Michelle Catenacci

I think that Dr. Catenacci is extremely knowledgeable and intelligent in her field which is why a lot of things are overlooked by other patients. Although I am grateful for her insight I was completely disappointed in her lack of bedside manner. Going through infertility is not something easy or something I would wish on my worst enemy and I think that sometimes doctors who know they are good at what they are doing think they can get away with not showing compassion to their patients. After my last visit with her I was left heartbroken and confused and without an idea of what the next step is. Nor did I ever receive a call or a follow up. It wasn’t until I spoke with my gynecologist who helped me figure out the next steps were along with my primary care doctor that I felt encouraged to keep going. I expected better after seeing the reviews and was left extremely disappointed. I also want to make it clear that this isn’t a situation of not hearing what I wanted to hear and being upset over it. We weren’t even able to get that far.

She is a great doctor if personality and bedside manners don’t matter to you.

She seemed kind. She answered all my questions but was also yo the point and didn't expand the conversation. I had to ask questions for conversation. She seemed knowledge of my medical history, demonstrating good recall. She smiled a lot and was friendly. Overall I had a good experience but I wouldn't say it was above and beyond.

Be sure to ask questions to get all the information you seek.

I printed with estrogen due to a low AFC of 7. For stims I used low dose HCG, gonal F, cetrotide, and triggered with 5,000 units HCG. I ended up with 15 eggs retrieved and 13 fertilized with ICSI. I transferred one fresh embryo and sent the rest for PGS testing. I am still waiting to find out how many made it to blast for testing, the results of testing, and results of the fresh embryo transfer.

We opted for the no refund package that includes 2 Fresh and 2 Frozen Transfers with ICSI for $20k. We spent an additional $3800 for PGS testing on up to 8 embryos.

She gave us the option of transferring 1 or 2 fresh. She didn't provide a whole lot of insight or guide us towards a decision. I wish she would have given more support in either direction.

Dr. Catenacci was very kind and caring and seemed to have a good outlook on our IVF journey, when we first met. However, I didn’t get a chance to ask her questions once treatment started, or have any concerns addressed. During my follow up after my failed transfer, I had quite a few questions and it was hard to get answers from her. She seemed bothered by my questions and wasn’t willing to try something different for another cycle.

Do your own research, and try to ask as many questions in your initial appointment.

Estrogen priming and stimmed for 12-13 days with Omnitrope, low dose HCG, and started at 450iu of Gonal for the first 3 days and then increased to 600iu of Gonal for the remaining days

I traveled from out of state for my IVF procedure, therefore I worked with my local clinic for monitoring.

I had insurance coverage for one IVF cycle, so my out of pocket expenses were somewhat limited. However, they did prescribe Omnitrope which was over $2000. They also had me on an extremely high dosage of Gonal-F, so I maxed out my $15,000 lifetime max on fertility meds before my first cycle was complete.

She seems to be a very good doctor in terms of knowledge and skill. However, it does not seem like she listens to me, or is very aware of my medical history. It does not seem like my treatment plan is tailored to me.

Be prepared to advocate for yourself.

Clomid IUI

They have a lot of prices on their website, and costs quoted so far have been pretty close to what is online. For example, monitored Clomid IUI is $1250 (website currently says $1100).

I never saw Dr. Catenacci besides our very firs consultation appointment. She had me under go 3 rounds of IUI and each one came back negative. After my 3rd failed IUI, she then had the nurse call me (per usual) and tell me that the doctor thinks we should check to see if my tubes are open if we want to move forward with another IUI. I feel, that should have been done my very FIRST appointment, because if they are blocked.. I just wasted a lot of time and a lot of our hard earned money. That's when I left and got a 2nd opinion.

Make sure you are knowledgeable about treatments and what needs to be done before hand.

I was on Femara/Clomid each cycle.. 3 pills for 5 days. Ultrasound to check follicles, trigger point shot when ovulating, husband would collect sperm and the IUI would be done an hour later.

Each IUI cost me about 1600

n/a

Dr. Catenacci is great to meet in person; however, the only time I spoke with her was our initial consultation, another consultation that I specifically requested and when she called to tell me that my embryos did not make it. It is very disappointing that she never calls me to discuss next steps or even to check-in as this is a very expensive, stressful process. I honestly thought about leaving her office after my first failed IVF but I stayed because of her nurses. It is disheartening that everything is run by the staff and not Dr. Catenacci.

Don't expect to hear from Dr. Catenacci except for initial meeting and failed IVF embryos.

My first round of IVF was a typical IVF however it didn't produce enough eggs so it was converted. After that, we became very aggressive and did the Microdose Lupron flare. This produced 11 eggs but only two were retrieved. Additionally, I took Coq10 and DHEA on a daily basis.

My insurance covered a lot of the expenses - we ended up paying out of pocket around $15,000

For my case, she recommended that I transfer 2 embryos (assuming there were 2 embryos) due to my low quality

Dr. Catenacci was always nice, but I didn't interact with her that much. I decided to change clinics after my first cycle was cancelled and my second one only resulted in 1 embryo. I do have lower reserve, but i was given a 40% chance of success based on my AFC during the initial consult. I decided to change doctors because I didn't feel she was that invested in achieving success for me.

Expect the communication to be only through the nurses unless she is the doctor performing procedures the day of your procedures or if you schedule a meeting with her.

While my AMH and AFC are somewhat lower for my age, they never expected for the cycles to go as badly as they did. My first cycle was birth control and then antagonist. It was cancelled due to poor response and converted to IUI. Given my lower reserve, I don't think we should have ever tried birth control suppression. The second cycle we did estrogen priming with microdose lupron and HGH. Results were somewhat better, but we only retrieved 2 eggs and got 1 embryo. I know the doctors can't be blamed for poor response, but on my third IVF (at a different clinic), I was able to get 12 eggs (8 mature) from an estrogen priming and antagonist protocol with max stims. So the protocol and the administration of the cycle (doses, triggering, etc) can make all the difference.

I have some insurance up to a lifetime max, so things were covered once we hit deductible and OOP max.