Rink Murray

He is very caring, takes his time with patients, explains things in multiple ways to meet different learning styles, is patient and down-to-earth, and is very up-to-date on research in the field. He can relate, because he has been through infertility himself.

Ask lots of questions! Even if you think it is a dumb question or one that he has already answered, he will always be patient and answer your questions as thoroughly as possible. He values your voice.

He has always had plenty of time to spend with my husband and me. He explores multiple options, shared stories, explains things and shows us statistics multiple ways, and always lays out our options as best he can before leaving decisions up to us.

He changed my hormone treatment from Clomid to Letrozole (Femara). For one, Clomid seemed to have thinned my lining, and Letrozole has shown more effective in clinical trials. I sometimes have had trouble with irregular (long) cycles and anovulation. He completed a hysterosalpingohram, which showed that my tubes were open, but that my uterus is asymmetrical, which can be associated with endometriosis (although I have never had heavy periods or heavy cramping). We continued with Letrozole for a total of 7 months (so far). I have never become pregnant. I will be having a laparoscopic surgery to test for, and possibly treat, endometriosis. The only symptoms/indicators I have for this are the asymmetrical uterus and pain during ovulation, but only if I am ovulating on my right side (the side my uterus leans toward). My husband's sperm analysis was normal. We have talked about IUI, but it does not appear to be the most potentially effective treatment for my husband and me.

Kayla was always very patient, organized, and effective. My most recent nurse (I don't know her name) seemed less organized and was less effective at communication. She also bandaged my arm (from retrieving blood) painfully tightly.

The atmosphere is very welcoming, and everyone is extremely kind. They often are difficult to reach in the mornings (they don't turn on their phones at the time they claim to be open), and sometimes follow-up communication and clarity about what the patient is supposed to do/expect next has been lacking, from my experience. But when I call or use the online portal, they are always sure to get me whatever information I need, and when I ask questions, they are always kind and never treat a question like it is stupid.

My insurance covers no infertility treatments, but the costs have been extremely low. The office is incredible about giving you options with high-cost procedures/treatments, and filing as much as possible in ways that insurance will cover.

Our experience with Dr. Murray has been great so far. We are still seeking treatment. He is very detailed with his explanations. I appreciate how he will draw things out on a piece of paper to help you understand, and then he gives you the paper at the end of the meeting for memory. He is not pushy when it comes to treatment. We feel we can go at our own pace. He is a great communicator. We really have not had a bad experience with Dr. Murray and his office.

I know that choosing to seek fertility treatment can be exciting but scary at the same time. I was definitely nervous before our first visit because of the unknown. As soon as I stepped foot in the office, it felt very welcoming. Then we met Dr. Murray. He greeted us with a handshake, and we went to his office to talk about what we needed to do. My advice would be to not get nervous (I know that is easier said than done) about meeting Dr. Murray. He is very understanding and you can tell he cares about wanting to see your dreams of becoming a parent come true.

He explains everything so well, and we were given several options to consider instead of jumping straight in to IVF. We have always felt comfortable talking with him about our fertility issues.

One of the reasons we started to seek fertility treatment was because we found out my husband had low sperm count. All this time I thought it was me because I had very irregular periods. Dr. Murray tested me for everything. We did blood work, an ultrasound to look at my ovaries, and hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to make sure my fallopian tubes weren't blocked. Everything tested normal, so the only thing we figured was I didn't ovulate regularly. My husband started taking Clomid 50 MG 1/2 tablet every other day. It usually takes several months of taking Clomid to make a difference, so I started taking Letrozole to help me ovulate regularly in hopes we would get lucky. The Letrozole dosage was 2.5 MG. I would have to call the nurses when I started my period (Cycle day 1) to let them know I was starting a treatment cycle. On cycle day 3, I would start taking Letrozole at 2 pills per day for 5 days. I had to test for ovulation starting on cycle day 10 until I ovulated. I would always ovulate between cycle day 19-21. I would have to call the nurses to let them know I had an LH surge. I took Letrozole for 6 cycles, but we never got pregnant. We met up with Dr. Murray for a meeting, and decided that my husband should do another seman analysis to see if the Clomid helped improve sperm count. It did a little, but not enough. Right now we are trying to decide if we should do IVF because it seems like that is the best option with our fertility issues.

They are very friendly. They always respond to messages the same day if you call before 2 pm. They are good at answering any questions you may have. I honestly can't think of any negative experiences with the nurses.

This clinic is very organized and compassionate. I have always felt comfortable at my appointments.

My husband had to pay $100 per seman analysis. I had to pay about $150 for a serum progesterone test. My Letrozole pills were about $10 per cycle for 6 cycles. My husband's Clomid pills were about $38 every refill. My insurance has paid for regroup appointments. I am not sure what the exact cost will be for IVF, but we are looking into it right now.

I do believe he prefers eSET as it is much safer.

Dr Murray is the first doctor I've ever seen, fertility or otherwise, who I trust completely, and know he truly wants the best for us and will do whatever it takes to get us there. He is kind, empathetic (probably helps that he and his wife experienced infertility), and extremely intelligent, and thorough in his explanations.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. He is always willing to ask and help change course if needed.

He has always been so generous with his time and never made me feel stupid even when I had lots of questions. He understands my need to understand every part of the process and has called me personally on the phone to explain things.

Because my FSH and AMH were bordering he started me on a high dose of Gonal-F. After monitoring on day 6 my follicles weren't growing as quickly as he would have wanted and moved me up for 375IUs. We had a successful retrieval with 10 eggs retrieved, and eset and pregnancy. Sadly we lost that baby at 21 weeks and Dr Murray called me personally to offer condolences and assured me he would do everything possible to be sure it didn't happen again and he meant it. Several months later we transferred a frozen 4BB embryo. I called a few times and spoke with nurses because I was having a horrible reaction to the PIO (100mg/ml due to my history of low progesterone). He called me back personally on a Friday evening to find out exactly what my symptoms were and switch me over to a high dose of suppositories so I wouldn't be in constant pain. This cycle was also successful and I'm 11w2d today.

The nursing staff is great! When my local OBs office told me I was going to have a miscarriage at 5w6d I left a message for the on-call nurse and Candy called me back on her cell phone and reassured me it was too early to know and told me I could call her on her cell at any time. So she was excellent! I'm glad I listened to her and all was fine when we drove the 2 hrs to our clinic 4 days later and heard the heartbeat.

Everyone was kind, organized and professional. This clinic was worth the 2 hr drive for us. I can't think of any weaknesses.

I think a fresh Ivf cycle would be $12,000 or so and a FET was $3,600. We had insurance coverage so we only had to pay our deductible.

He always recommended eset to us saying the stats weren't significant enough to encourage transferring 2, especially because we didn't want the potential risks of twins. We were grateful for this advice.

I found Dr. Murray's bedside manner lacking. At one point he told us that 'while it wouldn't be a miracle if you conceived I would call the pope.' He also pushed us towards using donor sperm even after my husband had made it clear he was not prepared to take that step at that time if ever. After our failed transfer, Dr. Murray offered to allow us into the refund/ guarantee program which we were ecstatic about but when we received the paperwork they had included a line saying we would have to use donor sperm or the contract would be null and void. Total bait and switch. He also made a comment about how I was a perfect candidate to be an egg donor, excuse me I can't even conceive myself that's not an appropriate line of conversation at that point. Also after our failed transfer he showed very little empathy for our emotional state.

If you have a simple fix or are willing to jump immediately to donor options he's probably an okay dr if not, there are lots of better more caring options. One positive was he did alot of testing prior to starting the cycle.

Dr. Murray was rather impersonal.

Mini-IVF with ganerlix, menopur, hcg trigger shot. Fresh transfer. Supposedly mini-ivf grows superior eggs in smaller quantities. He initially indicated that I would produce 3-5 eggs for retrieval, we retrieved only one. He also suggested doing the retrieval without anesthesia saying it wouldn't be painful and would hurt no more than the saline sonogram. This was a complete fabrication, the retrieval process was very painful and left me in a state of semi-shock.

The nurses and receptionist were very impersonal. I had several different people doing my blood draws and all of them but one hurt me and left significant bruising. After my retreival I was in a state of semi-shock, couldn't stop crying or shaking. Not a single nurse approached me or attempted to comfort me or even ask me what was wrong. I went out to the car to keep from upsetting the other patients in the waiting room. No one checked on me later on via phone or email either. The only positive staff member was the embryologist she was very soothing and sweet but my interaction with her was limited to a few minutes.

This clinic has a female RE which was a huge positive for us. However the building and technology are not as up to date as another local clinic. The staff are very impersonal and uncaring. Dr. Murray's bedside manner is lacking, and it would appear he cares only for his success rates.

Our Mini-IVF cost about 5k.

I do not remember him having a preference.

Dr. Rink is the nicest doctor I've ever been to, and certainly the nicest fertility doctor. He exhibits high levels of empathy, anticipates patient questions and concerns and has a great sense of humor.

Do the pregnancy-guarantee-or-your-money-back IVF option.

Everyone was very nice, personable, and accommodating,

I did IVF and all the drugs that entails. This was after 4 failed IUIs with another doctor. Dr. Rink diagnosed me with low Vitamin D levels, so I took supplements for that as well. He transferred only one embryo, due to my age (under 35) and undiagnosed infertility. It worked. (I also chose the pregnancy-or-your-money-back guarantee option)

They were competent, pretty well organized (not perfect) but very friendly and empathetic and were excited for me when I was excited and reassuring when I was scared and sympathetic when I was sad.

This clinic's strengths are their people. Warm, friendly, empathetic, and competent. I appreciated the patience they had with me while I learned how to use a syringe for the first time, and when I would call with a silly question. I appreciated that they were accommodating to the fact that I live in Nashville and was commuting 2 hours to their clinic. And most of all, I appreciated that Dr. Rink seemed like he understood where we were coming from and answered all my questions thoroughly. He was also funny, which went a long way.

I chose the $25,000 IVF option. It cost more, but it covered 3 cycles of IVF and if I didn't get pregnant then I would have received most of the money back. I also had to pay for gas to drive back and forth to Chattanooga 15 times.