Brad Swelstad

I wish that I could have had more face-to-face interactions with Dr. Swelstad but I understand that at a large clinic such as SGF, that's not always possible. In the two times that Dr. Swelstad completed my ultrasound (during two IUI rounds) he always made me feel at ease and made me feel like he knew who I was based on our virtual meetings. Dr. Swelstad is direct and considerate. He added dashes of humor to our interactions and I liked that about our conversations. Although the IUIs were unsuccessful, Dr. Swelstad's guidance and medication adjustments were welcomed. My husband and I have been very happy with our relationship with Dr. Swelstad. We are at the beginning of an active pregnancy journey and we hope to be able to share happy news with Dr. Swelstad by the end of this year!

Don't be afraid to ask Dr. Swelstad questions. He might not give you warm, fuzzy responses, but he is honest and clear.

My insurance is pretty terrific (thank goodness!), so our only costs were the PGTA testing and freezing our embryos. I also had a co-pay for the meds, but that wasn't bad.

Dr. Swelstad is a pleasure to work with. He is caring and compassionate but also tells you how it is, not just what you want to hear. He will give you all the facts, good or bad, and allow you to make your own decisions. He is easy to understand and always has charts and visual aids to help explain things in an easy to understand way. Even though we have not yet had success, I believe he will get us to our goal and trust that he knows how to get there.

Listen to what he says, even if it is not what you want to hear. He will give you options but also give his opinion. I wish I had listened to his opinion earlier even though it would mean moving to IVF sooner.

We started with Dr. Swedlstad after 3 rounds of medicated cycles (clomid) with two of them including IUIs. Dr. Swelstad instantly switched us to Femera and did 3 cycles of that with IUIs. After this, we took a break and moved to combo cycles with 5 days of Femera and 3 days of Follistim injections followed by a trigger and IUI. The last 2 cycles, we also used suppository progesterone. All cycles failed.

Dr Swelstad was very honest and open through the entire course of treatment. Despite the variables that couldn’t be controlled, he continually updated us on the direction of treatment and answered all of our questions very clearly. Dr Swelstad was sensitive to the needs of our family and was helpful in directing us with our choices to have a healthy successful cycle. He wasn’t shy about conveying the risks of treatments but also allowed us autonomy to decide which was to proceed. He was accessible and very friendly. I would definitely recommend him to anyone looking for treatment.

Don’t be afraid to voice your opinions, fears and dreams. He is very willing to work as a team and they will be very well received.

We used an antagonist protocol for our IVF Cycle. We were successful with a 28 egg retrieval. Our fertilization didn’t go well and we ended up with 3 eggs for transfer at day 3. We transferred the two with the best quality and had a successful Singleton pregnancy and birth.

There were many options of IVF treatment with RCC. We opted for a single "fresh cycle". The cost including medication was just under $14,000.

Dr Swelstad did encourage us to transfer only 1 or 2 embryo. He did explain the risks of high order multiple pregnancies and births.

Dr swelstad was very nice and easy to talk to. He explained a lot to us and figured out a treatment plan that we both thought was great. We are happy to be working with him. He seemed very caring and not just as another patient but like he really cares about his patients. It was nice because we were so nervous.

Just relax you are in good hands he is very nice and easy to talk to!

My husband and I had done 6 rounds of clomid and two rounds with iui. Nothing had worked. So dr swelstad switched me to femara with injections of follistim and trigger shot with iui and progesterone

Everything is spendy with infertility it doesn’t matter where you go. I wish there was insurance here to help with infertility but pnwf does there best to help from billing what they can to insurance to helping you go through a fertility pharmacy so you can get your medicine at a better cost

You go into your first appointment feeling crazy emotional and he had the right amount of empathy coupled with data that made me hopeful. He gave us a plan (both short term and long term) and we left feeling like there could be a light at the end of the tunnel (or at least we could affirmatively do something instead of just having unexplained fertility and doing the same thing every month).

I did my homework before I met with Dr. Swelstad and I think it made our first appointment much more productive because I was able to ask more detailed specific questions instead of having to cover the basics of fertility. If you're going to spend the time and money with a specialist, you might as well get your moneys worth and use his vast knowledge.

Doctor swelstad was an amazing doctor, we have no complaints and we have a beautiful set of twin girls because of him. He was down to earth, didn't judge us, and we felt very respected. He was patient, calm, I would highly recommend him to anybody needing any infertility treatments. If I could do it again I would go to him.

Be open and honest

I just remembered doctor swelstad being so respectful when we found out that we had to do ICSI. He was honest with us and open and respectful of our financial situation. When it came to medications he didn't over-prescribed but he also was honest about making sure we had enough medication to begin with to eliminate any stressors throughout the IVF cycle.

Overall I think we spent about $14,000 that included the IVF cycle, and medications

Dr Swelstad took the time to get to know me and my husband, personally as well as professionally. He took the time to explain our diagnosis and what treatment would look like. He always had charts and stats on hand to help us understand in better detail.

He does talk a lot, but he'll make sure you understand everything :)

Suggested that we not try another IUI since my husband’s morphology was low. We likely would need to do ICSI with IVF.

Our consultation was free. Didn’t do anything more. They did go through finances for IVF though.

Educated us on single transfer vs multiples. Suggested that one would be best.

Being Dr Swelstad’s patient has been a pleasure. We are mfi & somewhat unexplained and he always took the time to explain everything, never pressured us into expensive treatments without exhausting accessible treatments first, and was always on top of our treatment. I think we had a fairly good result in terms of ivf (I know many wish for 8 embryos out of the first retrieval) and I’m particularly happy he recommended pgs so we avoid heartbreak - 5 out of our 8 beautifully looking embryos were not compatible with life. Overall, I fully recommend dr Swelstad - he was caring and competent throughout the process.

Our numbers were not great, but not terrible either. We started with Femara timed intercourse cycles, moved to IUIs, then IVF (1). The antagonist protocol, with frozen transfer, resulted in success (so far).

Good bedside manner, only saw him during the consult, follow-up visit and my first appointment for an ultrasound on cycle day 3, but a lot of my appointments since have been weekend appointments, and we are also dealing with covid right now. I had a virtual visit with him and he was very nice, relatable, seemed concerned about me and my success. Didn’t push very hard for IVF but definitely could tell he thought that was the best route and told us to think about it. I would recommend him.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

5 mg Femara CD 3-7, ultrasound CD 11/12, Ovidrel as trigger shot, progesterone to support uterine lining after ovulation 2.5 mg Femara CD 3-7, 75 IU Gonal-f CD 7 and 9, ultrasound CD 11/12, Ovidrel trigger shot, progesterone to support uterine lining

Bloodwork/Ultrasound $234 prior to insurance

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Experience as a patient was pleasant. Talked before and after consult and diagnostic. He allowed for us to steer and direct our plan. Was informative. Remembered information of my wife's history of treatment. Was understanding of different options we would want to try.

Go for it.

Egg count.

Copays only

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He was very detailed on what our options were and how we would go about it. He was candid and did not hold back with any information. He was very calm and assuring that we had plenty of options. He also gave us grant and programs that could help with costs.

I think you have to very open minded to what your possibilities are. Do not let your expectations get into the way. He is very realistic and candid. Give you information to make sure you know all the outcomes.

A lot of co pays. But all very normal costs.

He was so kind and ready to action. I was so ready to see a doctor hat would be aggressive since we had already been trying for a year or so. He told me the plan and would also tell us what was next if that plan was not successful. I also loved that he started with the simple (more affordable options) and worked his way up. It was very logical to me. We started with a few cycles of just femara and then did 3 more cycles of femara but added injectables. Once that didn’t work we did femara injectables and then 2 IUIs. He was also conscious of reducing the risk of multiples for safety reasons. One cycle I had 3+ follicles and had to take birth control and skip that cycle. Even though we he didn’t meet with us for every apportionment he was there for anything important. I really enjoyed my experience there and he shared our happiness when we did get pregnant! He also made me feel better by checking on he pregnancy before I went to the OB.

Just to trust in him. I know he is no longer at that clinic, so maybe to find out where he went.

From my previous OB before I went to Brad Swelstad they found my prolactin was a little high so they wouldn’t prescribe me any Femara. I had tried Clomid but when they did an ultrasound they found that I didnt respond to it. So when I started with him he had me on Cabergoline to lower that and he also raised my levothyroxine from 25mcg to 50mcg. I was on metformin as well to help with the PCOS and he also started me on Femara we tried that for 3 cycles alone with times intercourse. The follicles got a nice size during these, but I wouldn’t ovulate. Sometimes I would just get a cyst (this was all checked by ultrasound on specific days). So then he decided to add injectables for the next three cycles along with all the other stuff. Those included Gonal F inejections and then if i didn’t get a positive ovulation test by a specific day I would do a trigger shot with timed intercourse. We did that for 3 cycles and one of them I had to cancel because I had to many follicles. He said it would have been perfect for IVF. He adjusted my dose so I wouldn’t get so many follicles. After those failed we did the same medications and injections and added an IUI my husbands sperm count was great and everything looked good but the first IUI failed. Then we did the same course a second time (he wanted to try IUIs 3-4 times before moving on to IVF) and luckily we got pregnant. After we got pregnant he checked my HCg to make sure it kept rising like it should and did some ultrasounds to confirm things were staying good. Then we got to love to an OBGYN.

Everything was pretty much covered by insurance until we got to injectables and IUIs. The injectables were around $300-$400 and the sperm analysis for the IUI were $200-$300 and the actual procedure was around $200-$300. Total for the 2 IUI cycles it was a little over $2000.00

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Dr Swelstad was both kind and compassionate but gave you the entire truth. He’d let you know exactly what your odds were but in a very positive outlook. He knew his stuff and was always trying to learn more. Would highly recommend him to anyone.

To just take a breath and trust that he knows what he’s doing because he does!

I had seen 2 drs for over two years before Swelstad and had done chlomid as well as 2 IUI’s so we decided to try one round of IUI with the injections to up the chance of more eggs. When that didn’t work we went straight to IVF. The first round we had one embryo to transfer but it didn’t take. The second time he suggested we do ixy(not sure how to spell it). So we did. We had two embryos to transfer and put both in and it was a success!

For 2 rounds of IVF I believe it was like $17,000 plus meds. But they had grouping discounts and offered discounts if you paid by check we paid probably 25k for the entire process from start to finish with him including the IUI and 2 rounds of IVF with meds and the additional Ixy procedure.

We really didn’t have much of a choice but he did highly recommend putting both embryos in on the second round so we’d have a better chance of one of them taking.