Sae Sohn

I have been having issues with my cycles and wanted answers. Dr. Sohn took the time to meet with me and do a sonogram after speaking with me about my treatment plan and future course of treatment in his office. My sonogram did not present the best news and only confirmed what I've always known but never had confirmed. Him taking the time to not only confirm my fears but give me options as to what we will do for my next iui's made me feel much more at ease. I did find out that I only have 2 more chances before I have to move on to IVF but he gave me options there as well. I have been told by other doctors in the clinic I had to do 4-6 iui's with the same medication and then could move on to a more aggressive route, that I could do unlimited iui's. To realize I wasted 4 on one treatment plan broke my heart but It wasn't his fault as I have seen a different doctor almost every time I go there. Seeing him, the Director and getting definitive answers plus options made the day not as heartbreaking as I would have thought. He was kind and compassionate and I cant wait to go back to see him again for my next iui.

Don't be scared. I was so scared to go in there and get bad news, but I left feeling hopeful.

Dr. Sohn took the time to meet with me and evaluate me, give me more information than I was provided by any other Dr's at that clinic. He was compassionate but matter of fact and his deliverance of the bad news I received was very good. I didn't feel like a failure or like giving up. He gave me options and spoke to me like he understood where I was coming from and what I was going through.

I decided to take a break after doing 4 iui's to lose weight and see if that would help. During my break my cycles were super wonky. I went in to meet with him because I knew once I was ready to do my iui's again, I didn't want anything standing in my way. He confirmed some fears I had which was I am not ovulating and my left ovary is not producing follicles. He gave me options of trying birth control to regulate my cycles or fertility medication to make me ovulate which would then result in me having a cycle. Since we have been on a 4 month "mental health" (we all know this journey is a roller coaster) break, we decided not to take anything. I do have the option of changing my mind though. He was very helpful in helping me understand the next steps in my journey and what I can do to help prepare for them.

I love the nurses there. Some of them I get to chat to while I wait and others I only get to see for a second while they set up the room or while the Dr does the procedure/exam.

I have really enjoyed the experience I have had here over my last clinic, however, I feel like they should all be on the same page. At first I was told I only had 6 iui cycles, then that I had unlimited, and again that I had only 6. Some Doctors were adamant about me doing 4-6 cycles with the same medication before going the more aggressive route. I decided to take a break over the holidays when our 4th iui failed in November. Thank God I did because had I not, I would have already used the last two cycles. Dr. Sohn helped me come up with a game plan my last visit that gives me hope for my next two cycles and that even my next may be successful.

My Copay is $30

Dr. Sohn is very kind. My only complaint is that he seems very conservative with treatment and does not like to take risks (i.e. questioned me several times to ensure I wanted to implant two embryos instead of one). Al though we haven't gotten the results we want, I would recommend Dr. Sohn to my friends. He is very responsive by email as well.

If you're going in for IVF, be prepared for a roller coaster!

Dr. Sohn has great bedside manners. He is kind and understanding of this difficult situation.

For both egg retrievals, I was put on the Microdose Lupron protocol (with Gonal-F & Menopur). He said this was the most aggressive protocol he prescribes for his patients. My first IVF, I had 12 eggs retrieved. 8 fertilized, and only 4 made it to day-5 embryo's.

Unfortunately I have not had great experiences with the nursing staff here. Communication issues and one nurse has not been very compassionate throughout this process. She comes across extremely fake and demeaning in how she interacts with me. I have had conversations with other patients who have had the same experiences with this one in particular nurse. The other nurses have been great, but unfortunately it only takes one bad apple to ruin the entire experience.

Strengths: If you're a Kaiser member, using Kaiser is very convenient. Weakness: The nurses aren't very consistent with their communication and one bad apple can ruin the bunch! Sometimes with Kaiser, you have to be your own advocate...

IVF Egg Retrieval: $13,440.00 Medication (Mandells Pharmacy) - $4354.00

Dr. Sohn strongly prefers implanting only one embryo at a time.

Dr. Sohn is to the point and informative. I wouldn’t say he is “warm and fuzzy” but he is friendly and definitely takes time to answer questions without making you feel rushed. During my initial consultation he laid out a plan that was clear and made sure we were comfortable with it. Stefanie, the NP is who I saw for 99% of my office visits and she did the IUIs and discussed medications (oral and injectables) and development a treatment plan for me.

Go in asking a lot of questions. Do research before your appointment.

During my consultation with Dr. Sohn he was kind and informative. We went over a slideshow presentation and he made time to answer any questions. He also did an endovaginal US during the consultation and explained egg count, etc. He scheduled me for a HSG and said he would keep an eye out for those results and keep me informed on the results, which he did. After my HCG the majority of my care was managed by a nurse practitioner at the Kaiser Vacaville clinic.

Since this was our first consultation dealing with infertility Dr. Sohn was going to be start me on clomid. I took clomid for a couple of months along with timed intercourse which produced no results. We then moved onto injectables along with another oral medication and started IUIs, 5 total with no results.

Nursing staff were kind, quick and helpful.

I think a strength with kaiser is that they are organized. Any time any questions came up we were able to ask a nurse or email Dr. Sohn and get an answer in a timely matter. That was very helpful as a new infertility patient.

I believe our consultation was our normal deductible cost ($25) IUIs were about $75.

I did 5 rounds of clomid and 1 of femara. He was supportive, informative, and definitely gave me all my options. When I had to switch Doctors he sent me to Dr. Lovely another Dr. He trusted well. I always felt he had my interests at heart and was truely sad to see us not conceive with oral meds.

He makes you feel so at ease, which definitely helps you swallow this bitter pill of infertility treatments

Dr. Sohn eased me into what IVF was. He took his time and was through, he made me feel he truely cared. He also used humor to help quell your nerves, always making me feel like he was trustworthy and giving it me straight. I never felt it was just about money to him.

I had low dose clomid my first 2 months then he increased it to 100mg. For the remaining 3 until we used femara as a last ditch effort before IVF.

I felt very supportive under the care of his nursing team and nurse practitioner. It was a truely warm experience during such a dark time in my life.

All strength and no weakness. This clinic is on the ball through and through. They are attentive, caring, return your calls promptly, scheduling services are flexible, and you are never short on information or risks. They put you 1st!

My monitoring, testing, and meds came out 4,232.00. I did not accrue any further fees as Dr. Sohn referred me to another clinic.

He had an incentive program to use just one at a time. If you chose this, you had a forgiveness clause that allowed you 2 additional transfers. If you chose multiple (2) you did not get the incentive program

We had a very positive experience with him. We actually wanted to fly over to Sacramento to use him for our next FET, but we have heard that he just retired. He was very honest about things and we loved that.

He is very experienced. He knows what he is talking about. Trust him.

He was very kind. He was to the point with things, but always gave us hope. He would speak to us about what we have been up to. Just getting to know you questions/conversation.

We were mainly male factor, so he did a lower stim on me. He also warned us when we put in two embryos because of the risks to me and the babies if it resulted in a twin pregnancy, which it did. He wasn't mean about it, just was looking out for the best interest.

Very on top of things

Nothing bad to say. We had a great experience here. Everything was really explained to us and we always felt that if we had questions they were answered right away. They are open early which is awesome and on the weekends.

They were in the morning mostly and prescheduled for you in advance.

I think the IVF itself that included us, blood, montiroing was around 11,500. We had to do ICSI which was around 1500, and We also did a mTESE (but in SF with Kaiser) and that was 8000

We transferred two due to cost of fertility treatments and the risk of not having any to freeze (at that point we didn't know), but he would of rather us tranferred one.

Friendly but matter of fact. I have huge fear of doctors and needles - somehow once we got through my initial consultation he never made me nervous. Had a specific plan for my situation which removed a lot of stress.

Explained the process very well. I found it VERY helpful that he set out expectations including a timeline - as in we will try x for 3 months and if it does not work move on to x for three months then re-evalutate and move to x for 3 months. I named times for insemination and he met me at my convenience at his office (Greenbrae at the time)

Single mother by choice so technically had no had infertility issues before (as far as I knew.) Did three months of insemination just on my own. When that did not work planned three months with Clomid and then three months with injectables. After 4th attempt I was stressed out and had a reaction to Clomid so took a month off to relax and let my body adjust. Was successful the following month.

Did not use Kaiser Sacramento - used Dr Sohn in Greenbrae California (my daughter is now 11)

He is very concervative in his practice. Very reasonable and presented my husband and I with a lot of information that help us understand the process we were going through. I saw Dr Sohn during all of my visits and he was very compassionate when things didn't work out as planned. He explained the process, the odds and what the medication does.

Ask questions.

Dr. Sohn was very patient and caring.

Birth control, Lupron, Menapure, progesterone, estradial.

Nice, friendly, patient.

The doctor and the nursing staff made the experience great. Kaiser wouldn't of been my first pick if it wasn't for the compassionate team of nurses. Kaiser typically treats their patients like a number but dr Sohn and the nurses were different and I wanted to keep coming back.

$9,500 for IVF, $1,500 for ICSI, roughly $4,000 for medication

Dr. Sohn always recommended transferring one embryo at a time but since the quality of our embryos were low, he was open to transferring two.

I felt Dr. Sohn was honest with me as a patient and he allowed my husband and I to make the decisions but did suggest when it was clear after a second failed IVF attempt that we should consider other options at that point. I was 43 at the time and my labs showed declining fertility.

Be patient.

I felt as if Dr. Sohn, his staff and the other doctors I saw at UCSF were wonderful. I really felt as if they had my best interests (getting pregnant) at heart. His nurse, Judi Friedman, was fantastic as well.

I don't remember the protocol or the drugs use.

Judi was fabulous! She always made sure I understood what they were doing and what I needed to do and I was always able to reach her when I needed to speak with her on the phone.

I believe the IVF/egg donor was around $25K not including medications.