Creighton Likes

There are not enough good things to say about Dr. Likes. He is truly everything you want in a fertility specialist. To begin with, he makes you feel heard and seen. He never rushed us through any of our appointments. Every question we had was answered and with great clarity. Next, he is on your side! I left feeling like he was just as hopeful as we were that our treatment would be a success. Last, he made sure we always knew our options and that WE were the ones in control of what steps would be taken next in our fertility journey. A wonderful, caring doctor!

Don’t be afraid to ask questions! He is happy to answer them all for you!

We began on a Femara 7.5 daily dose for days 3-5 of my cycle. After one cycle on that, and getting the results from my husband’s semen analysis, Dr. Likes suggested we try IUI. We began our first round with an Ovidrel 250 mcg trigger shot, and after several rounds, Dr.Likes suggested adding Gonal-F injections as well to help with follicle stimulation. We started with 75 units on days 7, 8 and 9 of my cycle. I also had an HSG test done to make sure that there were no bloackages in my Fallopian tubes. Everything came back clear. After this, we had 3 more IUIS. Dr. Likes recommended maxing out around this number as the chances tend to decrease after 3-4 rounds, but we were told we were welcome to keep pursuing this treatment if we wanted to. After 5 failed IUI cycles, we were told that our best chances of conception would be through IVF, due to low sperm count. We are currently saving money to pursue this option.

Insurance covered most costs. The most we paid out of pocket was around $250 for a consultation when our deductible had not yet been met.

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Dr. Likes was very down to earth and friendly. He is easy to talk to. With fertility issues, I feel like that's a really important quality to have. I didn't feel embarrassed to communicate any problems or questions to him. He didn't seem to talk down to me or above my head. I could talk to him like I would talk to a friend. I felt as if he truly cared about me and my outcome. He was open to anything I suggested or any questions I had. Sometimes I think I asked the same questions multiple times but he never seemed frustrated or like I was wasting his time.

Be 100% honest and don't be afraid to ask whatever you're thinking. There are questions/fears you may have along the way that you feel are irrational and you don't want to verbalize to him, but if you do you'll be glad you did.

I don't remember everything, but we started with oral femara and then a trigger shot of Ovidrel for 3 cycles, moved to IUI, and then did 2 egg retrievals and 2 IVF transfers, which both failed. I had a surgery done and after that we started back at step one with femara and the Ovidrel.

I really don't remember. IVF was expensive. The medications for IVF and IUI were expensive. I feel like the one IUI was around $1800. Fertility is an exclusion for my insurance so ultrasounds were about $250 per ultrasound for me.

He did express that he felt like a single embryo transfer was best, but seemed open to doing two if we preferred.

Dr. Likes has been great so far. He found my uterine septum and performed my septum resection surgery while making me feel hope that I would get through the secondary infertility battle. He has been kind and answered all of the questions I’ve had so far in a way that helps me to understand what’s going on.

Go in to the appointment with as much honesty as you can. That can steer the conversation and appointment. Dr. Likes made me feel comfortable answering any questions that he had.

I was on metformin and letrozole before Dr. Likes suspected I had a septate uterus. After the septum was found, I was put on birth control and the septum was respected via a hysteroscopy. I was then put on Estrogen and Progesterone. I now have a normal uterus, and I am again attempting conception with letrozole.

Expensive! My insurance doesn’t cover infertility and I had to have more than one ultrasound/bloodwork, etc. and it got pricey. Luckily my surgery was covered by insurance but still cost over $1000 out of pocket.

Dr. Likes is very knowledgeable and receptive to discuss issues with us in depth. But I do feel like you need to be your own advocate and make sure you are heard. Schedule appointments to discuss things with him (rather than the nurse). If you don’t have a positive test, schedule and appointment to discuss things. Make your own list of items to discuss and be your own patient advocate. Take notes of your appointment. They have a lot of patients but no one knows your case better than you do. Be your own advocate.

Be your own advocate.

First IVF - lupron, gonal-f, and menopour. We tried to do metformin beforehand so as to not have OHSS but it made me too sick. Second IVF - same protocol. Good results with both cycles in so far as eggs retrieved.

We had insurance coverage that after meeting your deductible, it was an 80/20 split with a $20,000 lifetime max. We are very fortunate.

First cycle we did a fresh transfer and transferred two. Second cycle we decided to transfer only one embryo.

Every time we see Dr. Likes, he sits beside us and talks to us like we are real people. He answers any questions with great detail. He understands I like to know every detail of the process and is very honest with me. He is good at giving us different sides to each treatment that way we can make an informed decision.

Bring any questions you have and write them down. Sometimes you can get off the track and forget. Also, he talks fast but just tell him to slow down!

I first started out on Femara and Ovidrel (trigger shot). We kept increasing the dose and checking my blood levels. We have done Gonal F injections, increasing those medications based on my follicle count. We starting doing a second HCG shot 1 week after the trigger shot to support my HCG levels and also adding progesterone suppositories.

My husband works at GHS, so I am on his insurance. Before we meet our deductible, ultrasounds are usually around $250, blood work is around $50, medications vary from $5-$100.

He seemed very caring and passionate about what he does. He made us feel at home and comfortable while going through treatments. He was always there to speak to when we needed to come in and catch up. He explained everything great.

That they can fully trust him!

His protocol for us after reviewing everything was fine was not to over do it. We did one IUI with Femara, Ovidrel and Gonal F shots, we tried just Femara, we done timed intercourse with the Femara and Ovidrel, then we would add Gonal F shots to those.

Ovidrel-$109 x2 per cycle Gonal F-$150 x2 per cycle Mid cycle follicle US-$290 Femara-$10 IUI-$323 Sperm analysis-$80 x2 One IUI, three just Femara, 4 includes shots.

Dr Likes was pretty straightforward. While I appreciate that, I would have appreciated some empathy as well. Also this office in general, the doctor included, wasn't exactly forthcoming with explaining each step, each phase, why things were happening, other options, etc. He was just sort of ok.

Don't expect any feeling/ empathy and don't expect to really understand what's happening.... just expect to roll with the steps they give you in your packet. And expect to do a lot of the legwork yourself.

I don't remember everything. I'm of advanced maternal age, and only have one functioning tube. In addition, years ago I had a huge fibroid cyst that broke through the wall of my uterus causing me to have an emergency myomectomy. I believe we just went thru a routine egg retrieval with normal medications, and two frozen transfers. Finally I decided to have my remaining 3 embryos PGS tested, and only 1 came out viable so we are in the process of getting ready to transfer the remaining one very soon.

Our experience with Dr Likes was great. I would recommend him to anyone. We didn’t get the results we wanted, of course, but we felt confident that Dr Likes did everything he could and even tried some unconventional measures. Our case was pretty rare.

Advocate for yourself, do you own research, and remember that doctors are just people. They don’t know everything, and you are the expert on your body.

We had 2 unexplained early miscarriages when we were referred to Dr Likes (8.5 weeks and 7 weeks). I was 24 and my husband was 23. He began by running a series of blood work for recurrent pregnancy loss. Checked AMH, thyroid levels, clotting issues, Karyotype, etc. and all blood work came back normal. He conducted an ultrasound to check for uterine abnormalities and found none. We tried medicated cycles (Femara) first because i always had irregular cycles. The theory was that if we could induce ovulation earlier, the egg quality may be better. We got pregnant and miscarried. This happened twice. We tried upping the medications (femara, gonal-f, and ovidrel) to time ovulation and timed intercourse. We had a few negative pregnancy tests, and then got pregnant again. This time the pregnancy was ectopic (left tube) and ended in emergency surgery where I lost my tube. We took a break and Dr likes recommended IVF with PGS. We always got pregnant easily, but the miscarriages were so early and spontaneous we didn’t know anything about the embryos. His theory was that our embryos weren’t good quality and expected to see that in PGS results. He wanted to try to get as many eggs as possible so we could hopefully find at least one PGS normal embryo. We did a freeze all cycle in January 2017 where we retrieved 20 eggs. 17 we’re mature and 16 fertilized. 10 embryos made it to day 5/6 blastocyst stage and 8 came back PGS normal after testing. We were all surprised by these results. We had an embryo transfer a couple months later and it was a chemical pregnancy. We tried another transfer 8 months later after I went on a gluten/dairy free diet (for possible inflammation). We did depot Lupron for 3 months prior to transfer to treat any endometriosis and “reset” my system. We did natural stimulation instead of synthetic (I actually ovulated, produced my own estrogen and progesterone, etc). The pregnancy was negative. At this point, dr Likes doesn’t have any ideas. We have considered treatment with a reproductive immunologist who specializes in recurrent pregnancy loss due to undiagnosed immunological issues.

I am not sure how my insurance factored in, but I know they billed things generically (not specifically fertility related) whenever they could to maximize my insurance coverage. I usually paid around $30-$100 for bloodwork (before meeting deductible), $100 for an ultrasound, $150 for consultation. For our IVF cycle, we paid around $5,000 out of pocket to schedule everything and insurance covered the rest. Our second FET was $1000 out of pocket.

Dr Likes preferred one, since it was known they were genetically normal before hand. He was open to two, though, if we had preferred.

Dr. Likes has taken us in more as family than patients. He sits with us and answers every single question and concern we have. We've been on this journey for two years with one loss at the very beginning. He understands this and his number one priority is myself and my husband and getting us to a healthy pregnancy!

Don't hold anything back. Not emotions, questions, concerns, any of it. He can and wants to handle this for you and with you!

I don't ovulate regularly. We have gone from Chlomid, to Femara and then Femara with IUI. Each cycle seems to be getting better and better. We also do ultrasounds each cycle. I get to see my follicles and now I know exactly what they are measuring simply by viewing the screen during the ultrasound.

We do not have fertility coverage through insurance so this has all been out of pocket. Last month alone was $1,017. Each month is it upwards of at LEAST $500.

Dr likes really cares about his patients as individuals as well as patients. He listens to you and delivers hard news in a compassionate and caring manner. He always has a smile and is very encouraging

Do research on the medications before and be fully informed about all side effects and purposes.

After much consultation, we used femara and iui and got pregnant on the first time. My menstrual cycle was longer than normal (36 days) and my husband had issues with mobility and morphology. We now have a beautiful smart and kind 4 yr old little girl!

Besides co-pays, I think our iui charge was about $500 that was it.

Dr Likes is very likeable. He has been honest with me even when the news is disappointing, and he has been kind and funny during our visits. Out of the two doctors I have seen at FCC, he has been my favorite.

Good luck! Dr Likes is a great doctor and I hope you find what you are looking for at FCC.

Dr Likes has increased my protocol several times. I started with just Femara plus Ovidrel, which worked for me previously. He eventually increased me to Femara plus Gonal F plus Ovidrel. He has changed my dosage of Femara and Gonla F twice.

Many of my visits were covered by Tricare as diagnostic.

I felt that Dr Likes made reasonable increases to my medication to ensure a better response without risking multiples.

Dr. Likes is an amazing doctor! I feel completely comfortable and at ease when talking with him about our future plans. He is always willing to listen and hear my concerns as well as answer any questions no matter how simple.

Go into your appointment knowing that Dr. Likes truly cares about his patients! He goes into great detail about how they do things and what to expect. He is willing to take treatments as quickly or slowly as you want. He is simply the best!

We started with just Femara and then slowly added a trigger shot and then added another shot before the trigger shot. After a few months of no results, we decided to try an IUI. After this failed, we decided to take a break and he was fully supportive!

All doctors appointments and treatments are expensive, but they tell you all costs up front if possible

We immediately liked Dr Likes. He painted a realistic picture of our scenario and what our results may be. He was confident and straightforward. He said our treatment plan was like a ladder and we needed to figure out which rung to start on and if that didn't work to move to next rung. Fortunately his plan worked and we are currently pregnant with our second child.

Listen to what they have to say but be optimistic that good things can happen even if they don't seem likely. Everyone's body is different.

We would start a round with femera on days 3-7 of my cycle, Ovidrel 150IU days 7-10. We would go in for an ultrasound to check the follicle size and stimulate with Gonal F that same day.

Dr likes is knowledgeable about the most recent advances and will give you his very honest opinions on treatment options, even if this clinic doesn't offer them. He is compassionate but will also be truthful for when he thinks it is time to move forward with a new plan. He keeps track of all of his patients, knows who is cycling, and even knows his IVF patient's beta test date off the top of his head. I always know what to expect and what we should do to move forward. I can't say enough good things about him.

We did a FET cycle. Suppressed with bcp and lupron. Added in miniville patches and estrace. Then PIO and Crinone. We thawed our previously frozen embryos for PGS testing. All made it through thaw, biopsy, refreeze, and thaw again. I think that embryologist and lab are very good at this clinic.

He has a way of putting you at ease and not making you feel broken. You feel he genuinely cares and only wants the best for your family. He always made sure that my husband felt great as well and always gave him suggestions and information when he was feeling down. You feel like he is your best friend in addition to your doctor.

He is the best doctor you can go with esp if you want constant information and details.

He had me on a different course then a previous fertility doctor. The medicine and dosage he gave me and my husband were the best results we saw. He also figured out things that the other doctor never did in the 2 years we were going to them.

At the time of seeing dr. likes my insurance that I had at the time covered a good bit

Likes was nice but I never really had a true understanding of the plan for me. I had good results but never any baby until two months after I was done. I also had to get the mess myself which was added stress

Make sure you do research ahead of time

Did the other version of chlomid for two months and then injections for two months

My insurance did not cover any of my treatments and my medicines were about $1000 a month for injections the ultrasounds were about $350

He is a great listener and was very thorough, I didnt seem rushed at all. Nothing negative to say he was great. Didnt push me at all to do treatment. And was able to help without a bunch more tests. Kind of gave me a reason why this was happening when others couldn't.

Be honest

All I did was take fermera vecause I had been taking chlomid for so long w another Dr with no success. Along with timed intercourse. He wanted me to try an IUI but because of cost we just couldnt do it,

More affordable than previous dr but still too much for us

He had a great bedside manner. Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford his services without insurance. He ran all of the preliminary tests to verify that I’m fact I had Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). He explained things so I understood but where I didn’t feel like I was being treated like an idiot.

Have an open mind and be prepared for the costs.

He performed basic blood tests and then moved on to a round of Femara. When the Femara did not work, the next step was injections.

We are without insurance, therefore procedures, medications, and doctor visits were very expensive. We discontinued treatment because we could no longer afford it.

Dr Likes is an excellent doctor. He is thorough, compassionate, and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend him to any of my friends or family. He thoroughly walked me through every step of the process. He realized my fears and did anything he could to try to relieve them. He was always available for questions

Be patient and ask lots of questions!

My insurance covered a good bit so I paid around $3000 for my IVF cycle. I believe the quoted out of pocket cost was around $15,000