Verified
This patient has provided documentation of treatment at this clinic.
2016, Unsuccessful
7
5
We loved working with Dr. Abusief. The only downside is that since it's a large practice there were appointments where I saw one of her colleagues instead. She did not perform my egg retrievals or transfers because she was not "on-call" that day. She took over as the medical director and seemed stretched a little thin. I would have liked it more if there were less doctors involved and I was able to work with Dr. Abusief more exclusively.... She called me personally to check on me when I was diagnosed with a chemical pregnancy and took time to check in with me when I came in just for labs.
I bought a package through ARC that covered one retrieval and fresh transfer and one frozen transfer [at Palo Alto Medical Foundation]. The package was around $12-13,000 and did not cover ICSI or more than a set number of ultrasounds in a cycle. I paid extra for needing extra monitoring appointments as well as a whole lot of blood work, ultrasounds, and endometrial pipelle procedure for a chemical pregnancy...This clinic's strength is that the doctors meet daily for rounds so everyone is up to date on all of the patients who are in-cycle. The weakness is that there are so many doctors involved that you will likely be seen by multiple different doctors over the course of several days and may receive different information.
How was your experience with Mary Abusief at Palo Alto Medical Foundation?
We loved working with Dr. Abusief. The only downside is that since it's a large practice there were appointments where I saw one of her colleagues instead. She did not perform my egg retrievals or transfers because she was not "on-call" that day. She took over as the medical director and seemed stretched a little thin. I would have liked it more if there were less doctors involved and I was able to work with Dr. Abusief more exclusively.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Mary Abusief at Palo Alto Medical Foundation?
Be prepared for the fact that even if you like her a lot, you may not enjoy her colleagues as much and will often be in their direct care instead of hers. Although she was my primary RE, I was seen by many other doctors during my cycles with her.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Mary Abusief at Palo Alto Medical Foundation?
She takes a lot of time with her clients and is very warm and personable. She is incredibly intelligent and up to date, but communicates her knowledge in a way that is not intimidating. She called me personally to check on me when I was diagnosed with a chemical pregnancy and took time to check in with me when I came in just for labs.
Describe the protocols Mary Abusief used in your cycles at Palo Alto Medical Foundation and their degree of success.
It was my first IVF cycle and we used a standard long-lupron down regulation protocol. They retrieved 9 eggs, however only 6 were mature. No human growth hormone was used, just the lupron, gonal-f, and menopur. She stated that she started me on a higher dose of gonadotropins due to my low AMH, however I've always had an even higher dose with subsequent cycles with other doctors.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Palo Alto Medical Foundation. (Assigned nurse: Nancy)
Nancy was in touch with me constantly during my cycle and extremely helpful. For my second cycle I was assigned a different nurse. I don't remember much about her.
Describe your experience with Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
This clinic's strength is that the doctors meet daily for rounds so everyone is up to date on all of the patients who are in-cycle. The weakness is that there are so many doctors involved that you will likely be seen by multiple different doctors over the course of several days and may receive different information. One doctor I met with had incredibly awful bedside manner and I refused to be seen by him again, which meant that I had to drive to another clinic to see a different doctor. The clinic I primary visited was very private and peaceful, however some of the clinics that I had to drive to for my appointments were located inside of a larger medical facility. I had to sit in a waiting room that was shared with regular OBGYN patients who were pregnant- not great when you are going through fertility treatments.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Mary Abusief at Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
I bought a package through ARC that covered one retrieval and fresh transfer and one frozen transfer. The package was around $12-13,000 and did not cover ICSI or more than a set number of ultrasounds in a cycle. I paid extra for needing extra monitoring appointments as well as a whole lot of blood work, ultrasounds, and endometrial pipelle procedure for a chemical pregnancy.
Describe Mary Abusief's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
They will only transfer 2 embryos if you use day 3 embryos for my age bracket (Under 30). If you are using day 5 embryos, they will only transfer 1.