Deborah Ikhena-Abel

Dr Ikhena-Abel is knowledgeable and caring. I trust her because of her attention to detail with my case. I first saw her when I miscarried my second baby and she showed compassion, yet also eager to get going with my case because of my age. She always responds to my emails by taking action.

Be prepared for her schedule to be booked. She’s a wonderful doctor, but access to her is not easy

For our cycle she prescribed a very aggressive medication regime, ICSI and PGS to try and get as many eggs and embryos we could, but also test them to try and minimize another miscarriage

We were not covered by insurance. Each egg retrieval was a new fee. They didn’t over packages with multiple retrievals, which some friends of mine have had in other clinics. They also were not familiar with federal drug savings plans that other friends got through other clinics.

Dr. Abel listens to you and I loved that she did all the monitoring and the procedures. She is very personable and I was transferred to her care after the initial consult with another doctor in the clinic because I wanted to have my cycle earlier. I was on the antagonist protocol and we were initially concerned about the risk of OHSS, which fortunately we avoided. While the cycle ended in a chemical pregnancy, she offered a lot of suggestions on what to do moving forward and was open to suggestions.

Get her from the start if you can. Ask about supplements.

We used the antagonist protocol because I have irregular cycles and a high AMH. I was on BCP 2 weeks at a time for about 3 weeks before starting injectables. We did ICSI although we didn't have MFI. We expected to retrieve a lot of follicles given the monitoring results but we only retrieved 7 eggs, fertilized 5 via ICSI, 2 fertilized normally and ended up with 1 day 5 blastocyst. Fresh transfer.

You are lucky if you get to the Fremont REI early but there were times when I had to wait an hour.

ICSI was an additional $1,500. My HDHP plan covered 1 cycle of IVF and medications.

We only had one embryo to transfer but the clinic prefers eSET.

Overall, Dr. Ikhena-Abel is an excellent doctor. She responds quickly to my questions and is caring about my situation. There have been a few times where she references discussing something in my initial appointment that I don't remember talking about but it was a lot of information in a short amount of time. I was diagnosed with PCOS during my first ultrasound and I wish I could have talked to her more about the implications. It took a while, and a lot of research on my part, to understand what PCOS and anovulation meant for my fertility journey. I appreciate that she and the nurse practitioners changed my protocol each time to try to have a better outcome and that she's been honest with me through each step of the process.

Take copious notes at your first consultation!

1st cycle: Femara 5 mg. days 3-7, IUI 1, failed 2nd cycle: Femara 7.5 mg. days 3-7, 2 days of Menopur ml. at the end of the cycle to try for more than one egg (cancelled) 3rd cycle: Femara 7.5 mg. days 2-6, Menopur 75 ml. days 3-10; IUI #2 with 3 eggs, failed 4th cycle: Femara 5 mg. days 2-6; Menopur 75 ml. days 3-13; IUI #3 with 1 maybe two eggs 5th cycle: Femara 7.5 mg. days 2-6; Menopur 150 ml days 3-4; Menopur 75 ml days 5-9; Menopur 37.5 ml day 10; IUI #4 pending

I have IUI fertility coverage so my generic medication was $7 and my non-generic was $25. My ultrasounds and IUIs are $20 per appointment. I did not pay anything for my HSG or blood tests.

We met Dr. Abel after completing 5 rounds of unsuccessful IUI. We picked Dr. Abel as our IVF doctor. Dr. Abel was professional and knowledgeable and explained the IVF process in detail. We followed her recommended medication dosage and it worked out really well in terms of the number of eggs retrieved. We ended up with 3 blastocytes, the first of which led to our first baby daughter. Immediately after the positive pregnancy test, I thought I had miscarried and immediately reached out to Dr. Abel. She was kind enough to call me and set up an appointment with me the first thing in the morning the next day for an ultrasound. I appreciate her empathy and promptness in reaching out to me. Overall our experience with Dr. Abel has been great and we look forward to reaching out to her for our second attempt :)

Try and follow instructions for the tablets and injectables exactly.

The total cost was about 20k $

She recommended single embryo transfer based on maternal age and likelihood of success