to transfer pending genetic results. We will have to continue working on our family in the future.