Dr. Baluer is very knowledgeable and wants to see success in each of his patients. He is on the safe side of things, which was good in my case when it came to an egg retrieval. I could have overstimulated really bad, but with my high levels of Estradiol and really high follicle count [he] decided it would be best to not do a fresh transfer and trigger with Lupron instead of HCG...
The nurses staff [of Reproductive Care Center] was very nice, personable, sympathetic, caring, and sensitive. They were very good at answering questions that I had regarding what treatment I was undergoing. However, I did feel like a number because I have "unexplained Infertility" so "let's do IVF"...they go off the national chart this clinic does not allow me to do a multiple embryo transfer until we've had at least 2 failed transfers. This is because I'm healthy, young, and have good quality embryos.
How was your experience with Keith Blauer at Reproductive Care Center?
I think Dr. Baluer is very knowledgeable and wants to see success in each of his patients. He is on the safe side of things, which was good in my case when it came to an egg retrieval. I could have overstimulated really bad, but with my high levels of Estradiol and really high follicle count Dr. Blauer decided it would be best to not do a fresh transfer and trigger with Lupron instead of HCG. I know that was a good choice because even with those precautions taken I was in a lot of pain after my egg retrieval in which they retrieved 27 eggs. There is a downfall to his conservative ways: My husband got an 8% Kruger score so he wanted to do ICSI on all eggs. I thought it was a little extreme because 8% is considered normal for a lot of clinics and on the fence for Dr. Blauer. I also don't like that Dr. Blauer doesn't think that other things will work if it hasn't been proved by a study. For Example: I wanted to do Neupogen with our FET, he would do it for us but says that it doesn't make a difference, there is no evidence that it does, and that it's superstition. I think it's worth trying different things, especially after a failed FET where I'm healthy and I had about the healthiest embryo that you can get. He just wants to try and FET again without doing anything different, and I don't like that approach. I want to try and figure out why it didn't work, and do something a little different because I believe that every body is different. I would like Dr. Blauer to monitor my hormone levels more closely and adjust my meds appropriately.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Keith Blauer at Reproductive Care Center?
Make sure you ask him to slow down and explain in Layman's Terms.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Keith Blauer at Reproductive Care Center?
The nurses staff was very nice, personable, sympathetic, caring, and sensitive. They were very good at answering questions that I had regarding what treatment I was undergoing. However, I did feel like a number because I have "unexplained Infertility" so "let's do IVF". I didn't like that I got the same treatment as every other person that goes in, as far as medication dosage was concerned. I feel like they could have monitored me better during an FET and adjust the amount of hormones I was taking.
Describe the protocols Keith Blauer used in your cycles at Reproductive Care Center and their degree of success.
I had an antagonist protocol for my egg retrieval. To start, I took a birth control pill to manipulate my cycle. 1 week after going off the pill I started my stimulation meds: 300 units of Gonal-F and 50 units of Low Dose HCG daily (two shots in the stomach). At this point I was getting an Ultrasound and blood draw taken every other day. A couple of days into the stimulation meds I reduced my Gonal-F to 225 untis because my ovaries were responding really well. 6 Days later I started the Antagonist Cetrotide injection daily. We were planning to do a fresh transfer but I was high risk for OHSS so we, Dr. Blauer and my husband and I, decided to do a freeze all (so glad we did). Since we weren't doing a fresh transfer and I was at risk for OHSS we did a Lupron trigger instead of HCG. The Lupron does was 4 mg (1 shot in the stomach). 2 days before my retrieval Dr. Blauer put me on .5 mg of Cabergoline to help decrease OHSS symptoms. The retrieval went really well. Thursday, the day after the retrieval, we found out that 14 eggs were fertilized. 7 from ICSI and 7 from regular IVF dish (oh, we decided to do a 50/50 split with ICSI). Of the 27 eggs retrieved 22 were mature, 9/13 ICSI and 13/14 IVF. So 7/9 mature ICSI and 7/13 IVF fertilized. Day 3, Saturday, All but 1 embryo was in really good standing and all had 8-10 cells. Day 5, they froze 6 embryos. 5 Good ones, and 1 Day 6, 2 additional ones were Frozen. 1 good and 1 fair. So a TOTAL OF 8 Frozen Embryos. The remaining 6 will be discarded because they didn’t reach the appropriate grading. I wonder if they are conservative on that end as well. Could they freeze any more even though they have a smaller chance of pregnancy? I bet they would if we didn’t have so many to choose from.
Day 5 Chriofreeze:
• 4AA Good – ICSI
• 3BC Fair – ICSI
• 4AA Good – IVF
• 4BA Good – IVF
• 4BA Good – IVF
• 4BA Good – IVF
Day 6 Chrio Freeze
• 5BA Good –ICSI
• 4BC Fair – ICSI
I felt great leading up to the retrieval, and really good coming out of it, but a couple of hours later I started feeling tightness in my chest, gained 7 pounds that day, and even passed out a couple of times. The OHSS symptoms did't fully go away until 6 days later. Dr. Blauer comes to his Idaho Falls office every so often so that's where we did the retrieval.
Now to the FET: I decided to not take birth control to manipulate my cycle, which would have made it possible to do the transfer in Idaho Falls instead of having to go to Utah, and just did it when my cycle naturally came, which was 1 week after the Egg Retrieval. I didn't like how birth control mad me gain about 1lb/day I took it. The day after I started my cycle Dr. Blauer did an US and Blood Draw to be sure i could start an FET cycle. Everything looked good. I started that day taking 3mg Estradiol twice daily and a low does Aspirin daily. 4 days later I had another blood draw to check Estradiol. 10 days after that I had my final lining check and one last blood draw. Everything looked good, hormone levels were good, and my lining was 8mm. I started progesterone the following day. It was the suppository Crinone 8% once daily until the FET 5 days later. On transfer day I upped the suppository to twice daily while still taking Baby Aspirin, Estradiol, and my Prenatal. I think my body absorbed way too much Progesterone because my back started to hurt a lot and I don't normally have back pain at all. 12 days later I did an HCG blood pregnancy test and it came back negative. Progesterone was at 127, really high. Went off all the meds that day. It was the first time I didn't have to take meds for the past 3 months. We were lucky to be able to go through with the transfer because of all the closures that came a week later due to COVID-19. We will try again when everything gets back to normal.
Describe your experience with the nursing staff at Reproductive Care Center.
They were all very good. Like I said earlier they were compassionate, kind, sympathetic, and informative. I do wish that they would have listened to me when I told them that I thought my back hurt because of the progesterone but they told me it wasn't "due to anything we're doing, if it continues to bother you we may have to refer you to a regular Dr. or Chiropractor." I wasn't very happy with that.
Describe your experience with Reproductive Care Center.
I liked the clinic, staff were nice, and timely on returning phone calls. They work well with the OBGYN in Idaho Falls for testing that I get done here while Dr. Blauer isn't in town. I was able to talk to, and ask questions to, the Embryologist in person. I liked being able to do that. I love that they have an office that Dr. Blauer comes to in Idaho Falls so I don't have to go down to Utah for everything that I get done. I do love that they communicate and work with OBGYNs here so well because I felt confident that ultrasounds and blood work that I did here in town were going to get sent to Dr. Blauer in a timely manner.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Keith Blauer at Reproductive Care Center.
I don't remember Specific Costs. I think doing a Retrieval and Fresh Transfer was going to be around $10,000 If self pay. If you have insurance that covers it, it will be billed much different.
Describe Keith Blauer's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Reproductive Care Center.
Because they go off the national chart this clinic does not allow me to do a multiple embryo transfer until we've had at least 2 failed transfers. This is because I'm healthy, young, and have good quality embryos. After the first attempt failing I wanted to do 2 embryos next time but I can't
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Clinic
Reproductive Care Center
Sandy