Dr. Chavkin was very informative and transparent throughout the entire procedure. While her nurses handled all of the emails, if and when an emergency arose, she'd answer personally. Same with questions, we'd ask the nurses a million questions, and they'd run it by Dr. Chavkin for an answer, and we'd get guidance/direction by nightfall. My wife and I elected to have Reciprocal IVF, which meant we were both under her care. She took really good care of both of us and kept us level-headed, calm, and was completely honest with probability rates.
The clinic [HRC Fertility] has multiple offices and is huge. There are many times where it feels like the left-hand has no idea what the right-hand is doing. It's even worse because you know if you CC the doctor on emails, the doctor doesn't read emails (which she was clear about when we started)... our first [nurse] was a disaster...majority of our emails to her went unanswered, including an email about whether a donor's sperm was compatible w/ our genetic profile. We went ahead and bought sperm without their approval (gamble, but worth it), and thank goodness we did because he ran out of stuff by the time the clinic/Dr. realized that Stephanie never forwarded our emails.
How was your experience with Diana Chavkin at HRC Fertility?
Dr. Chavkin is a doctor from NY who was a teacher in the public school system, has undergone fertility treatment, and a woman. We connected over that, and the fact that she's undergone fertility treatment herself meant that she understood what we were going through. It is so important to work with someone who can empathize with their clients because she was able to reassure us when we had a million worries and questions. She didn't blunt difficult stats, but she made sure we knew all of our options before moving ahead.
She was also incredibly patient to make sure that our eggs were ready for retrieval rather than waste a cycle by attempting to retrieve too early. I really appreciated that.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Diana Chavkin at HRC Fertility?
Bring all of your questions with you and don't be afraid to ask Dr. Chavkin when you see her for a consult. Her visits are REALLY fast (which some folks may not like), but when you have her attention, you HAVE her attention.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Diana Chavkin at HRC Fertility?
Dr. Chavkin was very informative and transparent throughout the entire procedure. While her nurses handled all of the emails, if and when an emergency arose, she'd answer personally. Same with questions, we'd ask the nurses a million questions, and they'd run it by Dr. Chavkin for an answer, and we'd get guidance/direction by nightfall.
My wife and I elected to have Reciprocal IVF, which meant we were both under her care. She took really good care of both of us and kept us level-headed, calm, and was completely honest with probability rates.
Describe the protocols Diana Chavkin used in your cycles at HRC Fertility and their degree of success.
This was our first time trying to conceive and she was clear that once we had a good egg (one that survived to create an embryo and pass PGS testing), we had a 60-70% likelihood of live birth. Our first retrieval (Birth control first, then Menopur, Gonal F, Cetrotide, and Pregnyl) resulted in 10 eggs retrieved, with one testing normal (we're AMA). Second retrieval, same protocol, resulted in about 16 eggs, again, with one testing normal (it's on ice).
We transferred the first good egg into me (I had to inject HCG to prep and some progesterone to prepare my body for the FET), and had the 2nd retrieval happen the same week (same protocol).
Once I received a confirmed pregnancy, the protocol was Crinone 8%, Progesterone-in-oil, estrace, and pre-natals through week 13. Currently at 14 weeks.
Describe your experience with your nurse at HRC Fertility. (Assigned nurse: Joanna Truong)
I want to be clear, our first nurse, Stephanie was a disaster. Apparently, when we first started, Stephanie was in the midst of quitting (or getting fired), but a majority of our emails to her went unanswered, including an email about whether a donor's sperm was compatible w/ our genetic profile. We went ahead and bought sperm without their approval (gamble, but worth it), and thank goodness we did because he ran out of stuff by the time the clinic/Dr. realized that Stephanie never forwarded our emails.
Once Joanna took over, it was a complete 180. She was thorough, clear, and on-top of emails. Not only did she send us emails telling us what to do/expect, she also called (my phone AND my partner's phone) to make sure we got everything. She's fantastic and sweet, and really thoughtful.
Well done!
Describe your experience with HRC Fertility.
The clinic has multiple offices and is huge. There are many times where it feels like the left-hand has no idea what the right-hand is doing. It's even worse because you know if you CC the doctor on emails, the doctor doesn't read emails (which she was clear about when we started). Once I complained very very clearly to our Fertility Advocate (we were using Progyny to manage billing and care), things got sorted out very quickly.
The other weakness is with their biller, Jamie. Sure, we're on Progyny, and we didn't have to think about insurance stuff at all, but there were several instances where they forgot to submit approvals, which led to some stressful days when we weren't sure if certain meds would be covered by Progyny or if we'd have to pay out of pocket first (which we could afford, but it was still confusing). I remember asking Jamie about certain approvals, and she'd say Progyny would take a few days to approve/respond, but then I'd go home and do it myself and get it approved within 24 hours.
You'll need to stay on top of things and advocate on your own behalf. It is incredibly important for you to confirm things via email.
Also, the surgical center is owned by HRC. It's not disclosed anywhere and it probably saves you money to stay in their system, but it feels like self-dealing and feels shady. It's not an awful surgical center, and it's easy to let the clinic manage all of that. I don't know what they billed or how much cost of care for retrieval/transfers are, and I don't know if the doctor would've performed the procedure elsewhere, but wish they were upfront about that at the beginning.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Diana Chavkin at HRC Fertility.
Progyny covered everything after our deductible (about $2800) except for Crinone.. fair market value for that stuff is $1000+ for a 1 month supply. I think I paid $400-600 for 2 boxes a month.
Describe Diana Chavkin's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at HRC Fertility.
Dr. Chavkin is very clear that they only do single embryo transfers unless there's a reason to transfer more than one. I don't have a history of miscarriages, so there was no reason to transfer more than 1.. and since we only got 1 egg the first time, it wasn't much of a discussion.
What specific things went wrong at HRC Fertility?
- Lost appointments
- Failed to call with results
- Failed to inform you of changes in protocol
- Provided conflicting information
- Failed to convey critical information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at HRC Fertility.
This was all when we had Stephanie as our nurse coordinator. She failed to pass our donor's genetic info along for approval despite us telling them we needed answers w/in 72-hours because of low donor sperm availability. We went ahead and purchased the sperm anyway (a potential $4000 throwaway if the doc said no).
I finally contacted the clinic by phone and email 10 days later demanding to know why we didn't get a response, and the doc/nurse said they never got our messages, and that our nurse no longer worked there. While I can understand why they may have been unable to access Stephanie's emails (not sure why a company wouldn't keep an employee's email open until they reviewed all emails for urgency), we CCed the doctor on those emails.
The very same day, we got "approval" to buy sperm.
Did I mention that they required us to buy CMV negative sperm because my partner, the non-gestational parent, tested CMV negative? As someone who was pre-med, I asked them why we had to pick someone CMV negative when I, the gestational partner, tested CMV positive. Joanna, the new nurse, said I was right and we didn't have to limit our choices.
Folks, the sheer # of donors who are CMV negative is exponentially smaller than the pool of CMV positive donors. Not only were we forced to purchase sperm w/o approval, but we were initially limited to a smaller gene pool too. Granted, we picked a donor who we felt was the best (out of both CMV-/CMV+ groups), it would've been a lot less stressful to have accurate information from the start.
We also had one day where they forgot to book an appointment for us despite telling us we had to show up on a certain day, so they had to move it to another day. Considering that fertility treatment is time-sensitive (medicine is doled out to trigger precise bodily changes to prep for retrieval), we were completely aghast that they forgot. We had our appointment moved to the next day, but we were terrified that we may have missed a cycle and re-do/wait for another month.
Similarly, for our second retrieval, it wasn't clear when we were supposed to use the trigger shot. We were told of a potential retrieval date, but the doctor told us we may need to delay it because some of the eggs didn't look ready. However, no one told us this meant that the retrieval and trigger dates had to be switched too. Thankfully, we called the on-duty doctor for clarification. On-duty doctor contacted Dr. Chavkin, who emailed/called us immediately to let us know what to do and what not to do.
7
Clinic
HRC Fertility
West Los Angeles
