Carol Wheeler

When I first met with Dr. Wheeler, she made sure we underwent all tests to make sure we could find out why I wasn’t getting pregnant, and also paid attention to what my insurance required to pay for fertility treatments (at the time it was covered 100%). We did 3 unsuccessful IUI’s and said we’d probably be a better candidate for IVF. We didn’t do ICSI because it wasn’t covered, and had 12 eggs retrieved, 9 of which fertilized. She likes to do fresh transfers, (thinking getting the baby back to where it belongs quicker is better in her opinion) and I had a 3 day fresh transfer that ended up in my first pregnancy and live birth of my son. No other embryos made it to Dave five to be frozen, so I am currently waiting to do another IVF cycle and egg retrieval in the next couple months. Many may not see Dr. Wheeler as warm and fuzzy, but she is caring and knows her stuff. She told me she’d get me pregnant and did. Unlike the other review, she did change up my protocol often, and because I only had 12 retrieved last time, I will be using a new protocol this time as well. It’s been 3 years, so she has changed some prescriptions to more up to date ones. She stays current with her knowledge, and even though she isn’t into holistic treatments, she had no problem with me changing my diet and getting acupuncture during my IVF cycle. All in all, I would recommend her in a heartbeat. She knows what she’s doing, and will help you achieve a pregnancy.

Don’t expect hugs, and tears when things don’t work out. She’s very systematic and if one thing doesn’t work, she doesn’t let you get discouraged, she instead tries a new approach.

Dr. Wheeler made sure to follow up with me on various occasions. Instead of just talking to nurses, I often would have in person or telephone conversations with her. She even called the hospital to congratulate me on the birth of my son. She may not come off as warm and fuzzy, but she knows what she’s doing and is definitely kind.

I used clomid with each of my IUI’s and would call the morning of a positive ovulation test and have two consecutive days of inseminations. With IVF, (2015) I first started with birth control for 5 days and Lupron injections staring day 3. I also used Gonal-F and had a trigger shot 46 hours before retrieval. She’s also not a fan of PIO shots (thank goodness) and instead gives you progesterone suppositories. My next IVF cycle this year (2018) will be birth control for two weeks, menopur instead of lupron, and still using Gonal-F, but in a higher dose to give me more eggs.

Nursing staff was easy to get in touch with, and very precise with their information.

This clinic runs like a well oiled machine. They are always on top of the next step and help guide you in the process. The only thing I would change was the protocol for IUI. They have you do an ovulation test every morning and call the clinic when it’s positive. Although this saves on trips to the doctors every morning, I feel like I would have had better results had hey preformed ultrasounds up until ovulation to see when the perfect time would be. For me personally, I think I ovulate very soon after a positive ovulation test, so by the time I would get there, I probably missed the opportunity.

They tried to space out appointments in the morning, which was hard for us working women who all wanted to be seen at 7:30 to make it to work for 8:00. Even though there were st appointment times, it was more like first come first serve with a sign in sheet. If they found out you were significantly early though, they would make you wait until all the earlier appointments were finished. It was pretty quick though, because they would do your blood work while you waited, or right after your ultrasound.

At the time, I had insurance that covered IVF at 100%. I still had copays for procedures, but not monitoring or blood work. Now my insurance covers 80%, so it will cost me a little over $3,000 for IVF with ICSI.

Because I am younger, the chance of having multiples with a multiple embryo transfer is higher, and therefore results in a more high risk pregnancy. If I were 35+ she would be more likely to transfer more than one.

She comes off as very intelligent and knowledgeable, however perhaps she not for everyone as she may come off as mechanical and detatched. Very cut to the chase and practical which I appreciate instead of niceties. She listens well and answers whatever questions or concerns of yours that she can.

Come prepared with specific questions and do your homework to make the most of the meetings.

Staff is super friendly and take all the time you need to be explained to and answer questions.

So far I have done three cycles of iui beginning with day three baseline blood work and ultrasound, followed by 5 nights of Clomid. On approximately day 10 youll have another bloodwork and ultrasound. That evening they call and instruct whether you can take the injectable Ovidrel to induce ovulation. Then two days later the iui is scheduled, followed a week later by a progesterone bloodwork and in another week a beta blood draw.

The phlebotomy nurses are all very friendly, good at getting what they need and efficient. The iui nurses run the gamut from mechanical/cold, awkwardly quiet to super friendly and helpful but it seems they are all well qualified and do their job equally well.

Their website is super helpful but I wish sometimes they had more paper options that I could share easily with my partner. The two doctors I've had are great (wheeler and frishman) but very different personalities. The nurses are great but I wish their financial counselor was a bit more accessible. The clinic should do work on their phone system ease of use and their bill pay through women and infants is consistently failing and near impossible to use.

Typically physician payments come from care New England and other labwork etc from women and infants directly. Dr. Visits were charged by time used (at least with Cigna) and the financial counselor s are helpful and a great resource.

This doesn't apply to the treatment I've listed as receiving.

I felt as though Dr. Wheeler held back in terms of what to expect, and wouldn't commit to any outcome or even discuss the chances, aside from saying "well, you're older, so..." Not the best bed side manner, not the most LGBT friendly. Our first visit, she separated us physically, without telling us why and then informed me that I was going to have a gynecological exam - not by her, but by a male doctor. It was extremely upsetting as I felt I was coerced and did not have the chance to consent - in addition, they wouldn't allow my same sex spouse in the room, which is standard protocol. This made me feel even more nervous, like he had a reason for not allowing them to provide me support. Overall, it was a horrid, horrid experience.

Be extremely assertive - insist on knowing BEFORE you come in what to expect, especially in terms of gynecological exams. I asked for data on the clinic and was denied = she wouldn't tell me or discuss. I asked for reasoning behind trying natural cycles (I was over 40) and wasn't given an answer. I asked for what she thought my chances were and she just said "the same as other women your age"?? What does that mean? No idea. I'm not the specialist - she is, but we never received any specific information.

The first appointment, when my spouse and I were still trying to decide if we were going to move forward, Dr. Wheeler brought us in for what we thought was just an initial consultation. However, during the appointment, she referred to us as "my gays" as in, I love my gays - more options - which would seem to be kind, but felt...really hostile. I know, I know - that's subjective, but she also wrote a LONG paragraph on her professional site describing her relationship to church and religion - not exactly what we were looking for. She didn't want to answer ANY of our questions and would simply avoid or re-direct. It was really confusing and frustrating.

She insisted we try two cycles naturally. By the second try, we were ready to move on to another clinic, based on how uncomfortable we were made to feel by multiple people.

Some of the nursing staff made racially charged comments surrounding the election and about Muslim Americans in our presence, which was extremely uncomfortable. We were speaking amongst ourselves about the upcoming Women's March in Washington, and the nurse became extremely upset and started ranting about "Those muslims" and those "Angry muslims" ect. This was WHILE she was taking blood in anticipation of our first IUI. It was shocking and disgusting. She also made it clear that she had only recently come to accept gays - I don't remember the specific comment, but something like "I try to accept all lifestyles" etc., which is basically code for "I think your love is a lifestyle, like eating vegan or partying a lot, i.e., not for me, but I guess you shouldn't be persecuted for it". Not a comfortable experience.

The strengths include proximity - it's close to downtown Providence and open on the weekends. The administrative staff is ok - depends on who you get. Their dedicated financial counselor, however, was also unkind. Despite trying IUI twice, she never did meet with us as requested to go over the cost of IVF or anything else. It was super frustrating.

250.00 per IUI

n/a

Carol Wheeler was good at explaining the facts. She shows no compassion. She was not involved with any of our procedures. We only saw her for the initial consult and the post failure consultation. She showed no empathy and made us feel that all of our concerns were unwarranted. We only found out later that some of them were.

Ask for another doctor.

We were passed off to less experienced staff immediately. We only saw Dr. Wheeler for the initial consultation and for the final consultation after the cycle failed. We had many questions at this meeting and felt completely brushed off.

Lupron flare and birth control suppressants. (Lupron 2 week kit, follistim, endometrium) 11 eggs retrieved, 10 fertilized, 0 made it to blast, 4 transferred on day 3. Negative Beta relsult.

They ran like a well oiled machine. Barbara was great.

Everything was done at the location in Providence. The nursing staff was well organized and managed. Wait times were minimal most of the time. It is a teaching facility. There are some less experienced people on staff. The finance / insurance people confused us more than helped.

The monitoring appointments were run well. Very efficient.

She had one protocol had would not veer from it. When the clinic accidentally thawed the last remaining vial of my first son's donor, she refused to accept accountability, would not refund the money that I paid for it, and took a "wait and see what happens when we thaw it a second time" stance. She deemed the vial going from 40 million to 10 million sperm acceptable. I did not.

Do not go to her

W&I appeared to have one protocol for IVF and were unwilling to try new things (I.e. Estrogen priming protocol, antagonist protocol). They also refused to believe me that I ovulated early on injectable IUI cycles and missed ovulation in 3/8 cycles.

8 injectable IUIs. She would not increase my dose when I failed to respond. She also did not tell me that repeated injectable cycles could make endometriosis worse.

I saw a different nurse every time. Some were great, some were awful.

W&I is awful. All they care about is making money. They "accidentally" thawed the last vial of my son's donor and refused to accept accountability for it. They missed my ovulation in 3/8 monitored cycles.

Ridiculously overpriced, as I was paying out of pocket. I didn't know any better at the time.