Dr. Engmann always prefers to see his patients for scans, transfers, etc. I think he truly cares about his patients. I think he maybe didn't always think outside the box for other things we could try (could have been restricted due to the clinic) such as immune testing or testing for endometriosis. I went unexplained for 2 years without a diagnosis and we just keep trying IVF and kept failing. I feel like we should have spent more time at the very beginning trying to figure out root cause.
We had a lot of issues with the financial department [UCONN Medical]. We had a financial rep tell us that there was "no way" we had a $20,000 lifetime cap...we thought we had insurance coverage and were so excited! She was wrong....They have a number of qualified physicians there and a strong lab.... They follow national guidelines though so they will not try any of the new outside of the box treatments... Sometimes it is very busy there. They say they start blood draws at 7:15 but I have been there and they often don't start until 7:30
How was your experience with Lawrence Engmann at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical)?
Dr. Engmann always prefers to see his patients for scans, transfers, etc. I think he truly cares about his patients. I think he maybe didn't always think outside the box for other things we could try (could have been restricted due to the clinic) such as immune testing or testing for endometriosis. I went unexplained for 2 years without a diagnosis and we just keep trying IVF and kept failing. I feel like we should have spent more time at the very beginning trying to figure out root cause. He has good bedside manner and doesn't sugar coat things if they don't look right.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Lawrence Engmann at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical)?
Sometimes he can be a bit clinical but he is very factual.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Lawrence Engmann at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical)?
I did feel like they truly cared about me. I just felt like they kept trying to do IVF as a solution rather than look for root cause for my problems.
Describe the protocols Lawrence Engmann used in your cycles at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical) and their degree of success.
My 2nd retrieval was an antagonist protocol with menopur and gonal f. I cannot remember what the first one was (just gonal F). I also used HGH in my 2nd retrieval. I had a better outcome in that I had more PGS normal embryos that cycle.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical). (Assigned nurse: Amanda Cislak)
Amanda was fabulous. She is responsive on the phone and also replies to emails which can sometimes be more convenient for the patient if we are at work, etc. She's compassionate... she has cried with me and laughed with me. I truly felt connected to her and that she cared about me as a patient and person.
Describe your experience with Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical).
They have a number of qualified physicians there and a strong lab. They have some of the highest success rates in the state and multiple locations so you can go to wherever is most convenient to you. They follow national guidelines though so they will not try any of the new outside of the box treatments... such as immune treatments, etc. They tend to do similar things... hysteroscopy, ERA testing, PGS testing, etc. that they rely on as next steps when IVF has failed. However I think there is more testing that can be done that I had to ask for (Sperm DNA fragmentation, MRI for adenomyosis, immune testing/medications, EFT testing, etc.). I did end up having to go to an immune specialist to get further answers to try something different after 5 failed cycles and 3 miscarriages (1 of which was a PGS tested embryo).
Describe your experience with your monitoring appointments at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical).
Sometimes it is very busy there. They say they start blood draws at 7:15 but I have been there and they often don't start until 7:30... There is always a long wait but that is just due to the volume of patients and only 1 person who does blood draws.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Lawrence Engmann at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical).
We had $20,000 of insurance money which lasted us about 1 year (3 IUIs, 1 retrieval with fresh transfer, and 1 FET). After that we were self pay and opted to do a financial share program which cost us $20,000 for 6 cycles (3 fresh and 3 FET). However costs for anesthesia, cryo, PGS, etc. were not included in that so that was an additional cost.
Describe Lawrence Engmann's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical).
He definitely prefers eSET. He feels strongly against multiples. He advised us to transfer 1 many times.
What specific things went wrong at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical)?
- Failed to call in prescriptions to pharmacy
- Failed to call with results
- Failed to send your chart to another clinic
- Provided conflicting information
Describe the specific things that went wrong at Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical).
We had a lot of issues with the financial department. We had a financial rep tell us that there was "no way" we had a $20,000 lifetime cap... that she had never heard of that before (even though I already knew this was the case). And she was supposed to call me back that same day with the information but I had to follow up a week later because I never heard from her and sure enough I was correct that we did have a cap. But to tell us that we didn't was awful... we thought we had insurance coverage and were so excited! She was wrong. I also had a couple of instances when I had an interim nurse who forgot to send in my script and a couple of times they forgot to call me with results and I had to follow up with the on-call Doctor.
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Clinic
Center for Advanced Reproductive Services (UCONN Medical)
Hartford