Edward Ditkoff

Dr Ditkoff is a great fertility doctor. I trust his professional opinion, however his bedside manner could be better. He was dismissive of some of my questions, once actually rolling his eyes, which I’m sure he did not notice but I sure did. Something else I didn’t like was that he was rude to staff.

Make a list of questions and follow up questions before meeting with him. He is on the blunt side so if you need a softer touch speak to the nurses who are great and can answer most of your questions about procedures and what to expect.

Dr. Ditkoff discussed possible treatments before and after diagnostic testing. He gave me as much information about my chances with different treatment options as I think he could based on my results. We ended up deciding to try three cycles of IUI before moving on to IVF.

My insurance covered all diagnostics and medications. I paid around $450 per IUI procedure, not including monitoring.

He was very personable. He took the time to speak to me and not st me and he didn’t make me feel like I was just another number. He genuinely cares about his patients and what they are going through. When I expressed concern during my treatments, he made sure that they were addressed and if something needed to be changed or there was something he could do to make treatment easier he helped.

Make sure that if you have questions to have them ready to ask him. If you don’t ask a question they will assume you are ok. Express all concerns because he is very good at explaining everything.

Very well done, they schedule your appointment time and you are always taken back within 5 min of your appointment time

The IVF cost $3,900, and the monitoring cost $800 on top of that.

They ultimately give you the option of how many embryos you want to transfer but they suggest one.

I thought he was very kind. He knew about me and what I was there for. He explained Everything he was doing and also gave me the opportunity to make my own Decision of how many embyro to transfer. He made sure I was comfortable.

Trust in him

We chose to transfer one embryo after discussing the option of transferring two. I had lipids before hand along with bloodwork. I had a warm blanket and was in a very nice relaxing room. He explained to me when he was starting the procedure, what to expect and he showed me on the u/s screen where he was injecting the embyro. Afterwards he told me that he was finished and what to look for. I stayed on the table for 15 minutes and was on my way.

He was very descriptive and honest

I saw him once right before my retrieval. I was a travel patient and my consultation was with Dr. Kiltz. He was very straightforward and to the point. If total compassion is your thing, he probably wouldn't be the one I would go to. However, the way that CNY works things, you don't see the same Doctor or nurses every time. Once again, they are giving greater amounts of people access to care that would otherwise be beyond their means. That in and of itself makes CNY worth it.

Ask every single question you can think of. Write things down. He's a nice guy, but very straightforward.

I was on an antagonist protocol I believe. I was on 150 Gonal F, 75 Menopur, and .25 of Cetrotide (starting day 3). I triggered with a double Lupron trigger on day 10. I produced about 10-15 follicles, but only had 5 eggs retrieved. I was pretty devastated at this, but 4 out of my 5 embryos were frozen on day 5. Those 4 embryos are graded really good. This was my first medicated cycle of any fertility treatment and I know I'm an easy responder to other medications. I believe the rationale behind my protocol was that we just didn't know much about how I would respond. I maybe have a very mild case of PCOS in my one ovary and my husband has some male factor issues. My blood tests were all pretty normal. This was kind of a basic first protocol to see how I would respond. Luckily, after getting over the fact that I only retrieved 5 eggs, things have worked pretty well. I have yet to transfer anything yet.

We paid $4,500 for our entire IVF cycle. That included monitoring and everything. That was honestly our biggest draw to CNY. We paid just over $3,500 for medications.

I have yet to transfer, however, I know because of my age, they highly encourage you to only transfer one embryo. They will, however, honor your choice and transfer two. They will not, unless under very special circumstances, transfer more than that.

Dr. Ditkoff is compassionate but straight forward which I really appreciate. He is very knowledgeable in his field. During treatments he tried his best to minimize my discomfort. When my first cycle failed he insisted I stay on the same course of treatment which I was not happy about.

Have lots of questions ready! If you do not ask, the doctor will not be forthcoming with information.

I was on a high dose of both Gonal-f and Menopur because of my diminished ovarian reserve. This did not yield good results.

Cycle cost $4,000 and included everything except pgs/pgd testing and medications.

Dr. Ditkoff recommends single embryo transfer but will allow you to transfer two if you want.

He explained the procedure well. He was patient and kind. And he even had a bit of good humor in there! We felt very comfortable and well taken care of! My first transfer was a bit tougher than the second but still a good experience.

He’s a bit dry but he cares and was kind. His humor is there just a little dry that’s all.

I chose donor eggs due to my high FSH & low AMH. I previously had a poor response with only 1 egg of my own that didn’t make it to day 5. That was with my second dr in Dallas. So we tried donor eggs with an auto immune protocol for transfer. First failed and second transfer beta is in 3 days.

We used donor eggs and paid a flat rate of $9000, which included our first transfer. The second transfer was $1500 & we paid $70 for a acupuncture. Also the intralipids and hcg was were about $200 each time.

He is very knowledgeable and attentive to my concerns. He moves through explainations rather quickly, which in the beginning of treatment was slightly difficult to follow. He is very confident in the treatment he prescribes, even though we do not know what is wrong with my body.

Research before you go for the first time, become familar with fertility terms and abbreviations, ask questions, and don't have concrete expectations (that one is for fertility patients in general).

We did three rounds of IUI with letrozole and trigger. None resulted in pregnancy, despite having multie follicles each cycle. He was confident at consultation that this work by number three. When it didn't, he opined that IUI would likely not work for me and reccomends IVF. I cannot afford IVF right now, so one of the nurses reccomended adding prednisone and ldn this IUI cycle.

Costs are reasonable for the industry. My insurance requires a $40 copay for visits, about $50/cycle for labs, about $100/cycle for non-injectables. The financial team tells me that IVF will cost between $8 and 10k. My insurance does not cover IVF at all.

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Some people may say he can be very business-like, but personally I like that about him. Shows how intelligent he is on the questions you are asking him. He spends as much time with you as you need so you never feel rushed. He is a good communicator. I like having quick access to him via the patient portal message system, or, an appointment to consult with him isn't too far out when I call.

Be ready to be educated, and be ready to hear the truth about your particular situation.

My husband and I suffer from recurrent pregnancy loss. We get pregnant so easily but we have yet to be successful. My CNY cycles have been monitored, letrozole, triggered, timed intercourse. But they have still resulted in losses. I think our next step is IVF with PGS to try and weed out potential bad eggs/sperm.

Fortunately, my care thus far has been covered under my health insurance. However, if I move to IVF, I have no coverage and will have to pay out of pocket.

I have yet to do IVF

He seemed to be very straight forward, he explained what he felt was best for us and even though we choose a fresh transfer he kept informing us that a frozen was better. He explained the risk and benefits to doing a fresh transfer and the risks of using our good eggs for a fresh transfer.

Understand that he isn’t being rude when he explains things he is just making sure you truly understand the risk and benefits of the procedure.

We used gonal and Menopur to help stimulate my follicles to grow. After 3 ultrasounds and bloodwork. They gave me Ganirelix so my folliculles would not release. Once they were the correct size they adviced me to take trigger shot to release the eggs. They put me under and removed the eggs. Starting that day they injected the eggs with my husbands sperm and watched them over 5 days. On day 5 they told me the rate of the eggs. We chose 2 eggs to put in which took 30 minutes. After I layed down for 15 minutes and then rested the next two day.

$3,705 for IVF $250 for intralipids and HCG wash

Dr. Ditkoff was knowledgable, but seemed busy at times. He carefully explained the process I would go through and why he chose the certain medications based on my age and hormone levels. He was helpful in the beginning stages, but once I was actually going through the IVF medicated cycles and heading in for monitoring, I didn't see him at all, only the nurse practitioner. When we had to cancel my cycle because I didn't respond to medication, I thought he would explain why, but he didn't, that was also left up to the nurse.

He spoke very quickly and was somewhat rushed at times. Write down questions to ask him in advance and write down his answers. It's a lot of information that you'll want to look back on.

Estrogen Priming Protocol: omnitrope, estrace IVF: Gonal F, Centrotide, omnitrope

~$3,000 for medications

did not get to that stage

I felt like I had to argue to get a concern across. He was more concerned about me getting Ashkenazi genetics testing, but I am a Sephardi Jew from Iran. He thought I had PCOS and pushed for additional useless tests because I have hirsutism (because I am Middle Eastern) and because my 70+ year old father was diabetic. He dismissed the fact that I was previously treated by a previous RE for elevated prolactin and didn't wish to treat me for the issue, even though I came in to see him with evidence of elevated prolactin. I ended up leaving the appointment with my spouse (who is a physician and also felt terrible after the visit), who encouraged me to get my prolactin levels evaluated by a "real" endocrinologist. Instead of Dr Ditkoff simply prescribing me cabergoline (which was done by my former RE at Columbia), he dismissed actual evidence of an elevated prolactin levels and wasted my time and money. I am paying 100% out of pocket because bad insurance, and when we explained that our time and money are valuable, and want to try to explain our insurance issues with him, he simply stated he doesn't know anything about how insurance works and someone else can talk to me about it. Currently, I am under the care of an endocrinologist to treat my elevated prolactin levels (which were higher than I thought they would be) and went to Dr Grossman at the same clinic for a second opinion. I wouldn't recommend Dr Ditkoff to anyone.

If you don't feel like he's truly listening and you think you're being dismissed, you probably are.

We saw him for our initial visit only. We mutually agreed to pursue IVF as we did not want to risk twins with IUI or clomid alone. No discussion of protocol was had during our initial visit.

I only saw him for initial visit which was covered for free as we were out of pocket. Bloodwork was $25 per lab value. Saline sonogram was approx $270.

He did not have preference but seemed to respect is wanting to only transfer 1 embryo as we do not want twins.

He explained what he knew well and made sure I was comfortable before procedures. He was not warm and patient when I had miscarriages. He did not offer any further steps as far as embry testing or any further blood testing.

I would say to ask a lot of questions.

My cycles with him were typical ivf. He didn’t offer anything like embryo testing or donor eggs or sperm or anything when I had miscarriages or unsuccessful transfers.

The three IUI cycles I don’t remember the cost. I know my insurance covered most of the cost of the Chlomid. For the ivf, we purchased two cycles around $6000, plus the cost of medications and needles, which was around $4000.

He preferred to transfer no more than two at once.

From the first visit I didn’t care for him. He has no “bedside” manner or compassion. He only wanted to do the most expensive treatment from the very beginning and when my husband and i asked about other options he said “well we can try but it won’t work”. This was just the first visit. If I could’ve seen another doctor in this clinic it may have been different but this is who was accepting new patients, and where my insurance was in-network with so we didn’t have any other option.

Beware, he doesn’t listen and he doesn’t pay attention to medication regimens. You will end up paying a lot more in the long run.

There was no strategy. He didn’t pay attention to the results of my monitoring, therefore my meds were never titrated up, and because of this we did not even get to an embryo transfer. Once we transferred clinics that dr even said “are you sure this wasn’t an IUI cycle? These med regimen is not for IVF!”

Fortunately we had insurance that covered most of it, however we later found we were informed incorrectly. Fortunately for us the clinic had to eat the mistake.

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Dr Ditkoff is an Excellent doctor who was kind and compassionate. Proficient with surgery and seemed to care. Answered all questions and gave hope in a troubling time with uncertainty. He is now helping us with our next step in the journey with a gestational carrier

Have questions ready to go, because he is busy and only has so much time. But he answers each and every question kindly and with medical expertise of 25+ years

High Dose meds to stimulate ovaries to produce more eggs

I did many cycles but overall each cycle was about $5500-7500 including embryo biopsy, monitoring and PGS testing

He recommended one single transfer which seems reasonable

He talks fast, but is upfront and honest. He has chatted with me through all my transfers which helps put me at ease. I have not had any follow up with him as other doctors in the clinic have consulted with me regarding my failed transfers. He will come in and make sure you are comfortable and will confirm the procedure and embryos that will be transferred. He is also very helpful when questions are asked.

If you don’t understand him, ask him to repeat himself.

These changes aren’t necessarily recommended by Dr Ditkoff as I have had instructions from the other drs at CNY. We added immune protocol, hcg wash, prp, and intrelipids. This next transfer we are trying Lupron because my local clinic refuses to do a lap procedure.

They were less expensive than most IVF clinics. There aren’t any hidden costs.

He makes sure you understand everything before moving on to the next step. He makes sure you/your body are in the best shape possible in order to achieve the goal! He returned calls and portal messages within a timely matter.

He’s not super warm and fuzzy. But I always feel comfortable. He explains exactly what’s going on and what the end goal of that would be

We are still in the process. When we did our first testing month I found out I needed a 2nd surgery to remove scar tissue from the 1st. He referred me to the same Dr as it was someone he trusted. He encouraged me to have it done so my uterus was in the best possible shape before starting ivf. He was happy to meet with me asap after surgery to pick up where we left off

Ivf is roughly $4,000 not including medications or labs. The flat rate includes retrieval, “mixing” embryos and sperm and 1 insemination.

CNY provides an affordable option for those who otherwise couldn't afford it.They are good at what they do and have a high volume of patients. Dr. Ditkoff was timely with our phone consult and very kind through retrevial.

Be open, ready to pay attention to your charts, bloodwork, and you will be fine. Having gone through IVF at another clinic already I knew more than a first patient would. Probably would be overwhelmed if I had to do it first time through CNY so ask questions and use the portal to your advantage.

300 gonul, 150 menopur, and double lupron trigger! Results was 11 embryos made it to day 5 all send for PGS testing 3 normal, 1 low level mosaic, 1 abnormal. 2 transfers of normal embryos resulted in negative pregnancy test.

3,900 IVF 150 out of town monitoring 2,000 PGS testing 5 embryos 750 Biopsy CNY of 5 embryos 250 per transfer ×2 50 HCG wash 100 embryo glue

They definitely push for one, which with PGS embryos agree with!

Dr Ditkoff is very straight to the point/direct with his demeanor. He is informative and realistic about the chances of conceiving. He is willing to try new techniques and autoimmune protocol to help with implantation.

Just understand he is direct but he will do anything to help.

We used high dosage gonal 450 and menopur 150 for the first retrieval. The subsequent retrievals we tried low dose gonal 150 and menopur 75 with better results

I had ultrasound monitoring at a local clinic, not at CNY.

Consultation was free. IVF cycles are 3900 which does not include monitoring.

I have not tried a transfer yet

If you’re looking for warm and fuzzy, this isn’t the doctor for you. He’s super knowledgeable and a good doctor but he’ll tell you straight up facts, no sugar coating, no cheering squad. He is a man of few words that gets procedures done efficiently and effectively. You either love him for his candid approach or hate him for lack of bedside manner.

Be ready to get the facts; if you can’t handle the facts get a different doctor.

I’m a travel patient so I monitored elsewhere.

IVF was $3900 which included FETs for a year, embryo storage for a year, ICSI and egg retrieval

pleasant friendly and have good knowledge of the industry. you can turn to him for advise. the whole clinic in albany seems to put his advise first. he remembers previous conversations with you even if a year has gone by.

make sure you are prepared with questions as all doctors are busy.

1st retrieval, he recommended fet. my 2nd retrieval didn’t go well. all 3 embryos arrested before the blast. dr. ditkoff now has me on a priming protocol to try to help me have eggs with more quality next cycle.

costs are fair. within market.

they don’t tell me what to do, it’s ultimately my decisions. but they will tell me the risk of having twins if we transfer 2 embryos.

While he was informative, he was not an encouraging person throughout the process. When our cycle didn't work, we didn't hear from him to discuss other options. So he did give us a lot of initial information, which was helpful, but then he basically disappeared when we began the process. Then, when it didn't work, he never followed up.

Be prepared with lots of questions because he is knowledgeable, but then also be prepared to have to contact him because he won't contact you.

Estrogen Priming Protocol: omnitrope, estrace IVF: Gonal F, Centrotide, omnitrope

About $3,000 for medicine

Did not get there

I only had phone consult and protocol given by dr Ditkoff. I never spoke to him again during treatment. The nurses called to give me updates and i was under the impression that everything was smooth. I was given a standard protocol for my age, i assume.

He is very blunt

I was on 350 gonal f and 150 menopur for 8 days. I ended up with 7 eggs but only 2 were mature enough for fertilization and both made it to day 3 embryos.

3900 for ivf procedure. Additional fee for outside monitoring and financing.

None. I haven't transferred yet because I ended up losing my insurance and job right in the middle of cycle. I still had insurance to complete it thank goodness.

Dr. Ditkoff is straight to the point, no chit chat, all facts and gameplan. He's quick and likes to get the job done efficiently. It seems that he has a lot going on in his head re: patient plans that he doesn't share and I wish he did like his reasoning for specific protocols.

Be prepared for no nonsense and straight face. A little akward at times as well.

$4500 for IVF (monitoring for retrieval and retrieval).