Nam Tran

He’s very knowledgeable and I trusted his judgement concerning our course of treatment. Dr. Nam has a lot of patients splits time between locations in the Bay Area. He seemed to jump from one appointment to the next, so aside from the initial consult, time isn’t spent sitting down to talk. He’ll tell you directly how things are going and the next steps he recommends. Exchanges and visits were quick.

Dr. Tran relies heavily on his great staff for most communications with patients. If you’re looking for more of a patient - doctor experience, you may want to consider another doctor. However, Dr. Nam is experienced and can answer any question asked.

Initial genetic screening for husband and myself (recommended). Hormone injections for egg retrieval, freezing sperm sample as a back up for fertilization, ICSI (male infertility: low sperm count and motility), freezing embryos and placing me on birth control while waiting for PGT results, and more injections to ramp up for the transfer of one embryo.

Straightforward and waiting time was minimal at the Redwood City office.

My insurance covered most of the fees not including appointment and medication co-pays ($1500). My copay was $25 per visit. My estimate if we had paid out of pocket would have been around $30-35k for one round of egg retrieval, IVF with ICSI, and medications.

I chose Dr Tran because he is the clinic founder and known for having excellent results. In my year as his patient, I've had 2 or 3 fifteen minute phone calls with him, a few ultrasounds, 2 egg retrievals, and 1 embryo transfer. I don't feel that I've really formed a relationship with him and I have struggled to trust him due to his deadpan way of saying things. But also I get that he is some sort of genius so I keep hanging in there with the knowledge that he has helped a lot of folks in similar positions to me. I'd say as far as protocols, he's a bit of a minimalist, not into doing extra tests and procedures. Maybe he's just that good that he doesn't need the extra info.

Do you own research, ask your nurse lots of questions!

I did 2 cycles of mini stim IVF, freezing untested embryos at day 3. He used clomid, menopur, follistim, cetrotide, and a double trigger I think? I added omnitrope (not his recommendation but he allowed it). I also had a laparoscopy for endometriosis which he also did not recommend but allowed. After one failed modified natural FET (of 3 day 3 embryos), I have 2 embryos left that I will transfer in a fully medicated cycle after doing a fully medicated ERA/mock cycle (also not recommended but allowed).

A 3 cycle mini stim IVF cycle was about $30,000, plus meds. I think it came with one embryo transfer and additional tranfers cost about $3,000? I had to pay $900 or $1,000 for a saline sonogram, and the ERA/mock cycle will cost $2,500 plus meds.

It seems that if you're over 40 with DOR, he often recommends using untested day 3 embryos and transferring up to 5 at a time.

We couldn't be happier as patients of Dr Tran. We saw him at Spring in 2018 when the clinic was still growing and again at the end of 2019 when the clinic had grown exponentially but we experienced the same level of care from Dr Tran. What we appreciated the most was Dr Tran's direct, confident and no fluff demeanor. Often times, he was more confident in a positive outcome than we were which is what I would want with my fertility doctor. We did experience 1 miscarriage with an IUI cycle which Dr Tran showed a nice balance of compassion and yet still a focus on the path forward.

If you want a fertility doctor who is going to hold your hand, provide some fluffiness to your consults and consultations with a pair of rosy glasses on, this is not the doctor for you. If you want a personalized, down to business, direct and a results driven outcome, then Dr Tran is who you'd want to see.

Walking into the clinic, I thought for sure we would be doing IVF but after our consultation, ultrasound and fertility vitals, Dr Tran recommended that we start with IUI first since the more %s of increase in chances of being pregnant with IVF vs IUI wasn't worth the exponential extra cost of IVF. For our first treatment cycle, we did two rounds of IUIs. The first round resulted in a miscarriage at 5.5 weeks and the second round results in my now healthy toddler. For our second treatment cycle which was 10 months after giving birth, we did two rounds of IUI. The first round didn't take and the second round resulted in twins which I am currently in the third trimester of.

The initial consult was out of pocket which was reasonable. My first two IUI cycles were covered by work and we paid out of pocket for the 2nd two IUI cycles which we found was reasonable as well.

When we first met with Dr. Tran for a consultation, he was very efficient but thorough. He explained our options in a straightforward manner. We received a lot of information that first visit, but we had a fairly clear sense of our path forward, though the question of timing was still a little hard to grasp. We were able to proceed with treatment relatively quickly, and I always felt like I was in good hands with Dr. Tran. I appreciated that I saw him on most visits and that he handled my procedures himself. We had one minor confusion when he told us he thought we could do a transfer before the end of the year, when really January was the actual outcome because of holiday closures, but while that felt frustrating at the time, I'm glad we did the transfer at a time when we could have full access to Dr. Tran and the clinic. On the day of the retrieval, he did a great job putting me at ease, joking about the music playing in the procedure room. We got some bad news after my retrieval - only 2 embryos made it to day 6 out of the original 18 - and Dr. Tran explained that it might be due to the quality of my eggs over the phone. I think that information would have been a little easier to take in person, but I appreciate that he was able to take the time to talk to us about it. While things sometimes felt like they moved quickly with Dr. Tran, I know he's a very experienced doctor with a great track record, so I feel grateful we were able to work with him.

Don't be afraid to ask questions if you have any. Dr. Tran will make time to answer them if he knows you have them.

My partner was diagnosed with male factor infertility before coming to Dr. Tran. We were told IVF with ICSI was our best option by the reproductive endocrinologist we had gotten testing with at Kaiser. Dr. Tran reviewed our results and agreed that IVF with ICSI was our best path forward. Because my results were all within standard range, he said our chances were relatively high, comparatively -- about 60% chance of conception per cycle. I was put on Menopur and Gonal-F to prepare for the retrieval, and we were able to stay the course without making changes to the protocol as the eggs were progressing as expected. I did the trigger injections 36 hours before the procedure, and came in for the retrieval, which resulted in 19 eggs, 18 of which made it to the embryo state. We used ICSI and they grew the embryos to day 6. Only two made it to day 6, both of which we chose to send for PGS testing. One came back as normal, the other was "inconclusive." We would have been allowed to either re-test the inconclusive embryo or transfer it without further testing. When the clinic reopened after the holidays, I went on birth control for about two weeks before starting medication (Letrozole then Medrol) to prepare for the transfer. I was not put on progesterone after bloodwork showed I had appropriate levels. I was given Valium to take the day of the transfer, and no further medication after that. I got a positive HCG result about two and half weeks after the transfer and am currently 14 weeks pregnant.

Dr. Tran strongly recommended single embryo transfer, and given my age and the risks, I was happy with this approach.

Dr. Tran was always honest about our odds of conceiving. He was hopeful that it could work, but didn't offer false hope which I appreciated. He was good at explaining what he was doing and why. He seemed to have a good balance between using evidence-based methods and a willingness to try something else when that didn't work. He is fairly technical and clinical, but I think that's what you want: someone precise and exacting. In the end, we trusted him and when he was optimistic that a second round could yield better results than our first, we agreed. And he was right! Our second round was successful.

Don't expect someone who is touchy-feely. Ask good questions, he's happy to explain things. Trust that his number one goal is to help you conceive and he'll do what he can to make that happen.

Round one: started with lupron then was on 150 menopur, 225 gonal f for 4 days, then 150 of each for 4 days, then 75 menopur/150 gonal f for 1 day. Produced 14 follicles, 9 embryos, all poor quality by day 3. Transferred the best 3 on day 3, resulted in a chemical pregnancy with nothing left to freeze. Round 2: started on Aygestin then was on 150 each menopur and gonal f for 8 days, then 75 menopur/150 gonal f for 3 days, then 75 of each for last day. Also took HGH throughout. Began cetrotide last 4 days. This time he also cultured our embryos differently. This time retrieved 10, had 9 embryos. 3 very good ones and a handful of ok ones. None made it to freeze. Transferred 3 on day three resulted in twins.

Dr. Tran felt strongly that we should transfer 3 based on my age and egg quality.

Dr. Tran was really on the spot about why we were having trouble conceiving. It's true his bedside manner is more cut and dry. He doesn't do much to try to connect with you on a personal level like other doctors might, but what I liked about him that I didn't get from other doctors (we were with another clinic and then switched, and I had interviewed a third clinic before deciding on spring) was the flexibility with the plan that I was looking for. Dr. Tran was the only fertliity doctor I saw (out of 3) who explained very clearly the expected normal timeline and steps for IVF, and more importantly, was the only doctor who explicitly offered to consider a modified natural transfer (no progesterone shots). I have a huge needle phobia and hate hormone drugs (but got desperate enough to try IVF), so the idea that there was flexibility there was really tempting. I did have to do the research on my own independently to find out that in some cases (such as mine) there's really no difference in positive results between a medicated and natural transfer but Dr. Tran was right. And, I was successful (so far - we are almost in the 2nd trimester now). The other great thing about Dr. Tran and Spring (which again, I think is what you get instead of lots of warm fuzzy interactions etc ) was the efficiency. I had my initial consultation at Spring during a time when they lost 2 or 3 doctors, yet Dr. Tran got me in for a consult and onto retrieval meds as soon as possible. There was no waiting line (at my first clinic, we had made the decision to move forward in October but could not start the process until January), no issues with not having shelf space for my embryos, etc.

As other people have mentioned, make sure you read all the materials they give you and do your research and have a list of questions ready when you are meeting with him.

Antagonist protocol, aggressive drugs. My retrieval was disappointing. The expectation given my blood test results and follicle counts was that I would get at least 15-20 eggs (even at my advanced age); however, only 7 were retrieved, and only 1 embryo tested PGT normal. By some miracle (or very good work on the part of the embryologists and the Spring team), this embryo stuck. The plan if the embryo didn't stick was to move to a mid-luteal phase retrieval next, so Dr. Tran is open to changing protocols.

I was insured under Progyny, so didn't deal with billing much.

No comments. We were committed to a single transfer from our discussions with our prior doctor so didn't discuss this with Dr. Tran. We also only had 1 embryo to transfer.

He's smart and a well experienced doctor for sure, however, I felt he was too busy for me, not available to communicate after FET failed. I had to wait one month to talk to him after FET failed. During stimulation, only his coordinator is available to send message to doctor for questions I have.

well... if you're okay with not seeing and not communication with your doctor, but someone else who works for him, then you will be fine.

mid luteal start antagonist protocol. Gonal F 225 iu and Menopur 150 iu to start

finance team takes care of all billing stuff

Dr. Tran transfers one pgt passed embryo

We have been with Dr. Tran for 7 years and followed him to Spring from UCSF. I trust him as my doctor because he is very smart, not salesy at all, and doesn't sugar-coat anything whatsoever. These are really rare qualities in a physician. I don't enjoy being his patient, however, because he has zero affect. He answers questions with the minimum response possible and doesn't elaborate on his reasoning, so I have to ask many follow-up questions in order get basic information. I find every interaction with him stressful. My trust in him is in spite of these very difficult interpersonal experiences, which I choose to put aside because he's always gotten me good results.

Ask open-ended questions, and "what would you recommend, given X" questions. Avoid closed-ended (yes/no) questions.

$10,000 egg retrieval in 2017 $4,475 frozen embryo transfer in 2022

Extremely strong preference for SET even when the embryos were of very poor quality. For example, he refused to transfer two CC-graded embryos together because of the risk of twins, despite the extremely low baseline likelihood of pregnancy.

Dr. Tran is a great doctor. He doesn't sugar coat things or tell you what you may want to hear but he was the most upfront and straightforward IVF doctor I worked with. I appreciated that because after a while you just want to know what you're dealing with and if there is even a chance. I know of a few ladies who have worked with him who are in their late 30s and early 40s who have had success and that is why I decided to go to him for IVF my third round.

Ask all of your questions whenever you have time with him. He's super busy as any sought after doctor would be. Write them down ahead of time and ask them when you are at the consult or when he's at your monitoring appointment. His team is available via email but it's always best to get the info straight from him.

Dr. Tran used a "demi halt" protocol. It involved priming with Lupron for about two weeks, then going in for monitoring when day 1 of my cycle started. At that point I then started the stimulation medications: Gonal F, Menopur, Omnitrope

I don't have fertility benefits. All in for one egg retrieval cycle I probably paid about 18k-20k. That included the medication package.

N/A

Dr. Tran is an amazing doctor. At first, he’s not the “warmest” person but he truly cares about his patients and his bedside manner becomes warmer as you get to know him more - he goes out of his way to see you at every appointment possible, remembers personal details, cares a LOT about his staff, and goes above and beyond during procedures like the retrieval and transfer to really check that you’re doing ok physically and emotionally. On top of that, he’s super practical and compared to other doctors I’ve seen, is really invested in the most straightforward path to get you a child. I am fully planning to use Dr Tran again and couldn’t be happier.

Don’t let Dr Tran’s initial style discourage you — he can be direct and to the point, but for this type of doctor that’s really what you want and need. He cares so much about his patients and staff.

N/A as my employer has fertility coverage

Dr Tran refuses to do multiple embryo transfers

I appreciated Dr Tan's no-nonsense, action- and solution-oriented approach. Many online reviews complain that they saw Dr Tran a limited amount of time and instead mostly saw his team or NPs throughout their treatment. But Dr Tran was there for the most important parts - consultation and determining your protocol, egg retrieval, transfer procedures, and if you're lucky - your ultrasounds, and that mattered most to me. His team is well coordinated and the visits were always on time and super time-efficient. Dr Tran is clearly one of the best - the procedures were always quick, flawless and painless. He managed my expectations perfectly. We changed my protocol after the 1st and 2nd retrieval to ensure optimal results in the 3rd one. His approach is focused on data and sharing statistics, and that suited me - it normalized and grounded what could otherwise be an emotional rollercoaster of a journey.

Trust the process and Dr Tran's knowledge and experience. Sometimes you may not have all the details and that's ok.

We tried aygestin priming first, mid-lutheal second, and lastly - demi-halt which resulted in the most amount of viable eggs retrieved. We ended up with a total of 4 PGS-tested normal embryos. I just completed my 1st trimester of pregnancy after a single frozen embryo transfer.

I like Dr. Tran because he seems very knowledgeable and data driven. I only have one complaint which is that he does not seem able to give recommendations on specific treatment protocols. I have very very low amh for my age, and at the beginning of my treatment, I didn't know if I should be trying to do multiple retrievals to get more eggs before trying a transfer. I asked what people in my situation normally do and he seemed hesitant to provide any detail and a comparison point for me. In addition, I've done 3 min stim cycles (oral medication + injections), the first two with clomid and the 3rd with letrizole because I wanted to do a fresh transfer with the last one. The first two went very well. The last failed in that my follicles did not grow. Although it's a small sample size, I would think we should want to go back to clomid and then try a FET. He wasn't able to provide much guidance for me. In that situation, I would have wanted advice. However, I think for liability reasons, they cannot "recommend" particular treatments protocols or fresh/frozen transfers so I'm not sure if this is something I can truly fault him for.

Be sure that you want a more scientific doctor as opposed to a warm and friendly doctor.

I've done three retrievals with Dr Tran. All three were min-stim cycles meaning 5 days with clomid or letrizole and then another 4-8 days with gonal f and menopur (150 units gonal f, 75 menopur). The first went very well- clomid seemed to work well for me and from an initial scan where only 2-4 follicles were visible, I had 6 eggs retrieved, 4 mature, 1 almost mature=3 frozen day 3 embryos; 2 ok quality, 1 good quality. That took 11 days total until trigger; 5 days of clomid and 6 days of stims. The 2nd cycle similar thing happened- I had EIGHT follicles as of day 8 of the cycle! But unfortunately at retrieval, the doctor said 2 follicles on the left prematurely ovulated and they couldn't retrieve them. So we only retrieved 5 eggs, only 3 mature and 1 almost mature. Crazy enough, the 1 that was almost mature did mature and ended up becoming a Morula (stage between day 3 and blastocyst) and I had one other good quality day 3 embryo (both frozen). That took 9 days total until trigger, 5 of clomid, 4 days stims. The 3rd was a disaster. I decided I wanted to try and fresh transfer so we switched to letrizole for the first 5 days. At day 5, I had a measly 3 follicles, one at 10mm, the other two small. Day 8, had more 6, but the largest one had only grown one mm. Day 11, I had 8 follicles but the biggest ones weren't growing. He made me go for another 3 days so in total, I did 5 days on letrizole and NINE days on stims. We ended up cancelling which I was happy about and to be honest, I was a little frustrated that they let me go that long bc it ended up doubling the cost of my medication that cycle. After that, I knew logically I should go back to using clomid. So am going to do a 4th cycle, freeze only, and then do a FET after that. Dr Tran didn't necessarily push me that way but to me, it seemed obvious (even if the sample size was small).

First cycle cost $13,049, 2nd cost $13,165, third cost $4,854 (was just medication and monitoring appts because it was cancelled). The first two costs are generally related to contracted rates between my insurance and Spring. A portion of that is out of pocket related to medication or certain procedures that are out of network. I expect the fourth cycle to be around $13k total.

No comments. I am doing day 3 embryos because I have so few so we will be transferring 2.

So far, we've only had the opportunity to do a virtual consultation with Dr. Tran and it went well. He asked us a few questions, and took the time to get familiar with information we had sent in earlier. We liked his no-nonsense straight to the point style. He is respectful, but direct, and lays out options in a very matter of fact way which we appreciated.

If you're looking for a doctor who will be emotionally supportive, I'm not sure he's the best fit for you, but we've also only had a consult and have not experienced working with him fully. However, if you appreciate getting right to it, I think he's the one!

I've recently had an HSG test done elsewhere and tubes are open, and both our counts for egg and sperm are better than average for our age, so Dr. Tran mentioned the possibility of the tubes perhaps not functioning (not the same as being open), potential poor egg quality, or potentially something on the male end. So we are going all in with a plan to start with a new panel of bloodwork, get genetic testing done for both of us, and then proceed with IVF, including ICSI, PGS/PGD, and potentially a Saline Sonogram somewhere in this.

The team there was super helpful in providing a breakdown of numbers and the various packages they have. For our full bundle, the estimated costs are about $18,000 not including medication and bloodwork.

n/a yet.

As others have mentioned, Dr. Trans communication style is to keep things very short and to the point. Usually, I prefer this style, but through the confusing and daunting IVF process, Dr. Trans explanations are a bit too fast and simplistic for me. The lack of detail/explanation causes confusion, and makes me feel that he's ready to rush on to the next patient.

Dr. Tran is highly skilled, and extremely involved/immersed in what's going on. He's laser focused on delivering results, and for that reason he's crazy busy. Make the most of your time with him and other doctors by having list of questions ready before every appointment, and get questions answered during your appointment. With regards to treatment, he can be stubborn about his viewpoint/methods. But as long as you can show him that you respect his expertise, stay relax and talk through your concerns, he is open to compromise and/or break from the normal protocol.

3 retrievals followed by FET. Drugs: GonalF and menopur, Cetrotide, Leuprolide, and novarel. The retrievals: 1st: 9 eggs/5 embryos 2nd: 14 eggs/5 embryos 3rd: 21 eggs/ 10 embryos * all embryos are day 3

Package deal for 3 retreivals and 1 FET.

Due to my age and likely poor egg quality, Dr. Tran advises transferring multiple eggs (ie 5+ per transfer).

I'm a physician assistant so I've met a lot of physicians, I can honestly say Dr. Tran is the smartest physician I've ever met. He's an absolute genius, kind of the "mad scientist" type. He's not afraid to think outside the box and try new things to get you the best result. His bedside manner can be a little blunt/robotic, but you can tell his way of showing he cares is giving 110% to get you pregnant. I've had two other fertility doctors before him, but from now on I'm only trusting Tran!

His bedside manner comes off a little cold at first, his way of showing he cares is to go above and beyond trying new things to get you pregnant!

I had two cycles cancelled a different clinic before going to Tran. I have severe migraine with aura, and was told I could no longer safely have any estrogen-increasing drugs due to the risk of stroke. Tran crafted a new plan to manage my stroke risk- no birth control priming, start injections mid-cycle, and high dose letrozole during stimulation. My estrogen actually went down during stims! It worked great, no stroke and 11 blasts from one cycle (afc 12.)

An embryo freezing cycle was $13,500 pls meds, I think it went up $1,000 this year. A FET is about $4,750.

I am under 35 so an basically required to do eSET at Spring. I think after 3 failed transfers or over 35 they do multiple.

Dr. Tran first assessed my case in the summer of 2019. He was the second doctor to assess me for IVF. I was 37, I am BRCA1 positive, and I was told I have a diminished ovarian reserve. This was the conclusion at UCSF, which dr. Tran confirmed. Both dr. Tran and the other clinic were not optimistic about my chances of getting embryos, however, dr. Tran was VERY good at explaining that I would need several rounds of IVF if I had a hope of freezing my eggs, what the costs of that would be, and how we might manage things going forward. We decided to go ahead with one round of egg retrieval, and move forward depending on the result. Unbelievably enough, the first round was successful beyond all our plans & expectations, with 12 eggs retrieved during the first cycle alone. We understood that we are in a whole different ballgame, and given that there is no problem harvesting my eggs, we can actually have the luxury of filtering our embryos for the deleterious BRCA1 gene mutation. This result is life changing. We went ahead with further two rounds of egg retrieval and embryo freezing. We managed to get enough eggs to produce 10 day 6 blastocysts. Out of those, 5 were free of BRCA1. Hooray! We went ahead and implanted our first embryo 2 months ago. Knock on wood, things went very well. I am 38, and this is my first pregnancy. I am over the moon! The result speaks for itself. The experience, though by no means physically pleasant, was as efficient, easy and painless as it could possibly be. There was no time when I didn't know what the next step was. All decisions were pretty clear, at each fork in the road, I knew what my options were. The clinic was easy to reach. They were always on top of things, nobody was ever confused (clearly they have a great system of patient records). All appointments were fast and on time. I am really really pleased with how things went, would recommend Dr. Tran to my best friend 100 times, if they ever had trouble conceiving.

Don't expect a warm bedside manner, but expect excellent results.

Total costs for 3 rounds of IVF, genetic testing, egg freezing and one implantation were close to $60,000. Nothing was covered by insurance.

I absolutely loved Dr. Tran. He was super straightforward, answered all my questions and beyond, and performed all procedures skillfully. He was also very respectful of me and my partner at every opportunity. It is a pretty rare situation that I leave a serious conversation with a doctor feeling pretty good about everything - even if the answer isn't necessarily what i wanted - but somehow he managed to make that happen.

I spend a lot of my time dealing with healthcare advocacy for others, so Dr. Tran's bluntness was a big positive. But if that's not working for you, I would highly recommend Dr. Harris, who I think was my favorite for bedside manner out of all the doctors at Spring that I saw in brief.

I had failed multiple IUI cycles elsewhere already. Based on my ethnicity and a combination of PCOS and unexplained infertility, and with some other considerations (like limited sperm vials to work with) I was recommended an antagonist protocol for a freeze-all cycle and FET. We opted for PGS just because we could. We ended up having to adjust medications downwards because I was responding too well. Got more of everything than estimated - eggs, fertilized #, day 3, day 5/6. FET was a letrozole-assisted cycle and succeeded on the first try.

18k for stimulation/retrieval including icsi and pgs. around 4k for medications. 4500-5000 for FET. then $950 for saline sono and $450 for the last appointment to confirm pregnancy before graduating to my regular OB.

He had a VERY, very, very, very strong preference for eSET due to my age and PGS-tested AA grade embryos.

The proof is in the pudding. I'm a 42-year old woman, using my own eggs and husband's sperm, and am currently 20-weeks pregnant after a single embryo transfer! Dr. Tran is matter-of-fact and VERY data-based meaning he doesn't waste time with frivolous treatment without proven efficacy. After two failed transfers in LA, my doctor there had me going down rabbit holes. Not so with Dr. Tran! He reads all of the studies so you don't have to. At the same time Dr. Tran really, really cares about your outcomes. I have video of Dr. Tran in our first ultrasound, grinning from ear-to-ear. As we're all first laying eyes on our baby to be, Dr. Tran is ecstatically exclaiming "you've got a one good one!"

Don't be afraid to ask questions and be open to data-based answers. Like I said, he's not going to waste your time with un-substantiated rabbit holes.

The one key decision, which was different from my past (unsuccessful) transfers with my 1st doctor: unmedicated transfer cycle, using my own body's natural cycle to guide transfer timing. I believe that made all the difference in my outcome! That meant that the stuff I had to do before my other (unsuccessful) transfers - endometrial scratch, ERA testing, daily injections with progesterone treatments - were not necessary.

We chose eSET because of my risk factors: age and two previous ectopic pregnancies. That was absolutely the right thought process and decision!

Dr. Tran is an intelligent, competent doctor, but there's a lack of emotional IQ to balance his intellectual IQ. Infertility is an emotional journey, and we look to our doctors for support. Many times during my care I felt like he didn't have enough capacity for me, and he was taking on too many patients. In the worst of times, I felt abandoned by him as my doctor. He is present at appointments, but his time is rushed. Appointments have become difficult to schedule due to his split time between Redwood City and SF offices, and I have even had major procedures rescheduled last minute to accommodate his busy schedule.

Get to know your nurse, because Dr. Tran will not be available to you beyond your appointments. Be direct in your questions. Don't let yourself get rushed, or brushed off - speak up for yourself. You may need to ask questions multiple times to get the answer you need. Find a good therapist to help with the emotional stuff - you will need it.

I found Dr. Tran to be very conservative in his approach vs. other docs, which may be due to his background at UCSF (teaching hospital). He will not perform an ERA, or other new procedures, unless they have tons of data back them up. He won't order blood-tests or recommend aggressive treatments unless absolutely necessary. He isn't super proactive - which may be partially due to his lack of time. If you're looking for a doc that will be extremely thorough, and give you all the bells and whistles, he many not be the doc for you.

We had some insurance coverage, but about $46-50k for retrieval, $6k for transfer, $800 for meds

I wasn't given an option - single embryo transfers only

What I mostly appreciated about Dr. Tran was his willingness to listen and adjust the treatment as new information came in and we wanted a change in direction. I think there's a lot of ego in this field and his flexibility was refreshing. He is very keep on the mid-luteal protocol. At the beginning he was reluctant to share what approach he'd take, stating that he doesn't care what the protocol is called, but whether it is appropriate for us, but ultimately took the approach he seems to be known for. We experienced a setback with unusually high drop in embryos in the lab (b/n D3 and D5/6). He was upfront about how unexpected that result was and presented a solution, without throwing the stats based on my age in my face, which I appreciated. Ultimately, we didn't get to an embryo transfer with him. He very candidly shared his opinion that our embryos had a better chance in my uterus, which is what we came to realize, and showed that he had our interest at heart. This is not where the clinic makes money, so he won my full trust with this recommendation.

Be prepared with a list of questions to get the most out of your visits with Dr. Tran. We had most of our monitoring visits with him personally, but they're routine in nature and quick, so I found myself following up with the nurses with follow-up questions I didn't get to or didn't think of during the visits.

We had to IVF cycles with mid-luteal protocol, with moderate to low doses. I had 8-9 follicles at baseline, and given that there wasn't much potential beyond that, it was important for me to not get overly medicated (some other fertility doctors we consulted with in our research mentioned "aggressive" protocol, which was a big turnoff). Dr. Tran took a moderate approach and adjusted down given my good response in the first cycle. The meds were 225 IU Gonal-F and 150 IU Menopur. Great response initially - of 8 follicles we retrieved 8 mature eggs, 7 fertilized with ICSI. Second time less so - of 9 follicles, we retrieved 4 and only 2 mature eggs which were fertilized. "0" embryos at Day 5/6, however, and the whole reason we did IVF was the genetic test at D5/6 so we can minimize the risk miscarriage. The mid-luteal protocol didn't allow for a Day 3 transfer. Seems like our embryos can't make it beyond that in lab environment.

We went through insurance as we had some coverage (with a lifetime max). Still unsure of the total out-of-pocket costs for either cycle due to the messy billing. Dealing with the billing department at Spring was the most stressful and painful experience, an unwelcome one too given how taxing the IVF process already is. Inquires required multiple follow-ups before Spring would respond (sometimes 2-3 weeks later). They simple didn't address/ignored some direct questions. Last but not least, they said they'd do the billing in a certain way for our second cycle, but didn't do so despite the agreement we had reached on that. Super frustrating experience, and I am still entangled in this two months after treatment.

eSET was the considered approach but we didn't have a single embryo for transfer.

I have only ever seen Dr. Tram in person once, at my initial consult. My IUIs were done by different doctors, and all other information has been conveyed through nurses and my patient coordinator. However I feel like I’m getting the care I need, and if I move on to IVF, I believe I will see him more.

His primary focus is IVF, so if you are starting with IUI, you might not see him for many of your appointments. However he will still be involved in your care, and it’s easy to get answers to questions via your patient coordinator.

I am early 30s with good stats, and his strategy was 3 unmedicated IUIs, then (if no pregnancy) 3 medicated IUIs, then potentially move on to IVF. I have had three unsuccessful IUIs. I am now going to have an HSG test. I elected not to have one before beginning initial treatment, but now that I have had 3 unsuccessful IUIs, Dr. Tran thinks I should do one before beginning the more involved and expensive process of medicated IUIs. Depending on the results of the HSG test, I will either move on to the planned medicated cycles, or look at IVF.

Monitoring ultrasounds—$400 IUI— Around $800

From a scientific and IVF protocol I completely trust Dr. Tran and his decisions. He is very accurate in his assessments and his protocol is always adjusted and designed to fit my individual needs. He is straightforward and sets realistic expectations which is exactly what you need in this process so you are not giving an unrealistic sense of hope; with this approach it can lack a little bit of warmth in his messages but in the end you leave his office with a real sense of understanding for the future.

Be patient with the process and trust Dr. Trans decisions as he shares the same desired outcome.

I did two retrievals using Lupron, Gonal-F, Menopur, Cetrotide and Novarel. Both retrievals resulted in a desirable amount of eggs; my particular problem is in growing the embryos to day 5. The number of embroys drastically dropped during this time. First retrieval results in 2 embryos that both came back normal after genetic testing. The second retrieval resulted in 1 embryo that came back abnormal. I then did a FET immediately following the second retrieval that resulted in a healthy pregnancy. I did a second transfer Sept 2019 with the remaining embryo from first retrieval that did not result in a pregnancy. I am currently undergoing preparation for another retrieval.

The first two retrievals and transfer were covered by insurance. Second transfer was around $6,000 and current retrieval will be around $25,000

I agree with Dr. Tran's approach of eSET as I highly risk adverse to having multiple babies at my age.

I trusted that he was well educated and believe that he made decision in our treatment that he thought would result in the best outcome. I felt that he set our expectations for success once we moved on to IVF too high. Sometimes I would have to push him to make changes to my course of treatment after multiple failures because he did not believe changes were needed. I'm not a fan doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

If a doctor with a really good bedside manner is important to you, chose one of the other doctors at this clinic. Dr. Tran can be a little "cold", but that was not something that bothered me.

IUI cycle - $1,500 plus cost of meds IVF retrieval + PGS - $17,500 plus cost of meds Frozene Embryo Transfer - $4,500 plus cost of meds

Dr. Tran was very adamant about not transferring more than one embryo.

Dr. Tran is seriously smart and on the cutting edge. Creative yet evidence-based and doesn’t recommend a bunch of things you don’t need. He is a scientist and straightforward but compassionate, and has some good deadpan humor! He does explain things quickly so write down and bring your questions and don’t hesitate to send up a follow up question. I most appreciate that Dr. Tran is willing to keep working with poor prognosis patients—some clinics want to move on to donor eggs to boost their numbers but not the case here. We were initially devastated after our first two cycles led to no transferable embryos likely due to poor egg quality and me being a poor responder to meds. At that point he recommended proceeding with minimal stimulation ivf which worked really well for us and ended up giving us a better blast yield per cycle and ultimately leading to success for us. Not all clinics do mini IVF so I was grateful Spring offers this as other clinics would have either proceeded with full stim (high expense for low yield) or pushed donor eggs.

Write down your questions and don’t hesitate to send the team a follow up question!

1 letrozole flare 1 mid-luteal start 3 mini IVF with clomid and gonalF/menopur

Pricing is transparent and up front. Comparable to other clinics in the area. Mini IVF cycles can be packaged which makes the cost about 50% of a regular IVF cycle

They recommend eSET for PGS tested

I cannot say enough good things about Dr Tran and our treatment is still going. We are awaiting our FET having undergone an egg retrieval and PGS testing we have 6 healthy embryos waiting for us. He predicted we would have 3 but would do everything he could to make it more and he did just that. He did all of my ultrasounds, he was supportive and thorough and is clearly a leader in his field. I never questioned him because I had full faith he knew what he was doing and I was in the best hands possible.

Dr Tran has a dry sense of humour and is not the warm and cuddly type- he is a wildly clever doctor so don’t expect cuddles and a shoulder to cry on. He is fact driven, experienced and knows best so trust him. He was literally at the clinic every single time I went- 7am in the morning, Sunday’s, he was there. That’s what I want in a doctor.

I did 14 days of stims using menopur and cetrotide. I had 7 monitoring visits before my egg retrieval and after each visit my dosages were changed to suit my blood results.

So far we have paid $18,750 for egg retrieval, $4400 for meds, $900 for additional embryo biopsy, and I believe FET will be $4500. All up it will cost well over $30,000- more if our FET is unsuccessful.

I am yet to transfer but Dr Tran has said from the very beginning I will only be transferring one embryo. I am happy with this as I don’t want to put my body through any undue stress.