Lisa Erickson

Dr. Erickson was the first doctor we met with at CRM back in 2014. She explained that I should have a laparoscopy as a first step to confirm if I did or did not have endometriosis. Once I found that out, she advised we jump right into IVF, because outcomes are best. We were hesitant because of the cost, but she really seemed to push IVF. At first, we didn't appreciate the strong push, but once our IUI cycle failed, we decided to look into IVF. She was always very encouraging and compassionate. She was always hopeful and she seemed to have a very positive outlook for us.

Ask questions and take notes, and see if there is anything that would work before the cost of IVF. I think the best advice is to get educated on all of the terminology and scenarios.

I initially had two laparoscopies to excise the endometriosis. We then tried for six months with no luck, and tried IUI. IUI was not recommended, but we wanted to try anyways. We did a pretty straight and simple cycle with egg monitoring and a trigger shot. I had two mature eggs, and the cycle failed. We waited two months before we decided on IVF. When we went in for our IVF consultation it was January, and they didn't have an opening for a retrieval until May. I started birth control in late February, and then Lupron. I then used Menopur and Follistim. I was closely monitored and my eggs weren't where they should be, so we bumped up everything. I had my retrieval in early May, where I had 12 eggs retrieved. We decided before the cycle, that if I had anything more than 12 eggs, we were going to freeze the eggs, and just fertilize the 12 to limit the amount of embryos. We ended up with a perfect dozen, and of that 12, 8 were mature, and by day five we had three viable embryos. I used Minivalle patches and Endometrin. I feel like I had a pretty standard protocol, and we were happy with the outcome. We transferred one on day five and nine months later, our miracle daughter was born! We have two embryos on ice and we are just deciding on when would be a good time to grow our family again.

It was a well-oiled machine. I never had to wait more than five minutes. I really appreciated how efficient they kept appointments.

Cycle Monitoring Medications Lab Work All said and done it was around $15,000

Our doctor strongly encouraged a single embryo transfer for the fresh cycle. For FET, she encourages multiples.

During our consultation, Dr. Erickson made sure she explained everything in terms we understood. She came in the ultrasound room with me and explained everything she was seeing, instead of waiting for her to read the results and tell us at another appointment. Before leaving that appointment, we had a diagnosis, a surgery date set up, and a tentative treatment plan. It was information overload but everything we have been waiting to hear. We finally got answers.

Ask lots of questions. You will go over a lot of information in a short period of time. Think of questions before your appointment and bring that list with you.

During our consultation, we set up a surgery date and a tentative treatment plan following surgery. After surgery, I was prescribed Femara and ovidrel injection, along with IUI. I did 2 IUI's following the same protocol and then it was recommended we do IVF. With Stage 4 endometriosis, your odds of conceiving on your own is very low.

Our total IVF cost included ICSI and genetic testing. Freezing remaining embryos was not included. Medications were not included either. We were quoted around $15,000 for one IVF session

We didn't get this far into our treatment yet.

Dr. Erickson was compassionate and friendly, but I never saw her besides during our initial consult so I don't feel like I can evaluate her. But since I have to use 200 characters I will say, that if a clinic is so busy, that their doctors don't even see a patient through their treatment, then they should take on less patients. Why even have a doctor?

See your patients during their cycles so they feel confident. My doctor is now retired so it doesn't really matter, but I'm sure CRM still operates like this.

During my 3 IUI cycles I too femara to stimulate follicle growth. During my last cycle I had NINE measurable follicles (it still didn't work). During my IVF cycle I was on follistim, menepur and lupron. I only produced 7 follicles. It seems like if I was able to produce so many by just taking a pill, that I should have produced a lot more by the invasive injectables. My Dr. and I weren't on the same page as far as a goal for eggs. Again, we're thankful it worked, but have no eggs frozen which means another round of IVF.

We purchased the attine program for about $22,000

We transfered one embroy which is all we had.

I liked that she wanted to try different things with us and was willing to try them. Especially when our old doctor wouldn’t and made us feel like it wasn’t possible. She was very understanding of our fears and worries. She worked hard to explain thumbs to us and to make sure we understood the process.

Ask a lot of questions and never feel that a question is too dumb to ask. Lisa is great at explaining things. Trust her judgement.

Since we had already home through 2 previous cycles with another doctor which resulted in the embryos becoming pregnancies but eventually miscarrying, she wanted us to try 5 day versus 3 day even tho I didn’t have as many eggs. She explained her reasoning and we felt it was worth the try. She also suggested a frozen embryo transfer instead of fresh and have us background detail to support her reasoning which we understood and agreed to even tho it was added cost for us. She was very thorough with her supporting information and her own experience that we felt we could trust her judgement.

Roughly 22,000

I do not have any comments because we did multiple embryo transfer without any issues.

Dr. Erickson was lovely, kind, soft spoken. At our first visit I felt hopeful and in good hands. That feeling grew more and more distant with each visit and contact directly with her became almost extinct. Our hopes diminished not due to her efforts but directly related to the results. My egg quality was extremely low. I could feel that she was only proceeding due to my emotional inability to give up. At one point she was forthright in telling us if we proceed and success is not achieved, it brings their clinical numbers down. That was hurtful, although truthful...it was not my job to care and it stung that she'd even ask us to. Talk about feeling like a number. When the day came for the one egg my body had produced to be attempted to be retrieved, in all our nerves riding on that 50/50 chance she told us we had....she wasn't even there. Without warning she had sent another doctor whom I had never before met. He, not she, was the one in my haze while awaking from anesthesia to tell me we had failed. And inevitably that I would never carry or birth a child. I was crushed on several levels.

Ask her not to sugar coat and to BE SURE to inform you that you will not see her often. And ask her to please inform you should a physician other than herself be performing your procedures.

Unfortunately in the last 6 years much of this has escaped me, although when going through it all you hang onto every word, learn and know every term, the cost of every drug and the names & numbers of every pharmacy and their prices... I recall Folistim pens...lots of them. I recall vials of Bravelle and then trying Lupron. And somewhere alon the line there was Menapur. It is quite blurry...and thankfully in the rear view mirror.

It was tough...feeling like a number.

Expensive

Dr. Erickson was great - she communicated clearly and honestly - sometimes too honestly. She definitely "tells it like it is" and might be a bit blunt for some people. But I appreciated that we always knew exactly where we stood.

Be prepared to hear some blunt truths.

We did one unmedicated IUI, then five IUIs with Femara. When these were not successful, we moved to IVF and were successful in the first round.

For IVF: Around $10 - $11K for the procedure, another $2-3K in medication co-pays, monitoring, etc. For IUIs we paid office visit and medication copays and sperm, but my insurance covered the rest.

She strongly encouraged us to transfer one, but acknowledged that most people choose to transfer two, and said it would be up to us. In the end, we only had one embryo, so it wasn't a decision we had to make.

She was great. Very informative, honest, and caring. She took the time to call me personally with each pregnancy test result. She was smart and sensitive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Listen to her advice.

I did 4 cycles of clomid and IUI, with trigger shot. Then three cycles of IVF, menapur, follistem, bravelle...can't remember exactly. Trigger shot. Lenapur (?) at some point. Transferred 3 fresh embryos at 5 days each cycle.

Approximately $3000 per IUI cycle and $17000 per IVF cycle. This was with the medications. Maybe $10000 for procedures and $7000 for meds.

She suggested I transfer 3 each time due to my age. I was fine with that.

She was honest yet kind. Even when having to deliver difficult news or poor outcomes based on our circumstances she never gave up on us since we had the tools to work with. And That was the most important thing to me.

Ask a lot of questions and never leave without fully understanding the next steps

Luckily for us we had planned to do injections with our UI. But ended up getting pregnant on Met Forman and Clomid for me. As well as a bunch of vitamins and lifestyle changes for my husband’s in fertility issues.

Minimal. As I never got to the IUI OR IVF part.

No Experience. But she did say if we had to do IVF she would only transferred to embryos or one

Dr Lisa Erickson is the kindest doctor I've ever met. She treated me like I was her only patient. If she hadn't retired, I would've only recommend her. She explained everything in detail and she was very compassionate.

Unfortunately, Dr. Lisa Erickson had retired.

I used donor embryo transfer with Dr. Lisa Erickson, so that was like the second half of an IVF cycle. I did 60 days of progesterone shots.

I paid around $10k under Dr Erickson. I paid about $30K overall

She recommended transferring 1 embryo, I chose to transfer 2 embryos, they both implanted, but I did lose one around 9 weeks. I gave birth to one healthy baby.