How was your experience with Matthew Lederman at RMA of New York?
He is thorough, but this can also be to his detriment. He spends a lot of time spouting facts and figures that don't necessarily apply to you (for example I'm 32, I don't particularly care about the success rates for women 40+ or risks for them). We were also very under-prepared for a lot of things that happened along the way-- stopping our first cycle (nobody had ever mentioned that might happen), transferring more than one embryo (we had only ever been told, for years, that one embryo would be transferred due to my age), an ectopic outcome.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Matthew Lederman at RMA of New York?
This is hard. You don't know what you don't know, so it's impossible to tell someone to ask a lot of questions, etc. when you don't know what to ask and you feel like you're getting thorough information.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Matthew Lederman at RMA of New York?
When we were with Dr. Lederman for a sit-down appointment he would take his time, never rushing us, and discuss whatever we needed. For anything else-- monitoring, egg retrieval, embryo transfer-- we rarely saw him and just had to take whoever was on staff that day,
Describe the protocols Matthew Lederman used in your cycles at RMA of New York and their degree of success.
1) IVF-- my husband had testicular cancer and so his sperm count was low. Our first cycle was stopped as I was told my eggs weren't developing as a "cohort". Two eggs were "racing ahead of the pack" and Dr. Lederman felt like due to my age and health, we could do better. It was converted to an IUI where I had a negative home pregnancy test and the dr's office had a low positive (chemical pregnancy most likely).
2) Once I got my period I was put on birth control (pill) for about 2.5 weeks and then started hormone injections again. It took longer than anticipated before they did the egg retrieval (we were told about 10 days, it was 14 before my retrieval). My egg retrieval was extremely painful and I couldn't move and was in the worst pain of my life for several days. Nobody would prescribe me anything for the pain (various other materials I read online said other patients at other clinics were always sent home with an rx painkiller). I had also been told this procedure is "painless". They got 12 eggs, 10 were mature enough to fertilize (ICSI), 8 were successful, 6 grew, and we wound up with 2 the day-of. The doctor who did our transfer, literally as they were wheeling me out of the waiting area and into the transfer room, said "oh we want to put both back" so my husband and I didn't really have time to even think about it. We had been told, for years, that only ONE egg would ever be transferred.
3) This resulted in an ectopic pregnancy and the most difficult time of our lives. The pregnancy test came back low positive (hcg about 8) so they told me it didn't work. Then my numbers continued to triple every 2-3 days and make huge jumps. This whole time I was in for monitoring every 2-3 days where various doctors, who were not my doctor, would tell me they didn't know what was wrong but something definitely was even though my numbers were in the normal range. I was repeatedly told they "couldn't find it" (the sac). After a couple weeks of this (getting good new the numbers were rising and then terrible news that they were convinced something was terribly wrong because they couldn't see anything) I was sent to an ultrasound clinic with higher tech machines as, after weeks of torture, my doctors office finally informed me that their machines aren't good enough to see anything that early anyway (!!!!). This place found an ectopic pregnancy in my left tube. I had two shots of methotrexate that evening and we had to stop trying for three months.
4) After three months, we went back to Dr. Lederman and said at this time we are only willing to try IUI (something less invasive). We are in the middle of our first cycle with Clomid.
Describe your experience with your nurse at RMA of New York. (Assigned nurse: Christine, but she left halfway through our first IVF cycle and then we had nobody)
Erin was the main nurse we had contact with. She was very kind and caring and compassionate.
Describe your experience with RMA of New York.
***YOU WILL ALMOST NEVER SEE YOUR DOCTOR***
While your doctor will call you with results, they will rarely--if ever-- be the person you see for monitoring or do any of your procedures. If you need weekend monitoring there is only one office open and it is like a cattle call. The wait can be an hour+ at times.
Describe your experience with your monitoring appointments at RMA of New York.
The weekend had one location open across the entire city and it was a cattle call. It is a nightmare to go there with waits lasting over an hour, nowhere to sit, etc.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Matthew Lederman at RMA of New York.
Our insurance covers this. I just have an occasional co-pay.
What specific things went wrong at RMA of New York?
- Lost paperwork
- Failed to call with results