Samantha Butts

Dr. Butts was extremely thorough when developing my treatment protocol. She requested surgery records from my OBGYN and used all the information gathered to give me predictions of my chances of success with retrieval cycles and my overall chances of conception in general. As a patient who tends to worry, Dr. Butts was able to assuage my fears with evidence based information and years of experience. I truly felt that we were in this journey together and that she would be willing to do whatever possible to help me achieve success.

As with any doctor, develop a list of questions and feel free to ask for explanations as often necessary. As a difficult to manage case, I had many concerns along the way, but Dr. Butts was always responsive and able to provide answers to my questions.

Initially we tried estrogen pill priming, then a course of daily Gonal-F and Menopur with ganirelix added at the end of the cycle. The outcome was initially as expected. For the next cycle, Dr. Butts suggested a different protocol with estrogen priming, then twice daily micro dose Lupron and daily Gonal F. We saw improvement in results the second time, which really boosted my confidence is Dr. Butt’s ability to alter the protocol using information gained from previous cycles. We used he second protocol for the third cycle as well which was successful.

All costs were paid out of pocket. Fees for an egg freezing cycle were extremely reasonable. Penn gets a drug discount that is passed on to the patient. I paid 1/3 the cost of medications compared to what I would have paid at another clinic, saving me thousands of dollars. Of course I would have paid full price is necessary, but getting the same medications for less was a nice benefit.

I have not gotten to this stage yet.

Dr. Butts is knowledgeable and well-intentioned. She is flexible, and was willing to change my plan based on new information. But either she is pulled in too many different directions or she does not have sufficient time to spend with patients. I felt like I was a burden to her through my care cycle. She would express exasperation when faced with questions - rather than viewing patient questions as an opportunity to clarify and solidify the plan, she was defensive and vague with her responses. She expressed confidence that she knew my case very well, but frequently brought up factually incorrect information related to the medications I should have been taking and my medical history. She was difficult to reach and often unavailable. She did not express compassion for miscarriages and other challenges that I faced during my time in her care. I did not feel that she truly cared about or was invested in my fertility outcomes.

I would recommend for patients of Dr. Butts to be prepared to advocate for themselves.

Monitoring appointments were convenient with relatively short wait times.

Approximately $5,000 out of pocket costs with insurance coverage including required mock transfer (out of pocket only), medications, and co-pays/deductibles.

Dr Butts wants me to have success. She listens to my questions/concerns/needs and has always agreed not to give up until I felt I was finished. When everything we had tried wasn’t working, she would consult with colleagues and come up with a new plan. She makes every effort to be the one to perform all of my procedures, and calls me personally to discuss any outcome or treatment plan.

Try to research everything you can to find out what’s going on with your body. And don’t be afraid to have opinions or suggestions and stick up for yourself if you feel something isn’t right.

I did 3 IVF cycles using a combination of lupron, menopur and follistim. I have low AMH/DOR and a thin lining. I was only able to produce 9 eggs on my best cycle, and 4 eggs on my worst. Those 3 cycles resulted in 2 total embryos that were frozen for later FETs.

Costs were minimal because I work in that health system and my insurance covered nearly everything in network. Once I hit my IVF insurance cap I had to pay $5k-$8k on remaining meds.

My doctor was willing to transfer multiple embryos if the quality wasn’t great. But in my case I only had 2 to work with so we did 2 separate single embryo transfers.

I saw Dr. Butts for general gynecology, because I knew that once I started trying to conceive I would have difficulty based on my irregular periods. Dr Butts diagnosed me with PCOS and then continued to treat me. When I started trying to get pregnant, I had a few (3?) IUIs with her and then she went on sabbatical. At that time I switched to a different provider. I found Dr Butts to be very knowledgeable, very up to date with research, and very approachable. Had I not gotten comfortable with a different provider during her sabbatical, I would have stuck with her.

She can be a quick talker, so be sure to write down all your questions to be sure that you fit them all in. She'll spend as much time with you as you need.

I did a few IUIs with her-- either 2 or 3. I used letrozole alone for the first one, but my ovulation was hard to predict. On the second (and third?) I used letrozole and Ovidrel. Unfortunately none resulted in a pregnancy.

It was just about all covered by insurance, besides a $150 sperm washing fee.

n/a- I did not do IVF with her

From the beginning, Dr. Butts was rude and treated me more as if I was an annoyance than a patient. On my first appointment, she had me wait over 1 1/2. When I finally met with her, she didn't even apologize or acknowledge the wait. She treated me as if I was dumb, yet was visibly annoyed when I asked her to explain anything. She also was unwilling to give her opinion on anything and when I asked her what she thought about PGS, all she would ask was "how do you feel about it?" This is not a therapy session- i wanted her actual opinion. I figured bad bedside manner would be ok if there were results. There were not. I have PCOS- having eggs is not my issue. Dr. Butts cancelled my egg retrieval after 14 days of injections. I believe I was not monitored closely enough and was given a "cookie cutter" cocktail of meds and not one geared towards my body. To give you an idea, my next doctor retrieved 17 mature. I found out that my cycle was being cancelled after 14 days from her nurse. Dr. Butts did not call or reach out. After I called Dr. Butts several times, she finally called me back after hours so that when I missed her call and tried to call back, I had no way of reaching her. When we finally did call, she showed no compassion, did not explain anything, was arrogant and was frankly annoyed that I wanted to speak to her to understand why she cancelled my cycle. When I called Penn and said that Dr. Butts was my dr and i wanted at least a partial refund, they were not surprised to get my call. I can only guess that they were used to it.

find a new Dr. immediately.

She does not monitor you closely enough. I was on menopur, ganirelix, and I forgot the name of the third one- starts with an F and is the pen shot. After I started ganirelix she waited over 48 hours to run my bloods. I have since learned that ganirelix commonly can have an adverse impact on people's estrogen and they need to be monitored closely when started to see if other drugs should be increased to offset the effects. That did not happen with Dr Butts

pricey but not terrible

didnt get that far

She is incredibly caring and compassionate. I was skeptical when I changed RE practices due to insurance reasons but I feel well cared for with dr butts as my doctor. She is extremely realistic but also optimistic and has given me hope.

She would treat you as if you are her family member. She's very invested in your fertility journey.

For IVF she used Lupron and follistim and menopur for the stim. She uses estrace and progesterone to prep for transfer.

I had full coverage for 2 egg retrieval and 2 fresh transfer. But a FET is 2500$

They allowed me to do a 2 embryo transfer for a FET after a failed single embryo fresh transfer.