How was your experience with John Norian at HRC?
Dr. Norian was the only doctor I saw while a patient at HRC. He knew everything about my treatment and was always ready to adjust our plan as needed. He was also friendly, gentle, and caring. He never made me feel uncomfortable or rushed through at any appointment
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of John Norian at HRC?
Be patient! He is the only doctor at his office but he will treat you kindly and spend as much time with you as needed. The one thing I will say is he does start with a sort of blanket treatment based on what he thinks your odds are and will move from there depending on how you react to treatment. My wife often got slightly annoyed by this, but it’s understandable. While treating me, he noticed I responded exceptionally well to mess and he worried about hyperstimulation a lot and tried not to be too aggressive in his approaches. So I’d say patience is needed because he is a bit cautious.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with John Norian at HRC?
He always remembered what was going on in mine and my wife’s life and the first time he met me he told me how great my uterus was! I know that can sound weird but it really made me feel great about being there and hopeful. He also was very real with us about our chances and even told us about other patients successes (without saying names or even when they were patients of course!) I just personally felt like he cared. And so did his staff.
Describe the protocols John Norian used in your cycles at HRC and their degree of success.
1st IUI we did the lowest does of clomid because I was young, and had a great uterus/cervix and Dr. Norian wanted to be calm in his approach if I didn’t need aggressive treatment. we also used a trigger shot to release eggs and then 2 rounds of insemination a day apart.
Cycle 2 was the next lowest does of clomid so more drugs basically and then no trigger or insemination because I responded ok, but he couldn’t pinpoint a specific ovulation date and I seemed to ovulate in weird parts.
Last IUI was a drug that treats breast cancer but is also good for fertility (forgot the name! Sorry!) this time it was slightly easier to find the ovulation And then inseminate. Again failing.
A few months later we did IVF because Dr. Norian was worried about my ovulation disorder and so we we did a round of birth control and then we did Gonal-f, Menopur, and another drug over the course of 2 weeks, gonal-f and menopur for one week and then both and the other injection the second week. We then did the trigger shot and I had egg retrieval. Dr. Norian then had me do one more round of birth control to essentially start me over “fresh” as he said and then we did hormone therapy for 2 weeks with suppository endometrin 4 Times a day, (after a build up period) and then lozenges the week before actual transfer, methylpreslidone, and estrogen patches that I changed every three days. After transfer I did lozenges for a week and then when I got my positive test Dr. Norian had me begin taking progesterone in oil injection in my muscle because I had very low progesterone. We did that for I believe 4 weeks until the placenta had formed nicely and then he stopped me on oils and I just did endometrin for a few more days and then we tapered off to no progesterone!
Describe your experience with your nurse at HRC. (Assigned nurse: Jennifer for the IUI and then Cynthia and Saba for the IVF)
Everyone here is amazing. Jennifer left during our second iui cycle and was gone a lot during our first so she wasn’t great but Saba and Cynthia were amazing. During iui cycles Saba and Cynthia stepped up to care for us and then again during our IVfs of course. They knew EVERYTHING about our cycles and were so patient even with our stupid questions and held our hands and always made sure I was comfortable. Saba no longer works there, but she’s an angel!
Describe your experience with HRC.
Strength: all the employees are wonderful from Amanda at the desk, to Dr. Norian.
Weakness: it is a small clinic and a lot of procedures are done out of house at the Pasadena location (still by dr. Norian)
Describe the costs associated with your care under John Norian at HRC.
Ultrasounds were $270 each
The 2 day insemination was $900
I don’t remember the all inclusive IVF price but I believe it was ~$15,000 that included ultrasounds, bloodwork, pregnancy tests, the retrieval and the transfer as well as all of the egg insemination and one year of egg storage.
Egg storage is $800 a year.
I have 14 embryos in storage still since im a WARRIOR who will be doing this again soon!
Describe John Norian's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at HRC.
Dr. Norian let us pick. We chose to do 2 embryos because we wanted to increase our chances and my wife reeeeeaally wanted twins