Darcy Broughton

Dr. Broughton makes is really great during exams and make you feel comfortable. She's a straight shooter, but manages to communicate sometimes difficult information/news with compassion. I never felt like she sugar coats things--she always backs up her recommendations with statistics/science, which I appreciate. When my egg retrieval netted one abnormal embryo and we were devastated, she laid out alternatives for us along with chances of success. We ended up going with the donor route. The clinic requires medicated cycles--I wasn't happy about that, but rolled with it. Sadly, two FETs failed, and Dr. Broughton was 100% willing to change protocol for both my ERA cycle and the following transfer. That mean a great deal and provided some hope. Separately, she's a skilled surgeon and is the only doctor out of 3 who was actually able to remove a persistent fibroid and scar tissue.

All the doctors are busy at Pacific NW Fertility. Come prepared with questions and Dr. Broughton will make sure she answers them.

For my first egg retrieval, I did an antagonist protocol and I had two follicles that were too far out front and the rest didn't catch up. We did a late cancel and tried an IUI instead. This was unsuccessful. Knowing that I start recruiting follicles quickly, Dr. Broughton shifted my next cycle to a luteal start, which lead to more even growth. I got 10 eggs, 6 mature, 4 fertilized, 0 normal. After meeting with Dr. Broughton, we understood if we cycled again, we'd have about a 20% chance of a normal embryo. We went the donor route, and the clinic requires that donor FET cycles are medicated vs. natural. I cycle regularly, so I was really disappointed to learn this. The first FET failed, and we added baby aspirin for the second, which was a "roll in," meaning I didn't have to do birth control and Lupron before starting estrace patches, and could just start with estrogen. This FET also failed, so Dr. Broughton recommended an ERA and another hysteroscopic surgery to make sure my uterus was OK. It turned out at had a few adhesions, and I was 12 hours pre-receptive, so the testing was worth it. We also looked at endometritis and did ReceptivaDX for endometriosis to cover all the bases--both of those text were negative. I can go into my third transfer with more confidence.

We initially qualified for the multi-cycle plan, but ended up shifting to donor program after our failed IVF cycle. We paid out of pocket, and I think we put down about $27,000 for the initial plan. Transfers at the clinic are $4500-5600. It's not cheap, but that's no surprise.

My doctor/clinic will only do single embryo transfers.

Overall, it felt like like this doctor did not care about me as a person. She didn’t feel present with regards to my treatment, she didn’t return my calls in a timely manner, my treatment plan was the same month after month. When I wanted to find out a timeline to resume treatment post miscarriage, I only seemed to get calls back re things that could be sold to me.

You will need to advocate strongly for yourself if you don’t feel confident in your treatment plan; I didn’t feel like she was engaged with mine, personally. Set expectations re communication- her perception of an appropriate response time might not align with yours (it certainly did not with mine)

Letrozole. Triggered basically the same time each month though my cycles are variable (and my current doctor does not).

N/A

Dr Broughton has been very understanding and very caring about our situation and what we have went through. She is finding answers for us. She is very knowledgeable and very educated. I love that she has a very extensive background with the female body. I trust her completely. She takes the time to let me talk and answers al my questions.

You are in good hands! Trust the process and the journey.

Dr Broughton took the time to go through our whole history with us and each round we went through step by step. We did a round with her and she kept track of my body and how it was reacting. She noticed my lining was thick so she suggested we do a sis procedure and sure enough we found a polyp that was keeping my lining so thick. So we did a hysteroscopy and now we are waiting for Aunt Flo to show up so we can start another round of iui with trigger Letrozole and follistim. She also adjusted the meds and amounts daily. We are very hopeful.

They do there best to help with billing insurance for things that are infertility and not infertility related. My insurance covers nothing with infertility so when we do my hsg or my sis procedure or my hysteroscopy all of those things get covered by insurance because they are not infertility and labs. So every little thing helps!

Dr. Boughton kept us well aware of where we stood in the process and helped us to understand our chances of success. She was very concerned about side effects of the medication and checked in me frequently.

I think all of the doctors at PNWF are lovely, but Dr. Broughton appears to be the one who works with LGBT folks the most, which was nice for us.

Our insurance did not cover anything, so each blood draw during the ovarian stimulation was $115. The IVF total was about $23,000, PGTA testing was another $3,500. Each IUI was $376. We ordered our medication from outside pharmacies.

Dr. Broughton is very honest and doesn't try to create false expectations. She has a friendly and warm demeanor but she is not cloying or over the top. When my stimulation cycles started being not successful she adjusted the treatment.

Ask all the questions you want and don't be afraid to ask for what you want or need.

The first four IVF cycles were without clomid or estrace. Estrace lead in clomid flare antagonist IVF.

Most of my costs are being covered by insurance. The cost of a regular IVF cycle billed to insurance is around $19,332.00, plus copays and all.

We haven't talked about it.

I began seeing Dr. Broughton after Dr. Swelstad left the clinic (I liked him too and sad that he left). This was during my treatment after failed IUIs and we were ready to start considering IVF as the next step. My first impression was she was very warm and cheerful and seemed genuine. (I've had other doctors that have a robotic/fake friendly personality and this was not the case with Dr. Broughton). Although, I liked Dr. Swelstad (male), I felt I could be more open with Dr. Broughton. I haven't felt pressured to do any of the various treatment options and she always takes time to answer questions. For example, when my husband and I were trying to decide if we wanted to do ICSI vs. traditional IVF, she was clear about the probable outcome but didn't push one way or the other in our case. I am still in treatment with Dr. Broughton (awaiting FET).

Don't expect to see her at every appointment. I was also surprised that she was not the doctor that performed my egg retrieval. I was not bothered by this, but some might. Personally, I thought it was interesting to see what the other doctors at the clinic were like.

I have unexplained infertility so I assume I'm on the standard IVF protocol. During my stim cycle (for egg retrieval), things were moving along on the slower side. About halfway through, she decided to increase Follistim to the highest dosage (450) and I continued stimulation for 14 days (longer than average). I did end up getting 20 eggs, but the process ended with only one embryo suitable for transfer. Dr. Broughton recommended another round of IVF to try for more embryos, and although this I what I would like to do, I cannot afford that option. Since we just have one embryo, Dr. Broughton recommended an ERA test (mock transfer cycle where a biopsy of the uterine lining is done) before we move forward with the actual FET. We are about to begin the ERA cycle in the next week.

In my situation, I've had to pay about 95% out of pocket. A small portion of some of the various tests were covered by my insurance. An IUI is about $400, not including meds (I think I spent about $500 per cycle on meds). One cycle of IVF is about 19k and genetic testing on the embryos is about 4k. This does not include medications for the IVF cycle, which were about 6k. The FET is about 5k, with about $500 in medications. Considering all these treatments, plus the various tests, I would say I've easily spent 30k, and I haven't even had a transfer yet.

We only have one embryo so this is not applicable.