Guy Ringler

Dr. Ringler has performed every procedure, answered every question, and has been willing to go in depth to educate us on what our options are at every step of the way. He also has been completely available and willing to build strategies to accommodate our schedules. He's clearly steeped in the latest science and is incredibly knowledgable (as you would hope) on the subject matter, but more importantly is top notch at explaining things in a way that we understand.

There are so many steps and variable to the fertility process. You can't necessarily expect your doctor to proactively explain everything. Advocate for yourself. Ask the dumb questions (they're not dumb if they're making you anxious). Stay as long as it takes for you to fully understand your options. Dr. Ringler will patiently be there to answer all your questions and advise you on the optimal path.

Dr. Ringler has been an absolute professional throughout our process with him. He has not sugarcoated anything, but has also been very encouraging and emotionally supportive. He is a reserved guy, but it's clear that he loves helping people and what he does everyday. It translates to the thoughtfulness of his approach.

We have a pretty straight forward IUI (one failed pregnancy test) and now IVF (awaiting transfer). Other than the small tweaks and adjustments to various hormones, injections and medicines things have been fairly status quo as best I can tell.

We like our lead nurse however the clinic is clearly busy and she must have a lot of cases on her plate because at times communication was not the most clear and required follow-up and clarification. All of the nurses are very friendly and compassionate, but as case managers things can get a little loose. Nothing dangerous or reckless, just sub-optimal for patients trying to navigate this big unknown world of fertility.

The clinic is clean, light-filled and generally pleasant. We enjoy all of our interactions from techs in the lab right up to Dr. Ringler. The only suggestion I have is for the clinic to consider creating templates for communications and instructions for steps in the process that they must inherently have to explain dozens of times every day. Small things, but asking a very busy nurse to write out emails explaining what we need to do versus having an adaptable form with well thought-out and articulated instructions for every step of the process would undoubtedly free up the nurse's time and cut down on confusing email interactions. The nurses are always easy to reach or call right back, so it's not that big an issue but it just seems like low-hanging fruit. One example, post-retrieval Dr. Ringler and staff told us that we would know how many embryos had become blastocycsts on Day 5 and how many would be sent for genetic testing. So Day 5 is clearly a much anticipated day. Our Day 5 landed on a Sunday so the office was closed after noon. We got an email in the afternoon from the lab saying that only one embryo had been sent out for genetic testing leading us to think the worst (Only one?!). No one leading up to that moment had told us the possibility of day 6 embryos so we had to figure that out ourselves on the internet (a harrowing place to educate yourself) and hope the next day would be better news. Turned out it was good news, but that 24 hours of anxiety and unknowing could so easily have been avoided. Those moments really stick with you.

From what I can tell online, it seems prices here a little higher than other clinics in other states, but in Los Angeles they're in line with the market.

Dr. Ringler strongly prefers to do single embryo transfers for the simple reason of the safety and health of both baby and mother. He was open to multiple embryo transfers if we wanted but he stated his preference and rationale for a single persuasively and we agreed.

Dr. Ringler was extemely throrough and pragmatic and helped fix things my former clinic had messed up. He left no stone unturned and because of his diligence, we got pregnant on the first transfer with him after three failures at my previous clinic. He insisted on me seeing his colleague Dr. March for a hysteroscopy who is the uterine specialist that he works with. One of the things I loved about Dr. Ringler was his willingness to bring his colleague in at that moment... he is the opposite of an ego driven doctor. His primary concern was getting us pregnant and not putting me through too much. It was a lot that I had been through already and he always acknowledged that. I wasn’t just a series of procedures, he saw the person going through them. He is OUTSTANDING at doing transfers. Everyone in the clinic mentioned it and I knew what they meant when I had one. It was so easy and perfect.

Ask as many questions as you’d like. You’ll always be taken seriously. If he’s quiet in an exam it’s just because he’s very focused. This is a good thing. :)

Dr. Ringler did every ultrasound himself and always checked in to see how I felt about things and was feeling. He was warm and friendly and genuinely seemed to care about my husband and I. Even though he’s very scientific and measured he was warm and you could feel his genuine compassion for what we were going through.

We did the Yale EFY test to check for timing and other uterine issues. I did a few hysteroscopies with his colleague who removed adhesions most likely left by my former clinic. We did a retrieval to get more embryos since I only had one left from my previous cycle. We PGS tested and put back in the best looking normal embryo and we were successful.

One of the weaknesses was how much my nurse was not there. I saw a mix of nurses and for the most part this was fine but there were a couple of times where they had the wrong info and I had to push to have them check and fix it.

This clinic was organized and not too busy. Always felt calm going there. Excellent financial department and front desk personnel. The phone system was excellent and I always got called back in a timely manner when I left a message. It feels like just the right size clinic to get excellent care and top notch treatment.

They were a little less expensive than my first clinic but on the high end of what the average is.

When I told him we didn’t want twins he said, we would only put one back.

Dr. Ringler is amazing and a consummate professional. We had a number of setbacks throughout the process, which he helped us through as much as possible. For example, there was an early issue with the communication style of one his staff, which was corrected when we switched to another IVF coordinator. We also had one transfer cycle cancelled because of excessive uterine fluid (a uncommon reaction to hormone injections) - which was frustrating because there was no data to tell us whether the problem was likely to recur. Dr. Ringler stuck to the facts, and was patient with our angst over the situation. It all resolved happily, and the grin he flashed at us on the day of transfer is an unforgettable memory from our journey. The only disconnect was that we still don't quite understand whether the survival rate of our frozen embryos was normal: it seems to us that ending up with three surviving embryos when we started with fourteen was not consistent with our expectations.

Understand that Dr. Ringler will only give you the facts, and not definitive recommendations for every decision that needs to be made. And there aren't always going to be data points available for every consideration. But he's a great person and completely trustworthy.

Dr. Ringler was very professional but empathetic throughout the entire process, which was unusually prolonged. He remembered our situation, and ended up not only walking us through the clinical process but also being a professionally subtle part of our emotional journey.

I don't know the protocol details for our egg donor. Our initial prospective surrogate had been exposed to varicella (chicken pox, through her young children) and the strategy was simply to wait for it to clear her system - which took months. She also had uterine polyps, which had to be removed to make her uterine as optimal an environment as possible. It took a few weeks for her to recover. Dr. Ringler had our surrogate begin with Delestrogen injections, with Progesterone injections after ultrasound confirmation. The surrogate that we ultimately ended up with had excessive uterine fluid build up (2.3 mm) leading up to the scheduled transfer. This is apparently an uncommon reaction to the hormone injections (delestrogen), and has been pretty definitively shown to reduce transfer success rates. Dr. Ringler canceled the transfer cycle, started our surrogate on Provera (10mg for seven days), and reduced her initial delestrogen injection levels (from 2mg to 1 mg). He ramped up her delestrogen injection levels to 2mg, which worried us but it turned out that slowly "ramping up" hormone injections kept uterine fluid build up to a minimum.

Donna was efficient and referred us to Dr. Ringler for procedural related questions. There were times where we had to play "phone tag" - but nothing hugely problematic other than the fact that the process can be emotionally trying.

Some nurse coordinators are not as effective communicating as others. Don't be afraid to ask for another - we did and things were much better after.

$6,600 in gestational surrogate medical screening fees. $4,500 in medical fees for one frozen transfer cycle. $2,200 in medications (inclusive of medications for one dropped cycle).

Dr. Ringler will not transfer more than two embryos at once. He very clearly explained the statistical probabilities of success for a one versus two embryo transfer.

I am currently pregnant with our rainbow baby, and without a doubt that is because of Dr. Ringler's determination and persistence in finding answers and trying different approaches. Positives: Extremely thorough and detailed, well researched, compassionate to your situation and the daunting process of infertility Negatives: May not always seem warm and fuzzy, but I think that's because he's so focused on getting it right. After a not-so-great experience with our first fertility doctor, I realized that I need a doctor who can get the job done. My husband can bring the warmth and fuzziness.

Do not expect him to be warm and fuzzy - that's simply not his nature. But he is an expert in the field and he truly cares for the well-being of his patients. He wants to give you a successful outcome, and this goal is clear at every appointment, consultation, procedure, etc.

Dr. Ringler truly took an interest in getting to know my husband and me. You could really sense that he wanted us to be successful and was open to trying all sorts of options to get us our rainbow baby. He s a true miracle worker!

The nurses were absolutely outstanding! My husband and I lost twin girls at 21 weeks after "graduating" from Dr. Ringler. When we returned, everyone was so respectful of our loss and motivated to give us our happy ending. The nurses are always available to you, call you back the same day you leave a message and know your chart. They explain things very clearly and never make you feel like your questions are silly. They are absolutely the backbone of the clinic.

He was very clear about the process. It was up to my husband and myself to handle the emotional roller coaster that is infertility treatment.

Think of the process as a marathon race and each cycle as one mile within your journey to try to reach the finish line.

For a patient this is an emotional process, but for the doctors this is their every day job.

I started infertility treatment in 1992 after I had had two ectopic pregnancies. First we used clomid, but after testing they found I had developed enzymes against sperm after the ectopic pregnancies. So we moved to GIFT which worked after a first pregnancy which was a blighted ovum. Subsequently, I had 5 more GIFT procedures to have a total of three children.

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This was a long time ago. I am sure they have changed.

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