Paul Magarelli

Very direct and rushed. I appreciate directness but generally did not know what was going on with case just came in for procedures, nurses tended to manage care. Was able provide good care for procedures and trusted his judgement but was not very involved.

Be prepared to remind of your medical history.

Recommended hgh even tho I have history of cancer and am not allowed to take those medications at risk of relapse. ER protocols of 225 gonal 20 iu hcg LH with lupron triggers. Have done cny immune protocol 2 for transfers

Travel patient so monitoring appointments are done at my Obgyn on specific days with results sent to cny stat

Around 9k per ER cycle with meds and monitoring Around 2k per transfer cycle with meds and monitoring

Recommends eSET unless over a certain age, repeat implantation failure or day 3 embryos

I like Dr Magarelli a lot. He seems very smart and knowledgeable and science driven. I am confident in his medical skills and can tell he continually learns and does research for the most current fertility studies.

If you are super sensitive this may not be the doctor for you.

He used a high dose of gonal and a high dose of menopur. Later cycles added estrogen priming. Most recently we are doing a duostim cycle.

Ivf was about $4000 including fresh transfer, assisted hatching, ICSI, embryo glue. Bloodwork and ultrasound were covered by insurance.

He strongly prefers to transfer only one embryo except in certain situations, but he always states the risks of transferring more than one and advises against it.

Dr Paul magarelli is a very thoroughly explaining doctor but you don't see him at all for the first portion of your IVF treatment the only time I actually seen the doctor was online on during an Instagram video that was live and prior to my egg retrieval and that was all. But from what I've seen from him he was very thorough and his explanation about what was going to happen and he answered questions consistently and he seems very kind and trustworthy.

Be more involved in the global travel teams treatment. And adjusting medication for those who suffer from ohss.

I was started on cycle day 3 to go and do blood work and ultrasound I had a total of about 12 follicles combines on both ovaries and went back the following 4th or fifth day but I had started taking gonal f and HCG low dose pregnyl along with prenatal vitamins and supplements prednisone and azithromycin and low dose naltrexone I eventually introduced sexual tide into my protocol and continued that until the day of my trigger then after evil I had ohss which I was then told to drink a lot of protein and eat a lot of cabergoline pills.

I was a global travel patient and so I utilized hospitals such as the radiology department and the lab at LabCorp down here in Utah versus Colorado

My total cost was $5,000 for the IVF and the monitoring and then my medication cost was $3,000 so that was a total of $8,000 plus I still have to do an fet which I do not have the money for because of travel and all that other stuff.

Dr Paul magarelli is more for the ESET which I would like to transfer multiple embryos because I feel it gives a woman a higher chance which he is against.

Dr.Magarelli always treated me with respect and dignity, he made sure I was comfortable and understood everything that was happening. He is not known for having the warmest bedside manner but it depends on the day, personally, I prefer the information bluntly and matter of factly, which is how he most often presents it.

He was a scientist before he became a MD, he is very science minded. To some it may come off as cold when he is explaining or recommending, but he is just all about the facts and data.

We have tried high dose IVF cycles with gonal F up to 400 and Menopur up to 300, but my best cycles were with lower doses and letrozole (let 10mg, gf 200, mp 75). Fsh/antagonist protocols are most often used.

I got one free IVF cycle as an employee, the rest are paid for by the employee. It is around $5k per cycle

Single embryo transfer is almost always recommended per ASRM recommendations but he did agree to let me transfer two day3 embryos on my last transfer that worked

You can tell that Dr. Magarelli is very passionate about helping find success! My wife and I are very logic based, and wanting the facts. He was friendly, but had to be quick with his talks because of how busy he was! He gave us the facts and information straight forward, which was just perfect for us! Always a happy guy!

Understand going in that after you meet with Magarelli you probably won’t see him again until your procedures, and be ready to ask questions again later after you’ve had time to process all the information! But his heart is definitely in the right place!

We did a mock transfer to figure out my transfer window with progesterone after 2 transfers didn’t take to make sure they could be as accurate as possible and increase the chance of success. For the 3rd transfer we added a a lipids IV. For the second egg retrieval some of the medications were adjusted so that OHSS wouldn’t happen again.

The cost were broken down to the different procedures since we did reciprocal IVF. For an egg retrieval, and then a frozen embryo transfer was around $9000. On top of that was the medication that needed to be order, but they always found the cheapest location at the time for us to order them. Medications were $6000-8000 all in

His motto was “One healthy baby”. Because we opted to do the genetic testing of the embryos ahead of time there was no problem with us transferring one. Dr. Magarelli does let you transfer multiple if you want, and he makes you aware of the risks.

Cny was clear, and considering , they are trying to make these treatments available to more people which I respect. The consult was very straight forward and all my questions answered so I was able to make clear decisions about steps forward. It took away the fear of the procedure itself knowing I was getting the best information possible. They understood my concerns and addressed them accordingly

Know your in good hands and don’t be afraid to ask any many questions as you need. We all are in different circumstances and cny will do their best to listen, understand and provide the information you need to make the decision making as easy as possible

I am a single lgbtq woman so egg freezing for my situation is necessary until the fin the right donor which I needed time and Patience to do with as little stress as possible. CNY we’re so understand and accommodating to this also giving great info on donor possibilities.

Consult was $50

N/a

Dr. Mag comes across as a very smart and compassionate man on his IG Lives. I will say that I’ve had more questions answered by him when he is on social media than when I was in the clinic. I do believe that he is very passionate about what he does and the science behind it, but sometimes it impedes the ability to connect to the human side of the process. The things that I feel could have been better include his communication on my specific treatment plan/protocol. He was the one who established the plan at the consult, however, I felt frequently that he was not overseeing my treatment plan during the retrieval process as there was no adjustment in my meds as my estrogen was rising significantly and my eggs were starting to mature at different rates. The other aspect of communication is that I was never told the grade of our embryo. We decided to do PGT-A testing, and we were only told the results of that test but never told the actual overall quality of our embryo. We ended up transferring that embryo which failed, and only later on by me requesting my medical record did we find out that the embryo was graded as “poor”, but that was never communicated to us. I feel whole heartedly that the patient needs to know every aspect of what their results are, not to say that something is “normal” when that is only half of the picture. I was a wreck for several weeks after that transfer, but had I known that the odds weren’t great, it may have helped me cope a bit better. Honestly, most of the contact with Dr. Mag was limited (unless you were on social media), nursing staff were the primary gate keepers. You need to be very on top of your own treatment and be your own advocate.

I believe I stated this in the review of Dr. Mag, but you need to be your own advocate. You need to ask questions, even though you don’t know what to ask. I had to call the call center number on multiple occasions after hours, when I had questions. I was told I would receive calls from the nursing staff regarding our fert report and if I should take the HCG trigger when my estrogen was going sky high, but I never had contact initiated by them. I also had to call to get our PGT-A test results when we had been waiting for about 5 weeks when we were told we’d have results in 2-3 wks. Response time is not always the quickest to say the least, and you have to call a call center and cannot call the clinic directly.

The treatment protocol I was put on for retrieval was gonal F, low dose HCG, cetrotide, Lupron and HCG trigger. I was stimmed for 9 days, with retrieval on day 11. They retrieved 22 eggs, only 6 mature enough to fertilize and only 1 embryo made it to day 5-6 blast. I was told after the fact that I probably should have been stimmed for another 1-2 days which would have given us a few more embryos. For FET, I was put on an immune protocol consisting of prednisone, Z pak, baby aspirin, Claritin, Benadryl, low dose naltrexone, Pepcid, extradiol, progesterone suppositories and progesterone in oil injections. I also did a HCG wash and intralipids 2 days prior to transfer. I later learned that the immune protocol is “smoke and mirrors” - there are few interventions needed when you have an overactive immune system, and there is specific testing which will tell you that you in fact have an over active immune system. But I was just told to start taking all the above mentioned meds, that it’s “protocol”. This part of the process seemed very odd to me as I’ve never been pregnant or miscarried, so why would I need to go on all of these meds as a “just cuz” type of scenario?

The IVF cost was $3595 as my husband is a Veteran and we paid in full - it is closer to $4,000 if no discount. The other costs were $150 for hysteroscopy, $695 for FET. Meds cost ~$3,000 for retrieval, FET Mets ~$300-400.

Only one embryo to transfer for my situation, however, I do know that Dr. Mag tends to say that he does not advise multiple embryo transfer d/t risk to the mother and the babies. Ultimately, they ask you how many embryos you want to transfer... i was asked on multiple occasions how many we were transferring, which was irritating when you only have one embryo.

During my follow-up call with Dr. Magarelli, he didn't seem to care about any information or research articles I had found to explain my poor retrieval. He just said I have poor egg quality and need higher doses of medications (like really high). My estrogen was 3,600, so I disagree and would prefer to not get OHSS. I spent half of my consult telling him my lab values. When I brought up that I read a very small percentage of women do not respond to lupron only trigger and found some articles on it, he dismissed me and said that's not a thing and he's never had anyone not respond to the Lupron trigger. Well guess what, I didn't! I had another retrieval at a different clinic (my doctor actually cut my follistim dose in half as he said I was already overstimulated) and had significantly better results. I'm currently pregnant from my first fresh transfer. Dr. Magarelli was dismissive and made me feel hopeless, when in reality, he was wrong.

Don't go see him.

I was on 300 units of follistim and 150 units of menopur and double lupron trigger. He wanted to increase my follistim dose to 450 units for a second retrieval.

I was monitored locally and followed by their travel team.

Retrieval was $3,900. Monitoring fee was $150 to monitor at my local lab and radiology clinic and to have them follow the results. Transfer was $750 +$150 monitoring fee.

I only had 1 embryo to transfer. Dr. Magarelli was not consulted on what to do with this .

Dr. Mag is very set in his ways and isn't open to suggestions. He is not always the best listener, or maybe just wants to push his agenda. As others have mentioned, he likes to push IVF and procedures (of course, this is how he is paid.) Although I believe that he is a bright doctor and knows what he is doing, he overlooks some things such as I was taking a supplement for months that was actually worsening my PCOS.

Make sure to be your own patient advocate. I know medical things and do lots of research and still felt uncomfortable pushing back or asking for some things. And if you have health insurance that covers infertility, yikes, good luck.. It's been a nightmare for me.

IUI was suggested initially since I just had an ovulation problem. I told him I would like to just try ovulation meds to start with. Letrazole 2.5mg increasing by 1 tablet over 4 days was tried for two cycles. Unfortunately, my follicles did not grow with either cycle and we will be moving on to injectable medications once it has been approved by my insurance. This doctor will not prescribe Clomid or Metformin.

I am still in the middle of treatment, and honestly I have no idea where the money part lies. Sometimes they collect a co-pay, other times they don't. They definitely need their money up front. I've paid two separate $200 bills for services that have not yet been rendered. I feel like I had unnecessary diagnostic procedures done that others in my situation have not had to do.

I was initially optimistic about reviews indicating a no-nonsense approach. I was hoping for a scholarly doctor who could help me see my situation from a scientific perspective rather than my own place of fear. I felt small when asking Dr. Magarelli questions that ignored, barely answered, or "jokingly" mocked.

I would caution all patients that you can save money, but it can come at the cost of your emotional wellbeing. If the cost savings is the only way you can do IVF, then it is probably worth it.

My stimulation was primarily HGH and Menopur. HGH was due to DOR. I did end up with a greater than expected number of eggs.

Some days the monitoring appointments were quick and in-an-out. Other times, the wait was two hours.

The IVF cycle costs were as posted on the website. My meds were $8k. There were several unexpected costs, including that for the lab to resample my frozen embryos for genetic testing after a sufficient sample was not sent the first time. Additionally, the clinic sent ghost bills years after treatment for "embryo storage" although they do not have my embryos.

Dr. Magarelli's whole approach is to end up with one healthy baby. He strongly encouraged that I transfer two embryos. I only transferred one and have a living baby as a result.

Doctor Magarelli is very scientific and to the point. He is caring. Blunt and honest. He has done his research and has number to prove it. Just wish he took a step back and made sure we were ready to implant after miscarriage at 28weeks. We thought we were, he said after we failed pregnancy test that we weren't.

Go at your own pace.

I did hcg 2x daily, gonal-f and menipur at night daily throughout the retrieval process. Lab work and ultrasounds every other day. Large hcg 10,000mcg injection IM 36hrs prior to retrieval. Another labdraw 12 hours after hcg injection to verify you did it. After retrieval they send you a message notifying how many eggs were retrieved. If they progress they notify you by portal if the embryos stop developing they call you and schedule an appt to "discuss why". If the do progress they have you wait at least 3 months. Then estradiol and progesterone injections prior to implant along with baby aspirin.

$9300 for retrieval implant and embryo testing the first time, 3 months later when we tried retrieval again price was $10300. Medications were extra. I paid close to $6000 on medications each retrieval. This was through the "discount" pharmacy. For each implant, paid $3000 for medications

During my 1st and ivf cycles. I only saw Dr. Magarelli for the consultation and during egg retrieval. My first embryo transfer was done by a totally different doctor. My 2nd ivf cycle i saw Dr. Magarelli for eye retrieval and he actually did my embryo transfer. Honestly he was very straightforward and blunt, which I actually liked about him. He just seem to be extremely busy all the time. I saw and talked to the nurses majority of the visits. The communication could have been better as well. They communicated through the portal mostly and never really returned phone calls. The price is what made me choose Dr. Magarelli. His prices are very affordable, which is why we moved forward with tge IVF process.

Make sure you ask a lot of questions about the medications, costs and embryo storage. If you feel like you are being rushed ask if you can schedule another appointment or phone consult additional questions and concern.

In my 1st ivf cycle 2 of my follicles grew to big after about 5 days of stimulation. Instead of canceling the cycle, he went ahead with the egg retrieval and i only got one embryo. My 2nd ivf cycle was the exact same protocol, which resulted in 1 embryo as well. My medications were omnitrope .4ml nightly gonal f iu in stomach each morning menopur 225 iu intramuscular injection at night cetrotide

I paid between18,000 -22,000 including medication per cycle. I did 2 IVF cycles

The doctor was friendly at first and his office was comfortable. He also had beneficial handouts and props that he would use as examples but would talk too fast and when he would write down info for you to take, it was rushed and nearly impossible to read. I went back after testing for results and he was short and just said "these are the results, this is basically your only option, when do you want to start? Oh and did they talk to you about financing yet? " I felt like a number instead of a client.

If you don't expect compassion and details about your treatment until you say let's go for it, then this is probably a great clinic.

Through my insurance I was to pay co-pays for visits and testing. My cost in co-pays was approximately $250 and my husband's costs for testing and visits was approximately $200.

Did not discuss this with us.

Dr Magarelli is very personable, relatable, and has a cheery disposition and bedside manner. He explained things very quickly at times, and seemed eager to get through my questions - which I have a lot of! On the whole, we went with Dr Magarelli due to him as a person. Praying for round 1 success.

If you are highly analytical, Dr Magarelli may not be the person for you. However, if you are a “people person” and trusting he’s your guy!

I’m of advanced maternal age so Dr M. immediately put me on Estradiol 2mg twice per day. I was also prescribed hGh Injectables every night for about 10-days prior to IVF Injectables Gondal-F and Menopur.

$8,000 IVF + $3,000 PSG + 8,300 Medications = $19,300.

At the initial appointment, Dr. Mag seemed kind and knowledgeable. However, during this appointment he pushed pretty hard for IVF. At this point, we hadn't even been trying for a whole year. The next time I saw him was at my IUI insemination. After I had a negative HCG, the last time I saw him was when I had ovulated on my own before being able to have a trigger shot. The fact that he pushes IVF so hard and barely sees non IVF patients is a huge red flag. His condescending demeanor when I had concerns about a new diagnosis sent me running for good reason. From what I hear he is great at affordable IVF, but lackluster for any other patient.

The only way I would go here is if it is the only way you can afford IVF. You need to advocate for yourself hard. Don't be afraid to call the office or even show up to get the information you need. If you really want to talk to Dr. Mag, push for it and don't let him give a crap answer that lets him leave the room quicker.

For both cycles, I was on Letrozole for 5 days. The only IUI I had a trigger of novarel. The second I ovulated on my own. For both cycles, I had 3 follicle mature. Both resulted in a negative HCG.

I was lucky and only had to pay for the IUI procedure, labs, and semen analysis. The prices were good and well below market, except for labs. The labs should have been covered by insurance, but I had to pay out of pocket for them instead.

My husband and I only had a phone call consultation with Dr. Magarelli. He came across arrogant in tone. He made it seem like nothing I did in the past was correct/good enough. For example, when I told him I had taken Clomid for 6 months, his response was, “Well that’s alarming! No one prescribes that drug anymore. I haven’t used it in 10 years. And no one should EVER take it for 6 months, consecutively!” We hung up the phone and I cried in my husband’s arms with regret for taking Clomid.

Either voice record or write down in detail each and every conversation you have with anyone and everyone at that office. No one gives the same information - from the doctor himself to the secretary to the financial consultant to their website. Document, document, document.

He has a soft spot for the military. He is very interested in every patients case and wants to work towards that positive outcome. Dr. Magarelli is very understanding and is always available for a hug.

Listen to his ideas and yes, some cost extra money but they might heighten your chances of a positive outcome.

To know what he’s working with, he has a scope and HSG done. Then he started me on supplements like CoQ10, DHEA, vitamins B, C & D and Estrace to control my cycles. He then added 0.4ml Human Growth Hormone a week before the Stimulation Meds. The Stimulation meds were Menopur (4vials), Gonal F (150 units). My first appointment after starting the Stim Meds was day 5. Urine sample, blood draw and vag. Ultrasound to check in the eggs.

They tried to do all the monitoring in a certain time span in the mornings. Mine was always after 9am. It went smoothly.

I luckily had a referral for Dr. Magarelli, so I did not have to pay for in office visits or the scope/HSG procedure. Medications and Seman analysis were costs that we had to pay ourselves. Stim meds (plus Human Growth Hormone) Cody about $5,000.00, Seman analysis was $80.00

Dr. Magarelli recommends only one embryo transfer. Unless the women has had multiple miscarriages, then he might put in 2 embryos.

Paul magarelli is very kind and supportive. He always explained everything in a way that is easy to understand. He can be a little pushy when it comes to IVF/FET and doesn't seem to like when you question some procedure. But at the end he is understanding and respectful of the decisions you make. For example, I wanted to do TI with injections in between transfers and he completely understood my reasoning behind this decision. He is trustworthy and makes you feel comfortable and safe.

Don't feel afraid to ask questions. This is a very difficult and most of the time overwhelming journey but don't be afraid... And you are not alone :)

Gonal F: for Egg retrieval I think it was 75 units and then 150 units until I had enough mature eggs. I was on OHSS precautions because I had to many follicles. For TI with injections I was taking 150 units of Gonal F and they cancelled my cycle because there were to many mature eggs. Progesterone IM taken I believe a week before each transfer and supposed to take it until 12 weeks of pregnancy.

They usually work with my schedule and are great at having available dates for monitoring. And if it is an emergency, like when I was having a miscarriage they see me ASAP.

I believe it was $8500 for IVF, included one FET plus medication. Gonal F is expensive but we applied for compassionate Care for Military, so we paid like an extra $2500. And $1850 for each transfer after that.

I liked his approach when it comes to eSET... We transferred one the 1st time and 2 embryos the 2nd and 3rd time that we did FETs.

De. Mag is a very nice person & explained everything in detal, sometimes more then once when we went into a fog and forgot what he just said. He truly seems to care about what he does & wants to help as many people as he can.

Expect to have consultants with him but not have any appointments during your care with him, which is fine because his other 2 doctors are also great!

I had an HGH protocol for egg retrieval. Not sure why, maybe that I'm on allery meds. It involved extra HGH shots starting early. The rest: gonal F, menopur, hcg trigger, cetrotide, Lupron trigger

I don't live in the town that this clinic is located, still close enough to arrive from home within an hour. Yiu can only be seen from 7-9 am for monitoring. I have to always miss work and/or work from the car, meaning someone else had to drive me to the clinic, in order to get an appointment for monitoring (blood work has to be same day) its a good thing I have a pretty flexible work environment or I would never be able to have a job and work with this type of schedule.

Roughly - $6000.00 for IVF meds $9000.00 for one egg retrieval $250 for embryo CCS testing (up to 8 embryos) FET is $1850.00 plus meds (meds are $165 to $205) ERA $1750.00 plus meds

No comments.

Dr. Magarelli is a well educated and experienced physician. It shows when he explains what is happening and what will happen. Although seems to be a little high strung, we felt he was more than competent to complete our process. We have the upmost confidence in what he does.

Don't be afraid to ask questions, although what he is saying makes sense to him, it may not make sense to you. Come with questions wrote down and don't be afraid to ask away. He talks quick, but ask him to help you better understand.

$8900 - Cycle fee w/screening for PGS $3500 - Added fee for PGD screening for up to 8 embryos at one time $400 - Anesthesia $12,800 - Total Cycle Fee, plus medications

Dr. Magarelli is blunt and to the point of what is going on with each individual. I feel like I was rushed with my questions and didn't get the full answer. This is during his clinic time. During the retrieval and transfer he was much more compassionate and excited for you.

Do your research and be your own advocate.

I don't remember that medication protocol that I used. It was actually different each cycle as one of the medications was discontinued. I started off with Menopur (2 vials) and Gonal-F (150) with my last cycle. My eggs tend to grow slowly then all of a sudden catch up. I was up to either 4 or 5 bottles of Menopur by the end. Both retrievals I've had they got 24-26 eggs so I got OHSS and had to eat a ton of protein. The Menopur was an IM injection by the way. The first time around I used Lupron at first then Menopur and Braville. I got my baby boy out of that one:)

The best part about this clinic is the price. This last cycle we did was $6,300 not including medications but everything else even the transfer was included. It was an additional cost for PGS testing which we opted out of.

Dr. Magarelli actually suggested we use both embryos for transfer due to the poor quality. We did transfer two in both cycles.

We have not been through a whole cycle yet, but he seems to be knowledgeable in the field of infertility. He is confident and warm when talking to his patients. Even though he is a very busy man, he does take the time to say hi even though you’re only seeing the nurse that day. He answered every one of our questions and explained how his process worked. He also explained how he is able to make IVF affordable for his patients.

He is a very knowledgeable doctor so follow his lead on what he believes is best for your case.

I have not been through a full cycle yet with Dr. Mag, however, I am on short protocol to begin the cycle. My ovarian reserve is great, so there should be no issues getting a decent amount of eggs.

$9,300 for full cycle ER, and one transfer, PGS testing. This does not include medications.

He lets you decide. Dr. Mag only does Frozen Embryo Transfers though.

Dr. Magarelli is not the warmest, fuzziest best friend kind of Dr, however he was frank when you had the chance to talk to him. He did seem to care about being honest and helping you to acheive pregnancy. Dr. Magarelli was out of town for a little bit during our treatment. We also did not know he would not be doing our egg retrieval until the morning of. So things weren't communicated well in that regard. However, they did provide me with Dr Magarelli's cell phone if I ever had a question.

Stay on top of things, be your own advocate to make sure you are persistent on making sure your care gets priority and bring copies of all of your paperwork every visit as their system to digital only was not working well at all. Don't be intimidated by a Dr.'s personality and speak up if you need to-ask questions even if you feel stupid at the time.

Everything was mostly digitally on "the portal", but it did have it's problems. I know it was a new system for them so they were trying to work out the kinks, but at best it was really mainly used for email messages back and forth for lab results, increase meds, etc. I do feel like they did tailor my treatment to my body and not to a 10 day or 12 day, etc. They extended it as needed based on response or adjusted meds as needed. I was on Lupron, Menopur, Gonal F protocol and they increased meds as needed. They did strongly encourage acupuncture (his wife is an acupuncturist) and also encourage healthy diet and vitamin protocols, which was good.

It is HQA fertility center. High Quality Affordable Care. They reduce the cost to make it more affordable for anyone to have a baby. This is not the exact number but like $9200 or so and this include PGS testing, but not medication costs or any other MFI procedures.

There motto is one healthy baby, but they did encourage to transfer the only 2 PGS tested embryos we had. We did trust the medical advice they gave.

I feel as though I was very naive in the beginning of treatment and was too trusting. This doctor used a form to explain how everything worked during the consultation. It showed the normal course of stimulation and also gave some percentages of success if you did genetic testing and if you didn't. I don't feel that he explained that you may not even have embryos to try implantation with and in that case it doesn't even matter what the percentages are. He was friendly the first time we met him for the consultation and seemed to think IVF would work great for us since we only had MFI. I had him one time to do my transvaginal ultrasound since the lady who usually did it at my other appointments was on maternity leave. He seemed to do it differently and got way different information than the other lady did. After we got our genetic testing on our two embryos back he became cold and made it sound normal. We went in to go over what happened and what the next steps are. He was rude and didn't answer our questions. Of course we wanted to know what had happened and what we would do next. He just told us that percentage wise it was normal that we didn't get any normal embryos. He said we need to start again next month and that we wouldn't do anything different. Why would I do the same thing again with no changes and hope for a different outcome? There was no compassion and no answers. We felt defeated and he made us feel like failures.

I would advise a prospective patient to do all your research ahead of time and find out what will happen in the worst case scenario. What will he do different if treatment fails?

The protocol I was put on was Gonal F, Lupron and low dose HCG. I believe I was put on this protocol because we were only dealing with male factor and the doctor did not want to stimulate me too much. During the stims I only produced about 17 follicles and they weren't growing quick enough at one point. They increased the Gonal F at some point during the stims. I only ended up with 9 eggs retrieved and only 2 embryos in the end that were genetically abnormal.

Every little thing cost more. We paid for genetic testing and anesthesia. We paid for the IVF package and extra for all of the medications.

I'm not sure where to even begin.. From the beginning I didn't have a great gut feeling about Dr. Magarelli, but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and move forward as a patient of his (we were referred to him by Tricare, so our options were a bit limited). He put on a really good show at our first appointment, telling us that he would most certainly help us have "one healthy baby" - his motto. We felt hopeful that this would be the case. However, our first cycle ended with two abnormal embryos. Dr. Magarelli was less than compassionate when giving me this news, and even went as far as to get upset with me for not saying anything (I was in shock and very upset). Despite this happening, Dr. Magarelli assured us that changing my medication protocol would yield better results, so we moved forward with a second cycle. This cycle resulted in zero embryos. When Dr. Magarelli called to give me this news (I was expecting it by this time and had already started seeking a second opinion), he was joking about how he had a cold and didn't feel good.. as if that was appropriate. When I told him we'd be looking for another doctor his response was, "Sounds great, good luck!", and I never heard from him again.

Run in the other direction. Seriously. He might be the cheapest in town, but you get what you pay for.

My first IVF cycle began with birth control for a few weeks, followed by Lupron, and then Gonal-F & Low Dose HCG. I was on 10 units of Lupron, 10 units of Low Dose HCG, and 75 IU's of Gonal-F morning and night. I was on a very low dose due to the fact that I have no known issues, and responded very well to it. After my retrieval however, it was clear that I had hyper-stimulated even with the low doses. We retrieved 18 eggs, 10 mature, 5 fertilized, and 2 made it to freeze. Those 2 were chromosomally abnormal. For my second cycle I was again on birth control, followed by Lupron, and then Menopur. I was on 10 units of Lupron and started out at one vial of Menopur a day. After a few days and no response, my dose of Menopur was upped to 4 vials per day. I injected the Menopur intramuscularly, for a reason that I still don't know. This cycle we retrieved only 4 eggs, 2 mature, 2 fertilized, and 0 making it to freeze. Dr. Magarelli believes that I ovulated on my own prior to the retrieval.

Initally, Dr. Magarelli charged $7500 for IVF w/ ICSI, plus $400 for anesthesia, plus medications. They provided a $500 military discount, but required the payment in full before the start of the cycle. However, just before our first cycle began, they lowered the price to $4500, plus $400 for anesthesia, plus medications. At this time they didn't offer us the military discount. There was also a $1000 fee for the embryo biopsy each cycle.

Due to my age Dr. Magarelli highly recommended that we only transfer one embryo, however, we never made it to that phase with him.