Daniel Levine

I believe that Dr. Levine is genuine but I do think it's difficult as a patient to understand him. It's the way he delivers information that is hard to understand. I think he needs to slow down and speak in more generic terms that people hearing not so great news would better be able to understand.

To make sure you have him slow down and write everything down. He doesn't explain things the way someone without a medical degree would understand. He also speaks very quickly.

Hudson Valley Fertility is such a small clinic that the entire staff knows your name the second you walk in the door. They talk to you and hear you and it's appreciated.

We froze my eggs in January. Put me on prenatals and BC in August and started my fertility meds for a transfer in early September. They did rapid PGS testing the night before my retrieval and when I got to the office for my retrieval they told me all my embryos were abnormal and we couldn't proceed.

The nursing staff when is wonderful. They know your name the second you walk in the door and make you feel at home by engaging in conversation. Its really nice to feel so comfortable.

The strengths of the clinic are the ease of getting an appointment, how quickly they take you in, I never waited more than 10 minutes for any appointment. The staff is so friendly. The weaknesses are the lack of understanding Dr. Levine's process of how he wants to handle the cycle in detail. The inability to get someone on the phone in the clinical department if you really needed to talk to someone. And billing can of course be a bit sporadic. They do give you a really thorough breakdown of your entire cycle and print it for you which is great.

13,500 for one full IVF cycle. $50 monthly for sperm storage. PGS testing $350 an embryo.

Dr. Levine is very compassionate, explanatory, friendly, and has a great great bedside manner. He makes himself available for many of the appointments personally. He doesn't sugar coat the odds. He does ample testing to cover all bases. He, personally, has performed most of my IUI's (a few were done by his P.A.), all of my saline sonograms, hysteroscopies/D&C's, ERA, and my IVF retrieval/transfer. If you don't want to be passed between many different doctors, this is the place. He adjusts treatments frequently based on lab work and ultrasounds. His lab had phenomenal results for us using ICSI and growing out my poor aging eggs to blastocyst stage for PGS testing. If I had to pick a few downsides, I'd say it's that they barely have a donor egg/embryo program and the little that is available seems much more expensive than other places.

Ask lots of questions. Take notes after each appointment. Speak up if you're uncomfortable or don't understand any procedure.

Most of the staff were extremely friendly and knew us by name. Very supportive during breaking bad news.

I have PCOS so I always had a decent amount of follicles/eggs during IUI cycles and IVF. I am also AMA. Dr Levine was always careful to balance meds and not overstimulate. Our very first IUI cycle (many years ago) was cancelled due to fast response to meds and far too many follicles to procede with IUI. All of my meds for IUI were either Follistim alone (150-225iu per day), or a combination of either Letrozole 5mg (or Clomid 100mg) and Follistim together. For IUI we occasionally used 250mcg Ganarellix for a few days to hold off ovulation and let follicles catch up with others. For every IUI we used 250mg Ovidrel as the trigger. Every cycle we used progesterone suppositories during the luteal phase. For our one IVF cycle, we used 225iu of monopur for 11 days and 225iu of Follistim/Gonal F concurrently for 11 days. For 5 of the 11 days, we also used Ganarellix 250iu. We used a half dose trigger of 5,000iu of Pregnyl to lessen the risk of OHSS since my estrogen was high (over 5,000) and I had approx 27 follicles. We used cabergoline after retrieval to avoid OHSS also. On day 14 we had 22 eggs retrieved. 15 were mature and 2 more were able to be matured in the lab for a total of 17. All 17 fertilized with ICSI. At day 3 we still had 17 embryos. (9 grade 1; 5 grade 2; and 3 grade 3). By day 5 we had 3 AA blastocysts that were biopsied for PGS and then frozen. At day 6 we had 3 more blastocysts (grade BB) that were biopsied for PGS and then frozen. The other 11 embryos were either low quality C blasts or deteriorated and stop growing. We had 1 PGS normal blast and 1 inconclusive blast from the testing. The other 4 had monosomies, trisomies, or multiple chromosomal errors. 7 months later we transferred both blastocysts. The 7 month delay was from me needing a few procedures on my uterus and also having 2 transfers cancelled due to lining issues and unexpected bleeding. For lining prep and during and after transfer we ultimately used BCP, Lupron, Estrace orally, Estrace vaginally, estrogen patches, delestrogen injections, progesterone vaginally, progesterone in oil injections, Lovenox, Medrol, and doxycycline. We also used Valium the day of transfer. 1 of our 2 embryos stuck but stopped growing near 5 to 6 weeks. A heavy bleed following shortly after, but I ultimately ended up needing a hysteroscopy/D&C near 10 weeks for a retained gestational sack.

The nursing staff were all extremely friendly and compassionate. Their phlebotomist was excellent and gets blood on the first poke 99% of the time.

I think I've gone thru the strengths already fairly well. One more huge strength is their working with many insurance companies. In addition, they often were able to get many things covered that my insurance claimed were not covered. Also, if they happen to have any sample meds or donated meds around, they'll give you what they can. So I believe some of the weaknesses would be the phone system and return phone calls. I believe a human answering the phone initially for every call would be better than an answering machine routing calls. I also believe there should be an option to speak to a nurse or be put on hold for a nurse (instead of message and call backs eventually). I also think they could use improvement for medication instructions for injections, med storage, and instructions for time of day for meds. Being sent to a generic web site for instructions that aren't the exact meds or exact needle delivery system wasn't very helpful. A good printed instruction sheet and FAQ for meds frequently used would have been better. I googled things far too often to figure out what I was doing. Even with these few negatives, the positives of Dr Levine's office FAR outweigh the negatives.

Costs were broken up into a million different costs also billed thru insurance. So it's difficult to say what total costs would have been for cash pay. Many options were ala cart and could have been chosen or not depending on your preferences and needs.

Dr Levine runs a very tight ethical ship however he uses common sense and weighs the odds and uses his experience to make sounds decisions with number of embryos transferred. Before we knew how many embryos I would get (remember I'm advanced maternal age) he was leaning towards transferring a couple (2-4) day 3 embryos. When we had 17 day 3 embryos we decided to grow out to day 5 and go along with my husband and my desire to PGS test. When we had 1 PGS normal and 1 inconclusive blastocyst, Dr Levine was supportive of our choice to transfer 2 back in.

I saw dr Levine during the very first part of our 5.5 year journey with infertility and then we moved out of state. I saw Dr. Levine over the course of about 2 years (maybe 1.5) and we were just in the beginning stages of figuring things out. My husband and I weren’t ready to try IUI (we were still in disbelieve that WE couldn’t get pregnant) and so Dr Levine ordered/ performed some of the basic diagnostic tests. Through him, we had bloodwork done, I had a hysterosalpingogram, and I had a saline infused sonogram. Everything came back normal and our next step was going to be to try Clomid on it’s own for a few months. However, we moved to Seattle and didn’t even get that far with Dr Levine. The basic work up with Dr Levine was fine. Nothing stellar or exceptional - but I felt fine and taken care of to a comfortable level.

Ask questions about everything? Why this drug and not that one? Why do I need this? How will it help with conceiving a baby or figuring out the problem.

I only did the beginning work with him. He suspected endometriosis and I had a hysterosalpingogram and a saline infused sonogram. However, I was never diagnosed with endo with him and he never performed or suggested a laparoscopy. His next step with me was going to be Clomid.

Kind. Helpful. Compassionate.

HVF worked with us only at the beginning stages of our infertility, but I saw Dr Levine more than I saw my doctor here in Seattle at the clinic that I had 4 IUIs. He was kind, knowledgeable, to the point.

The state of NY had good coverage for teachers and infertility. Most of my expenses were paid for as long as they were pre approved. This was a hassle, but now that I live in a state with zero coverage, I realize i should have been more thankful!!! As a teacher in NY, I was allotted $25,000.00 for fertility treatments. We just weren’t ready to do IUI or ivf then. Kicking myself now ...3.5 years later living in Seattle with $0 coverage!!!!

I felt as though it was more about money than the treatment. I wish he did the iui's, not the assistant. Dr Levine seemed like he understood my situation but, I had to ask for some of the testing to be done. I wish I had more of an explanation for my conditions also.

Ask questions. Ask for him to perform the procedures.

Dr Levine was never present for the iui's. He was the "talker" that would try to sell IVF (in my opinion).

I think it was very busy but, I would've liked them to answer in a reasonable amount of time.

Ask all questions when you're there. It's hard to get answers otherwise. I wish I was told that I had to lay down after inserting the progesterone

Most were covered under insurance but, I was charged incorrectly twice