Nancy Durso

Dr. Durso is quiet and has a strange demeanor. It may have been because she was leaving VCU, but her personality is a little bizarre and she wasn’t very engaged during treatment. I had high hopes for her after our first consult, but it went downhill after that.

She is straightforward and not a warm and fuzzy type , if you don’t mind such a personality then she would be fine as a physician for you.

Initially Dr. Durso was engaging and kind, but after that first consultation it went down hill. She was compeltely emotionless and robotic. During my entire stimulation, she scheduled only two monitoring appointments. It was just strange and I did not feel well cared for. I found out at the end of treatment that she had left To another clinic out of town, which could explain why she didn’t seem involved at all during the treatment. The egg retrieval went well however and I had minimal pain.

Straightforward IVF protocol : Gonal-f, menapur, citrotide, ovidrel, crinone. Stims for 10 Day with one week of BC beforehand.

Courtney and Amanda were amazing. They took such great care of me during treatment. They make the whole practice.

The biggest advantage is the Med cost. You pick up your meds at the VCU pharmacy down the street from the clinic and it runs approximately $700-900 without insurance. Because it’s a teaching university clinic the care is not as attentive as a private clinic— you hardly ever reach anyone by phone, they are closed over major Holidays and they do batch retrieval’s. You don’t get medication/ protocol calendars or an assigned nurse. It’s very clinical and bare boned so to speak in general, without a lot of extra services. The front desk staff is not the greatest either.

$11,500 fresh IVF cycle . $700-900 meds total out of pocket without insurance .

Dr. Lucidi did the transfer. Multiple embryos.

I started seeing Dr. Durso after my husband and I weren't having any luck. We didn't know what was wrong, and Dr. Durso was able to figure out that I actually have pretty bad endometriosis. She did a laproscopic surgery, and I thought she did a really good job with that. After doing some research, I learned that the biggest concern with that procedure is the risk that the surgeon could damage your ovaries, or cause some other complication that will affect your fertility. I found that Dr. Durso did a great job, and I really appreciate that. The surgery didn't have any complications, and gave her more info about what was going on with my body. She adjusted my plan after that, and advised that we would almost certainly need to pursue IVF. We did a number of rounds of IUIs. Dr. Durso performed 3 of those, and based on scheduling issues (holidays, weekends), another doctor and a NP at VCU performed the others. We did one cycle of IVF with Dr. Durso. We were able to retrieve a decent number of eggs, but only half of them were mature. Half of those fertilized, and all of the fertilized eggs stopped dividing. This wasn't great, and apparently my eggs might have some problems. I don't think Dr. Durso did a good job talking to us about this. We had already been planning to try more IVF cycles, but she didn't want to change any of the plan. My sense was that she didn't believe that she could get us pregnant. That was the reason we decided to change up and work with someone new.

Write down questions and ask questions. Dr. Durso isn't great about telling you information. But, if you ask her questions, she'll answer them fully. It's more like she just doesn't think about bringing things up on her own. Ask questions about what is going on with you, what she recommends and why, and whether there are other plans that you could try. Make sure that you know the practical things. Also -- make sure that if you're going to do IVF, that she actually puts you on the schedule!

Dr. Durso is kind of awkward. That didn't bother me too much -- I don't need a doctor that I want to hang out with, just a doctor that can get me pregnant. Given that she's been treating fertility problems for so long, though, I was kind of surprised by how insensitive she could sometimes be, or that she wouldn't realize that certain things would be upsetting. For example, she told me that my ovaries might have cancer cells, which of course really upset me -- but she seemed surprised when I started to cry. I think she would genuinely try to connect with me, but that just isn't her strength. The nurses at VCU are amazing. I learned to rely on them for the emotional support.

For IUI, we did a few rounds using Femara. Those weren't successful. For the IVF cycle, we did Menopur / Gonal-F, then Ganirilex and HCG trigger shot. This cycle was ok. We got a good number of eggs, although only half of them were mature. Just a note -- I don't have any hormone issues, so I think the above protocol is her "standard".

The staff at VCU is simply amazing. They have made this whole infertility ordeal so much better. When I talk to other women with fertility issues, I always urge them to go to one of the VCU doctors simply because the nursing staff will make the whole thing so much better.

I've been very happy with VCU. Everyone there, from Amouri and Shawna at reception, to Tanya with the financial stuff, to the nurses, has been great. The clinic has a very calm atmosphere. I hear from friends who have done IVF in bigger cities and have described how stressful sitting in the waiting room is. That is definitely not the case at VCU. Being in a smaller clinic is great. The staff also gets along so well with each other (they seem like a family), and I think that probably creates the great atmosphere. One thing to be aware of is that VCU does IVF cycles once a month. So all of the patients start the cycle on the same day. That means that you sometimes need to get "on the list" in advance, and that you may have to wait a month or two before you can start. That has been frustrating.

The costs for each IUI round were around $550 or so. We did the IVF Guarantee program with ICSI, which gives us 6 full cycles for $22,000, and we get a refund if this doesn't result in a baby. We still have to pay $500 for anesthesia for egg retrievals, and we pay for medicine out of pocket. With the VCU pharmacy, meds are around $700.

Dr. Durso is straight forward and very good at breaking down what we need to look for and expect next. She also is open to any suggestions that we may request. Communicating with her is relatively easy and we always get to a solution.

Make sure you take note of all symptoms you have monthly and be sure to know your family history. Also, don’t expect immediate results.

Dr. Durso is very pleasant and is always optimistic that we will get pregnant.

The nursing staff is great! They always respond to my emails, are super compassionate and communicate between my doctor and I very well!

The clinic is very clean, friendly, and not overly booked. The only complaint I’ve had with them is getting someone to return my phone call quickly and one of the receptionist can be rude and disinterested. I now prefer to use the email option.

I felt like physician was not qualified to be a fertility physician. Scattered, casual, not serious, did not seem concerned with my feelings about the procedure, did not feel like I was treated like a person, did not feel like I was fully informed, somewhat patronizing, seemed to have a "superiority" complex, seemed unconcerned with my outcome.

Go somewhere else

Impersonal, chaotic, long wait times, no response to my concerns, complaints

Had to be reminded of what I was there for on a number of visits. Unprepared, disorganized

It was not crowded- now I know why. Front desk staff were the best part of the experience. Lab staff was either grossly negligent or just negligent in handling eggs and embryos. Did not feel they were competent at all.

Do not recall specific breakdown. Approx $5000 for retrieval and implantation. My final round was prepaid then lab destroyed eggs thru negligence and final transfer was canceled with no refund to me for their error.

She was fine. Just no personality, warmth or bedside manner. I liked the small clinic and specifically avoided the region's gigantic fertility machine. Was she as good? Dunno. Her clinic is now diff than where I saw her in 2007

She doesn't talk or explain more than the minimum necessary. Be your own advocate!

She was far from warm or personable. Like a lot of docs. Not unusual but very much do NOT like. Especially with an area such as this.

Too long ago. Basically standard injections iui. Tried one minimal stimulation Ivf which was unsuccessful. Took a gamble. Not sure if she's even doing that still.

At time they were a very small operation. One office woman and one medical assistant. Both those other two wow were fantastic! Kept me there rather than give a larger operation a try

I feel like I already did this. Nothing else to say. Her clinic is now totally different than 2007 and so I couldn't help anyhow. All is diff now.

Costs were less than the mega clinics in the area.

No opinion

Dr Durso was very good when we were undergoing IUIs, and we did have a child. When we were ready for a second child, we needed to do IVF and chose PGS testing to get our best possible chance for a successful pregnancy. She pushed us into testing on d3 and transferring on d5 and never disclosed that she did not have the equipment to test the embryos on d5. I would not recommend her for IVF treatment based on this experience.

Only use her for IUI, not IVF.