Marcelo Barrionuevo

With Dr. B I felt rushed. I felt like I couldn’t express myself because he would cut me off. I don’t doubt he’s knowledgeable but I just never felt comfortable with him. He would set a treatment plan and forget what he ordered and not remember the plan argue with me about the plan that we had just discussed. Communication was just terrible.

Pick another doctor in the group unless u have time to waste

Letrozole, trigger shot, and timed intercourse. Second treatment started with Letrozole and then the nurse ended my treatment mid cycle

My insurance took care of majority of my treatment

N/A

He is very caring and knowledgeable. The nurses he works with are on the ball and great at answering questions. I lost our baby at close to 9 weeks and am trying again hoping to have a second chance at having a healthy baby and he has never given up on my body and it's ability to conceive despite all of my reservations and self doubt. He came in on his day off to do my second egg retrieval because he knew I felt more comfortable with him there.

If you have questions, make sure to ask them when you meet with him because he is not a mind reader, and he will answer them for you.

He modified and canceled my recent frozen embryo transfer because my lining wouldn't grow. He said it's safer to do an ERA on me now and I appreciate how he modified his plan based on my body's poor response to medication.

It was pretty routine. I'd arrive early around 730am and be seen for bloodwork and ultrasound back to back. Sometimes the clinic was backed up with more patients and it took longer (over 2 hours) and other times I was in and out within 30 minutes.

Each egg retrieval was close to $10,000 and we did two egg retrievals. Each frozen embryo transfer was close to $5000 and we have one done transfer. We also pgd and Pgs tested the embryos for the breast and ovarian cancer gene that I have (brca) which was close to $8000 and the medications were over $5000 each cycle. Our insurance didn't cover any of our egg retrieval or transfer costs and only covered progesterone and birth control pills but none of the other ivf stimulation meds or the estrogen patches or the Luperon. We've spent about $50,000 so far on ivf.

He will only transfer a single embryo into me and is concerned about the increased risk of multiples even though I'd love to have twins. He said it could affect their health and I respect his rationale.

Overall, Dr. B is amazing, and I’m glad to have found him. He shows compassion, and doesn’t make you feel silly for asking the simplest/irrational questions. He treats his patients with care. He explains everything in absolute detail. When delivering bad news, he shows empathy and brings an action plan.

Ask all the questions. Sometimes doctors don’t know that we don’t know, and that’s okay! They do this all day. But he will answer all your questions with loving care.

During the egg retrieval cycle, we down-regulated with birth control. Once cleared, we started stims. Due to my young age and no apparent issues, I was placed on the lowest dose of Menopur and Follistim. I was monitored almost every other day with bloods and U/S. Once cleared, 48 hours before egg retrieval, I was told to trigger with an intramuscular injection of HCG. For my FET prep, I also began with BC. I then down regulated with Lupron injections. Once cleared, I was given my calendar and told to begin estrogen patches to build up my lining. A week before my scheduled transfer, I came in to ensure my lining was thick enough for transfer. 5 days before transfer, I began PIO injections. After that transfer failed, I followed the same protocol for an ERA to ensure that I had the correct amount of PIO to be receptive to an embryo. I am now currently on my second FET prep, and since my ERA came back “receptive,” I am following the same protocol.

Thankfully I had insurance. Without insurance, each FET would have cost about $10,000, not including medications. The Egg Retrival would have cost $6000.

My clinic is very against transferring more than one embryo, especially if the patients are under the age of 40 and have good quality embryos. I disagree with this mentality, but trust my doctor and am going with the flow. When a patient has gone through multiple heartbreaks, and is also financially unable to follow through with multiple transfers, sometimes transferring multiples is their final chance - emotionally, physically, and financially.

Dr. Barrionuevo was excellent during my initial visit. His response time post second cycle made me feel differently. The clinic advertises it self as "compassion care" but I did not feel the wait time showed compassion, would have understood if he passed the call onto "on call Dr" during his 2 week "vacation", at least it would have some acknowledgement for what I went through and given me some needed closure.

Ask lots of questions and keep in mind that with a group this large, it's not necessarily Dr. B doing the retrieval/transfer.

Gonal F, Menopur as well as Ganirelix and Leuprolide. Felt my protocol was "the clinic usual" and was not necessarily adapted to my needs.

There was often a long wait time but techs were skilled and professional.

Regular IVF cycle close to $12,000 Donor Egg Cyle $20,000

No comments.

Gave a very detailed introduction to the IVF process and outlined the procedures and next steps in a personal way for my individual situation to achieve my goals. Answered all my questions, made me feel at ease and confident that I was in good care.

Make a list of any questions you may have or fears or doubts and I’m sure he'll be able to answer them directly and honestly to provide you the best chance of achieving your fertility goals.

I am 40 with low ovarian reserve. I also had some other complications we found out through further testing. He ordered more tests than my original RE and did so as his main thing was to avoid any “would have/should have/could have dones” if things didn’t go to plan. I really appreciated this as I want to have all available information prior to treatment so as to further reduce the chances of any surprises or negative results.

There are packages available as well as single cycle costs, also PGS/PGD testing.

This is the worst medical experience I have ever had in almost 40 years! . My first appointment was with Doctor Barrionuevo. Apart from the 1 hour waiting the doctor was very kind and explained the details of the possible treatment in a very clear way. I have also a test done, everything was good. I was told someone from the financial services will contact me . After a few weeks waiting for the call I called about 4 times before being contacted back. Before the financial call I had an appointment for and ultrasound. When I arrived I was told about another exam (genetics) that need to be done and a nurse took my blood for it. When I asked if that was covered by the insurance she didn’t know and said the financial service should provide me that info, I asked a second nurse and got the same answer. When the financials team called me they haven’t check at that point my insurance coverage. When I asked about the specific cost of the genetic test the lady explained this info needs to be provided by the nurses..., she offered to contact the nurses and write back to me (which never happened…). Today I had an appointment to do another test (HSG). I asked to see the nurse to get clarification on the cost of the genetic test. She explained to me this was done by an external company and only that company can provide me costs. I understood but told her I would have appreciate someone would have explain that to me before taking my blood (a day I was going for another test.). Also I would have appreciate not to be sent from one team to another to get that info. The nurse became frustrated, started looking angry at me, raising her voice telling me “this is the way it is” like I should know it….I was not blaming anyone, I was just pointing my frustration of not been provided the right info on time and the opportunity they have internally to better align the communication to the patients. But the worst started when I was called to the room to do the (HSG) test. I was asked to get in a little room , get half naked. When I tried to enter the next door for the test another patient was still having the test so I was asked to keep waiting in the little room for almost 10 minutes while hearing a lady (doing the same test I was about to get done) yelling and crying like she was been tortured. I, by any means , trying to say the pain was the fault of the medical team, I understand each person has a different condition or level of resistance. But when if finally was my turn I was scared, shaking, fearing the pain that could cause me the test. I told the team that it was a very uncomfortable situation and that I wished I haven’t heard those screams, I wish they would have made me wait in another place. The doctor there told me it was not common to have people yielding in pain that way. I told her I was very nervous and if it started hurting much to please stop, and she agreed. She started with the speculum and her first comment was “you are too tense, the speculum will break, you need to relax’’. Easier said than done. Not sure how they expected me to be relaxed after all I heard, so I told them I was done and to please stop the test. I got back to the toilet to get dressed up, and I left the room. On my way out I asked the reception lady to please give me a follow up appointment with Doctor Barrionuevo, After waiting for about 5 minutes I told her I was nervous (shaken) and I have been there for too long so to please call me when she had the appointment booked, her answer was "No, you will have to call the appointment center." I felt horrible, totally discouraged. In the afternoon I received a call from Doctor Barrionuevo, he wanted to talk to me about what had happened. I was shocked to hear apparently all the nurses have accused me to insult them, smashing doors, breaking a clothes box! So not only the whole experience was frustrating enough, and instead of have a bit of empathy they just made it worse inventing false accusations to cover themselves of a job poorly done. Doctor Barrionuevo told me that due the circumstances it was better for me to move to another clinic, he offered to send all the info he has on my case, and encourage me to keep going with my treatment somewhere else. I have nothing bad to say about Doctore Barrionuevo but the whole experience was horrible and traumatizing and very discouraging for me. I am sharing this long review as I hope the clinic can take it to improve certain points and to avoid anyone else has such a bad experience as I had.

Find another clinic

Didn't get to far, I stopped at diagnose

I was told from $7K to $14K

He was a great physician. Fully explained the plans and took his time with us always. Very thankful for his time and care. He made sure we understood everything fully and let us ask many questions. We did not feel rushed ever

Make sure you are ready to wait over and hour for appointments. Well worth it though

He recommended IVF for us because the percentages of success would be higher in our situation

Costs are high. As usual with these treatments. Very very high