James Goldfarb

Dr. Goldfarb is an extremely experienced reproductive endocrinologist. I felt at times early in my treatment with him that he would talk as though I knew and understood everything related to fertility treatment, which was not the case. I wasn't overly troubled by this initially because I was freezing my eggs for fertility preservation and not actively trying to conceive. I'm also not afraid to speak up for myself so I was able to ask questions if need be. Then, about 5 years after my initial experience with him, there was a freezer malfunction in the lab where my eggs were stored and all of my eggs were destroyed. Following said disaster my interactions with Dr. Goldfarb changed. Given the sensitive nature of the fertility process, my assumption and expectation was that the treating physician would be sensitive and supportive. Then after the freezer malfunction, which made an already sensitive process exponentially more sensitive and emotional, I naively thought my doctor would bend over backwards for me, making sure to handle my case with kid gloves. Unfortunately, this did not happen. I felt I was offered empty apologies, conflicting information and to make matters worse, the doctor regularly told me stories about himself or his family members in an attempt to make me feel better. Clearly his attempts went terribly wrong. To give you an example, after losing my eggs I was told there was a waitlist to start another round of egg freezing. This didn't sit well with me because I felt I would lose more time having to wait. When I expressed my frustration to Dr. Goldfarb he said he completely understood and then proceeded to tell me he had been scheduled for a procedure once that had to be cancelled unexpectedly. This example was not helpful to me. He turned what was a very horrible situation for me, about himself and did nothing to validate my feelings or advocate for me. Furthermore, this happened on more than one occasion. I found his approach to be unsympathetic, minimizing my experience.

Know what you need from your physician and be a strong advocate for yourself.

My answer varies a bit depending on the situation. When I first met Dr. Goldfarb it seemed he saw me as a human. I initially underwent two rounds of egg freezing for fertility preservation. I saw him a few years later to attempt IUI, but I was interacting with the nurses more than the doctor. I began to feel more like a number because the team was rather unorganized and didn't take the time to prepare or review my chart prior to meeting with me and as a result this led to a number of issues. Issues such as making assumptions about me that were not true, confusion about what treatments and procedures I was to have, or had already had, and many miscommunications as well as no communication.

My protocol never changed under Dr. Goldfarb's care. I was on Follistim, Menopur and Ganirelix, with the hcg trigger. All doses were the maximum that could be prescribed. Of note, I have not been diagnosed with fertility issues thus far. I have undergone fertility preservation and two non-medicated iui's. When I presented to re-do my egg freezing after the disaster, my protocol did not change despite being 5 years older. It's my understanding that this group of physicians prefers to keep the protocol the same if the patient has responded well previously.

Nurses in this practice change like the weather. They are not always organized and often communicated differing information. I ended up requesting that I be assigned a primary nurse, which worked for a little while. This is challenging because most of the nurses are not there every day so you're bound to see a few nurses. You also have to stay on top of them because as I mentioned, the primary nurse assignment worked for a bit, but then it reverted to the multiple different nurses again. I often wonder if the caseload is not manageable for the staff they have and perhaps that is why there is disorganization and a lack of, or poor communication. Given these items, I felt more like a number as the nurses often struggled to remember things about me or my cycle between appointments.

On paper, this clinic is highly reputable. The facility is clean. They struggle with organization, and communication is not their strong suit consistently. I would argue communication with patients and communication amongst the medical team is lacking. I also would've thought that in the aftermath of the freezer malfunction they would try to quickly improve their service delivery from all angles, but this hasn't happened. Again, I strongly encourage you to be an advocate for yourself from day one and keep good notes.

This clinic has monitoring hours, but the nurse will ask you what time you want to come in. Even though you select a time, they still take you first come first serve. It is my understanding that they are starting to give actual appointments now. During one of my recent cycles I arrived for monitoring on two occasions and was told I didn't have an appointment. The ultrasound tech, Carmella is fantastic and I've no trouble with the phlebotomist either.

The medications were expensive. If I remember correctly, around $5,000 or so. I do have a fertility benefit under my insurance although it is limited. Nevertheless it has been an expensive endeavor. Sorry I don't have more specifics on cost. Storage fees were $400/yr.

Very good credentials and history of infertility treatments. However, I barely saw my RE through both cycles and I did not communicate with him a lot. He did not go over any thoughts or suggestions for the next cycle. It seemed like he thought our success would be easy with IVF dealing with male factor, but we have not been able to produce strong embryos. The 2nd cycle suggestion was to create more eggs than the first and we ended up getting way less the 2nd time. He still wanted to proceed and I was uneasy about it. Of course the 2nd cycle as a fail and only 1 embryo made it. We are very disappointed. No explanation whatsoever from the clinic.

Make him more involved in your treatment.

In the beginning I felt like a human and my tests came out with great results so everyone was optimistic. Then when I had the 2nd retrieval, I barely saw my RE and after the failed transfer, I haven’t heard from him since.

The first was long Lupron with Follistim. Lupron seemed to have made my ovaries not produce so the Follistim dosage kept increasing and my estrogen level was sky high. It produced around 16 eggs. 12 mature. The 2nd cycle was Menopur, Follistim and Ganirelix to try to get more eggs due to my high AMH than the first try. Since they kept my Follistim dosage low at 175 IU and 175 menopur, I only yielded 10 eggs. 1 was transferred and the rest stopped growing. It seemed my estrogen level was more important than number of eggs.

Helpful nursing staff. No complaints.

The clinic has a terrible billing system. The clinic does not encourage PGS testing on embryos. They also do not grade embryos the way you may see online through other clinics with an “ABC” rating. They do not give you details of the embryo quality.

IVF costs $9800 out of pocket for the first cycle. Drugs and follicle monitoring are not included.

No preference. Max 2 depending on what the embryos looked like.

Dr. Goldfarb is very thorough when discussing treatments. He has a gentle demeanor and is very kind and caring. He doesn’t hesitate to get on the phone and discuss the situation and go over all of the options. I could tell that he really loves his job and enjoys meeting new patients and getting to know them!

I don’t really have any advice. I feel like they cover everything very well during your first couple of visits.

The whole staff is very friendly.

I had already had 3 unsuccessful IUIs with another dr. in another state and 10 years of trying to conceive. Dr. Goldfarb agreed that we should jump right to IVF. I started the injections ganarelix, follistem, HCG. I had 1 follicle that was way too big for IVF, so we opted for an IUI. Dr. Goldfarb put me on Lupron right away just in case our IUI didn’t work so we could jump right back the next month. Our IUI WAS unsuccessful, so I continued Lupron and added follistem and menopur. We are in the process of seeing if this protocol will work.

Every nurse that I’ve worked with has been very knowledgeable. I’ve had a few conversations that were rough for me, but they were kind and offered support.

Everyone is very sweet in the office. The waiting room is comfortable. The office is located in the University Hospital in Beachwood and is very nice. When entering the hospital, I’m always greeted by the valet staff.

I am self pay. Each ultrasound and blood draw is $200. The retrieval and transfer is $10,000. My first round of meds was $1500 and my second round was $1260.

We are not to this point yet.

Each visit I felt like a priority. It was never an "ok we have 15 minutes scheduled so let's get going". He made sure I was comfortable with every procedure and decision before moving forward. I felt like I was a part of every part of the process, not just an observer. He has the best bedside manner.

Ask a lot of questions and trust him. He's one of the best in the business and he's been doing this for 35 years!

Dr Goldfarb has always been very caring and compassionate towards our individual situation. He met with us in his office rather than an exam room and spoke to us face to face. He explained everything in detail and answered every question we had with no feeling of being rushed. He called to check in on me several times and never made me feel like a bother with all of my questions.

We had to use n egg donor and fortunately we already knew who we were using. He set us up with his secretary nurse who scheduled everything perfectly for us. We had another Dr perform the embryo transfer who was also wonderful. We had great phone and email communication during the entire process. Our donor had the eggs retrieved and they called each day to tell us how they were progressing. When we had the transfer the Dr was very thorough in explaining what to expect and answered all questions.

The nurses also answer every question and return caslls in a timely manner.

The weaknesses are that sometimes there is a wait for your appointment or they may be running behind a bit, however that is because they take their time with their patients and I appreciate that. They are caring and informative. They even have me options for financing through ARC. They make you feel important and like you matter to them.

It was around $18,000.00. We financed through ARC

He recommended singhle transfer for less risk, however we chose to transfer multiple.

Dr Goldfarb was always very positive despite our negative outcomes. After multiple miscarriages and failed cycles, my thyroid was found to be deficient. We would need to invest in a third round of IVF to see if that has caused our unexplained infertility.

He's been helpful to some friends, but we feel like he overlooked my thyroid.

Dr Goldfarb personally called me after my miscarriages and also remembered little things that we discussed.

Due to my age, I started a lupron cycle. My amh is high so I over responded and the cycle was cancelled. Then, I did two cycles with the same protocol of Follistim, hcg, and ganirelix. I overstimulated the first cycle and did a freeze all. The second cycle I only had 8 eggs compared to 20 in the first cycle. My cycles were 8 months apart.

The nursing staff was generally helpful and supportive. One nurse. Ashley, tended to be distressing. She would answer questions with i don't know not I'll check with the doctor and let you know. I had a horrible experience with the sonogram tech, Carmela. She tols me my baby had no heartbeat. I miscarried but it was incomplete. When I returned for a saline sonogram with no embryos left, she asked if I was there to prepare for an embryo transfer. There should have been a flag on my file or something to prevent sitting in the same room and getting sucker punched emotionally.

At this point, they've had a cyro tank malfunction and lost everything. I don't think I would recommend anyone to them. The rotation of doctors to a very pushy, uncaring doctor besides Dr Goldfarb also made the process stressful

I have to drive 2 hours to Beachwood. I was never told that monitoring wax from 7 to 10 am. They just made me 8 or 8:30 appointments and I was called on a first come first served basis. Some mornings there was little wait, other mornings it would be an hour.

We had two grants for IVF. One wax through university hospitals. We still spent $13,000 for meds, IUI's, and transfers.

My doctor let us transfer two embryos if we wanted to.

I was referred to see Dr.Goldfarb by a close friend who highly recommended him. He is very knowledgeable and I could tell from the very 1st appointment with him. My husband and myself felt very comfortable and trusted that he had our best interest at heart. He was not pushy and wanted to be more conservative 1st. I was happy with that because financially we can not afford IVF and my insurance does not cover any fertility treatment. I am very hopeful that we will have success, I have had 2 IUI's that have not been successful. I am almost 38 years old and never been pregnant so if the 3rd IUI does not work he recommends laparoscopic surgery to check for scar tissue. I have had one ovary removed and several cysts rupture since I was a young teenager. He would like to do the surgery before moving on to IVF, with hopes that I could possibly become pregnant on my own. My time is limited so I pray God blesses us with out miracle baby soon.

He is very knowledgeable and compassionate.

I was referred to Dr.Goldfarb by a close friend and was told he was the best! He was very compassionate and listened to our concerns, I feel like he is very knowledgeable and he wants to be conservative 1st and then move on to more aggressive treatments. I am glad he is not pushing us to do IVF right away and is trying more affordable avenues. Although i am almost 38 years old and dont have much more time to concieve and have a successful pregnancy. I am very hopeful under his care. I have never been pregnant and want a child of my own, I'm trusting that his expertise will assist in that to one-day soon happening. I can't afford IVF so hoping that my 3rd which is my last IUI he said I can have is successful. If not he recommended having laparoscopic surgery to check for scar tissue and hopefully clear the pathway for a natural pregnancy to occur. I feel if I were just a number or dollar amount to him he would just aim right for the expensive treatment from the start.

3 IUI's with Clomid or letrozole. Laparoscopic surgery to check for and remove scar tissue. IVF final

The nurses and the ultrasound technician were very compassionate and willing to help answer any questions they could. Carmella the ultrasound technician is wonderful.

I feel that this facility is a great place for woman, families, and couple to come to for assistance. I don't feel that they judge or are pushy about treatment and your personal situation.

The initial consultation appointment was about $300. IUI $420 each procedure

Dr. Goldfarb is caring and helpful. He genuinely cares to see each of his patients succeed in their goals. He devotes his life to his work and it shows. One time I called to speak with him after a failed cycle and wanting to talk about which direction to go next and he had actually, FINALLY, taken time to spend with his family. He is an amazing doctor.

be honest with him. let him know if you are comfortable or not comfortable with something he suggests. Dr Goldfarb wants you to be in control of your treatment, so take control.

he cared and when we saw him with after a negative cycle, he seemed just as disappointed as us. he also let us be incharge of our treatment. he helped us decide which route to go and gave us the information to make a decision with him.

Our first IUI we used 5mg of letrozole and 250 Ovidrel. I had 2 nice big follicles. we went ahead and did IUI. It failed. Our second cycle, we kept the same protocol. Went in for my day 12 monitoring appointment and realized I had already ovulated. So the cycle was cancelled. The third attempt, we kept the same protocol but I came in on day 9 for monitoring. I had one follicle. We went ahead with our second IUI. It failed. Our fourth cycle, we kept the same exact protocol. I had one follicle on day 9, we triggered and went ahead with IUI #3 on day 11. It failed. Our fifth cycle, Dr Goldfarb discussed IVF with us. Not being able to afford it, we decided - with Dr Goldfarb - to continue with IUI until we can afford IVF. He suggested we up the letrozole to create more follicles. So I took 7.5mg and went in for my day 9 monitoring. Dr Goldfarb was out of the office and the doc on call decided to trigger the next day and IUI #4 36 hours after. I had ovulated on my own before trigger was due. So we cancelled IUI #4 and my husband and I decided to stop IUIs. at Dr Goldfarbs recommendation, we are doing every other cycle a medicated cycle (with 7.5mg letrozole) and natural cycles between.

One of the nurses, that I know of, is also battling infertility. She can relate to us patients on a personal level that some of the other nurses may not be able to. I really enjoy encountering her. The rest of the staff is friendly and caring as well.

I love that the clinic doesn't have ultrasounds for pregnancy IN the office. They take you across the hall to the ultrasound lab. I think their billing is a little off and their pricing is extreme, but I do love the staff so i can put all that aside.

They were exuberant. I had lost my insurance and had to pay for bloodwork out of pocket for my monitoring. They have self pay packaging, but it doesn't include the LH and that alone was almost $300. So I opted not to have it done. And we missed my surge. However, Dr. Goldfarb was receptive of this and asked me to email him a statement of why I was opting not to have the LH drawn. He said he was taking my email along with others to the board to get it into package pricing.

As I said earlier, he was honest with me about likely outcomes but willing to do whatever I chose. I feel so fortunate that he told me the truth about my chances with IVF using my own eggs so we could decide ourselves whether it made sense financially. We did a round of IVF drugs with abysmal results and, ultimately, chose to go with a donor. I have friends who went in significant debt only to end up with no child through IVF. it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to hear and he couldn't have handled it better. There was never a bit of pressure to choose a donor egg cycle over trying another cycle with my own eggs. If I'd wanted to proceed with my own eggs, he was willing as long as I understood the probability that we would not end up pregnant. He also made himself 100% available, though I didn't realize it at first as his nurses don't make that clear. At one point I told a nurse who was resistant that I needed to talk to him and she needed to make that happen. Finally, she agreed to let him know. He contacted me immediately. He told me that I could contact him anytime, including by email him. I have incredible respect for him and an unspeakable. I am most grateful for him helping me have this amazing, beautiful child who couldn't be more mine, but also relieved that he handled the message so well that we moved on to using a donor egg rather than emptying our savings trying to use my own eggs in IVF.

Ask for amh and fsh to be tested immediately if you are 36 or above. Tell them you don't want to wait until it's time for IVF because clomid and IUI didn't work. Also, insist with the nurses that you speak to him. In fact, during your first appointment ask how you can reach him if the nurses won't let you talk directly to him about your concerns. Don't get me wrong, the nurses are wonderful in many ways. Also, Dr. Rossi is also wonderful. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to see her instead. They are both wonderful. I give them both credit for this amazing three year old sleeping on my lap.

He had incredible bedside manner. He was honest with me about how low my chances were of getting pregnant with IVF with my own eggs and, though he said it was totally up to me and he would absolutely follow my wishes, he worried I would be throwing money away for really abysmal chances of having a baby. This was so difficult to hear, but I now have the most wonderful, beautiful baby who was undoubtedly meant to be my child through donor eggs and I am so grateful he was honest and we didn't spend our savings plus with own egg ivf to end up doing a donor egg ivf. I also saw Brooke Rossi who performed my surgery and she was just as wonderful.

Don't remember but he was very detailed and willing to give us as much time as we needed to talk through things.

There were a number of amazing nurses there. I felt like the donor coordinator nurse could have been a little more organized and a little more on top of our cycle. At the same time, things worked better than I could have ever imagined because I have the most amazing daughter thanks everyone at the office.

Feels a bit like an assembly line, but I've gathered that is how fertility clinics generally feel. Never once saw a pregnant woman in any place at the building and that was emotionally a huge relief. Wish the nurses didn't change with every single appointment until we started the IVF process. Once we started IVF we got consistency and they actually knew something about us.

I believe the ivf cycle was around $13K. I don't remember the total but I think it ended up being $23,000 with donor fee, agency fee for donor, and medications for me and for donor. I think the medications were around $2500, I just can't remember if our total was $23,000 with or without the medications.

He is a genuine man that speaks to your level. His level of knowledge and experience is beyond measure. Available at any time to speak, from initial consultation up until pregnancy available when I needed him

No advice

Due to overall knowledge and experience, he sat down and made a plan and let us know he had confidence that we would get pregnant and he would do whatever it took. Gave us the facts of our situation. Had empathy.

Diagnosed with unexplained infertility he recommended iui with clomid for 3 rounds and if that didn't work move to ivf. He did offer iui with injectable meds but he opted out because we were not okay with selective reduction. For egg retrieval I stimulated well but two eggs were always larger than the others so for 2 cycles we did not retrieve due to the cost and only getting 3 eggs. Finally the 3rd time we did retrieval and got 12. We transferred 2 3 day fresh due to higher chance of conceiving.

Demonstrated compassion, always called back same day, very well educated, if she didn't know the answer Dr. Goldfarb would call me with it.

Embryology department needs to do better at letting patient know and explaining quality of eggs< the only weakness

Very open window, made it easy for me since we live 2 hours away

To date $27,000

Dr. Goldfarb was always honest and kind. He even called me himself to provide results and discuss treatment. He made sure I knew everything up front. Dr. Goldfarb would respond to emails right away when I had questions. I loved how he seemed to care so much for me and my family and how he remembered us and our names, children's names.

Just trust him to do what is best, he is a very smart man!

Dr. Goldfarb was personable and even called me to give results and discuss steps in car himself. His staff were always kind and caring.

I loved Katie. She was so loving and caring. I felt like she was family.

Well everything with the clinic was great until a week ago when I found out that my embryos were lost in a freezer malfunction. I was devastated at the loss of my chance to use those embryos to have another baby. I am very disappointed in the hospital for allowing such a major malfunction.

Dr. Goldfarb is a pioneer in this and going into our cycles I fully trusted his opinions and he always explained the steps of action to me. Although, he is a busy doctor, he was always available for even a 5 minute chat if need be. Our appt. very frequent, sometimes as many as 3 times a week, and I felt that even if I saw him once that week, he knew the status of the cycle and if there were any concerns.

To trust Dr. Goldfarb fully. Every piece of advice he gave us, I feel, was to our benefit.

As busy as Dr. Goldfarb is, he was always available and always knew the status of my cycle. Made me feel like he cares that we receive the wanted end results

Fortunately for us, all of our procedures were covered by insurance.

Dr. Goldfarb is a wonderful physician. He is patient, kind, understanding and compassionate.

You will feel very cared for. Don't be scared to ask questions.

He is kind, patient and very caring

I was advised to go directly to IVF because of my situation. I had had multiple abdominal surgeries that left me unable to conceive naturally. He adjusted my protocol as needed.

They were all very caring.

the office was well staffed. Onething that was hard was that on any given day I might see a different physician. I did get to inow the other doctors and felt comfortable with them as well.

About $15-20,000 per fresh cycle,$10,000 for frozen. Some wascovered y insurance.

Dr. Goldfarb is a pioneer in the area of infertility treatment. He helped us have our miracle baby.

He is a little bit more conservative with drug protocols, so if you feel like you want to be more aggressive, speak out. But overall, trust his expertise.

Dr. Goldfarb is very caring and does not rush through your appointment. He takes time to talk to you and counsel you, not just push protocol.

It was run very efficiently