How was your experience with Daniel Rychlik at Southern California Reproductive Center?
Dr. Rychlik has what seems like the experience and accreditation as an endocrinologist, but he seems to not think outside the box and wants every patient to fit his protocol. I don't feel he looks at each patient as an individual person. He was always very polite and kind but he doesn't do well responding to failure or patient concerns. There was no talk about what to do next after 4 failed transfers, it was almost as though he didn't want me as a patient anymore. Maybe it's because I would bring his success rates down? Not sure. He took no responsibility for my failures, so while even though he didn't know what was wrong with me there must be a problem and it couldn't be his protocol. The most frustrating thing was that early on in our first consult I told him is it possible that it is my uterus? He said no way that is just not likely and talked about a study of women who received uterine transplants from post menopause women and they conceived fine. In the end when we had our final failure he basically told me that he thought it was my uterus. He gave me this answer without any testing or diagnostics. Overall Rychlik is a decent man but I can't say we developed rapport so I decided to go elsewhere for a yet another opinion.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Daniel Rychlik at Southern California Reproductive Center?
Push him to give you answers as to exactly what protocol he uses for stimulation and why. Also ask him exactly what he thinks is your infertility diagnosis and if the first transfer fails what next? See if he can provide real data to his success rates and where that proof is on the CDC website.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Daniel Rychlik at Southern California Reproductive Center?
He gave a bunch of metaphors and analogies as though it was scripted. He didn't really want to investigate why I had infertility but instead provided theoretical reasons and that the answer regardless was still IVF. He told me my chances of a successful pregnancy was 85% but we had zero success with Rychlik; also his CDC postings are not near that claim. I miscarried on my first transfer and was devastated, he was oddly optimistic telling me that bleeding could be totally normal, well I told him I was bleeding a lot and cramping. I felt he gave me a false hope and he should have known things were not looking good and been upfront with me. On my last transfer which was a chemical pregnancy he asked me if I had ever miscarried before in another transfer, he didn't even review my chart before giving me the bad news. On that final call he provided no hope, no explanation, and recommended surrogacy. He said he would change nothing in his protocol or wouldn't investigate anything further. I felt like I was going through this totally alone and I had no ally.
Describe the protocols Daniel Rychlik used in your cycles at Southern California Reproductive Center and their degree of success.
Stimulation was with Gonal F and lupron. Transfers were with progesterone and estrogen in form of IM, oral and suppositories. I had a DNC prior to my first transfer as a clean out. Also had an ERA when the 3rd transfer failed.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Southern California Reproductive Center. (Assigned nurse: Rae)
Failed to provide my schedile, failed to give me my transfer time, failed to schedule me locally rather than at the main clinic, failed to tell me she would be my new nurse, failed to tell me how to reach her when she changed emails to a team email, and had a late response on communication. I eventually requested a new nurse. The rest of the nursing staff was fine. The US nurse is a sweetheart and the front desk girl is always a great communicator.
Describe your experience with Southern California Reproductive Center.
The clinic is quick to get you seen and start your protocol. But they had a lot of change while I was there. Both in nursing staff and doctor rescheduling my calendar. Over promise and under deliver in my opinion. Very clean and beautiful state of the art facility. Fairly expensive for IVF, and yet after 4 failed transfers and lots of money spent still charged for my copy of records. If I were to go back to this clinic I would consider seeing Dr. Surrey instead.
Describe your experience with your monitoring appointments at Southern California Reproductive Center.
Had my monitoring don't by a local center.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Daniel Rychlik at Southern California Reproductive Center.
For the first round all in, including the guest transfer was about 25,000. Each transfer after was about 5,000. ERA was about 1,500.
Describe Daniel Rychlik's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Southern California Reproductive Center.
Doctor prefers single transfers.
What specific things went wrong at Southern California Reproductive Center?
- Lost appointments
- Failed to call with results
- Failed to inform you of changes in protocol
- Failed to convey critical information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at Southern California Reproductive Center.
Mainly it was poor communication when changes needed to happen. Early on the Dr. was out of town so they had to move my calendar around after I had already scheduled all my appointments and rearranged my work schedule. Then my nurse failed to call me for my transfer time the next day. My nurse also set me up for all my appointments in the main clinic instead of my local clinic.