Kim L. Thornton

Dr. Thornton was kind and somewhat compassionate. If I was down about a high FSH she reminded me it wasn't that high (11). She is straight to the point though, she isn't really going to coddle you. After my first round of treatment only resulted in 2 dominant follicles and I was converted to an IUI, she asked me if I ever considered donor eggs. I was really disappointed that was discussed so quickly, but she was being real with me I guess. She agreed to change the protocol and move forward if I only had one follicle next time. Unfortunately that cycle was cancelled when they went in to retrieve and found no follicles, they assume I prematurely ovulated.

Be prepared going in. Dr. Thornton goes over things for sure, but there is a lot of information out there and questions you should be asking of any doctor. If she hesitates on proceeding, keep in mind that it is your choice and your body and don't give up.

My husband and I met with Dr. Thornton once, and I met with her once alone. She was always very nice and explained things in a way my husband liked, as her undergrad is in chemical engineering as is his. She seemed confident that I would be successful, and she explained the process well with pictures, etc. However, past those meetings I have felt like any other patient being pushed through the clinic. Three times a nurse told me to take a medication I didn't have (the insurance sometimes sends Cetritide but I had Ganirelix, and the insurance sometimes sends Gonal F, but I had Follistim) so it felt like no one was even reading my chart before speaking to me. After my second fail (premature ovulation prior to retrieval) I didn't receive a follow up call from the clinic to schedule a follow-up and next steps. I don't know if Dr. Thornton cares if I come back to Boston IVF ever, she likely has enough other 'numbers' to deal with.

Cycle 1 - Day 3 start, 450 iu Follistim, low dose HCG; Day 5 Ganirelix, up to 600 iu Follistim, low dose HCG. One decent follicle, one smaller - converted to IUI. Ovidrel shot. BFN Cycle 2 - Ganirelix and Estrogen patch prior to cycle start, Day 3 450 iu Follistim, 150 iu Menupur; Day 9 Ganirelix, Follistim same, and Menupur same. Day 11 had two dominant follicles and some smaller ones starting. Pregnyl shot, retrieval 36 hours later showed no follicles. Was instructed to go home and have sex (not sure why they didn't do an IUI at that point)

I was so very NOT a fan of Dawn (Worcester office only) that I asked to be switched to a nurse out of the Waltham office. She lacks compassion as well as a knowledge of what she should say to a patient vs. what the doctor should be communicating. Abbey and Sonya (Dr. Thornton's other nurses) in Waltham are excellent though. The nursing staff in Waltham overall has been incredible - everyone you meet from the time you walk in, get blood taken, ultrasound, checked in for surgery, etc - they are SOOOOO great. They see your eyes start to tear and they always have tissues. I had to visit Waltham on Mothers Day for an ultrasound and they had a big bucket of roses and a sign that said "thinking of you all today and everyday" and I lost it. So touching. They are A+++++. In Waltham.

Boston IVF has its good and its bad points. They service a TON of patients and its easy to get lost in the shuffle, but I do feel the nurses and staff in Waltham care about the patients and want us to succeed. The downside to the high volume is not getting much for personal care because your doctor is too busy to really be adjusting protocols or meeting with you personally. I also didn't love that they aren't much into research... other websites for clinics have studies and videos and information for patients. I felt like Boston IVF was like the Costco of reproduction, and you are fortunate to be successful if you have only a small issue to work through or try enough times. Anyone with specific issues that need special attention or outside the box thinking would probably do better elsewhere.

Pretty much 100% insurance paid after deductible. I think we paid $150 for one medication through Village Pharmacy. My scripts cost me a small co-pay (like $30) but the 'real' price was $15,000 just for the drugs! Phew!

Dr. Thornton is nice and somewhat caring but she did not listen to me when I wanted to get the full work up done. I emailed her listed of test and Informed her that I would like to get all of the blood work out of they way. But that was not the case. I had to go for more blood work (that should have need done the first time around). They probably wanted to just be able to charge me the fee of an office visit. Dr. Thornton did not give me advice or answers on why I was miscarriage. She just offered to keep trying with IVF so RMA could rack in the cash

Stay on top of your care and ask questions if you do or know why is happening or why it is happening. Research on your own and stay informed of proper protocol. Check and recheck all of the suggested methods.

There was a complete lack of communication between the doctors, nurses and financial/ insurance authorization department. Multiple doctors would see me and information was not getting communicated to my primary doctor, Dr. Thornton. The nurses would send me for blood work to their Madison location only to find out that certain tests had to be done through quest diagnostics. I had to get blood taken at multiple times at different locations due to communication problems with the RMA’s authorization protocol. Also, when I was miscarriage get no doctors on call would get back to me. RMA does not give out direct lines to your doctors or nurses assigned to you, so when you call in with a question or problem, it takes 20 minutes to get to the right person’s voicemail Then, you have to wait for a call back which was complete inconvenient because you get caught in a game of phone tag without anyone actually answering your question. RMA’s system of communicationis completely unrealistic exspecially as a full time professional. The nurses who take your blood are rude and have awful bedside manner. The just see you as a number and do not treat you as a patient. When I was spotting, I went to go and get my levels checked to see how the pregnancy was doing and the nurse got annoyed with me that I went after monitoring hours! Even after I told her what the situation was and informed her of my past two miscarriages! Do not go here if you want to be treated like a human being

There was a lack of communication between staff. My primary nurse was hard to get in contact didn’t have her direct line or email. They changed my care coordinator 3 times with out even telling me. I also got complete misinformation regarding which perscriptions were covered/not covered. They also referred me to a pharmacy that charged me 3 times the amount Walgreens charged. The care coordinator gave me complete misinformation which made the process more confusing, frustrating, and stressful!

The clinic is clean. They have protocols in place. The Dr.’s are nice. Runs like a machine with a lot of moving parts. Hard to contact nurses and doctors directly. You call and contect to the main office on Madison Ave regardless of what location you go to. Once you get an operator, they transfer you call to the local office and you have to restate why you are calling before they transfer you or take a message. When I went for office visits, I saw a rotating set of doctors instead of my primary doctor, Dr. Thornton. I felt more like a number then a human at RMA. They are efficient at IVF but lack a human touch. I felt like a cash cow to RMA. The process is hard enough, you don’t need the added stress of dealing with the office.

Monitoring hours were 7:30-9:30. Sometimes the wait was 45 minutes other times it was 10-20 minutes. You can get your blood drawn at other offices if needed which was convenient. But you have to go to the Madison office for all procedures done, IUI, IVF, etc.

My insurance covered almost of the procedures but we still spent around 5,000 for copays, medication and blood work. We spent an additional 5 for PGS testing and embryo storing.

I did PGS testing on all embroils before the transfer. Single embryo transfer reduces risks and pregnancy complications so I agreed with doing the single embryo transfer to minimize risk

Dr Thornton explained the process thoroughly using language that I could understand. She even drew pictures which made it easy to understand a complicated process. She also was very direct and didn't tell me what I wanted to hear, she told me what I needed to hear. Since I am 43, nothing is a guarantee.

Don't go in with the expectation you absolutely will be able to get pregnant, there are tests to be done to see if you're a candidate or not

They were sensitive to my situation and didn't treat me like the "next patient"

I had to take the pill for two weeks to jump start the ovaries. Then once I got mt period, I started gonal f, HCG, cetrotide, and ovidrel. I needed to get my ovaries ready for egg retrieval. The meds made me feel tired, bloated, and a little nauseous. My ovaries were get getting enlarged. I get blood work and an ultrasound tomorrow to figure out the next round of injections.

They are all great. From the front desk to the phlebotomist, to the nurses. They're sympathetic to how your feeling and speak in a very ca manor. They call and follow up with the information as they get it.

You will be making blood work appointments with set times, but there's a sign in sheer too. So if you need to get in and out, it's best to get there early and sign up first for your time slot. A strength they have is their phlebotomists.... they are absolutely wonderful for people who have anxieties about needles. I hate them and they made it the most pleasant blood draw I've ever had

My appts are covered by my insurance . Normal dr appt were 25$.

Dr Thornton has a great ability to explain complicated processes. I know the general gist of what happens but she literally drew out a map of the process. I know it's more complicated but it made it easier for me to follow ans understand. And she tells us like it is. She didn't tell me what I wanted to hear, she told me what I needed to hear

Be ready to hear the real facts if you're in the grey area of becomming pregnant. She doesn't hide reality.

Dr Thornton didn't hide any realities from me because of my age. She told me things I needed to know and not pretend that it's garauntee that I'll become pregnant. And her staff are the nicest, warm, caring people. It's tough to go through this and everyone there treats you like a person, definitely not a number.

I just started. So the only protocols I started was first with the birth control pill. This is to "jump start" my ovaries. Once I get a period after stopping the pill, I'll get a blood test the next day and then I'll start the injections. The lady I spoke with about the injections was super helpful and figured out a way that I could do one injection a night with all the medication instead of 3 injections! Very helpful, I'm not a fan of needles.

She treated me with respect. Her and her team has a motherly, caring aspect about them which made me feel comfortable given what I'll be going through shortly. Just a great team to work with, all the way to the ultrasound team and the phlebotomists, they are fabulously talented and kept me calm at all times

While you may have an appt time for blood work, there's still a sign in sheet and you get taken in by the list. So If you need to get out of your appt quickly, it's good to get there a little earlier than your appt.

My health insurance covered a good portion of appointments. I'm not sure if the cost yet going forward. Waltham is a certified wellness center and I get and extra 10k$ towards my lifetime IVF coverage

Waltham IVF only does single egg transfers. This reduces the risk of injury to the mother and babies should Multi births happen. This is fine by me.

We have met with Dr Thornton 3x over 7 months. The initial consult was Dec 23, 2 days before Christmas, in the Worcester office. She had the uncomfortable job of delivering life changing, devastating news - that couldn't have been easy. I was 28 and my blood work showed Premature Ovarian "Insufficiency" (Failure). She was clear that the odds of us conceiving naturally were about 5% if I was ovulating, which I was not. She's a straight shooter and I respect that about her. She didn't sugarcoat anything just to make us feel better and didn't create any sense of false hope. She was direct. There was no hand-holding. I felt that she had put the best plan together for my specific situation, and trusted her medical expertise. Dr. Thornton felt that we needed to be aggressive and move straight to IVF. Anything less than that would be a waste of time. I appreciated that she felt the same urgency. We started the full panel of diagnostic testing 5 days later to rule out genetic disorder and prep for IVF. The 2nd time we met was in February at the Worcester office after all the diagnostic testing. The plan was to proceed with IVF knowing that we won’t get many eggs, but hoping that they will be excellent quality due to my age. The 3rd time we met was in April at the Waltham office after IVF Cycle 1 was cancelled during day 7 of stimulations, over a holiday long-weekend. My body sort-of responded, but nowhere near the anticipated response given near-normal AMH and Follicle count of 8 in January. The blood work/AFC counts didn’t line up with the results. She was clear that IVF only works when you have follicles that respond to stimulation. If you don’t have follicles to stimulate, IVF can’t help make eggs that aren’t there. We decided to do an estrogen-priming cycle, change the ratio of meds, and push the dosage to 600iu. We also decided to do a mock cycle to prep the paperwork for Donor Eggs and attend the Donor Egg seminar at BIVF in case IVF Cycle 2 didn't work.

Make the commitment and go to the Waltham office for the best care. All of the ultrasounds are recorded on video and it allows the doctors to see what the ultrasound tech sees in real time, significantly better than printed out screen-grabs, or handwritten data. Also be aware that if the odds of IVF working is 25%, that means that 75% of the IVF cycles are failing. Yes, IVF gives you a chance that you may not have otherwise had, but it's not a magic bullet and it doesn't fix everything. Keep your own log of everything - it will help you advocate for yourself. Write down notes, dates and times of appointments, names of the nurses, what the results were for all of the tests. Keep track of invoices and health insurance coverage - otherwise you may get stuck with the bill.

Cycle 1 at BIVF Worcester was a mess. The short version is that cycle 1 was cancelled due to poor response on stimulation day 7 on a Saturday, over a long holiday weekend, by nurse Tanya who seemed to have no idea what was going on. When we finally had the post-cycle consult, found out that Dr. Thornton did NOT cancel my cycle; she was on vacation. The on-call Dr. cancelled it. She said she would have made the same decision. As a patient under her care during the most critical time in an IVF cycle, we should have been alerted that she was going on vacation and been given the contact info of the on-call Doctor, all of which we told her. For Cycle 2 we made the decision to move all appointments to BIVF Waltham, and it was a completely different experience. It was well run, the nurses, ultrasound and blood techs were all great. We worked mainly with Kathy, Dr. Thornton's nurse in Waltham, and she was fantastic! Kathy was responsive, personable, and cared about us. She was also able to get in touch with Dr. Thornton when we needed her to, which was huge.

Birth Control Pill for 2 months while waiting for insurance approval. CoQ10 to help improve egg quality. Levothyroxine for thyroid (within normal range but higher than ideal for pregnancy). Continued prenatal vitamins. IVF Cycle 1: 450iu total does of stimulations. 300iu Gonal F Redijet Pen, 150 Menopur daily injections. Stimulation day 5, blood and ultrasound. AFC: 2 - 4 in left and right ovary. Estrogen 33. Nurse warned that cycle may be cancelled if estrogen didn't increase, but that it we had a chance. Stimulation day 7, blood and ultrasound. AFC: 2 - 4 in left and right ovary, 1 10mm follicle in left. Estrogen 80. Tanya (nurse) called - cycle cancelled. Mock Cycle to prep for Donor Egg in case IVF Cycle 2 doesn't work. Estrogen Patch, 2mg Estrace pill 2x daily for 3 weeks, then ultrasound/blood work to check AFC, uterus lining (8mm needed for Donor Egg cycle). Then Prometrium 200mg for 7 days to induce period. IVF Cycle 2: 600iu total dose of stimulations. Menopur 450 iu, Gonal F 150iu daily injections for 14 days Stimulation day 6, blood and ultrasound: AFC: 2 to 4 in left and right ovary. Estrogen 17.95. Instructed to continue injections, next appointment in 3 days. Stimulation day 9, blood and ultrasound: Left AFC: 2 to 4, Left Follicle: 11.7mm, Right AFC: One, Right Follicle: 10.14mm. Estrogen 183. Instructed to continue injections, next appointment in 2 days. Stimulation day 11, blood and ultrasound, Left AFC: 2 to 4, Left Follicle: 10.5mm Right AFC: One, Right Follicles: 15.47mm,14.24mm. Estrogen 370. Instructed to keep taking 450 menopur, 150 gonal F, add cetrotide 25mg to suppress ovulation. Next appointment in 2 days. Stimulation day 13, blood and ultrasound, Left AFC: 2 to 4, Left Follicle: 11.35mm Right AFC: 2 to 4, Right Follicles: 18.55mm,17.48mm. Estrogen 610. Instructed 450 Menopur, 150 Gonal F, and 25 of Cetrotide tonight. OR Nurse will call on Friday with instructions on when to inject Ovidrel (trigger) and schedule retrieval on Sunday! Stimulation day 14, Ovidrel 250mcg at 9:30pm Egg retrieval @ BIVF Waltham 36 hours later. Retrieved 2 eggs, 1 fertilized. Day 3 transfer of "textbook perfect, High Implantation Potential, 7-cell embryo". Begin crinone 8% daily until beta test. Period starts 1 day before beta test, instructed to continue crinone and come in for blood pregnancy test anyways. HCG 0.343 mIU/ml, negative. Follow up appointment scheduled in 12 days.

Kathy was amazing. She was kind and on-top of all the details. During my mock cycle I had a very bad reaction to the estrogen (severe hot flash, extreme dizziness, nauseous) while I was traveling for work, and I was able to reach her via email through out the entire weekend. For the first time, somebody actually checked in on me to see how I was feeling or what the side effects were, and if I was OK to continue. It went a long way with me because she treated me like a person. And on top of that, she was able to coordinate a call with Dr. Thornton when I got home so that I could speak to her directly, which was very reassuring.

Boston IVF Waltham is the best of the best. They have the best medical team, the best surgeons, the best nurses, embryologists, anesthesiologists, and the most experience. My best experience was with the egg retrieval and the embryo transfer. Dr. Riley did both the retrieval and the transfer, and he was amazing. His staff was also amazing - so kind and gentle, very reassuring that they would do everything in their power to help us make a baby, and I trust that they did. We were in very good hands. Boston IVF literally has video cameras in the embryology lab to watch each embryo so they don't have to disrupt them by handling the petri-dishes - that's amazing. They also gave us a photo of our 7-cell embryo, and did a mock transfer before the real transfer. We were able to watch the transfer on the ultrasound - the entire experience was incredible. They can't guarantee you that it will work, and in our case it didn't work, but know that it's the best team, with the best technology, and the most experience, and they are doing everything in their power to help you have a baby.

over $50,000 for all diagnostic testing, cycle monitoring, medicine.

Dr. Kim Thornton is a straight shooter and I respect that about her. She didn't sugarcoat anything just to make us feel better, and I appreciated that. She was direct, to the point, and pretty serious. There was no hand-holding. I felt that she had put the best plan together for my specific situation, and trusted her medical expertise. At 28, my FSH levels and AFC was that of a 40 year old, and she diagnosed me with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency - time was not on my side. She felt that we needed to move straight to IVF and not waste any time, so we went for it. I appreciated that she felt the same sort of urgency that if I was going to have my own healthy babies with my husband, it needed to be ASAP. I met with her twice. Once for the initial consult just before Christmas, and once again in Feb after all the diagnostic testing. My first IVF cycle started in April and after 8 days of stimulation it was abruptly cancelled (on a Saturday), because not enough estrogen was being produced. I trusted her expertise, and was instructed to call on Tuesday (after marathon Monday) to schedule followup consult. When I called on Tuesday, I was told that she was on vacation for the rest of the week, and the next available appointment was 8 days away. Not only was she on vacation, there were no other doctors available that could talk to us sooner, except the emergency on-call doctor, but that wasn't an option. As a patient undergoing something as extreme and sensitive as IVF, I'm shocked that my Doctor would go on vacation without a back-up. I'm also shocked that there was no professional courtesy to give us a heads up that she was going away during the most sensitive part of the cycle (days 7 - 16!!!) because that's the critical time for everything IVF related. I would have postponed it, or asked for another Dr to monitor the cycle. Not only that, but I'm also left wondering if my cycle was cancelled because it was inconvenient OR if there simply wasn't anybody there to monitor my cycle.

Ask about upcoming vacation days that may occur during your cycle. Be proactive and be an advocate for yourself.

If we hadn't pushed and been strong advocates for ourselves to move the process along, we would still be at square 1. There wasn't one dedicated case manager or go-to person that we could contact. Even trying to reach the 'dedicated' nurse was a nightmare. If you called before 9am you got message that "you've reached the emergency phone number", and you couldn't leave a voicemail. If you called the same number after 9am, you spoke to 3 different people before you even got the Voicemail for the nurse. And then you had to wait 2-3 hours to get a call back. Nobody checked on us during the first few days of injectable medication. Nobody made sure we knew how to mix the medicine, or inject it correctly, and our first appointment wasn't till 5 days later, so we ended up learning how to mix menopur on YouTube! Not the type of service I would have expected given the financial expense and level of intensity of the drugs.

I'm 28, in-shape, besides my sub-fertility, I'm generally healthy. My husband and I were officially trying, but I wasn't getting my period. I went to see my OB after 6 months and he tested my blood work to see the thyroid/hormone levels. After that he referred me to Dr. Kim Thornton. She revealed that I wasn't ovulating at all, and my FSH was about 2x - 3x higher than it should be at 28. During preliminary ultrasound scans there were 8 antral follicles, not as many as there should have been for my age, but enough that she thought IVF was our best shot. She didn't want me to waste my time with Clomid or IUI. The goal was to stimulate the few follicles that I had with injectibles, and hope for high quality eggs. After diagnostic testing she prescribed levothyroxine to bring my Thyroid levels down. It was within the normal range, but was higher than ideal range for pregnancy, had me start the birth control pill, and start taking CoQ10 to help with egg quality. I continued taking a prenatal vitamin. Summary: Antagonist protocol 300iu Gonal F Redi-Pen and 150 Menopur during stimulation days 1 - 8. Cycle cancelled on stimulation day 8, not enough estrogen being produced. Stim day 6: Ultrasound + bloodwork 7am. Ultrasound technician wouldn't comment on anything. Nurse called around 1p and said that results showed 1 dominant follicle 10mm in left ovary and 2 - 4 small follicles in each. She also said estrogen was way too low and that my cycle may be cancelled, but for now Dr. Thornton wanted me to continue same dose of meds and come back for testing on stim day 8. Stim day 8: Ultrasound + bloodwork 8:30am. The ultrasound technician said there was nothing going on in the right ovary, but 1 dominant follicle 10-11mm and 10 follicles too small to measure in the left ovary. Nurse called around 1:30pm to say that the cycle had been cancelled, and to call on Tuesday to schedule followup meeting with Dr Thornton.

I dealt with 5 to 6 different nurses over 8 days. It's not a recipe for success. There should be 1 point person who is familiar with the patient, develops a relationship with the patient, understands their test results, and really advocates for their care, otherwise I'm just a number.

Waltham clinic is the main facility. I live closer to the Worcester clinic so I had most of my blood tests/ultrasounds there. The receptionist in Worcester had no idea what was going on. The bloodwork in Worcester was a nightmare - last time I had to wait 1 hour to get my blood drawn, it was also a different person every single time which made me think they had trouble staffing it. The Waltham clinic seems to run like clockwork. My cycle was cancelled before egg retrieval, but all of my appointments there were on time.

Dr. Kim Thornton was easy to communicate with, was very knowledgeable and adjusted the course of treatment based on my timeline, needs and insurance restrictions. She treated me like a person and was easy to talk to.

Dr. Kim Thornton is very experienced and has a lot of practice treating infertility issues.

Every visit I have had Dr. Thorton has been very well prepared and it was clear that she took the time to review my file and my situation prior to the appointment.

We had already had frozen eggs being stored so the treatment protocol was fairly straight forward. She put me on birth control for 6-8 weeks to regulate my cycles and finish testing. When that was completed we started estrogen patches and pills. The next step is an ultrasound and blood work and depending on the outcome we will be discussing the transfer.

My assigned nurse was easy to communicate with and returned phone calls promptly.

Very professional and well-known clinic. All staff members were very knowledgeable and easy to work with. Clinic can feel a little commercial at times and less personable than smaller clinics but you cannot argue with their results.

Most of my procedures have been covered by my insurance minus my co-pay and out of pocket expenses. Costs of treatments vary.

We are only allowed to transfer one embryo at a time based on my age and insurance restrictions. Dr. Thornton is passionate that multiple embryos lead to a more high risk pregnancy for the mom and baby.

Extremely knowledgeable, easy to talk to and gave us choices. We always felt like we had a say in the changes to the plans. She was very thorough. Sometimes getting an follow up appointment was hard because she is so busy. I missed a cycle because of it. Not sure if that was her schedulers fault though.

Be patient

She never rushed conversations

Very compassionate and kind.

Sometimes appointments are booked far out, but their treatment is worth it. Be open to different paths that will change during the process. The people do do the ultrasounds and blood draws are super friendly!