Ilan Tur-Kaspa

The doctor certainly seemed very informed and on the ball. But as I look back on my notes, I feel a little misled about his live birth rate success. He convinced me if we did PGS testing that I would have a 60-70% chance of getting pregnant because I'm under 35. His SART data, though, does not show that high of a percentage at all. At one point he told me I should be pregnant by now. He doesn't know why I'm not. It's either really bad luck or a uterine issue and we don't have enough data yet. But then month after month he'd basically pump me up with estrogen and put me through hell with no change and no success. He traveled frequently without giving me a heads up, and at one point I had to ask to be put on an extra week of estrogen just to coordinate with his travel plans so he could do my transfer (which was cancelled anyway). Your body is expected to work around his schedule, and I wish I had known how big of a deal that would be when I chose the clinic. He can be incredibly compassionate and funny. I really liked him personally, but at the end I wasn't pregnant and I felt like he wasn't taking responsibility. He is also very aware of issues within his nursing staff, and he doesn't take active steps to make it better. When I started with him in 2016 we discussed his poor Yelp reviews, mostly based on the staff. He said the problems had been taken care of. Let me tell you -- they weren't.

Go somewhere else! But if you stay, take detailed notes and always confirm in writing, via email, what he told you. If you don't understand something because of his accent, ask until you do. If you feel like you are starting to dictate your treatment because he isn't coming up with a plan of action -- run. Do not rely on the nurses to give you correct information abut protocol or meds. Be your own advocate. You can't trust them to get it right.

He triggered me with Lupron and we had 7 frozen, tested embryos. I thought I'd never have to do IVF again. I was wrong. One implanted, but was a pregnancy of unknown origin and they had to give me two doses of methotrexate to get "unpregnant." Each month my lining wouldn't get above a 8, so he would cancel my frozen transfer. I got to transfer one more, but it didn't stick. To get my lining to thicken, he pumped me full of ungodly amounts of estrogen (my serum levels were 2200+). I suggested patches, so we tried those. They didn't work either. I often got to a 7, but not when I needed to be for the purpose of his Thursday-only transfer schedule. I was told my embryos were perfect, but after the 2nd didn't stick I consulted with other clinics. I'm not sure how good IHR's outsourced lab is. And there are studies that triggering with Lupron makes eggs that are not high quality. He only used vaginal progesterone. Everyone else I know uses PIO injections, or both. So he finally relented and said I too could do PIO. But we never got that far.

They were the least offensive thing about this place.

Here is where we saw eye to eye. He refused to put in two quality embryos and fully explained all the risks of twins.

On Dr. Tur-Kaspa himself, he was very kind and professional. He told my husband and me all about our odds and what our procedures might look like. At our initial consultation he mentioned that I was overweight and that I would have a better chance of getting pregnant if I lost weight (this was not a problem but in retrospect I felt he did not stress this enough and that I was given no tips based on any of my test results). We decided to wait a cycle before getting into medications due to a uterine polyp removal. After the cycle wait, we put together a plan and I started on the medications for IVF and egg retrieval. Almost immediately he left the county for a couple weeks which meant he himself would not do my retrieval or my transfer and that I was handed off to the other office doctor. At our follow up appointment after our transfer failed, he reiterated that I was overweight and that was a huge problem which made me wonder if he should not have suggested we wait until I was able to lose an X amount of weight before we tried. I also had to ask him if he knew what might be causing our infertility and he told me that I had PCOS and poor egg quality in a very conversational way that sounded like I should have known that. After we had time to recover from the emotions of a failed IVF transfer and had time to really think about our whole process, I feel like I was just a number being pushed through the system instead of an actual patient that needed personalized care.

Make sure that you ask him about his potential travel plans so that you will be aware if he plans to leave during your treatment.

I was very lucky to be given a discount. The total payment was due before the cycle started. The cost breakdown on my sheet was: Pre-IVF Labs Male/Female/HSN: $3500 ($1500 for us) IVF Cycle and Anesthesia and Surgical Facility Fees: $11935 ($6020 for us) Cryopreservation of Embryo(s): $1250 ($980 for us which was refunded due to no surviving embryos)

He was not for multiple embryo transfer in my case based on my age and how he thought I would do.

I thought he was very demeaning and had terrible bedside manner. Always made it sound like as a woman I wasn't qualified to make decisions without my husband - even though I'm very knowledgable. I felt like he just did the same thing over and over again expecting different results and was never around when things went wrong.

I think he is used to "easy cases" and has a huge ego being that he is "well known" and people come all the way from Israel to see him (his words). He doesn't dig deep enough or think outside of the box. I don't need to be Molly-coddled; but, a little bit of compassion after a miscarriage would be nice. Ie: the first call shouldn't be about when you will schedule your next transfer.

He was pretty good at adjusting my meds consistently; but never explained the protocol clearly. We used bravelle and Menopur - I was very successful in terms of #'s retrieved; but, none of the blasts stuck for a successful pregnancy (and we never changed protocols for FETs)

If you get there right when they open, it's not terrible; but if you get there after 7, good luck! You can't make appts.... First come first serve

His bedside manner left a LOT to be desired. When setbacks did occur, he would often answer tough questions with "It's just biology!", and during each of my four retrievals he 'personally thanked' my husband for his service and sacrifice. Funny the first time, but after months of exhaustive fertility treatments, by retrieval #3 and #4, I wanted to scream "WE GET IT." A little pushy with the 'sales front', but I do feel like he was extremely attentive, and always willing to adjust protocol to get desired results. Overall I'm torn over the entire experience as a patient with him, we were happy with results, but felt like he could be insensitive.

Stay on top of the clinic, and try not to take his 'jokes' personally.

Hard to remember all of the protocols, but he adjusted as necessary.

Completely unpredictable Waiting anywhere from 15 min - 1.5 hours. Ultrasound tech was very fast, kind, and took patients in early.

mostly covered by insurance. PGD previously paid for through insurance, but separate PGD clinic recently changed policies and no longer takes any insurance except Aetna.

He strongly preferred one transfer since we were using PGD, which we were happy with

Dr TurKaspa is a great man. His bedside manner was extraordinary and he was always kind. He has a great sense of humor and I appreciated that at such a difficult, stressful time. We met with three doctors and went with him first. Both my husband and I left our first consult and felt like he was the best fit. What we didn't know, being first time infertility patients, was that you rarely see the doctor. While it's extremely important to like the doctor, it's equally if not more important to like the nursing staff

Make sure you are comfortable with the nursing staff

We did a clinic cycle first with double iui's, then an I medicated cycle with trigger, iui's, and progesterone

Insurance covered most of it but our deductible