Jared Robins

Dr. Robins is straightforward and gave me his cell number which I appreciated. However, I still found it difficult to get in touch with him and trying to contact him through the nurses or MyChart was pointless. He is not warm or compassionate. Can be a little bit patronizing.

Don’t use him if you need comforting care.

The clinic is very much like a cattle call- the sheer volume of patients moving through their office each day is staggering. My care was managed by whoever was on call that day.

I had 3 retrievals at the clinic - 2 were conducted by Dr. Robins and one was by another doctor. The protocol for my first 2 retrievals was Follistim/Menopur/Ganirelix. I used Ovidrel to trigger for my first retrieval and got overstimulated, which was awful. 12 embryos retrieved. For the 2nd retrieval, same stim meds, but with Lupron trigger. I think I had 10 retrieved (can’t remember exactly). For the 3rd retrieval, I used an estrogen priming protocol the the same stim meds with a Lupron trigger. I think I had 11 retrieved (can’t remember). Ended up with 2-3 per retrieval after Day 5-6 that ended up being frozen for PGS/PGD testing. Only had 3 transferable after testing.

90% of my contact with the nurses was through MyChart where my questions would get answered by whomever was there at the time. I could never tell if they were sharing notes. Consistency of care is a major problem. Some nurses are kind, some are helpful, some are neither.

I don’t recommend NW to friends. I think they are good at their protocols and their system works for many women. But unfortunately, if you have a unique issue, they don’t have a way to deal with you outside of their system. This is due to your primary doctor not being the one to consistently make the decisions for your care. They rotate around each day and it became very clear that other docs besides mine didn’t know what was going on with me. Be prepared for advocate for yourself. The on-call doc for my first retrieval mistakenly did not adjust my meds down correctly so I got overstimulated. And for my final retrieval, another doctor prescribed Ovidrel trigger even though I was close to overstimulating again. This was resolved by me getting in the middle of my doctor and the other doctor on call to advocate for myself. Their financial counselors are kind of terrible- pay very close attention to your bills because they make mistakes on their billing. And they are a zero balance clinic so prepare yourself for ultimatums coming from nurses before being able to proceed with protocols.

Monitoring occurs from 7-7:45 am and it is a cattle call.

I have insurance coverage for some of it but paid $40 copay per visit (these REALLY add up), $895 per retrieval for cryopreservation, plus my coinsurance costs. Total of about $4,500 for 3 retrievals and 2 transfers spanning 2 calendar years. Not counting parking costs!

They wouldn’t transfer more than one.

I felt like Dr. Robins was accessible, friendly, and extremely knowledgeable. he answered all our questions and never made us feel like they were stupid questions. he was genuinely excited for our success when it occurred and did all our post-implantation ultrasounds before we graduated to the regular OB. shared data in frank, accessible ways and made me feel confident that his goal was the same as ours. When asked about things like acupuncture, he said "look, we want you to get pregnant as soon as possible. if there was any evidence that anything improves those odds, we'd make (strongly advise, provide in the clinic) you do it - of course because we want you to be successful, but also because our success as a practice relies on our success rates, so we're going to do whatever it takes for our own self-interest as well." that made me feel really confident that he was being open and honest with us, as well as knowing that we were both invested in our success. It's great for a doctor to want you to be happy, but I liked knowing that he felt like he had a professional stake in it as well.

don't be afraid to ask all your questions - he'll give you the research behind why he's choosing a certain protocol

willing to answer all questions, encouraged me to call his cell phone if he wasn't available. was very thoughtful and careful during transfer. laughed at my jokes :)

I was 34 at the time and we had male factor, with no indications/diagnosis that I should have any trouble. we did 5 total IUIs, 3 unmedicated and 2 on clomid. I wish he'd recommended just going to IVF earlier. none resulted in a positive pregnancy test. for the retrieval cycle, he used a long lupron protocol, which is his standard for a presumably healthy woman under 35. I used lupron, menopur, and follistim, at lower doses than a friend of mine who had diminished ovarian reserve but was also on the long lupron protocol. he did ICSI for the embryos, because of the low sperm count and motility. 13 eggs retrieved, 8 mature, 7 fertilized, 5 embryos (grade 1, which was the best) fresh transfer of a single embryo resulted in a negative pregnancy test frozen transfer of a single embryo (after sitting out a cycle to get my estrogen down) resulted in a live birth.

monitoring was between 7-8:30. you were given a timeslot, but then were called to phlebotomy and ultrasound probably in the order of arrival, but not everyone arrived at once. weekends were more of a cattle call

He strongly recommended a single transfer due to my age and the quality of our embryos, since multiple pregnancies are riskier for both mom and babies. he told me "statistically, the embryos you have are going to be the number of babies they are going to be. if you transfer them in multiples vs single, it just speeds up the answer, but doesn't change it"

I felt Dr. Robins was very candid and honest with me, which I appreciated. He felt our prognosis was good, which made me feel hopeful. Though I did not see him as often as I saw other providers in his clinic, he always responded to calls promptly when I wanted to speak with him and made me feel cared for.

The way the clinic is run, you will not see Dr. Robins too often, but he is overseeing your care. He is blunt but honest and will work to get you the results you desire. He has a huge knowledge base and always makes you feel as if you are in good hands.

Felt like he cared. Was very personable. Returned calls in a timely manner.

First did workup, established that I had PCOS and my husband had a low sperm count. Once we had these results, immediately started me on femara for ovulation regulation, and started IUIs to increase the chances of husband's sperm getting to egg. Unfortunately we had no pregnancies after 3 IUIs. Once we had tried IUI 3 times we advanced to IVF (which Dr. Robins said we would likely need from the get-go, though he was pleased w/ my response to femara and my husbands counts so he felt several trials of IUI were appropriate). For IVF I was started on Menopur and Cetrotide, which I responded well to. Used ovidrel once the eggs were ready. Also as Dr. Robins predicted, I responded very well to low doses of these medications. We became pregnant with a single embryo fresh transfer at 5 days. We still have 3 frozen embryos in the clinic.

The nurses were fabulous. They were compassionate and kind and prompt with responding. They never let questions go unanswered. It was a bit harder to get a hold of the IVF nurse, though I think she was extremely busy, and she always got in touch within a reasonable amount of time.

Strengths - well located, clean and gorgeous. Excellent nursing and doctor staff. Weaknesses - dealt with some billing errors which were slow to be corrected, sometimes waiting room staff could be a little ornery (which I can hardly blame them for, dealing with 10s to 100s of anxious ladies a day).

It was a bit of a cattle call experience, though there are so many u/s techs that generally the wait was pretty short.

Costs were minimal, was largely covered by insurance, with copays. Overall I think we spent under $2000 (several things werent covered, ie embryo freezing)

Dr. Robins is very knowledgable and blunt with his opinions. He only uses methods that have a lot of supportive data, which is ok but also seems rigid when what we have tried did not work. He returns my calls and welcomes me to call him on his cell phone. I wish he was more decisive with what approach to take instead of me having to do my own research and then ask him if we can try different methods. I want Dr. Robins to be more of a leader in my care and not be closed off to other methods as long as there is no harm to myself or my pregnancy.

Be clear and direct because he can ramble off his thoughts when answering your questions and the you leave the coversation feeling like you never got an answer

Dr. Robins was my third dr. He was my second dr at Northwestern. He looked at my history and thought outside of the box to Taylor a protocol that worked for me.

My main issue was scar tissue in the uterine cavity and developing a thick uterine lining. Dr. Robins put me on Lupron and estrogen patches leading up to transfer and the results were good each cycle.

My original nurse left the clinic in May of 2015. The other nurse I felt comfortable with is compassionate and is helpful most times.

The clinic is nice and had a brand new office. The front desk staff is friendly and helpful. The phlebotomists are warm and make you feel comfortable. The ultrasound techs are ok. But since I've been with Dr. Robins he has performed all of my scans. The embryologists are very knowledgeable and have always returned my calls to discuss my frozen embryos. The billing rep Jenni is reliable and helpful and friendly. The clinic psychologist is very respectful and knowledgable about infertility treatment.

Donor cycle was roughly $16,000 IUI was covered by insurance. Frozen embryo transfers were between $5-$6k hysteroscopies laparoscopy HSG MRI were all covered by insurance.

I have had great experiences with Dr Robins. He is both blunt and kind. I appreciate that he explains everything in detail and his advice is grounded in scientific evidence. He was so supportive and always reachable. He paitently, thoughtfully and thoroughly answered all my questions. Plus he was always reachable, even if it meant he had to call us back at 9pm from his cell phone at a conference!

Don't be afraid to ask questions

He always knew all the details of my specific case when we spoke -- without needing to stare at my chart. He always personally called back when I left messages and never rushes me off the phone (or out of the room). It felt like he's even keep the conversation going intentionally so I could have time to remember and ask all my questions

I don't recall the specifics. We did two fresh IVF cycles, the second resulting in a pregnancy. We just came back for a frozen cycle using PIO, Endometrin and Estrace, and I am currently pregnant.

From the front desk staff to the technicians to the nurses, the team is kind and efficient. I never felt like a number even though the practice is extremely busy all the time

They are conservative and make decisions based on scientific evidence. The practice is not afraid to take on hard cases out of concern for their success rates. That's the benefit of a research and teaching hospital based practice

They strongly encourage eSET when appropriate for the patient and explain the medical rationale behind it.