Ijeoma Okeigwe

As a Black woman, seeking excellent healthcare has always been stressful. We are treated differently, and I've always had to fight to get proper health care. At first, I was so nervous about this procedure because I hate needles, and I didn't know if I would be treated like a human being. I've wanted to freeze my eggs for a while because I haven't found my life partner yet. So, I wanted to make sure that I had options for my future. Thank you to everyone at Oakland Spring Fertility for giving me such a fantastic experience. But, I especially want to thank Dr. Okeigwe for guiding me through the process of freezing my eggs. She's a GEM, and it's so rare to find a Black fertility doctor. I was and still am ECSTATIC that she was my doctor! She took such great care of me, and I was informed every step of the way of who, what, where, and why of everything I needed to know. Dr. Okeigwe even helped me heal a trigger. At 20 years old I was in a dangerously abusive relationship, and I became pregnant and needed to have an abortion. Unfortunately, the doctor and nurses treated me like an animal and pinned me down while they did the procedure. So from there on, every time I went to an OBGYN and put my legs up, I would go into shock from that experience. I never thought that trigger would be healed. But, because Dr. Okeigwe listened to my story, answered all my questions, and equipped me with all of my options, the trigger began to go away. It got to the point where I would come in for a check-up, and we would laugh, and before I knew it, I was already lying down, looking up at all of my eggs progressing. This is why representation matters, and I know for a fact that I would not have received a better experience anywhere else. Give this woman a raise and hire more diverse fertility doctors!💛✨

You're in great hands!

About $10,000

With Dr. Okeigwe, I felt like I was in really good hands all throughout the egg freezing process. She made sure I was taking all the necessary steps to prevent OHSS. Her calm presence was very reassuring during the actual retrieval: this was my first operation and I went in with some anxiety. I felt that she was a very good source of knowledge and I fully felt like I could trust her judgement. She provided excellent care!

Aygestin priming, FSH + menopur, cetrotide, lupron-only trigger, cabergaline. All of these worked well and prevented OHSS even though I had a lot of eggs.

Costs were covered by Progyny.

Doctor was very hopeful and confident in her ability to give us the results we want. She was very informative and answered every question I had. I wish she was more compassionate and gentle upfront, but was once I expressed my concerns and fear with her.

Ask tons of questions!

With my DOR- she wanted to start with iui with clomid and fsh injections.

Dr. Okeigwe was warm, funny, compassionate, very real and professional. She had very up to date understanding of how to handle my own situation and as a nurse and nurse practitioner student myself, I was very impressed and felt very well taken care of (not that I know much about fertility). I feel very comfortable knowing my eggs are safely frozen with her and so happy I can come back to her when I'm ready to use them. What a gem.

Just do it! She's the best.

I used a mid luteal protocol, started injecting Gonal F and Menopur about 4-5 days after ovulation. I also started an oral medication, letrozole, that is also used to treat breast cancer, it lowers effects of estrogen on your body and used this the whole way through. I started cetrotide to block ovulation 4 days later and lowered my gonal F dose because some eggs were maturing faster than others. Lowered my dose of Menopur a couple days later and gonal F even lower. I did my trigger medication 11 days after starting my injections. My trigger was just lupron, which is commonly used when people have a lot of eggs so they don't increase their risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (because I was already so full) so they didn't use the HCG trigger for me. I had the retrieval 36 hours after trigger and she got 31 eggs out, 24 frozen.

I had a $1,500 discount for being a nurse and I saved $1,371 on meds basically for being a student and not having a high income. All said and done it was about $12,000.

Dr Okeigwe was simply an exceptional dr. I enjoyed our visits so much that I cried when I 'graduated' from Spring. Not only did I find Dr O to be extremely good at her job, she had a talent for explaining the process and procedures to me and my husband in a way that I actually understood. I had a million questions and she always took the time to answer them. I have/had VERY low AMH and poor egg quality and did 3 egg retrievals back to back. From the beginning, Dr O was very realistic while still being optimistic that we would be able to get viable embryos. I so appreciate that she didn't over promise what my results might be. Every time I saw Dr O i was met with compassion and I felt so taken care of during my treatment. I joked with my husband that I wanted Dr O to become my bestie!! The care and oversight I received from Dr O was beyond my expectations and would 1000% recommend her to everyone. I'm so so thankful that I was under her care and now have an almost 10 week old healthy baby boy because of her!

Don't be afraid to ask all your questions! She will give you as much information as you'd like so just think about how much you want to know vs how much you want to leave up to her.

For my transfer, we tried to do a modified natural transfer first (because it's generally easier on your body). However, I eventually had to move to a medicated transfer. For my egg retrievals, I was on a lower hormone protocol (focus was on quality eggs vs quantity because of my poor egg quality and low AMH)

Recommendation was to transfer 1 emrbyo and use PICSI to determine how to fertilize the egg.

Dr.Okeigwe was very thorough with explaining the process, possible outcomes due to age, genetics and retrieval and fertilization. She answered all questions throughout the entire process. Very friendly and compassionate.

Don’t be afraid to ask/ address any questions/concerns. She will not make you feel stupid for asking.

I believe in total I was on a combination of 4-5 medications. My hormone injection went a little longer than expected but Dr. Okeigwe explained that she wanted the eggs to be similar in size which will produce a good amount of viable follicles… which happened.

I was usually given a date with a few times that was available that I could choose from

$4400 unlimited meds $675 initial consult and ultra sound $1000 saline ?? $17,985 for cycle and egg retrieval $~10,000 for embryo thaw, genetic testing and transfer $900 for 2 additional ultrasounds once pregnancy was confirmed

Due to my age and hypertension I was informed that single embryo approach would be the best fit for me in which I totally agree. I was informed that the best embryo would be used, in which it was and was a success on the first transfer.

Dr. Okeigwe was excellent. I felt cared for, informed, and safe under her care and would recommend her highly. I was lucky that she was able to do almost all of my monitoring and also my egg retrieval.

It was almost $10,000 for the egg freezing cycle, and another $4,000 for the medications. There were no surprise or extra costs.

Nothing but good things to say. I never felt rushed, Dr Okeigwe always answered all my questions and showed compassion. I only wish she could have performed all my procedures so that maybe we could have found the polyp sooner.

No advice about Spring or Dr Okeigwe, only advice, more transparency, about how long of a process IVF is.

Natural/Letrozole Protocol

Around $40,000

Our preference was one.

Dr. Okeigwe performed my egg retrieval procedure. She did a phenomenal job of explaining everything that would happen before the procedure and then again, just before the procedure. She's a wonderful doctor.

Dr. Okeigwe has the rare combination of extremely high competence and extremely high care/ compassion. She is without a doubt one of the best clinicians I have ever seen. I would recommend her with no hesitation to anyone

Be open about anything important to you. Dr. Okeigwe is able to deeply understand and adjust as needed