Irene Moy

I really love Dr Moy. We got to know each other quite well over three retrievals and the monitoring appts and phone calls and emails that surround it. She was our point person during all of it and was readily available for our questions. I really felt like she was rooting for us and we had many phone calls to hear news, discuss next steps, or answer questions. When issues arose, she reached out to the labs to understand what happened on our behalf and I do feel she went to bat for us as best she could. She was always good humored, patient, and understanding. There were times when I would have liked more information about the protocols and medications, and how/why she decided on the changes that she did. Overall though, I had a wonderful experience with Dr Moy. It's the limitation of Kaiser that were ultimately disappointing.

If you have questions during an appointment, ask them quickly. She will make time to answer your questions but she does seem to be in a rush. She's matter of fact and to the point which we appreciated.

Dr. Moy always tried to remember details about us and made conversation during the routine appointments. She has a great sense of humor and attitude and I really felt that she was rooting for us. During some more difficult news, she called us or made time for a phone call and answered all of our questions. Even when she had a cold.

All three retrieval protocols included Follistim, Menopur, and Ganirelix. The second two added Omnitrope and included a dual trigger which appeared to help the number and maturity of eggs retrieved. As with all Kaiser protocols, I was on the pill for a good portion of time prior to and after stimulation and retrievals.

Nursing staff were good. It would have been nice to have a designated nurse/coordinator throughout the process but instead it was whoever called back. That worked fine. They were friendly, knowledgeable, and helped answer my questions. The nurses during the actual retrieval were also friendly, some seemed new. Getting an IV needle in was difficult during all three retrievals.

The clinic, being Kaiser, has its limitations including the level of patient education you receive, the inflexibility around being on the pill in preparation for the scheduled cycles, and the feeling that I was being "shuffled through." I once received an email from a nurse addressing me by someone else's name. The substance of the email was appropriate to me but it was very much a "copy paste" scenario. I could deal with all of this though until we encountered some issues with the embryology lab that have me looking into other clinics. In short, we lost one high quality PGS normal embryo because, as we were told, there was a very rare instance when the embryologist was unable to remove all of the oil from the embryo before freezing, rendering it unlikely to thaw successfully. Our doctor and the head embryologist explained what happened very thoroughly and patiently. We were offered a sympathetic "these things happen" but they did not claim responsibility nor did they offer a free cycle. I did another retrieval and our next PGS normal embryo had to be thawed, re-biopsied, and refrozen because the first biopsy came back as "No DNA present." I don't know where the breakdown occurred this second time (whether at Kaiser or the genetic testing lab) but it's enough of a question mark that I have trouble trusting the Kaiser lab. We will likely have further conversations with Kaiser.

Retreival: $9,305; ICSI: $1,900; Biopsy for PGS:$3,00; FET: $2,365 (unused credit); ~$8k in meds for each round

While we never got to the transfer stage, Dr Moy recommended transferring only one PGS tested normal embryo or more than one only if they hadn't been tested bc of risks of carrying multiples.

Although Dr. Moy is not the primary physician in the clinic for IUIs, she has been my point person thus far. Dr. Moy specializes in IVF and often works in both the SF and Fremont clinic. Other doctors and NPs in the office performed my procedures, but she always responded to my questions immediately and with compassion. For example, I was nervous prior to a sedated HSG (due to a terrible first HSG) and she went above and beyond to reach out to my husband and me to review the whole procedure keeping my concerns in mind. Of course, everything went beautifully after her encouragement. She goes above and beyond.

Dr. Moy doesn't sugar coat treatment. She does deliver it with a sense of humor. I have since met other patients who found that uncomfortable, but personally, I appreciate it. Also, always feel comfortable reaching out to her with anything. She's awesome!

She always addresses my questions, helps address my feelings throughout the process, and makes jokes. She has a great sense of humor.

We were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. I have completed 3 full rounds of Letrozole (7.5mg) with IUI. We have been unsuccessful thus far, but knew our statistics going in. We are going into injectible IUIs this cycle.

She is amazing. She is super comforting, explains everything, and keeps it real. She is great at understanding my individual needs for paperwork, protocol directions, and next steps. She's also very great at her response time to emails when Dr. Moy is out.

It's Kaiser. With this comes a lack of education and information, but it's great for all procedures and medications. Just make sure to do your research or ask more questions. Also, there are also sometimes long waits to be seen. For example, IUIs are scheduled at 10am and the last two times, I haven't been seen until 11. All women are prepped at the same time and then have to wait until their turn in the room.

My insurance covers all but $15 copay on most treatments. Because it's Kaiser, I never see a bill except for the copay. Some of my prescriptions are even less! Our quote for IVF is $20,000 because my insurance pays none of it.

Dr. Moy was clearly very knowledgeable about fertility issues but I felt very disconnected from her during the whole process. I saw her fairly regularly over the course of about eight months but didn't feel like I got much guidance from her on what was working, what wasn't, what we should try next, etc.

You will need to be very proactive, and it will be up to you to push for treatments, ask questions, etc.

I only met with Dr. Moy in person a few times while I was her patient. Once was the meeting to discuss our initial diagnosis and once was when she happened to be on one weekend when I had an IUI. We also spoke on the phone a couple of times, though I felt she did most of the talking and could have listened better.

Since IVF is so expensive, my goal was to start with the least invasive (and least expensive) options first, and then work our way up to IVF only if necessary. We first tried letrozole to try to boost my egg production, coupled with both timed intercourse and IUI . I had mixed responsiveness to the medication, producing anywhere from one or two eggs up to six at the most. We tried two (or three, I can't remember) cycles with injectable medications to boost egg production, coupled with IUI. I had limited responsiveness to the injectables.

I had far more contact with the nursing staff than with Dr. Moy. Most of the nurses were compassionate and kind and I enjoyed my interactions with them.

My biggest beef was with Kaiser itself. Here's a list of the things I didn't like or felt could be improved: -It's a little thing, but the Kaiser clinic is called the Infertility and Reproductive Endocrinology department. I don't need the reminder that I was having infertility issues; the clinic I switched to (at a different hospital) was called the Center for Reproductive Health. It's a little thing, but really made a difference to me. -For some reason, Kaiser has regular OB patients check-in at the same desk where the fertility patients check in and wait for their appointments. I wasn't overly bothered by this, but it did strike me as very insensitive to have visibly pregnant women standing in line and checking in for appointments in front of women (and men) struggling with fertility issues. -It drove me crazy that almost every single appointment I had scheduled I was seen late. Sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes as long as a half hour. I showed up for an IUI appointment one Saturday a half hour ahead of time because I had been running other errands in the neighborhood, and wasn't seen until nearly an hour after I'd been told my appointment was. I found out later that the timing of when you are seen for an IUI has to do with when the sample from the man was taken or dropped off, but no one ever explained that to me when I had my appointments and all the waiting around with no explanation made a stressful situation worse. -Overall, I felt I got no guidance from the Kaiser fertility team regarding my treatment. It was all left up to me to ask, "What's do you think about what's happening, should we keep trying this next month or should we try another approach, etc." If I didn't ask these questions, no one followed up with me and I would miss a cycle.

I was lucky in that I had insurance that covered up to 50% of my costs (office visits and medications) for procedures up to (but not including) IVF. It was still very expensive. As I recall, with my 50% coverage, office visits were between $50 and $150 for ultrasounds and IUI, and medication was anywhere from about $20 for Letrozole up to the hundreds of dollars for injectable medications.

We are still early stage in infertility, so we haven't actually undergone any treatment. Dr. Moy was efficient in treatment and took time to explain things. I already wrote a general impression in response to another answer.

Dr Moy is only as good as the kaiser system.

Dr Moy seemed sympathetic to some of the emotional pain of infertility and patiently answered all of our questions. However, Kaiser as a system is very procedure based, and progress can be slow if the system doesn't really work for you. Kaiser doctors generally seem to rely heavily on protocol, and less on their own observations and decision making.

Still early in treatment, but recommended 3 IUI and then an IVF and then reevaluate.

Kaiser is highly regimented. It's very efficient and relies on protocol, which works most of the time. But it works less well in terms of listening to patients and responding to them.

I have an info sheet somewhere, but don't remember offhand. Pricing is clear and information is easy to find.

Direct and to the point, she gets the job done fairly efficiently. She was helpful in assisting us with our decision to do IVF instead of more IUIs. She was able to explain the evidence and also help us apply it to our situation.

No complaints.

Direct and to the point. Explained things well.

IUI with letrozole. Better side effect profile than clomid. Lower risk of multiples compared to injectables.

Didn't have too many interactions with the nurses other than the NP that did the actual IUI, who seemed nice enough.

Strengths - it's Kaiser, so if you're there, you probably have some kind of insurance coverage, which is always a good thing with infertility! Weaknesses - super expensive meds at the Kaiser pharmacy, I wish I had had some advanced notice so I could have shopped around earlier, but I needed the trigger that day, so no time to shop around or wait for meds to ship!

Don't remember, but we had 50% insurance coverage and I think it came out to $200-$300 each IUI?

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Dr. Moy kept a positive attitude, while also being very clear. I felt taken care of and like the process was in good hands, even though I wasn't in charge of every aspect of it.

She is excellent at returning emails, so don't be afraid to ask questions or follow up on a test you thought was scheduled. Once a test wasn't at the lab, and she saw my email and put in the order again before I was done at the pharmacy.

Dr Moy was always on top of the details of our case. She treated us with care and kindness, but was also forthright about percentages and potential issues.

My husband and I loved Dr. Moy. We were very sad when after I got pregnant, she had to transfer my care to a general OBGYN. She is knowledgeable, has great bedside manner, and is honest without being cold. She made me feel very comfortable and had a lot of energy. She is easy to relate to. I didn't feel like I had to make small talk with her; the conversations came easily and that was important because you want to be as relaxed as you can during such a stressful time.

Don't get discouraged and change doctors/facility if the first cycle isn't successful. Dr. Moy has a lot of experience and will work with results/information obtained from the first cycle to make changes to subsequent cycles.