John Petrozza

As stated earlier, he has a very blunt bedside manner. Generally, I want a competent not nice doctor. I'm not sure he is either, at least if you have DOR. Zero sympathy, zero optimism (even when docs at other clinics were like "I don't even know that you have DOR") .... also, after that first appointment, he disappears

Go with him if you have a straightforward case and not DOR.... do not expect him to have a "hmmm how interesting let's see why this odd response happened" approach

I think MGH is very poor for treating diminished ovarian reserve. I had a very strange situation happen, which is that I responded well to clomid and low doses of Gonal F (eg 75 and 112), like getting 3 eggs, but at high doses (eg 450)--which is what they insisted i needed for IVF--my body shut down and I had 0 follicles grow. My IVF cycle was cancelled. I suggested perhaps I just can't tolerate high levels of gonadotropins but Dr P insisted this is "impossible" and said my next cycle should be flare not antagonist with again 450 Gonal F. I got no sense that he wanted to figure out what went wrong. i was clearly a number. and btw, he has a very bad bedside manner. Delivers things like "IVF just might not work for you" with absolutely no sympathy ... bear in mind my AMH is over 2, I naturally conceived a child 2 years ago, etc. Again, no desire to problem solve. they want you in and out. If you are an easy/textbook case, that's fine. But if you are a puzzling case, I see no indication you're going to get attention at MGH.

antagonist protocol IVF with no suppression

often running late

insurance co=pays only

As the head of the clinic I thought he was fabulous and he was also great to us in the beginning of our process. He explained our issues in detail, explained the risks, and really understood our goals. But as soon as the process started he fell off the radar. I never saw him for any of my check in ultrasounds, he didn't do my retrieval, and then sat on genetic test results for two weeks. I felt like we got sold a personable bill of goods and then was just another number in the pile.

Be aware that you won't see him during the process and that you'll be dealing with his assistant and other Dr's throughout.

I barely saw my Dr during the process, which I guess is not unusual when there are several Dr's in a practice and they rotate days. The one issue I had with him is that he sat on my genetic testing results for 2 weeks before giving them to me. It was the longest two weeks of my life. And then zero empathy when he relayed that no embryos were viable and all had genetic issues.

ivf with ICSI. I'm sorry I don't remember the details

My main point of contact was Carol. If I called I had to leave a message for her and she would call me back. It was frustrating because the entire process was never really explained to us, we dealt with insurance issues which never got resolved and everything frustrated me. I'm a fairly smart human being and they made me feel stupid for asking questions. When I said I wanted a class on injections they told me to keep watching the videos until I got it.

They get you in, the process is set up but you're a number and it's a business to them.

10000+ with genetic testing

Ultimately, I got what I wanted: I became pregnant after two rounds of IUI. For that reason I wouldn't discourage friends from going to Dr Petrozza and I will always feel grateful for his help. However, he did very little to make what is already a horrible experience any more bearable. He came across as fairly cold and detached, which I wasn't completely bothered by. He actually would reintroduce himself at every appointment as if we had never met, which was almost funny. My real difficulty with him happened when I opted not to do a vaccine that he was pushing me to get (something that would have delayed my treatment months, I did after careful consideration and consulting a highly respected infectious disease MD) I was horrified by the way he treated me. He was belittling and not in the least compassionate. Luckily, he didn't remember who I was at my next appointment. I had a friend who had a very similar experience with him. She did say when she went back to see him to have a second child, his bedside manner had improved dramatically, almost to the point where she wondered if he had gotten negative feedback and was making a serious effort to be more personable.

As much as you can, try to go into your interactions with him with your own sense of detachment. As emotional as the process is, try to look at him as a vehicle to get where you're trying to go. Ultimately, he's a surgeon who can perform a procedure that you may need.

Dr Petrozza's bedside manner was generally horrible. He came across as very detached. While matter-of-fact can be ok, he communicated in a way that made me feel less than human - like he had a protocol he followed and who I was, how I felt, etc was pretty irrelevant.

He was upfront and honest with us about the need to use a donor egg and ICSI, after two failed IVF's with colleagues in his clinic, he would have moved forward with our own embryo's if we wanted by he painted a realist picture of what our success rate would be 0.5%

ask a lot of question and understand WHY you're not able to conceive. Knowing why your not getting pregnant will help you be able to make decisions about topics you haven't considered yet, like donor egg

his staff made us feel more human, we rarely saw him

we used a donor egg, so I felt less in control of the process. he had a clear roadmap of donor egg cycles to get me to feel comfortable with what this cycle would be like compared to my other two unsuccessful cycles.

Julie was the donor coordinator and she took care of everything for us; we couldn't have been more happy with her. the staff nurses who assisted during the transfer were also wonderful

teaching hospital based clinic

the first two cycles were covered by insurance, the donor egg cycle cost of $25000.00 out of pocket