Dr. Frederick heard me, but she didn't listen. We had no say in the trajectory of our treatment. For example, when we told her that we did not want to do PGS because we felt that it is morally wrong for us, she did not respond, but later had her assistant tell us that she would not give us treatment if we did not do it. We also had to agree to allow the clinic to destroy our abnormal embryos in order to do the PGS that we did not want to do. Besides just being a number, she took away our rights over our own embryos.
Their [HRC Fertility] encrypted message system had problems. It only worked for certain employees, it was frustrating extra work getting medical records and lab results to them initially...I do feel like she [nurse] cared about me. She found me on my lining check day to wish me luck and give me a hug. She also e-mailed me about my negative beta, and responded with empathy
How was your experience with Jane Frederick at HRC Fertility?
Simply put, we paid Dr. Frederick $41,631.68 for 10 dead embryos.
We'd had prior success with Dr. Nelson at HRC Pasadena, which I will review separately. We switched to Dr. Frederick in OC because it was a far distance to the Pasadena office where Dr. Nelson is. When we had our initial consultation with her, we told her that this would be our last try, and asked her if she recommended that we use donor eggs. She said that she didn't think it was necessary, and recommended trying with my own eggs.
She insisted that we do PGS, which we did not agree with, and I've previously stated. We considered going back to Dr. Nelson, but decided to go forward with the treatment with her.
At my saline sonogram, a 2 cm intermural fibroid was identified by the tech. She stated that she wanted to do a freeze all cycle for PGS, so she would address the fibroid via hysteroscopy after "the harvest." This essentially took any fresh transfer of untested embryos off the table for us and limited our options to those that she'd already chosen for us.
She recommended ICSI due to my husband's age, even though his SA came back good.
IVF #1- Antagonist protocol- Follistim 450, Menopur 75, Ganrelix 250x2, and Doxycycline. 7 retrieved, 4 fertilized, 2 biopsied and frozen for PGS.
I asked to be informed about how many embryos that I still had on day 5 before they took a biopsy because if it was fewer than 4, it would not be a cost effective choice, I would just transfer all embryos. I was refused that information about my own embryos by Dr. Frederick. She would not give the report until after the biopsy. She is completely inethical. At that point, I could refuse PGS, but my embryos were already damaged and the cells already taken.
Since I only had 2 embryos to PGS test, Dr. Frederick recommended we do another retrieval cycle and send the additional embryos together to be PGS tested at once. Since we wanted to maximize our chances, and we felt that the PGS testing fee was so high that we needed to check more embryos, we agreed to do another IVF retrieval.
IVF#2- Lupron microdose Flare 40mcg/0.2mcg with Omnitrope 5.8 units, Follistim 450, Ovidrel 250x2. 8 retrieved, 6 fertilized, 2 sent to PGS.
PGS results: one normal female three abnormal males. The normal embryo was from the first retrieval.
Hysteroscopy: She determined that she had no need to remove my intermural fibroid, but advocated timely transfer in case it became large enough to affect implantation. She repeated over and over. "You only have one embryo", even on my transfer day. And yet, she did not recommend an ERA, even when I asked her, she said that she didn't think I'd need one.
Transfer. I was unhappy with the scarcity of labs done for my transfer. Progesterone was not checked at baseline, only estrogen, and again at my lining check, only estrogen. She was not specific about the timing of starting the progesterone in oil, or the timing of when I would do my shot. I know that this timing and level is important for uterine receptivity. I felt like she had my money and she was going to do as little monitoring as possible for it.
Since the FET failed, she could blame my body for it. My lining was an 8 at lining check. When I voiced my concerns that it was too thin, she pushed my concerns aside.
On day 4 post transfer I found my embryo in my underwear and my beta was less than 2. At my post appointment she was ready to take more money- to do more cycles with us, or do donor eggs or donor embryos. I told her, "We are done." She failed. I also mentioned donor cycles in CZ, and that seemed to hit a button with her. She said, "We don't know how those people are screened."
We are now facing the emotional and financial loss. Even if we did have the resources to continue, it would not be with her.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Jane Frederick at HRC Fertility?
Find someone else. Anyone else would probably be better.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Jane Frederick at HRC Fertility?
Dr. Frederick heard me, but she didn't listen. We had no say in the trajectory of our treatment. For example, when we told her that we did not want to do PGS because we felt that it is morally wrong for us, she did not respond, but later had her assistant tell us that she would not give us treatment if we did not do it. We also had to agree to allow the clinic to destroy our abnormal embryos in order to do the PGS that we did not want to do. Besides just being a number, she took away our rights over our own embryos. It was also very difficult to get information about what sort of chances that the treatment would have from her or why she was recommending the protocols that she was recommending, for example, why an 8mm lining was acceptable for transfer to her.
Describe the protocols Jane Frederick used in your cycles at HRC Fertility and their degree of success.
I mentioned this already, but the reason that she said that she wanted to change protocols is that she was hoping that the Lupron flare would yield more embryos. Unfortunately, we had the same amount, and the 2 from that cycle were PGS abnormal.
Describe your experience with your nurse at HRC Fertility. (Assigned nurse: Michelle and Liz)
Liz was nice, although she was the voice of Dr. Frederick in most cases, and I do feel like she cared about me. She found me on my lining check day to wish me luck and give me a hug. She also e-mailed me about my negative beta, and responded with empathy.
Michelle was disorganized and did a rather poor job of delivering the bad news of my negative beta. Her FET med protocol sheet was confusing to follow. because of the way it was formatted, I misunderstood the instructions missed the first 3 days of Estrodial. When I realized what had happened, I contacted her, and she reached out to Dr. Frederick, who said, just follow the instructions as of today, and don't try to make up the missed doses. When she gave me the bad news, I can't say specifically what she did wrong, but just that she really didn't seem to know what to say. No empathy. She passed me off to Erika via e-mail to schedule my follow up appointment, and Erika didn't respond. So, I had to wait about a week without an idea of when my closure would come. It took an email to all of them stating that I was unhappy with the way that it was handled for Erika to follow through.
Also, many of the phlebotomists at this location seem inexperienced. At many of my labs blood draws, many of them poked me more than once to get a vein. One phlebotomist poked me three times trying to find my vein and I became dizzy, and started to pass out twice. Another phlebotomist had to step in after I'd had juice and sat with my head below heart level.
Describe your experience with HRC Fertility.
HRC Newport (OC) has relatively good SART scores. That was one of the reasons, besides the close to home location that made me choose it.
If you are a glutton for financial and emotional punishment, having your concerns ignored, and being batched out on birth control pill with many other patients, then this is where you need to go.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Jane Frederick at HRC Fertility.
$41,631.68 out of pocket
Describe Jane Frederick's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at HRC Fertility.
She repeated "you only have one embryo to transfer". How negative.
What specific things went wrong at HRC Fertility?
- Failed to call in prescriptions to pharmacy
- Failed to order appropriate test
Describe the specific things that went wrong at HRC Fertility.
Their encrypted message system had problems. It only worked for certain employees, it was frustrating extra work getting medical records and lab results to them initially.
Daisy the onboarding coordinator kept referring me to Liz to get medical records to the office, and Liz wasn't responding.
We paid $18,000 cash out of pocket for my first retrieval over the phone ahead of time and they asked for $18,000 again when I went in for the baseline. Jessica in the financial department had made a clerical error and the payment was missing.
There are more things that went wrong. I was understanding and assertive about it, and approached the staff with kindness and a sense of humor to make working together go smoother.
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Clinic
HRC Fertility
Newport Beach