Juan Alvarez

This isn't my first time going through fertility treatments. I've had success with another amazing fertility specialist. From the first video consultation to the first appointment in person, Dr. Alvarez spoke to me so condescendingly. He seemed pretentious every time I met with him - which was just one video consult and one time in person for a saline sonogram. Honestly, I wasn't sure why I got bad vibes from him, but I stuck with him because his reviews said he was compassionate and to the point. However with me, he was condescending, annoyed and pretentious. For my first in-person appointment, I came in for bloodwork and an ultrasound to see how follicle count was. I told everyone through my patient portal and on my initial diagnostic follicle count appointment that I didn't want to do a saline sonogram. During the second appointment, I was under the impression everyone already communicated that I just wanted to evaluate my uterus and not do a saline sonogram. I was told that Dr. Alvarez still wanted to do it. The assistant told Dr. Alvarez that I had questions and his response so rudely was, "Why? What questions does she even have?" I wanted to explain that I had an HSG done previously and I didn't want a saline sonogram done - even if it was over a year. I also wanted to tell him that I know the procedure hurts and I wasn't prepared for it. He came into my room irritated and explained to me in a condescending tone why he wanted me to do a saline sonogram, explained that the HSG hurts more, then ended his explanation with, "But it's all up to you, but I would just recommend it. But it's up to you, whatever you want to do." I told him again that I didn't want to do it and he left the room irritated. I could feel his eyes rolling back as he was leaving. I felt pressured to do the test with the way he talked to me. So, when he came back, I told him I would do it. So, he cleans me with iodine as you would a pap smear and opens my cervix with the speculum - which is in fact, PAINFUL. He opens the cervix and inserts the catheter. The catheter falls out after initial push of saline - painful. He asks his assistant for another catheter and she asks if he wants iodine again. He just says no and reinserts the speculum to reopen my cervix - more pain. Does the saline with the sonogram and again... PAINFUL. All the while just keeps repeating that the HSG is more painful. He repeated himself so much that his assistant started to repeat what he was saying as if it was going to make what I felt hurt less. The whole time I felt like I wasn't heard, ignored, and they both down-played my pain. First of all, pain is subjective. How is he - a man with no fallopian tubes and ovaries - going to tell me that I am not or should not feel pain. 1) I was medicated for my HSG because my first fertility specialist was amazing and considerate. 2) Dr. Alvarez literally HAS NO FALLOPIAN TUBES. He cannot just keep repeating himself to downplay the pain I was feeling. I guess he thought if he repeated himself enough, I would believe the pain I was feeling didn't exist. That is TERRIBLE bedside manner. TERRIBLE. So, just to recap in the first time meeting him in person he was: condescending, pretentious, annoyed, irritated, and downplayed my pain (you know, because he's done this test himself with his fallopian tubes). He also didn't re-sterilize/clean me again prior to second insertion. I was in pain walking all the way back to the parking garage and then bleeding an in pain for a week and a half. A WEEK AND A HALF. Of course, not a concern to him because he feels pain for other people, so he would know best about how you feel with your pain. I started with him end of May, I am just starting stims this October. Of course, I know we wait for cycles, but literally barely ever heard from him. I was supposed to wait for him after he got back from vacation to start stims, but I literally kept thinking to myself, if this is how he treats me now, how will I feel for the rest of my IVF journey with him? I ended up switching doctors and thank God because it is like night and day. She actually laughs with me and is very kind. I actually feel happy and hopeful that this cycle will work. I stuck with him because I saw reviews that he was compassionate. I didn't get that. I thought maybe he didn't like me and was just rude because I wasn't LGTBQ. Regardless, he had terrible bedside manner and lack of communication. I honestly just felt like another number and another paycheck to him. In conclusion, if you don't have good vibes with your fertility specialist, they barely answer your questions, not willing to hear you out (because it's literally your body), speak to you condescendingly and treat you like a number and a paycheck, then I'd suggest to go to someone else.

He might be more nicer to you if you're LGTBQ. Otherwise, I'd probably stay away from him. I wouldn't recommend him to anyone I know. If your gut tells you he's talking to you condescendingly, then your gut is right.

Only went as far as diagnostics with him. He recommended supplements, that's about it.

Everything I ever paid were just co-payments. My insurance covers all procedures.

He provided multiple options for my course of treatment, and allowed me to pick the best one for our family. He is an effective communicator and never hesitated to explain further when we had questions or concerns.

Be open with your goals. He will work towards helping you achieve them

IVF was decided as our best, modest effective treatment option. We are still in the beginning stages, starting stimulation this very night!

We are lucky enough to have a fairly high coverage amount through insurance. As treatment is still ongoing, we don’t have final costs.

Agree wholeheartedly with the single embryo transfer.

Dr. Alvarez's strengths include being honest yet empathetic to his patients. He was my second opinion after failing 3 rounds of IVF with my first RE. I appreciated that he stated that he would do everything in his power to get us a baby using our own embryo but also stated that I realistically needed to consider using donor eggs too if things don't work out. He made that statement after knowing my history of DOR and poor egg quality (among other issues). I know a lot of women who do not appreciate donor eggs being brought up on consultation, but that made me trust him even more. He was honest with me and giving me realistic expectations, but at the same time gave me hope that he could successfully get us our own genetically normal embryos (which he did). Another strength is his communication. He personally would call me with updates on certain important parts of each process, something my first RE never once did. If I missed his call, he would try calling me back a few times in the day (one time he called me 4 times in one day) to ensure that he gave me an update and to make sure all of my questions were answered. Another strength is his up-to-date knowledge and best practices in all things RE. He graduated from his fellowship a few years ago and is up to date on all the of the latest best-evidence research on how to achieve your goals of creating a family. I firmly believe that his recent training contributed to our success. He is also just a very sweet and kind human being. My husband and I loved every interaction with him... he's just so sweet and positive! I honestly have no weaknesses to describe of him.

Trust his process. IVF in general is a long, arduous journey, but he truly has your best interest at heart. My first embryo transfer failed, and we were all so perplexed because I had such a high chance of success given all of the testing we had done prior to the transfer (ERA, Receptiva, HSG, saline sonogram, etc). But Dr. Alvarez explained that these transfers sometimes fail and we will never know why. When I asked him what we were going to do differently for the next transfer, he said he didn't want to do anything different... that everything was perfect last time. That was a very hard answer to hear and to come to terms with, but we trusted him. We did the exact same protocol for our second transfer and it worked! I'm currently over 13 weeks pregnant. In all, trust his judgment. He truly wants the very best for you.

Before switching to Dr. Alvarez, my previous RE had maxed me out on Follistim (450/day) and Menopur (150/day), Omnitrope priming, and had me on Ovasital and CoQ10. He did on micro flare protocol too. All of these methods failed to produce any genetically normal embryos. When I switched to Dr. Alvarez, he did a gentler approach with these medications and put me on low doses. My Follistim was 100 twice a day (once in the morning and once at night), Menopur 75/day, and he added I believe 5 days of Clomid. Before starting a cycle, he would also put me on birth control pills for 10-14 days. Then I would prime with estrogen and omnitrope before starting the stim medications. I had major success with Dr. Alvarez's method, as I think my follicles responded better to a slower, gentler stimulation to gradually grow my follicles/eggs rather than being blasted with the highest doses of everything. Dr. Alvarez was able to get me a total of 3 genetically normal embryos... something we never imagined would happen!

Our costs were minimal because we bought a BCBS marketplace plan for myself. After we paid $8,000 out of pocket, we didn't have to pay for anything else other than genetic testing (total of $1000) and freezing and storage ($750). So we paid a total of $9,750 for the entire year. We met that deductible within 3 months via medications and two retrievals.

Things with Dr. Alvarez started out well. We had an initial consult during which he was empathetic, patient, and detailed in explaining what next steps would be given that my diagnosis of diminished ovarian reserve probably came as a shock at my age. We then ordered some testing and he walked me through the results and my options in a follow up conversation in a thoughtful and sensible way, making sure I had no questions. That's where the good experience ended. Separately, in the nursing section, I provide detail on what happened over the next five weeks with his nurse. Working with her for over a month, I couldn't get the requisite attention from her to even successfully order the prescriptions necessary to accomplish the egg retrieval, and missed two opportunities for egg freezing cycles in the process. At this point, I decided to loop in Dr. Alvarez. In a telehealth appointment, I explained to him everything that had happened with Rebecca, his nurse, and told him it had been 5 weeks just trying to get medications ordered and I was losing faith in their ability to oversee a complicated and time sensitive process. He had emphasized that time was of the essence for me to do this freezing procedure and so I asked for his help in giving Rebecca more supervision and making sure we were able to proceed. Although I made it clear that I felt my experience with her went beyond the typical complicated insurance dance of fertility treatment, which I was familiar with and knew what to expect, he did not seem willing to accept that Rebecca had done anything wrong. He excused Rebecca's inattention to detail and lack of responsiveness by explaining that they have many patients to balance and that insurance can be complicated so hiccups are to be expected. He explained Rebecca's perspective to me, which was that everything had been lined up and ready to go for weeks and she didn't know why I was saying that there was a problem. I encouraged him to look at the messages we had traded back and forth, which he has access to, as well as the record of the prescriptions she'd called in for me and what she hadn't called in, to see that her version of events was clearly not supported by the facts. He continued to resist any implication that the delays in my treatment were somehow Rebecca's or his fault, or that any mistakes had been made so far, although he did admit that he was concerned that at one point she had lied to me about having done a task I asked her to do, which she had not done. I began to feel like his priority was in protecting himself and Rebecca, not providing quality care to me particularly in light of the time sensitive nature of my diagnosis. During this appointment I also asked him a medical question about what could have caused my diagnosis. He at first gave me a very confident answer, however, moments later, he interrupted my response to that answer and said that he was just now looking at some medical articles online that indicated that actually maybe the answer was more nuanced than what he'd said moments before. I was a bit unnerved that he would answer so confidently if he wanted to do some research, instead of simply saying that he needed to look into it and get back to me. My problems with Rebecca continued for another two weeks after I looped in Dr. Alvarez, and I describe those further details below in the nurse section. If Dr. Alvarez did discuss with her and intervene, it did not have any obvious impact on Rebecca's ability to run things to ground effectively, and he never followed up with me to see if we were ready for a cycle or if things had improved. After 7 weeks of Dr. Alvarez and Rebecca and two missed opportunities for cycles, I decided to switch to Dr. Kaplan in the same practice. His nurses got me completely squared away within 36 hours of my first appointment with him, and I started my cycle just a week later. I only mention that to underscore the point that what I experienced with Dr. Alvarez and Rebecca was truly not typical and went beyond the normal insurance dance with infertility treatment. The whole experience made me feel like an inconvenience to them, not like a patient.

Go to Dr. Kaplan instead.

I never proceeded with a cycle with Dr. Alvarez because the simple process of ordering prescriptions was never able to be completed.

I saw him for my initial consultation and it was such a nice visit I felt heard and like I got all the answers I needed before I even asked one question. He was blunt with delivery and clearly very knowledgeable. He was confident which also gave me confidence in him. He laid out protocol in a clear manner. When I had my HSG with him he was very kind talking me through all the steps and even being comforting when I was clearly having discomfort. I enjoyed having him as my doctor. When he did my hysteroscopy he eased my fears and the entire procedure was painless

Stick with him! He knows what hes doing and he will comfort you when needed. He is intelligent and can easily answer any questions you may have regarding treatment. He makes uncomfortable moments comfortable.

Dr Alvarez recommended an HSG ultrasound in which polyps were found for which he recommended a hysteroscopy. The polyps were easily and painlessly removed. He then laid out a plan for 3 IUIs with letrozole and ovidrel trigger shots. Unfortunately he left the practice just as we were getting started with IUI

Since I started IUI after he left the practice the only costs I had were office meetings and my surgery. My insurance picked up a lot of it but an office visit without insurance for maybe 15 to 30 min was about 235. I believe my surgery was somewhere around 2-3000 but I cant recall exactly.

He felt that transfering 1 resulted in just as many healthy live births as transfering 2. He stated transfering 2 would only increase risk of multiples.

Dr Alvarez is very kind and understanding. I needed a polyp removed and my regular obgyn did not want to do it. Since I felt comfortable with Dr Alvarez he made all the arrangements to perform the procedure on me. When our 2 cycles of IUI did not work, we had another consultation to discuss our options. He suggested either conventional IVF or clinical trial IVF. I felt like we were given options and he did not push any particular one at us throughout the course of the treatment. He answered all my questions, no matter how minor they were. He was very kind , and patient oriented. I understand that not every result is pregnancy, but even during the negative results for us, I felt how compassionate he was.

This whole process is an emotional roller coaster. Things don't move in a time frame that one may expect. You have to remember that Dr Alvarez takes over your natural body process, but somethings he cant even speed up.

We did 2 cycles of IUI, with higher dosages of clomid - and both came back of negative pregnancy test. When it come to IVF , I was on higher dose of injections to obtain the desire results. We only had one embryo transferred since Dr Alvarez stated that due to my age this gives me highest chances of pregnancy. he also recommended ICSI since we had failed IUI. After IVF i was placed on higher dose of progesterone IM and oral , since my body had low production.

I dont remember

He was very knowledgeable and was able to explain everything at a level that I could understand and ask questions He made sure that I knew what was happening, why and when. He reached out personally to develop plans for continuing IVF in the hopes of a healthy baby.

Ask questions, be patient and trust that he is working towards the same goal as you.

We first started with a testing. Making sure everything was where it needed to be. We then did a monitored clomid cycle. We met and discuss what he saw and what the next steps would be. We did 2 IUI next at 50mg clomid. After the second he suggested trying 100mg clomid. After that didnt work he wanted to consult and go over the results. He allowed me to choose between 2 options. We chose 1 more IUI at 100mg clomid. After it failed we discussed IVF and proceeded. He called the day before egg retrieval to go over my levels and discuss what would would happen next. We just had out egg retrieval and have 20 eggs, 11 mature and 8 fertilized.

Dr. Alvarez took the time to answer my many questions during each consultation. With each failure we had, he always give us hope that the next round will work. He has tweaked the treatment plan with each round of IUI or IVF. We did 3 round of IUI before we started IVF. It was our choice to start IVF, Dr. Alvarez didn't try to push that treatment on us. When my husband and I did get pregnant, he genuinely seemed excited for us.

To be straightforward with him, let him know that you want to get pregnant right away, and that to be aggressive with the medication. Ask as many questions as you want, he will take the time to answer all your questions. You will never feel rushed in his office.

Our first round of IVF we used Follistim, Menopur, and Ganirellix to help us get the most eggs. After a failed first cycle, Dr. Alvarez changed our treatment to help us get more eggs to make it through day 5. Our second round was more successful, we had 2 eggs make it through day 5. We are still currently trying to get pregnant.

Appointments for monitoring are convenient for people who need early morning appointments due to work. You can get an appointment as early as 6:30am and you never wait more than 15 minutes to get in. Most appointments I would be out within 15 to 20 minutes with ultrasound and bloodwork.

My husband and I saw Dr. Alvarez after struggling to conceive after 3 years. During our initial consultation he went over our detailed medical histories. He gave us a list of testing that he wanted us to complete so that he could see if there were any underlying causes. He sat with us and explained the testing and what he was looking for with each test. He was very informative and made sure to answer all of our questions that we might have had. After all the testing was completed he discussed our next steps and what would be best protocol for us. He wanted us try 3 rounds of IUI with Clomid/Ovidrel trigger shots. He thought we had good chances of conceiving with those methods. If not, we would meet with him to discuss the next steps. However, he left the practice after our first IUI and we were taken over by another doctor at the facility.

He was very knowledgeable and was able to answer any questions. He looks at all the information before moving forward with treatment.

Dr Alvarez recommended a series of tests that we get completed before moving forward with any treatment. It was requested that I get a saline sonohystrogram done to take a look at my uterus and an HSG done to verify no issues with the fallopian tubes. He then laid out a protocol for 3 IUIs with Clomid and Ovidrel trigger shots. If we didn’t have any luck, he discussed meeting again after those to discuss further treatment. Our first cycle failed, after that point we were transferred to another doctor's care seeing Dr. Alvarez left the practice. Since then we had another failed IUI with the new doctor. We have had to put things on hold due to finances and now due to Covid-19.

Our insurance for fertility care is very limited. We have coverage for initial testing only, no medication or treatment coverage. We were recommended to complete an HSG test to verify tubes had no issues. Was told that it would a covered services but it came back as not being covered so that was an extra $2,000 we had not planned. Once treatment began each IUI cycle was approximately $3,000 for bloodwork, ultrasound, medications, and the procedure itself.

I think that his strengths are everything previously described as why he treated me like a patient and not a number. He was very open and honest, flexible, understanding, compassionate, and helpful! He was interested in my thoughts and suggestions, never condescending, and was very open to trying anything we wanted without being pushy toward one treatment or another

Ask questions! Do not be intimidated thinking that you have any "stupid questions", because Dr. Alvarez will NEVER make you feel that way. He is so caring and honest and listened so so well!!

Dr. Alvarez was super excited about us trying Invocell for our first attempt before traditional IVF because we were concerned about cost of regular IVF and we were unexplained and fit all of the criteria for Invocell. He was very hopeful and produced exactly the amount of eggs we expected. We ended up with only one or two of our 7 eggs even fertilizing inside of the Invocell device and he was very clear that there was obviously an issue with fertilization (something you can't really test for with labs or ultrasound). When we had our chemical pregnancy from our one resulting embryo, he was very straightforward that due to poor fertilization, IVF with ICSI would be our best option. He never pushed us into it, or made us feel as though he was forcing us to choose right away. He gave us the option of taking our own time to decide, but was still honest about the time frame in which we should move forward if we wanted the best results, due to me already being 32 and having these fertilization issues. We took everything he gave us, and we made the decision to move forward with IVF with ICSI a few months later and our results were phenomenal. We had 12 eggs retrieved, and we made one expanded day 5 blastocyst, and six expanded day 6 perfect grade blastocysts. We could not be happier with our results. We are currently pregnant from our first transfer of our day 5 embryo!

Most of the time it was pretty easy to get in at the times I needed! I would be in and out in 15 minutes on 95% of my appointments. There was ONE appointment throughout two cycles (I cant remember if it was monitoring or follow up beta draws) that I waited over an hour for some reason and no one ever explained to me why I waited that long. But overall,it was a pretty well oiled machine for monitoring!

I dont remember a TON of specifics with a breakdown, but Invocell cycle was $6500, my medications were quoted at $3000 I believe. IVF with icsi fresh transfer, was $11,500. Egg freezing for one year was $1200. Medications for full IVF cycle were approximately $5000.

I am in the medical field, and I know the risks already to carrying multiples, so an elective single transfer was the only option for me personally anyway. Dr. Alvarez was very clear on the data and the risks and also the protocols set forth by the ASRM, though and I fully agreed with it!

Dr. Alvarez is very kind and compassionate, while being professional, frank, and clear in describing everything you need to know to make an informed decision about your fertility journey. He is obviously a brilliant doctor, his resume and education are absolutely top-notch (My sister is a Yale trained physician, looked at his resume and told me I was in excellent hands). He is LGBTQ inclusive since he is a gay man himself and specifically very trans-inclusive which can be a challenge to find. He is also compassionate and non-judgemental of women who are overweight an obese, he doesn't give you the doom and gloom fatphobic approach that some doctors can take. Where they make you believe that only skinny women can get pregnant. I am overweight and got pregnant on my first IUI. He never shamed me or made me feel bad about myself. He simply asked about my diet and exercise and I explained that I did regular exercise and eat as healthfully as I could. Most doctors don't seem to believe that many plus sized people actually do work out, but he did.

He is an amazing doctor and his nursing team is also great. Fertility Centers of Illinois is a bit of a high volume place, and you can get lost if not very proactive with messaging on the portal and calling to make appointments. But other than that Dr. Alvarez is AMAZING and my experience with FCI was great because I knew how to navigate it.

I had endometriosis, a suspected blocked fallopian tube, suspected PCOS, and three large uterine polyps. I also found out I have low thyroid horomone. He had me do an HSG and found out my tubes were both open! Did comprehensive PCOS screening (came back negative or mild), we did laproscopic surgery to remove the polyps and he put me on thyroid meds. Then a month after the surgery, we did a monitored IUI cycle with HCG injectables and Endometrin vaginal inserts. I got pregnant on the first try!!

Dr. Alvarez is himself a member of the LGBTQ community. My husband who is trans--did not have any interest in carrying a child, but Dr. Alvarez did not make any assumption and asked him if he'd consider it. The way Dr. Alvarez asked was very impressive, he did not use any triggering language and asked in a way that way still very gender confirming. Both my husband and I were sold on working with him after our first meeting.

Insurance covered almost all of it. I think about 2-3K we paid for. Which is great considering all of the testing, blood work, ultrasounds, the surgery, the monitored IUI and injectables.

Dr. Juan Alvarez is great. He is very caring and compassionate and you can tell that he loves what he does. He is very thorough and makes sure that you are aware and understand all of the steps involved in the process. He is very positive and upbeat and made me feel super comfortable with both of my transfers. Our first FET resulted in a blighted ovum. I was devastated and in tears. He had me come into his office to explain what exactly a blighted ovum was and assured me that it was nothing that I did. Hearing that made me feel a little better because it’s so hard not to blame yourself. He asked if he could give me a hug and did so. You definitely do not feel like just a “number” when in his care. I highly recommend him.

That he is very knowledgeable and has your outcome in his best interest. His goal is to help you achieve your dream of having a family.

I did two FET’s with Dr. Alvarez. My fresh cycle that resulted with my twins was done under the care of Dr. Hirschfield whom transferred to another location. My first cycle with Dr. Alvarez I was on oral estrace, baby aspirin, POI and medrol and doxycycline a few days before transfer. My lining wasn’t thickening in the beginning so he had me insert the estrace vaginally for a few days which did the trick. My progesterone was also increased once I had a positive pregnancy test because it was low. He also added oral progesterone as well. That cycle ended in a blighted ovum. Second cycle I was on the same protocol but he made sure to check my progesterone level the day of my transfer and a week later. I was taking oral progesterone and an increased dosage of POI shots as well. Everything else was the same.

Out of Pocket (insurance doesn’t cover fertility treatment) Saline Sonogram $450 FET: $3500 x 2 = $7000 Meds: $150 x 2 = $300 Consultation: $225 Total: $7975

Dr. Alvarez would only let me transfer one embryo at a time since we already had twins. He said that we had a higher chance of that happening again and that twin pregnancies pose a higher risk. We were okay with this since we already have our twins.

Dr. Alvarez genuinely cared about my treatment. He was always willing to answer questions and provided me with his full attention during consultations. He would followup post retrievals to ensure that I understood what the next steps in the process would be. He gave his recommendations and was clear in his explanations without making me feel like I was under pressure. I felt safe under his care and knew that my protocols were carefully chosen and individualized for me.

To educate yourself fully and trust the advice of your doctor.

I used the testosterone and estrogen priming protocol. I needed this to increase the number of mature eggs I was producing. After a failed first cycle, Dr. Alvarez immediately changed my protocol in the hopes of producing more mature eggs. This dramatically changed my outcome in the next egg retrieval. A change in protocol became necessary and my doctor knew immediately what he needed to change in order for me to have a more successful cycle. The end result are four embryos and a current pregnancy.

Insurance covered treatments.

My doctor followed the guidelines based on my age and quality of embryo produced and decided an eSET was in the best interest.

Dr.Alvarez was great!! From day one when we met up with him he was very welcoming and easy going.very helpful and caring throughout our journey, which has kept me relaxed and calm. Explained the whole preocess in detail to us as my husband and i were new to all of this. He was very explanatory towards our specific plan of action.

Before seeing him or any doctor, make a list of questions/concerns you may have. And ask them ALL

We did 2 iui and neither worked so next plan of action was IVF. We did 2 retrieval’s with one transfer that didn’t stick. Because of my age we are doing more aggressive

Out of pocket i think it was under 3k

None

He was amazing. He was forthcoming with information, positive without being unrealistic and was always thinking about getting the best results considering the options. He truly made a miracle happen.

Ask questions if you are unsure. He's always willing to explain.

My insurance covered all my treatment