John Payne

Dr Payne is a problem solver. infertility is a problem am that is what you want someone that is going to solve my problem. He always has a next plan of action however he doesn't push you into the next step. He wants the couple to be completely in sync when moving on to the next step.

To go in with a list of all of the questions you may have and if he goes through something quickly ask him to back up and explain. He will do it. He has been doing this for so many years he can speak quickly and if you are new to infertility and 3rd party reproductive then you want him to explain things to you. He doesn't mind doing that.

We had unexplained infertility so there were a first step, 2nd step and last step. First step was to try times intercourse with fertility drugs. After a few rounds of that not working he recommended IUI. After a few rounds of that not working he recommended IVF. He said we could always keep trying but with the uncertainty of not knowing exactly what was happening he said it may or may not happen.

The costs for IUI weren't too expensive. IVF was very expensive even with insurance because most of the procedure was not covered by insurance. Medications cost the most.

With my age he recommended single embryo transfer especially because we have genetic testing completed.

Dr. Payne is clearly very knowledgeable and takes as much time as needed to answer questions to ensure you have an u understanding or next steps in the treatment plan. He shows a great deal of empathy to his patients and helps calm nerves and fears with his demeanor.

Ask all your questions becasue he will answer and not make you feel rushed.

For IVF cycle 1 we were considered unexplained infertility and began IVF with a period of ovarian suppression followed by hcg and gonal-f injections. The gonal- f injections were I creased to 450 units a day almost immediately. Egg retrieval resulted in 7 eggs but 4 were mature. Of the 4 mature, all fertilized but only 1 developed into a day 5 embryo. PGS tested revealed it was an abnormal embryo so no transfer was completed. At the follow up, he prescribed 2 months of diminished ovarian reserve supplements a d said IVF cycle 2 would not include ovarian suppression and a lupron shot would be added to my protocol. Currently waiting to start IVF cycle 2.

I had some insurance coverage but still had to pay out of pocket approximately $15,000 for my first round of IVF which failed. I was not given any type or refund si ce I had insurance and will pay the same for our upcoming round of IVF.

Generally, the practice is single embryo transfer. The policy makes sense to me and I have had no reason to question it.

Dr. Payne is a great doctor and I would recommend him. He takes time with each patient to make sure that all questions are answered and that each patient understands the treatment plan. If he has any fault, it's that he sometimes is behind schedule because he takes too much time with patients.

Have all your questions ready, and take notes - he does talk fast, but he gives thorough information and is not afraid to address questions.

Aggressive microdose flare protocol - same protocol that was used during our successful cycle in 2017.

$15,000 flat fee that included most items, but did not include initial baseline appointment.

The clinic does prefer eSET but in our case they recommended transferring two embryos. They are good about taking into account individual cases and needs.

The meetings with Dr Payne were lack luster. This is such an important time in our lives and he always seemed like he was rushing us. His speech is so fast like he’s reciting the same thing (which I get he is), but it’s the first time we are hearing it so he needs to slow down. He also needs to review charts before calling. There have been a couple times he’s called and we’ve had to pay for a phone consult and he didn’t have my wife’s medications correctly. They were correct in the chart, but he was saying from assumptions and not checking before he spoke. This is too time consuming and expensive for all that.

Make sure he’s paying attention to your history.

Femara, gonal f, prednisone, ultrasounds, hsg, baseline scans, progesterone bloodwork, semen analysis

We have no insurance coverage for infertility. $500 IUI $190 for intrauterine scan $105 progesterone bloodwork $600 HSG

N/a

My experience with Dr Payne was awesome. He was great. He never gave up on me wanting to have a baby. When the IVF's failed he was there with a positive attitude and great advice. It was an emotional time for me but listening to him and understanding that he was going help me have a baby. He would apologize when the IVF's failed but he said we will not give up. He would tell me what he thought happened but will always say that is in his opinion. That was great to hear because as a woman you think you failed somehow. He was so great he makes you want to have dozen of children.

He will be there until the end. Have hope because he does.

I used a lot of medicine. Medicine by mouth, injections, patches and vaginal inserts. I will use medicine daily until I got pregnant. Once I got a positive pregnant test I would use the medicine until I was 12 weeks because I was considered high risk.

The costs are high and continues to increase. You do receive discounts which helps out a lot.

The doctor gave me the option on how many embryo's to transfer within reason of course.

We first met dr. Payne over a year ago and absolutely felt like ‘just a number’ in his practice. He seemed overly sure of himself and that he wasn’t interested in our particular situation. PREG being the only close by clinic we decided to give it another shot and have had an entirely different experience with him. He seems more caring and has slowed down to explain everything I have a question about. Overall his demeanor and knowledge makes us feel confident that we are making the right decision in working with him.

Don’t expect him to be warm and cuddly, but he seems to know what he is talking about.

We are getting ready to start our first round of ivf with icsi. We have male factor infertility results from cancer treatment. So far I have undergone testing to determine eligibility for Univfy, and been started on birth control to prepare for stims.

18,500 for one round of ivf including unlimited embryo transfers from that round and their fee for embryo biopsy.

Our doctor has told us we will start with single embryo transfer.

Dr. Payne is a very forward doctor. I respect that about him because I would rather know up front what is the issue and solution to the problem at hand. The first consultation I had with him he was very nice and reassuring about everything I would’ve gone through and will go through. He was very open about the possibilities of every side effect, or possible pregnancy complications that could happen. Not that they would but it was better for him to explain it than to never explain it at all. I told him that I wanted to go full blast with meds and we did just that. At that time my father was dying of Lung Cancer and I was desperate to have a child so that he could get to meet him. Unfortunately, during my time trying to conceive my father passed away. It took such a major toll on me. I was actually planning to do IVF that next cycle but pushed it back. Later my sister in law passed away from Stomach Cancer and I have just been devastated. So much going on and with everyone in my ear telling me something good is going to come out of it, then have the one thing I want more than anything continually not happen is the worst feeling. I have cried with Dr. Payne and his nurses just because I felt that close with them. He is a listener, care giving doctor , and understanding doctor. When other people have told me to get another doctor, I tell them no! My doctor knows what he’s doing!! He has kept by my side throughout this journey and is more than excited to get me pregnant! To have him not give up on me makes me not give up on myself and that’s what truly matters the most. That is what makes him my favorite doctor. To know that I have a reliable doctor that I can depend on is the greatest feeling. After all, he will be part of the reason I one day, hopefully soon, have my miracle of joy.

Trust him, he knows what he’s doing.

Dr. Payne suggestions were Femora with progesterone and if that didn’t work “naturally”, we would do that with IUI. If that didn’t work, IVF. He allowed me to try that to help out in financial cost but to see if it could jut happen! Doing the biggest procedure was a last result. I didn’t get pregnant with anything but I am hoping to achieve pregnancy with the help of this loan via IVF.

I appreciate the fact that he wants to consistently protect his patients and keep their best interest in mind. I accept the fact that he prefers eSET.

He is just a thoughtful and thorough care giver. He is a very highly trained and informed expert in his field, and he covers all of the basis when helping me think out the options I have for my course of treatment and long term goals. He is so friendly and certainly considerate of the sensitivity of my current disease process if stage four endometriosis and of my immense desire to bring another beautiful baby into God’s world. I am so very thankful for his help.

To stay on top of the financial and insurance department that is in charge of preauthorizations in his office, if that is the financial situation that the prospective patient is coming from. Time sensitivity could definitely be improved with those administrative staff members.

We are still in the early stages of progress. We began with the base line scans for ultrasound folical count and lab drawings. Now we have moved on the recallibrating the ovulation scheduled via birth control method. Based on the number of follicles seen, the goal is to complete two cycles if financially possible so that I have enough to possibly freeze a combination of some eggs as well as some embryos, to get be enough chances of some of both remaining viable throughout the process. Once that is completed, we plan to treat me for endometriosis until my body is ready for a healthy pregnancy. I am so eager to experience an intimate pregnancy, carrying my child in me, and the joy of nursing and nurturing my little infant. God knows my heart and desires for this, and all of Dr. Payne’s methods and plans have been circled around this.

I am still in the process of receiving accurate price quote information after 3 months

Those will be items we get to towards the last stages of the process and I look forward to learning more details about the methods when we are crossing the bridge. I haven’t sought that info yet as we are still starting all of this.

It was a horrible experience to say the least. We became pregnant naturally on a cycle not being treated, ended up having to terminate due to trisomy diagnosis and when we came back to the clinic there was not one mention or question about it. Back to "the plan" of fertility meds and appointment dates. I could not have felt more " investable" if I tried.

Get a second opinion or find a Doctor that truly can hear your story and help you down the right path.

We only have completely one cycle of femara, ovidrel, TI. This was per John Paynes recommendation after the loss of our pregnancy in the fall. I only received information through a nurse or through the receptionist and very often if I had questions, I was sent to a voicemail.

I still look through our bill records from PREG and some I cannot answer what we paid for. Thats a horrible feeling.

John was very knowledgeable and aggressive with my treatment, which was well needed. He was honest but kind, and produced the results that we were seeking! He made sure that he was involved in every step and no decisions were made without his approval.

Trust his advice, and be patient! You may not see him often, but know that he’s still very involved in the process of helping you reach your goal!

I have very polycystic ovaries, and it’s hard to induce ovulation. We started with inducing my period with provera as it was non-existent, and middle of the road doses of 7.5mg femara to see how I would respond. He took a gradual approach and increased the doses, but no results. We progressed to ovidrel injections and trigger shot each month. The results were still mediocre, and he came up with adding a small dose of anti-inflammatory steroid which was the magic trick, and I responded very well! I had thin lining so he added baby aspirin to maintain it.

I had great insurance so I had to meet a 3k deductible and everything was covered 90% after that. We paid about $650 per month for donor sperm

Dr Payne was very kind, informative and compassionate from the moment we stepped into his office. He answered all of our questions and gave us different options. We never once felt forced into any treatment or to take the most aggressive route. We felt that the treatment course was thoroughly explained with pros and cons. He made us feel welcome and we were treated like patients with kindness and compassion.

Call PREG today and set up your consult with Dr Payne! You won't be disappointed.

We did 2 cycles of IUI with femara and ovidrel to trigger. We also did 1 IVF cycle with BC pills prior and lupron and gonal f and ICSI. I have good ovarian reserve which and the reasoning for injections chosen and ICSI was chosen for our male factor diagnosis.

IUI was $450-$500 Visits covered by insurance IVF was $7,000 w/o meds Monitoring ultrasounds covered by insurance

I have a history of multiples and complications with that pregnancy so Dr Payne's choice for a single transfer was discussed and agreed upon.

I only saw a nurse tenentire the me, the first time I saw the doctor it was the last time we did treatment with IUI. No one told us the cost, thy put my husband on clomid and haven’t gotten back to us at all and it has been since June and it is now end of September. We haven’t heard anything and have recently felt like the doctors and the offices have forgotten about us. We have almost given up on the process because we don’t have any feedback or direction when we sought it out.

Expect to see the nurse before you see the doctor. Keep an open mind

IUI one time, then they stated that hindsight is 20/20 that they probably wouldn’t have had us doing IUI if they would have noticed my husband sperm count going down. We felt like the treatment and money was slightly wasted because they said they shouldn’t have been doing the treatments.

They informed me that they would use a code that would allow my insurance to take care of it, we have paid a lot out of pocket, but we have got a bill for over 1000$ when we were told our insurance would cover. I called several times got 2 people, then several times left message and did not get any response.

Dr. Payne isnt as aggressive as I would have liked for this situation. He kind of had a laid back let's let God do his thing attitude which is cool at times but we were in a race against my endometriosis. I feel like if he had been apart of my ultrasound when we were doing trigger shots and timed intercourse maybe he would have noticed the cyst instead of it taking so many rounds before realizing what we were doing was making things worse. Also once we decided to go ahead with IVF the last ultrasound before my scheduled retrieval another doctor was doing the scan and became a little annoyed that someone started me on IVF with a polyp in my uterus again. So we ended up having to remove that along with my eggs and then freeze when we were planning a fresh embryo transfer but frozen.

Maybe just to be more aggressive about what you want if you're looking to get things done quickly and don't have time to let things happen on their own.

After the removal of a couple of polyps and endometriosis dr. Payne wanted to try a trigger shot and timed intercourse since my cycles were completely normal. We did a few months of that and it wasn't working, he realized I wasn't getting one good size egg and trigger I just had a cyst growing each month and going away my period. We decided that IVF would be the best option since my body wasn't responding well to this treatment and we were trying to get pregnant before my endometriosis returned. He put me on birth control for a month so that my body could heal from the cyst and try to make sure the endometriosis didn't come back in the mean time. Once my body was ready we dived right into the IVF cycle. I went in often for an ultrasound to keep an eye on my progress. Just before my retrieval polyps were discovered and the cyst returned so we had to retrieve the eggs, remove the polyps and lance the cyst. Since and embryo is less likely to latch to a uterus covered in scar tissue he decided it would be best to freeze the eggs and go back on birth control for two months then do a 5 day frozen embryo transfer. I had 10 eggs retrieved only 2 made it, I was in the age group for just one egg but one of my eggs wasn't looking very good so he went ahead and transferred both anyways. I was on progesterone for 10 weeks. I now have a beautiful 10 month old boy.

I lucked out and my health does help offset the cost, but they did prepare a break down of exactly what insurance would cover and how much out of pocket I would have to spend

Dr. Payne met with us to discuss options for IVF. It was a difficult conversation and his caring nature made it so much easier. He explained options clearly and answered all our questions. During our treatment he was kind and could make me smile and laugh during stressful moments. After my miscarriage he was so empathetic and caring. He is a wonderful doctor who truly cares about his patients.

Write down any questions you have so you can remember them in the appointments

We used a donor so there was a great deal of information given to us regarding what steps the donor was undergoing for egg retrieval. Our first try was a fresh transfer. Dr. Payne explained this was best to begin with. He explained statistics and our protocol in detail verbally and in writing. We used birth control, Lupron, estrogen and progesterone. We agreed to transfer one embryo. I was pregnant for almost 11 weeks. After my miscarriage Dr. Payne was so compassionate and encouraging that I was able to carry a baby. He did not push us to try again. When we were ready we tried again and it was a frozen transfer. Single embryo again. We did not use Lupron and progesterone was given by suppository- no injections. We now have a beautiful healthy baby boy.

Until our last transfer we did not have insurance coverage so it was all out of pocket. They gave us a discount which we appreciated and helped us find most affordable meds possible. We spent $30000 so far.

I am petite so we all agreed it was best for my health to transfer one. He did offer us information on stats of single vs multiple and we were allowed to choose

When I had my HCG procedure done, Dr.Payne was more than ready to address any concerns I had. He was very careful and gentle throughout the procedure. He explained every step he made. Afterwards, Dr.Payne helped me understand that I had no tubal blockage and carefully assured me that I could conceive. I was very appreciative of how compassionate and sensitive he was during my visit for this procedure.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions if there is something medically you don’t understand or comprehend. Dr. Payne never made me rushed or intimidated to ask a question.

I don’t recall any at this time.

Overall, my husband and I probably spent close to $400 for our tests and procedures (which included a 2 semen analysis, blood tests, and a HCG test).

Dr. John Payne is a very caring and compassionate doctor. He wasn't the first doctor that I saw at the practice; I actually switched to him because I liked him better. He has an excellent bedside manner. He always took the time to answer any questions I had. He is also extremely knowledgeable about infertility. I would highly recommend him to anyone dealing with infertility.

I guess I would say something that I think is good advice for dealing with any doctor, that you need to be your own advocate with your health care. Speak up for yourself and don't be afraid to ask any questions.

I don't remember all the details of the cycles because my last full cycle was in 2014, but I do remember the medications used. I started out on birth control pills, then started injecting Lupron, then Gonal-F. And also estrogen patches and progesterone shots. And of course the hCG shot to trigger ovulation. I don't remember doses, but I always responded very well. For my frozen cycles I just did estrogen patches or pills and progesterone.

They all always schedule monitoring appointments for early in the morning, so by around 8:30. I don't love having to go to the doctor that early, but it was definitely worth it! Usually when I went for an appointment there was not very many other people waiting.

I had insurance coverage for infertility for all but the last cycle. I don't remember exactly because it's been a while but I believe we paid about $2300 for a full cycle. I think they are $10,000 without insurance coverage. I think I paid about $1700 for the frozen cycles, although we had a low out of pocket max (3000 I think) so when we were trying for our 2nd child we ended up paying nothing for a full cycle, because had already done 2 frozen cycles that year. When we were trying for # 3 in 2017 we no longer had fertility coverage and paid $3100 for a frozen cycle.

Dr. Payne was fine with us transferring two embryos. He left the decision up to us whether we wanted to transfer 1 or 2. I don't think he would have supported transferring more. I feel like he explained the risks well of transferring multiple embryos.

Dr Payne was a wonderful doctor to work with. He was compassionate and thorough. He explained every procedure and what to expect. He understood any pain or discomfort and helped when needed. He worked with any personal insecurities.

The only struggle I had was from the anesthesia used for the retrieval. Everything else was fine. I don't remember all the specifics of medication used. I followed the outline as given.

Dr Payne was very insistent on only transferring one embryo the first time as she was the highest possiblequality for a frozen embryo. He wouldn't transfer a second embryo since this was my first cycle and he wanted to do what was the safest for me and my child.

He was fine, but I hardly ever saw him. At least he was open to my thoughts about trying IUI at my age, though he had discussed IVF with me. I told him that wasn't an option because I had only set aside a certain amount of money to "just see what happens". He respected that and so we went ahead. However, I had only seen him in passing after that. Most of my time was spent with the nurses.

Ask all of your questions and them some because he will answer them.

I got IUI 3 times. I didn't have any history (not really) of infertility other than I'm single. You can't make a baby with just an egg, you know. Anyway, we knew that because of my age and my DOR that it might not be possible to get pregnant, but we went with IUI anyway. IVF would've been the better way to go, but not at those prices.

About $4500

My doctor didn't go that approach.

I feel that Dr. Payne is very knowledgeable about my conditions and did explain the course of treatment for PCOS and anovulation. He allowed me to make my own decisions regarding how many times I could try a treatment while being realistic on the chances of it being successful. I did not care for the last time that we spoke him pushing IVF but he did explain everything and what to expect with the procedure itself. Of the times we spoke he was very kind and caring.

Research treatments and their success rates. Dr. Payne does not explain success rates in as much detail as he does with IVF.

We started our journey with 5 medicated cycles with timed intercourse. My HSG showed bilateral clear tubes and husbands semen analysis was normal with only mild variation in shape. I did not ovulate on my own so the thought was to add follicle stimulation medication. We did one cycle of clomid with no follicles at CD 12 ultrasound and then switched to femara for five cycles. The femara produced one follicle each month which ranged from 20-25mm. A HCG trigger shot was added with each medicated cycle to induce ovulation and three days of intercourse was suggested after administration of trigger shot. We did not conceive on any of the medicated cycles with timed intercourse. Dr. Payne suggested to try a more invasive procedure since the medicated cycles with timed intercourse seemed to not be enough so we tried IUI. The IUI was with femara and the HCG trigger. I produced one 20-25 follicle each cycle and we trigged with the IUI to follow 24 hours later. My husbands semen counts were between 15-23 million each procedure. We were unsuccessful with the IUI procedures. No explanation could be given and Dr. Payne suggested that we move on to an even more invasive procedure such as IVF as the chance for success after any three consecutive treatments is 30%. So here we are.

Follicle scans were $86 per scan. Lab draws were $45. Semen analysis was $250. IUI procedure was $250.

He always included me in the plan of care and gave me options to choose from for future cycles! Always answered questions fully and was very knowledgeable answering my questions! Great bedside manners! Dr Payne would sometimes seem rushed when meeting with him, however he was the only doctor at the Spartanburg office and if ever you had further questions after getting home you could always call the office and questions would be answered immediately!

Do not give up no matter how long the process is or how many failures you have to go through!

For the 3 IUI procedures, I was taking Femara and gonal-f along with a trigger shot! I was not ovulating or producing eggs of great quality and these medications helped that process! For my IVF egg retrieval I was on an antagonist protocol! This worked very well as 19 eggs were retrieved, 16 were mature, 12 fertilized, and 5 made it to day 5 blasts! We were able to do a fresh transfer of 1 Embryo but this cycled failed as well! My first frozen Embryo transfer I was stimulated with estrace, medrol, and progesterone! We plan on transferring only one Embryo!

the costs of these procedures are extremely expensive however I don't think it's in relation to the office or physician! I feel like, in general, all infertility treatments are extremely expensive! The office would work with you with payments but would not perform procedures until paid in full which would sometimes delay cycles and treatment!

I am a person who is scared of carrying multiples such as twins or triplets because I am a labor and delivery nurse and understand and know the risks of carrying multiples! Dr Payne is very adiment on only transferring just one Embryo for this simple reason! I love that about his plan of care for patients!

Dr. Payne is a great reproductive endocrinologist. Although I have not yet achieved the ultimate goal being pregnancy, he does genuinely care for his patients and want the best for us. I do wish I saw him more in the office as I go to a satellite campus and it is primarily ran by the nurses(which are amazing), but it's more trusting to see your physician more often. He is ultimately a good MD.

He moves fast! So if you can't comprehend as fast as he is relaying information to you, ask him to repeat things. Also, don't hesitate to ask for further details about things he may share in relation to statistics.

I did Femara and Clomid for several cycles that failed. I then did Clomid plus Gonal F for a couple cycles and ultimately had one failed IUI cycle. We then decided to move forward with IVF (as Dr Payne also suggested) and I was on the antagonist protocol where birth control was taken then Gonal F and low dose HCG and Cetrotide was added in. I had retrieval and transfer. However, it failed with transferring two perfect quality embryos.

The Femara and Clomid was not that expensive. However, the gonal F is very expensive around 1000 per cycle it is used for stims during TI and IUI. During IVF, the expenses end up being around 10-20K for a normal cycle. Other test like genetic testing, etc are additional cost of around 4-5K. Infertility is not cheap. It is definitely a financial burden for all families undergoing this treatment.

He strongly recommends eSET if you have good quality embryos and are less than 35. However, I went with my gut understanding the risk with potential multiples....and as mentioned previously, transferred two perfect embryos and i am <35 and it did not result in a pregnancy.

When Dr. Payne sat my husband and I down in his office to explain to us why he felt our IVF had failed, he was very compassionate. I felt that he was almost as upset and brokenhearted as we were. The moment still brings tears to my eyes and it's been four years. I unfortunately feel that there wasn't enough done by him or his staff afterwards to help us. I am a teacher and my husband is a factory worker. We couldn't afford another IVF cycle and there were no attempts made at working with us to accomplish this, knowing he had a plan to try again. I also experienced extreme depression from the failed IVF. This is probably common and it should become practice to give some suggestions on what to do. Maybe pamphlets or a list of doctors/counselors in the area a husband/wife/couple could talk to who are experienced with child loss/infertility. I just feel he should check in with his failed IVF patients and/or work with them on another attempt instead of needing 90-100% of the price again.

He's a great doctor you can trust so just do your part: take every precaution and know that this may be your only shot!

From what I can remember from four years ago, Dr. Payne doubled one of my shots I was giving myself (the refrigerated one) because something wasn't responding correctly. I have Celiac Disease and didn't find out until I was 29 years old. I have read that it can cause infertility so I don't know if I just can't have children. I also know not many eggs were retrieved and only one was viable enough to try. I have two stepsons and would love to have one of my own but know that may not be an option any more as I'm 35 now.

Unfortunately, my IVF procedure was four years ago and I can't remember specifics. However I do remember needing to have about $1500 in cash to pay for medications/shots (especially for the extra doses ordered).

Dr. Payne's next plan is to have my husband's sperm retrieval and my egg retrieval on the same day. The first time my husband's sperm had been frozen and he feels that we will have more success with a fresh transfer. My husband and I believe in Dr. Payne and his plan.

Dr. Payne explained the rationale and treatment plan to us in detail when we first met with him. We started off with a not-so-great feeling once we were informed that the treatment plan would not be personalized to our needs and that we would follow a predetermined treatment plan that they use for every patient. We worked with PREG for about a year before we had had enough and sought out another clinic. Dr. Payne communicates well, and is kind to his patients. However, we just didn't feel like any of our treatment was personalized to our situation, and when we expressed our desire to take a different approach we felt that we weren't heard by Dr. Payne.

I would advise you to seek out a different clinic and a different Doctor. Dr. Payne has clearly had some success, but the clinic's overall philosophy does not include an individualized treatment plan for its patients.

Dr. Payne took us through a lot of diagnostics, but did not identify that my wife has the MTHFR gene. We did several IUI cycles with him, and we had to do an I&C with him as well. Those were all completed with proficiency, to be sure, but didn't result in a pregnancy.

I don't remember the specifics, but in general the IUI's were pretty affordable. Less than $1,000 per cycle.