Carolyn Alexander

Brilliant, clever, and truly cares about each of her patients. Her energy is contagious but she never creates a false sense of guarantee (which I appreciate). She’s direct and professional but kind. When you are sitting with her, you know she is focused on tailoring your treatment. She always called right away with results, even from her personal cell while she was on vacation. She even texted us a few times with real time updates when she knew we were really anxious. My husband and I are so thankful for Dr. Alexander. She goes above and beyond for each of her patients.

I think this goes for any doctor, but make sure you ask questions. You can see her mind is running a mile a minute to figure out the best plan for you so she doesn’t always explain every detail upfront and occasionally it was unclear what the next step was. Just ask and she’ll go through everything until you are comfortable and at ease.

For my 2 IUI’s, I took Metformin, Letrozole, Gonal F, and Estrace. I was having a poor reaction to vaginal progesterone and she was going to switch me to injections and had me come in for an early pregnancy test before making the switch. Unfortunately it was negative so we didn’t proceed and I at least got to end the failed round a few days early. I appreciate that she’s aggressive when she needs to be. For my first IVF, I took Metformin, Gonal F, Menopur, Omnitrope, Cabergoline, Doxycycline, Ganirelex, Novarel, and Lupron. She also had me on a bunch of vitamins. We then switched to Follistim for my second round.

IVF retrieval was between $20,000-$25,000, which included ICSI and PGS testing.

Dr. Alexander knew my personality well and knew I wanted to maximize the opportunity for a transfer to work. For this reason, we did an ERA before doing FET. We transferred 1 embryo.

Carolyn Alexander really does care about her patients, about that I have no doubt. I do think though that since the clinic overall is overloaded, it reduces her ability to spend quality time with patients. Communication with her is short, to the point, and over within a matter of minutes.

Expect her to be blunt, but kind. Don't expect to get a lot of her time and expect to need to call and follow up over and over. She is supposedly one of the best in the LA area, but it's very hard to get time with her so for some, that's not ideal. She did call me one time on a Sunday which was very nice of her, so she will contact you outside of business hours, but the call with be to the point and not a second wasted before she's saying bye.

I did two medicated IUI's back to back. I was put on letrozole with a trigger shot to induce ovulation, then progesterone suppositories during my luteal phase. I'm happy with the treatment used in the IUI, my only point of upset is my progesterone was never tested, neither before the IUI's nor during or after, and months later we found out my body wasn't responding to that progesterone dose. Had they tested my progesterone we could've found that out way earlier. I did not get pregnant with either IUI.

The IUI's were roughly $800 and ultrasounds were $250. Bloodwork was in the few hundreds as well and each ultrasound and bloodwork were done multiple times a month each month. A consultation appointment with Dr. Alexander was $200 just to say "yes" we are doing IVF even though we were already decided and told the clinic we were decided. We have spent roughly $3,000 for two IUI's and no pregnancies.

We had our consultation for IVF this week so this is the only experience and insight I have on her approach. She shared that after retrieving the eggs, after doing genetic testing, after seeing how many make it to the 5-day stage etc. then we would need to decide if we want to implant one or two embryos. There were no further comments, but it did seem like it was an option she would openly discuss when that time comes.

Dr Alexander is a wonderful doctor and person, she is very compassionate and caring, I just wish she was more aggressive. I am on the older side for fertility treatment and I went in ready to go full force ahead, however she has more of the wait and see approach. She is very knowledgable and positive, and has a wonderful bedside manner.

Go in with a list of questions, be ready to ask why/why not, and push for what you want. You are your best advocate when it comes to your treatment plan, fight for what is right for you.

IUI 1: Letrozole, trigger shot & Progesterone suppositories, switched from Clomid as my family has a history of breast cancer. Negative pregnancy test. IUI 2: Letrozole, Gonal F, trigger shot, & Progesterone suppositories - Added Gonal F to make more follicles. Negative pregnancy test. HSG IUI 3: Gonal F, Dexamethasone, trigger shot, Progesterone suppositories, 2 Sperm donor vials 24 hours apart. - Added dexamethasone for inflammation, and a second vial of sperm (one at 12 hours post trigger, second at 36 hours post trigger). Negative pregnancy test. IUI 4: Gonal F, trigger shot, Progesterone suppositories, 2 Sperm donor vials 24 hours apart. First time having symptoms but they went away after 3 days, negative pregnancy test. Implantation Blood Panel IVF Egg Retrieval: Birth control pills, Lupron, Ganarelex, Cetrotide, Gonal F, Follistim, Omnitrope, Dexamethasone, Menopur, Trigger shot. I also added Co-Q10 & DHEA to my vitamins. 29 follicles retrieved, 11 made it to day 5, 6 were cleared via genetic testing. FET 1: Lupron, Birth control pill, baby aspirin, Estrace, Progesterone in Oil, Endometrin.

When I had insurance (I was laid off in the middle of my retrieval cycle), all of my appointments were covered with my $30 copay, plus $70 lab fee for each IUI, plus $1,000 per sperm vial. My total cost for the 4 IUIs under Dr Alexander was $8700. IVF retrieval cycle: $15,400 + $6000 for medication= $21,400 FET 1: $3780 + $1500 for medication= $5280 ERA: $2785 Grand total: $38,165

No opinion.

Dr. Alexander is a very kind and insightful doctor who I have been seeing for much longer than either of us thought (not her fault). I have done 2 IUIs that ended in mc and 2 that have failed and I'm currently on my 5th. I ended up taking a 6 month break after my 2nd mc due to waiting for blood test results that needed time in between for accurate diagnosis. Luckily Dr. Alexander allowed me to do these tests after only 2 MCs (instead 3 which is typical RPL). Thank God she let me because turns out I have MTHFR Gene mutation and a blood clotting disorder which means I need to do blood thinning injections once I'm pregnant. I wouldn't have known any of this if Dr. Alexander didn't take the time to speak with me and let me know my options prior to potentially going through another miscarriage! Sometimes you need to ask her as many questions as you can or she won't really give you the information right up front so I've learned to ask exactly what I want to know from her and then she'll tell me. Also at the clinic there are many other doctors and she is the only one I ever see walking though the halls and she always stops by her patients just to ask how they are doing and how they are feeling. Overall I'm glad I have her as my doctor going into my second year of fertility treatment.

Always ask her your specific questions if you are confused or didnt get all the info you wanted. Sometimes she can be very vague but once you ask she'll answer & clarify.

She had me do 5 days of letrozole and none of my follicles grew. So she had me wait a couple days and then start gonal f injections. I quickly had a big follicle after only 3 days so then I did trigger shot and IUI a day later. It got me pregnant (ended in mc) so the next cycle she had me mimic it and I got pregnant again (mc) then I took a break. The last 2 IUIs I did we're the same exact protocol but they didn't work. This one I wanted to do higher dose of gonal f but she's worried I'll produce too many mature follicles. So we'll see what this one's outcome is. When you go in for scans there is a tech who does it and then she or the nurses will call you after with instructions of what to do next. They also email so it's a pretty easy streamlined process.

I have fertility insurance through my husband's work so they bill insurance but cost out of pocket seems to be pretty general.

Dr. Alexander was super thorough and easy to talk to, when we were able to see her. My husband initially went in just for a semen analysis (referred by my OBGYN) and we were able to do a consultation once his results were in.. he had a 1% morph. She went through some basic questions with us and she explained our options (IUI, IVF, etc). We didn’t make a decision and she called me a couple weeks later to check in, I was midway through my cycle like day 12 and she said we should try an IUI, she prescribed me injections and they were delivered to my house... Never did any testing before or an ultrasound... Strange now in hindsight, but I had no clue standard procedure. I’m sure she just wanted to give my follicles an extra oomph. I went in after the injections for an ultrasound, but never saw Dr. Alexander for those, only a nurse and Dr. Alexander would call me after with her take on my follies + a plan. Eventually we did the trigger and scheduled an IUI 36 hours after. The IUI process was with her and she was great through it, although only saw her for the insemination. She prescribed progesterone and sent me on my way. I started my period and came in for an ultrasound with a nurse and the nurse mentioned it looked like I might have cysts. Dr. Alexander called me after and said she thought they were follicles that were big and I was going to ovulate any day... it was CD3 and I wasn’t on any medication, I normally ovulate on CD16... I got a weird feeling and decided not to continue with her and the office, it felt like my care wasn’t being considered and they were using a one size fits all procedure. Dr. Alexander was a cheerleader through the process and genuinely wants you to get pregnant, but it seems like she sees too many patients and can’t give them individualized care.

She is genuinely sweet and means every word she says to you, she’s extremely hopeful... But make sure to ask a lot of questions and be your own advocate through the process if something doesn’t feel right.

We did Gonal-F injections 75IU CD12-14, an HCG shot on CD15 and an IUI on CD17. Started progesterone suppositories CD19 at night til period started on CD28

I can’t remember fully, but I know the ultrasound and office visits were more expensive than my current RE... I want to say it was $190 per visit for a standard ultrasound and the IUI was around $500.

We started doing IVF for male factor (1 % morphology) after I had two chemical pregnancies. Dr. Alexander was extremely compassionate and thorough with testing before we started a cycle. She was confident I would get pregnant as everything on my side looked amazing. Our egg retrieval went great, with 4 PGS normal embryos. Our first transfer was delayed because she found polyps and I was scheduled for a hysteroscopy to remove them. While under she found a uterine septum and removed that as well. Then I tested slightly positive for irregular uterine cells and did a course of antibiotics. We finally started our transfer cycle only to be cancelled because my lining wasn't responding to the meds properly. We started again with a different type of estrogen priming and went ahead with our first transfer which resulted in a pregnancy. Dr. Alexander was more excited than me, as I was cautiously optimistic because I knew one beta test is not the whole picture. Our second beta came back lower than they would have liked and we did a third one which was normal. After this we waited to do an ultrasound at which point things did not look good. I was told this news during the ultrasound which was very upsetting. We had to go back several times to keep watching and I eventually started to miscarry and took drugs to help it along. Transfer 2 failed, which was shocking to everyone. We met with Dr. Alexander and she suggested an ERA and seeing a hematologist, which didn't make total sense to me. I said, why don't we do one more transfer before we do all that and she suggested another hysteroscopy before a transfer and the plan was to do a third transfer before she left for the holidays. We did the hysteroscopy where she removed a small piece of tissue but everything else looked great. We then found out that we wouldn't have time to do the transfer we talked about doing so I suggested doing the ERA while we were waiting for her to get back. We started a mock cycle on their "standard protocol" which did not work at all for me on any level. It was the same hormone protocol as the first cancelled transfer... I expressed concerns about this not working and was told it would be fine. When my lining didn't respond and this cycle was cancelled, I felt like Dr. Alexander started to lose confidence. She said the ERA was no longer necessary as she "didn't want to be chasing her tail around trying to get a good lining." It was disconcerting being told we needed a test and then a week later we didn't. She suggested trying a natural cycle which I started and when she discovered fluid in my uterus (which I believe was there from the cancelled cycle before) we were brought into her office and mid-cycle suggested surrogacy in a very odd way. Asking if I knew anyone who I would want to be my surrogate and saying she wished she could be mine. My husband and I were no where near ready for that conversation and it was very strange to have it brought up in the middle of an FET cycle. The fluid was aspirated, I had a second HSG with her associate (who called me a conundrum during that procedure) and she recommended going ahead with the third transfer. That one failed and we decided to get a second opinion at that point.

Be ready to be in the driver's seat of your fertility journey whether it's following up for results, getting medications called in and doing your research. Dr. Alexander is smart but there were things that were missed along the way and I wish we were given a more realistic idea of what to expect with the entire process.

Egg retrieval was pretty typical. FET changed from estrogen pills to many patches and Viagra, lovenox, steroids and lots of natural supplements and PIO and endometrin when it was time. Final FET was natural (waiting for me to ovulate) with a little patch support and endometrin/PIO shots, lovenox and steroids.

I think a retrieval cycle was listed as a little over $20k but once you add tests and meds its more like $30k. We spent close to $7k for everything for each transfer.

She went back and forth about whether or not to transfer one or two but ultimately agreed with our decision to transfer one at a time... she felt strongly about me not carrying twins for health reasons.

I came to SCRC not knowing what to expect. I have theee children and I assumed having a fourth was a no brainer. 9 months later still nothing. My regular OB recommended Dr. Alexander and my rheumatologist recommended another. I'm so glad I got to meet Dr. Alexander. The first visit was to go over my health status and what tests needed to be done to eval my fertility status. She also used a power point to explain all options available and also to help me figure out what course of treatment should happen next. After my consult I had a chemical pregnancy that did not want to clear my body and she checked on me weekly. She offered encouragement and also let me know that she was ready to jump in as soon as I was ready and my cycle had returned. She always finishes her phone calls or emails with "Best wishes" or "be well" and I think she might actually mean it. :) I have not conceived with her yet but I feel she will support me for as long as I continue to see her.

Come ready with questions and information about your fertility to save time.

Metformin- I have had surgery for dermoids multiple times so I think she put me in a pcos category. This drug helps with egg quality. Estrace- my lining and periods have been light either due to age or bc I have had a d and c and also retained placenta removal in the past. Coq10- help with egg quality Letrazole- I have Some cycles without ovulation Hcg injection- trigger ovulation Dexamethasone- bc i have autoimmune issues Aspirin- to build lining Folgard- not sure but I think bc a lot of people have some clotting or antibody gene or mosaic of the gene Prometrium- support potential pregnancy Prenatal vitamin

Co pay of $30 each visit. $250 for a consult but they waved it bc I she had to cance last minute.

She is kind and respectful of our wishes. She explains things throughly and is very responsive to all my questions. I feel very comfortable asking her anything- even if the questions seem silly. She really put me at ease during all of our procedures and consultations.

Ask her anything- she is very straightforward in a very practical way, but also kind.

She was very understanding about our desire to start gradually- first with Clomid and then moving to IUI. When the Clomid gave me vision side effects she was quick to correct course and try an alternative. When we miscarried she called and was very compassions and helped us remain positive. Her bedside manner during all of the IUI procedures has been amazing and so positive.

Last year we spent close to $20K

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She is a brilliant doctor, incredibly smart. She is warm and kind. She is not always the best communicator because her mind is working at a mile a minute, but I appreciate very much her expertise. She also frequently sought the opinions of other colleagues, both in the clinic and outside. It wasn't about ego for her it was about doing the best possible thing.

Make sure you ask questions and you do your own research too. And know that she is thinking about you.

Dr. Alexander also successfully removed, or significantly reduced a large uterine septum I have. The first operation I had with another doctor had failed. Dr. Alexander did an excellent job.

I am so grateful to Dr. Alexander for her incredible work with us. Her positive outlook allowed us to get through one of the most difficult times in our lives. She is extremely knowledgeable and patient focused. Her approach is tailor made to each patient. When she treats you, you feel like the sole focus of her office. She will always make time for you as a patient and will do everything to ensure a successful outcome. She is extremely sensitive to a patient's needs.

She is an amazing provider. I would recommend following all of her advice with regard to a retrieval. She is extremely responsive to a patient's need/ concerns so make sure to take an active role in your treatment process.

My first FET and retrieval were pretty standard. My second and third FET involved the use of lovenox. This was used after it was discovered that I tested positive for lupus anticoagulant. My third FET also involved the use of prednisone (a steroid) due to a discovered history of familial autoimmune conditions.

Our doctor allowed us to transfer two embryos during each FET. This was our preference and she remained supportive of our choice. She left the decision of transferring one or two up to us (due to our diagnosis). However, she was very clear that she would not transfer more than two (a pretty standard practice based on our young age)

She was truly amazing. I was so defeated when I met her and she gave me such hope. She worked around my phobias and everything she said made sense. She brought me a rose on one of my IUI dates. I felt like I could contact her anytime and she always had time for me.

Be honest with your needs; she is a great listener.

She adjusted me to letrozole with dexamethasone. I had never done a trigger shot before due to my needle phobia. She said I could use a smaller needle and that it could be in my butt instead of stomach. She and her nurses did the shots for me; one nurse even came to my house at 10pm!

It's been a long time, but I believe each IUI was roughly $1,000. I was just on oral meds and the trigger shot, which was about $100.

She is very experienced, warm and friendly. Very knowledgable and aggressive (in a good way.) You do have to pull information out of her though in order to understand completely what she wants you to do but once you get to know her you trust her completely.

Ask a lot of questions.

Dr. Alexander followed my lead and was aggressive about my treatments. We first tried letrazole which I had negative reactions to. Dr. Alexander found a polyp in my uterus which I had surgically removed. Around the same time after doing a semen analysis for my husband she referred us to a Male Fertility Specialist who discovered that he had varicocele and needed surgery. We are now 6 months later and have done an additional 2 clomid cycles and are now doing IUI. While I am not pregnant I've been extremely happy under Dr Alexanders care.

Bloodwork is $110, Ultrasound is $220, IUI is $350.

Extremely compassionate and knowledgeable. Feel taken care by her and the team. Overall lovely and I feel lucky to have met her. She has adjusted the protocols as necessary and has always been honest. She is always the person delivering important news and is always accessible when needed. We have had a few set backs and are still trying to determining next steps but she has tried every test and step possible.

Always take notes and confirm plans with team. Be direct with questions