Rachana Garde

Dr. Garde is very personable and relatable, and is the only woman that practices at the clinic I was at. In hindsight she was a little too optimistic and her hopes for a pregnancy with my own eggs ended up costing me a lot more than I thought I would expend to get pregnant, finally only having a viable pregnancy through donor egg (and two separate donors at that). I only saw her in person twice, once for my initial consult and once during an early ultrasound with my first pregnancy. The rest of the time all comms came through the nurse. I did have several phone calls with Dr. Garde to discuss the outcome of my miscarriages and the way ahead. She was always very supportive, but I feel like almost too gentle without providing solid recommendations for the next step, ie when to move on to donor egg.

Ask her the hard questions, because she will not tell you unless you ask. If you ask, she's very forthcoming.

Dr. Guarde is excellent in person and on the phone, and very relatable. My concerns are that she never informed me in advance when she would be unavailiable.....she was on vacation or otherwise not working during two of my three "own egg" transfers, which was very upsetting to discover in the moment.

I did 3 cycles using an "antagonist" protocol, each with increasing doses of menopur and gonal F. My first cycle rendered the most eggs and embryos, but none of the cycles ever ended up producing a PGS-testable "blastocyst" and so embryos were implanted without testing, resulting in miscarriage or BNF. First cycle implanted 3 embryos resulting in week 11 miscarriage. Second cycle implanted 2 embryos resulting in week 7 twin miscarriage. Third cycle implanted 2 embryos resulting in BNF. Dr. Garde never explained the rationale behind the protocol or the increase in dosage or why she didn't want to use a different protocol. After the third cycle I moved on to donor egg.

Ashley was very caring and supportive when providing the results of my blood tests.

Shady Grove Fertility is very much a baby making factory that is interested in outcomes and not so much the care and treatment of the individual. But they get results....they just might not be the results you hoped for (pregnancy via donor egg instead of your own eggs) and the way you hoped (seeing your doctor verses the "on call" doctor).

I was a self-paying patient (no insurance coverage) and was provided a 25% discount for being active duty military. First 2 cycles were purchased as a group for ~$17000 (with discount) and 3rd cycle was purchased separately for ~$12000.

We discussed very early on my desire for a singleton, but was convinced that due to advanced age that more embryos needed to be implanted, and my decision was helped because the embryos were not of freezable quality, so it was either implant or destroy, so I did the multiple embryo transfers.

Dr Garde is my primary RE. She may not perform every IUI or Egg retrieval, but she gets the information and makes the decisions and either she or her immediate staff contact me. She works for a clinic with multiple offices and RE's. She is very thorough and takes the time to explain the options and processes involved.

Be open about your situation and ask questions. Oh and take notes.

She answers my questions in a down-to-earth manner and makes sure we understand what's going on and why.

First 2 IUI's were with clomid. No pregnancies. Next 4 IUI's were with FSH and trigger shots. 1 pregnancy ended in miscarriage due to genetic problem. ER-rationale- age factor, need to move on from IUI. 2 egg retrievals. Both using FSH. 1st-2 embryos that were PGS tested as abnormal. 2nd-3 embryos have been sent for PGS testing. Awaiting results.

Nurse is very helpful and responsive. The rest of the office is as well.

Strengths Multiple locations with varying hours. Open every day. 24 hr nurse line. They don't allow children, so that makes it more comfortable. Weaknesses On weekends I go to a different location, so it's not as personal as my primary location.

IUI's were covered by previous insurance. Insurance no longer covers infertility. Multi-cycle IVF pkg with ICSI and Assisted Hatching = $21,500. Does not include meds or PGS testing.

No comment

Dr. Garde was easy to talk to and she really attempted to get a feel for what was important to US.

Travel as far as you need to to see Dr. Garde!

She always took plenty of time when me. I never felt like I was rushed. She answered every question I had and I never felt like a question was ignored.

We traveled from another state because having a singleton was very important to us. Dr. Garde understood that. We did two cycles with her and she always adjusted the protocols as needed along the way.

Every time we called Mary, she picked up the phone herself. We never had to leave messages with voicemail or with a receptionist. We had ONE nurse and she was easily accessible. That meant a lot to us.

We traveled from out of state because we wanted to be at a clinic that helped people achieve singleton pregnancies. We felt that other clinics downplayed the risk of carrying twins (not just higher-order multiples). They were very used to working with out-of-state patients and we appreciated that.

Another reason we chose this clinic is because they had one of the most generous shared help plans in the country. We did misunderstand the plan (our fault) and did not use it the first cycle (although we had an income-based discount). If we had had a full understanding of the program, we would have ended up saving ourselves the cost of that one cycle.

She is a wonderful doctor, we dont see her much but when we do she gives all the information and answers any and all questions. Shes very polite and kind. She draws pictures to help us understand and stops along the way to make sure we dont have any questions

Ask questions

The office talks to you about your job, in specific they ask questions. They pay attention to us like people. They laugh and have fun.

We used Clomid for 5 days, had 3 fertilized, this was expected. Then did ovidrell to trigger, then performed an IUI. Everything was perfect in terms of lining and eggs just unsuccessful

The nursing office at Shady grove is very welcoming. The nurse who takes your blood etc its wonderful! She talks to you shes gentle we love her. Our primary nurse is a little more busy so we dont see or talk to her much unless getting results.

Shady grove is a wonderful facility. They have support pages, they work with you financially and emotionally. The provide everything they can to you in order to help you on your journey, they have a ton of offices so you can go to different locations if needed.

For our first iui we spent 1800 not including medications which were a little over 200.

Understanding, patiently explained all treatment options, warm personality!

She splits time between the Annandale and Woodbridge offices and isn't frequently available in Annandale. If it is important to you to actually SEE your doctor frequently, I'd recommend the other office location or selecting a different doctor.

Dr. Garde was able to explain my fertility issues and options for various treatments. She primarily works in another office (Woodbridge, I believe), so I often saw her colleagues instead.

Each cycle we added another element: Clomid only, Clomid + IUI, Clomid + Injectables + IUI

The nurse would call the same day as any bloodwork and provide me an update on the results, including the actual estrogen, progesterone levels. Would help clarify next steps, including making appointments on my behalf.