Dr. Storment's strengths are that he 1) treats you like a person, 2) is almost always at your appointments, 3) is able to sympathize with you when you get bad news (I often feel that doctors go through this so much, that they forget that the news is personal to the patients), and 4) is willing to adjust protocol and listen to your input on next steps. It's tough for me to come up with weaknesses - I have not had a successful pregnancy yet, but I do think that we will get there. If I had to come up with one, my worry would be that because we are in Louisiana, and there are so few infertility doctors, that Dr. Storment might have limited interaction with other doctors
Suzanne [a nurse at Fertility Answers] is nothing short of perfect. I honestly do think she has photographic memory or simply the memory of a superhuman, because I do think she remembers every detail of my case. I trust her completely. The rest of the nursing staff is also wonderful. The only concern that I've had was a bit of turnover for a while, but then again, few people have been there for as long as I have. Also, I do wish they would be a bit more accessible over the weekend.
How was your experience with John Storment at Fertility Answers?
Dr. Storment's strengths are that he 1) treats you like a person, 2) is almost always at your appointments, 3) is able to sympathize with you when you get bad news (I often feel that doctors go through this so much, that they forget that the news is personal to the patients), and 4) is willing to adjust protocol and listen to your input on next steps. It's tough for me to come up with weaknesses - I have not had a successful pregnancy yet, but I do think that we will get there. If I had to come up with one, my worry would be that because we are in Louisiana, and there are so few infertility doctors, that Dr. Storment might have limited interaction with other doctors, which in turn might impact how up to date he is on cutting edge practices. That being said, I do know that he has reached out to many doctors for their advice on my case, and we are using some new techniques/practices, so it is likely only my worry of doing IVF in Louisiana that is the problem, and he is actually on the cutting edge.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of John Storment at Fertility Answers?
As with any doctor, you are one of many patients, and they cannot always remember every little thing about your case. Therefore, be your own advocate - remind them of things - don't take their instructions and run with them without asking questions to make sure that they have kept in mind all of your nuances. Nobody is more familiar with your case than you.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with John Storment at Fertility Answers?
Dr. Storment has always treated me like family. I have had 5 egg retrievals with him, 1 of which resulted in no blastocysts (therefore no embryos to send off for PGS testing) and 1 of which after sending the blastocysts off, they all came back aneuploid. He has always been the one to call me with my PGS results and when the news was bad, he made sure to make time to talk through options and gave me his personal cell number to call him with questions. I went to a different clinic in Chicago prior to this one, and there, I always felt like a number. With Dr. Storment, even though I'm a difficult case, I do feel like he will figure out a way for me to have a family and he is personally focused on it.
Describe the protocols John Storment used in your cycles at Fertility Answers and their degree of success.
In my first cycle, I did a timed intercourse cycle, with Femara. This was the protocol I'd used with my previous doctor and had gotten pregnant twice with it (both ended in miscarriage). Dr. Storment said he would follow that same protocol, if I was happy with it, which I was. It again resulted in a miscarriage, so we moved on to IVF. The first round of IVF, we started with low doses of Menopur (75IU) and Gonal F (started at 150u and eventually increased to 350u)(because I had a high AMH and was expected to be a fast responder) with an ovidrel trigger. I ended up not responding well, and had only 6 eggs retrieved, 2 made it to blast, and none were euploid. My 2nd IVF, we did 150u of Menopur and 450u of Gonal F, with Ovidrel trigger - results were 16 eggs retrieved, 3 blasts, 1 euploid. 3rd IVF, we used the same protocol as the 2nd, had 30 eggs retrieved, but none of them made it to blasts. Therefore, we waited 3 months before our 4th egg retrieval and both my husband and I took supplements (Me: CoQ10, DHEA, Myoinositol, Melatonin; Him: Vitamin D & E). After 3 months of supplements, we did the 4th retrieval, starting off with 450u of Gonal F and 150u of Menopur, but I responded much faster, and we ultimately dropped to 150u of Gonal F and 75u of Menopur - this cycle resulted in 10 eggs retrieved, 4 blasts, and 1 euploid. The 5th retrieval, we used the same protocol as round 4, resulting in 28 eggs retrieved, 5 blasts, and 1 more euploid. Once we got our last euploid embryo (3 in total), we moved on to FET's. We have had 2 attempts at an FET, thus far, but due to poor lining response, we have cancelled both. We did turn the 2nd FET attempt into and ERA cycle, which showed I was 12 hours pre-receptive, so our next attempt, we will adjust accordingly.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Fertility Answers. (Assigned nurse: Suzanne)
Suzanne is nothing short of perfect. I honestly do think she has photographic memory or simply the memory of a superhuman, because I do think she remembers every detail of my case. I trust her completely. The rest of the nursing staff is also wonderful. The only concern that I've had was a bit of turnover for a while, but then again, few people have been there for as long as I have. Also, I do wish they would be a bit more accessible over the weekend.
Describe your experience with Fertility Answers.
The clinic does a great job of treating you like a person. Everyone is super friendly and do what they can to accommodate you. The only thing I would suggest is that they be more accessible over the weekend.
Describe the costs associated with your care under John Storment at Fertility Answers.
IVF with PGS (excluding meds) was approximately $16,000. An FET is approximately $5,000.
Describe John Storment's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Fertility Answers.
Because I am doing PGS, I completely agree that we should only transfer one embryo. I do not want the risk of carrying multiples.
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Fertility Answers
Baton Rouge