Heather Hoff

Dr. Hoff is a sweet person and extremely compassionate. After each loss she called me personally and seemed to commiserate with me and really feel my pain. During my "wins" (one chemical and one miscarriage) we celebrated together my positive betas and was always willing to talk to us if we didn't have positive betas. I felt that she was really on my team when it came to my results. As far as the not-so-good, she was not very proactive regarding our treatment. We had to bring a treatment option to her that was not offered to us and was extremely simple (freezing sperm to mix with a fresh sample for an IUI). Only after doing my own research with my own labs did I discover that I likely have PCOS but this was never diagnosed by Dr. Hoff, nor was it ever brought up in any conversation I ever had with her. Dr. Hoff is an extremely positive person so all of our conversations centered around what could go right in the future, and not what was going wrong right now. It was comforting to have her reassurance but I think I really could have used more professional guidance on the actual problems we were having.

Be your own advocate and research your own treatment options. Ask "why" ALWAYS because she won't tell you or give you a vague answer. A lot of times the answer really is vague, but sometimes it's not....but you aren't given any details.

I felt like Dr. Hoff listened to what I had to say and what I wanted out of treatment, but she also wouldn't give us much direction on treatment. A few times we had to bring ideas to her about treatment options instead of her presenting them to us. It was a little frustrating because we didn't go to medical school for this.

Before cycling I had a hysteroscopy and my husband had a SA to determine where we were. Hoff said my hysteroscopy results came back perfect, but when I looked in my surgery report it said that the biopsy result they took was not positive for inflammation, but contained "pre-inflammation" or something. I was never told this by Hoff as she said everything looked good so I believed her. My husband's SA came back a little less than perfect but she said it was adequate for an IUI even though it had less than 1% morphology. IUI #1-- I used Clomid and regular monitoring. The last monitoring appointment I went to they said I had already ovulated and instructed me NOT to use my Ovidrel trigger but to have sex that evening and then come in for an IUI next day. I did so and during my TWW I used Endometrin vaginally 1x a day. after my TWW I had a positive beta of 16. The next beta it fell to 5, resulting in a chemical pregnancy. IUI #2- Same exact protocol as IUI #1 except I did use my Ovidrel trigger this time. Husband's sample day of IUI was extremely poor. We asked Hoff about this and she said he may have had an infection three months prior. Results were a negative beta. IUI #3- Changed protocols by switching to Letrozole with another Ovidrel trigger. I responded well to the Letrozole. This cycle we brought up the option of freezing samples beforehand and mixing them with fresh samples to get better counts. This resulted in better counts but ended in another negative beta. IUI #4- Protocol was not changed at all and ended in a missed chemical pregnancy (positive HPT but negative beta.) IUI #5- Same as previous protocol. In November of 2018 I became pregnant naturally. I went to see Hoff for my betas and eventual scans. My progesterone was not at the level they wanted so they kept increasing it. Eventually I was on Endometrin 3x daily and oral progesterone 3x daily. No heartbeat ever developed and I had a miscarriage.

I loved the nurses at my branch of HFI (Katy.) They were communicative and really compassionate. I have trouble with vaginal ultrasounds and Vanessa was extremely respectful of this. I felt really comfortable with her doing my scans. The nurses calmed me down a lot when I had problems and were often a better source of quick information than the Internet!

HFI has lots of locations and there was one ten minutes from my house on the way to my office. The offices are nice, new and comfortable. The staff is nice at certain locations. Betas and other news are communicated in a very timely manner and you can trust them to get things done on time. All procedures are performed at the Piney Point location ONLY, so I had to travel into Houston directly every time I had an IUI. That is pretty annoying. They are one of the more expensive clinics in Houston. A single cycle with meds and PGS will run you about $20,000 - $30,000. The payment options are meager at best. The financial team is the most frustrating part of HFI. They mean well but come off as unhelpful and judgemental if you can't afford to pay outright for IVF or even afford a payment plan through one of their third party providers. It's extremely disheartening to deal with them.

IUIs were about $1,500 each and meds were another $300-400.

No embryo experience with Hoff.

I really like how nice is Dr. Hoff. I am not sure the treatment always makes a lot of sense.. but maybe it is too early to tell. As a researcher, I tend to read many peer-review articles about fertility so sometimes I have hard time understanding some of the decision Dr. Hoff makes.

Make sure to ask for all the potential negative effects of using a drug or a specific treatment.

She is very warm but I feel like I talk more with the nurses than with my doctor which makes me feel a little bit like I am just a number.

Last cycle we decided to use drugs to enhance the size of the eggs... my body did totally the opposite but Dr. Hoff still went ahead with IUI (even though my follicles were really small). In this current cycle, we are not using any drugs to get a sense of what my baseline is but we are dealing with a cyst likely due to the drug we used in the first cycle... so it is a little frustrating at the moment.

The nursing staff is wonderful. I really like my fertility clinic thanks to them.

They have a lot of locations, doctors, and nurses so it is very convenient. However, that also means that you are likely not seeing your doctor often. That being said, it varies a lot from one doctor to the other. Overall, I think the institute is doing a great job even though the process is frustrating. I am very happy overall. The only things that bother me is that they are not always straight forward with the reasons of doing one thing or the other.

a Natural IUI cycle is 1400$, a drug-assisted IUI cycle is 1700$. None of these prices include drugs. I also had various procedure done at the clinic (dye and so on) which costs around 2000$.

She is a very kind, caring doctor. One of the best I have ever encountered. She is a thoughtful communicator and takes all effort to ensure you understand the plan of care. She is also very thorough with lab work and makes sure to check all necessary labs.

Just like with any doctor, come prepared for the appointment. Have all questions ready, because she does cover a lot of information and it is easy to forget the questions you had before the appointment.

She took time to call me after appointments to check in on me and make sure I didn't have any questions.

The nursing staff was average. They are very busy and have a lot of patients to take care of. In the office they are very kind and attentive, but once you leave the office it sometimes is hard to get things taken care of or addressed in a timely manner.

They are a very large clinic, so it is easy to feel like a number to them. The key is to get in with a doctor that you trust and feel connected to. We did transfer doctors at the beginning of treatment, and felt like our second doctor was a better fit.

IVF was ~$13,000 (not including medications) or ~$30,000 for a bundle for 3 cycles and unlimited FET. ~$4,000 for a FET.

Dr. Hoff is kind and is very knowledgeable. She explains things well and answers all of our questions. She has a great bedside manner. When she performed one of my IUIs she made me feel encouraged and relaxed, unlink other doctors who make you feel like a number.

Come prepared with questions!

She always greets us with a smile and is very warm and inviting. Is always positive.

I don't remember

Rene is friendly and very knowledgeable. If my doctor isn't available she will find the answer for me.

Clean, nice, pleasant, somewhat accommodating. Blood work can only be done in the morning which has been hard with my job. Office doesn't open until 8am and I begin teaching at 7:30am. Therefore I have had to take off a lot due to multiple rounds of blood work being scheduled in the morning.

medicated IUI (letrozole and HSG shot) $1700 each round

I am not sure