Martin Keltz

Dr. Keltz was quite impatient upon our initial office introduction with him. Initially, we were waiting some time in his office before he joined us. We saw that he had awards on his wall for his achievements as an RE, which gave us some reassurance. When he joined us, however he quickly fired off questions to us about our history of TTC. When he paused to answer, he was snappy and abrupt with us as if to insist we hurry with our responses. We had a few fertility test results with us that we shared with him as we had some free testing done at RMA in CT--an AMH test and an SA. Dr. Keltz shared that he used to work at Mt. Sinai for many years and had a lot of success--it seemed that he was bitter that he was no longer there. He bragged that he single handedly built their RE practice. Immediately after meeting with him, we experienced having to get a slew of blood work done within their lab. After we did the blood work, Dr. Keltz met with us again told us our only option would be IVF--based solely on the two test results er provided him and our conversation with him about our TTC history. He then took us to a treatment room did a transvaginal ultrasound--which I detailed earlier--and discovered that I had either a cyst or fibroid that he said needed to be removed. He indicated he would do the surgery himself. He made an appointment with me to see their in-house endocrinologist as I had a previous bout of hyperthyroidism and nodules. I was told to come back for my day 3 blood work as well. After the appointment with Dr. Keltz, I told my husband we would not do any fertility treatments with him. It took us a long time to find an RE that was in network with my insurance, so I suggested we get the basic fertility work up done with him (blood work, HSG, and SIS) plus the cyst/fibroid removal. I had a follow up appointment with Dr. Keltz two weeks after our initial appointment. During that appointment he reviewed all of our blood work with us plus my day 3 blood work results. He also performed the SIS on me while we met with him. He suggested we make an appointment for my husband to see a urologist that he recommended (one that charged $800 per visit and didn't take any insurance) and said he would likely put my husband on Clomid, to help his low sperm count. While we met with him, I told Dr. Keltz that my insurance company covers unlimited IUIs until I turn 44 years old. He snapped at me and told me to not waste his time. I told him he needed to dial it back as we are very sensitive people going though an extremely anxiety inducing process. He continued to tantrum that we weren't jumping at the chance for him to do IVF and said he wouldn't dare consider IUIs with us. When I mentioned concerns regarding the cost of IVF and that I saw that there are discounted IVF programs, he quickly changed his tune and said that he could do ours for $8500 with my husband's frozen sperm...which would cost $300. He proceeded to tell me that he has the most affordable IVF game in town. Dr. Keltz also said he could get the IVF injections covered by my insurance by claiming they are for an IUI. This entire conversation occurred while my feet was in stirrups due to the SIS. After that appointment, we followed up with a urologist and met with Dr. Keltz for follow up a couple of weeks later to discuss the surgery to removed the cyst/fibroid. He was indicated that he was annoyed that we didn't use his recommended urologist and we decided to use a local urologist instead. I had a hysterscopy with Dr. Keltz a few weeks later to remove what turned out to be a fibroid. I had one more follow up visit with him following the surgery and I then I discontinued any further treatment with him.

Run! Do not use him for fertility treatments. As a result of our mistreatment by Dr. Keltz, we didn't seek any further fertility treatment with another RE for a year out of fear of being mistreated again.

Dr. Keltz had a horrific bedside manner. I will give two examples of this. My husband struggles with MFI. Dr. Keltz was harsh in his discussion of this as I was reluctant to jump right into IVF as we just started our TTC journey. He used profanity and passed comments about us probably needing donor sperm as the rate we were going with my husband's numbers were low. I snapped at him and asked him to stop being so harsh as my husband struggles with medical anxiety (due to a history of medical trauma a number of years ago) plus, we didn't deserve to be treated the way he was treating us. The second example includes a transvaginal ultrasound experience with him in our first appointment with him. I had no idea what one was as I never experienced one and was never told what the ultrasound entailed. He abruptly inserted the probe inside of me and pointed out a cyst or possible fibroid that I had inside my uterus. Then he called in a few other doctors and nurses while I was spread eagle with the probe still inside of me to see for themselves and they were taking bets on whether it was a cyst or fibroid. I am an extremely modest person, so I was completely mortified.

I only had blood work, SIS, and a myomectomy done with Dr. Keltz. I also had an HSG done, but it was with another MD in the practice.

When dealing with the nurses at WestMed, we felt extremely rushed by them. They were not warm, pleasant, or friendly towards us. They were running around the clinic and seemed very disorganized. They pushed Dr. Keltz' agenda for us to pursue IVF w/ ICSI by giving us the name of a local hospital to get my husband's sperm frozen and to schedule the IVF, despite us telling them we weren't interested in pursuing IVF.

The clinic was in a beautiful modern building with a large parking lot. The building had a number of other types of MD practices as well. Waits were long to see Dr. Keltz at times. The equipment seemed updated and the treatment rooms were very clean and organized.

I believe I had a $50 co-pay every time I met with him in person. I have a bill that covers blood work that totaled $255.71. Another bill covered a procedure that totaled $476.00.

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He’s very busy. I could see him 3-4 times in a week and he of course knew who I was but occasionally seemed scattered about what our plan was. I liked him though. I found him personable, honest, and compassionate.

Ask all of your questions even if you feel like he’s ready to move on to the patient in the next room. Understand all of the scenarios and make plans for each.

My husband and I were going through a lot. He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and undergoing radiation and chemo during our IVF cycle with Dr. Keltz. He always asked how we were doing and was aware of our situation.

We used Lupron as a suppressor for about a week. Then Gonal-F, Menopur, and Lupron. I went for blood work and ultrasounds every other day. Continued to increase the dosages each visit for about 10 days of stimulation injections. We ended up with 19 eggs retrieved, 10 mature which was what we expected. We were planning to freeze, PGS test, then frozen transfer later. We only ended up with 3 embryos, and 2 by day 5. We decided to forego PGS, transfer 1 and freeze the other. He thinks it was the sperm as the issue, but I suppose we’ll never know for sure.

All of the nurses were really on top of their game. A couple were mostly assigned to assist him during the ultrasounds or procedures, and two others were the coordinators - one an LPN and one RN. They were kind, friendly, and always responsive.

The clinic is part of large medical practice that has multiple specialities. They have their own lab and the doctors do all of the ultrasounds, which I preferred to the techs I have seen for others experiences. It was also an easy transition from my RE to my OB as my OB referred me initially, and was able to readily access my medical records when I went back to her for prenatal care.

Monitoring appointments were done in the morning typically between 7am-9am. I don’t recall having an issue getting the times I needed. It felt a little like he was going door to door throughout the office.

We paid a $30 specialist co-pay or $20 ultrasound co-pay, and a $20 lab co-pay for each visit depending on what I was there for. Our insurance covered 75% of our IVF cycle (retrieval, transfer) so we ended up paying $2500 out of pocket for this. PGS testing would have been $1000+ out of pocket if we had done it. My meds were fully covered by insurance.

He had strong preference of transferring only one because I was just 27 at the time. I’m not quite sure what his rationale was, but I had no interest in the possibility of a twin pregnancy so I didn’t ask much further. He just always referenced my age.

Dr. Keltz is smart, and he answers questions when you ask them. I like to make my decisions based on research and proven best practices. Dr. Keltz is well read on the latest information, so I trusted him to know best courses of action. One side note: after my transfers, he kissed my forehead. Both times. He asked if it was ok, and I said yes, but it definitely caught me off guard the first time.

Plan to be in the office a looooong time. Bring a book.

This clinic sees a large number of patients. They batch their cycles, so you end up sitting and waiting for long periods of time (sometimes two hours!) for monitoring. There are always a lot of people waiting with you, and it’s a stressful environment. Once you’re with the doctor, though, he does a decent job of making you feel heard and cared for.

We did a high dose of Gonal-F, with Cetrotide to prevent ovulation too soon. I had a very low AMH result for my age, so we went in guns a-blazin’. I only stimmed for 8 days, and I ended up with 7 eggs retrieved, 5 mature, and 3 fertilized embryos. All made it to day 5. I used ICSI because I was using frozen sperm. I transferred one embryo in a fresh cycle, got a BFP, but the fetal pole never formed, so I had a D&C. Did a frozen transfer with the remaining two embryos, which resulted in a singleton pregnancy that I carried to term!

Some of them were great! Kind, compassionate, competent. But some were a bit gruff, and could work on their approach to speaking with patients.

Long waits make it difficult. Also, WestMed is huge, and there is no way to speak to someone. I’m a teacher, so getting a call back at a random time during the day doesn’t work for me. You have to leave a message on the central number, with someone who knows NOTHING about reproductive medicine, and hope that they write down your message correctly. Then you get a call back, but if you miss the call back, you have to start again, and you can’t ever leave a message with someone directly in the RE office.

I paid out of pocket for the procedures, but insurance covered monitoring visits and meds. I had a high deductible, though, so the visits were still pricy. The IVF with ICSI (retrieval plus fresh transfer) was $8750. The FET was $3750. Freezing embryos was $1000.

Dr. Keltz tried very hard to convince me to transfer only one embryo for my FET. I pushed to transfer both, and still ended up with only one child, so it worked out for the best. There was a mix-up on the day of my transfer with the paperwork, but it got worked out (to the detriment of the doctor’s schedule.

Strengths: very intelligent and confident. Gentle and trustworthy. I feel Dr Keltz really cares about getting me pregnant and is doing what he think will gives us the best shot. Weakness: doesn't always explain things fully, I had to come with questions. Doesn't ask if I have questions.

Educate yourself beforehand and be prepared to ask questions. There are long wait times, plan accordingly.

Dr Keltz took time to go over our iui/ivf plan and really seemed to care about me and getting pregnant.

First I was unexplained secondary infertility, likely pcos. We tried IUI with Clomid, 3 failed. Then I had a laparoscopy and discovered Endometriosis. Currently I am mid cycle for my first IVF with a frozen embryo transfer.

Most nurses are extremely friendly and make me feel at ease. There are a few who can be very rude and dismissive.

Very long wait time but they will almost always squeeze you in. I see dr keltz and every single appointment, he does all procedures himself. some nurses are rude but most are very nice. I had to do all of my own research.

Not sure, most were covered by insurance.

Dr Keltz recommends single embryo transfer and I am comfortable with that.