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.

Dr. Butts took the time to review my complicated medical history, including ovarian cyst removal surgery, prior to developing my individualized treatment plan. She was always focused on the details of my specific case rather than treating me with a generic standard protocol and approach to treatment.

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.

Amy was very compassionate. Whenever she would call with results she would focus on the positive “growth is happening!” and “don’t worry, we will get some eggs this time” which I needed at times when I feared the treatment would not work on me as a poor responder.

Penn is a busy clinic. Because of that there is a whole team involved in your care and you may not see the same doctor for every appointment or procedure. I had two other doctors for two of my retrievals,and both were excellent. One weakness, if I had to name one, was that it was rather difficult obtaining medical records when they were requested from the office. They outsource to a company called MRO, but this company did not send the complete records that I had requested.

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.

Dr. Butts did not spend time getting to know me. She had poor knowledge of my medical history, and in communications would recount factually incorrect information about my history, my current medications, and my plan.

The Penn fertility nursing staff is highly variable. Some are very organized and compassionate, but mistakes occurred because different nurses will call with results and not have an understanding of specific cases. I frequently had to chase down results and information. One time I drove out for an hour to a specialty pharmacy just to find out that the prescription had not been sent in. These issues are due to organizational challenges around care coordination.

Penn Fertility will always have a lot of patients because some large employers in the Philadelphia area cover services there. It is a well-respected program and most of the physicians I interacted with are excellent. However, the clinic does not care at all about patient satisfaction or patient experience. The financial coordinators are particularly difficult to work with - they are rude, don't return calls, and are unwilling to help unless they are chasing you down for a bill. If this clinic is the only one covered by your insurance, you will likely get what you need. But if you are paying out of pocket, I would think about going elsewhere.

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 was always called by my doctor or my nurse with results, instructions, etc. They always made me feel like they were taking a personal interest in my case.

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.

I would receive update phone calls from my nurse Dawn whenever Dr Butts was unable to call me herself. She was conscious of the hours I worked and always called at a reasonable time. She knew I wanted all the details and results of any tests or labs done. She was able to answer any questions I had and was knowledgeable about my case throughout the process.

They are busy in the mornings with routine monitoring appointments, but they always get patients through in a fairly quick time, while also taking the time necessary with each patient so you don’t feel you are being rushed. I’ve never had a problem scheduling an appointment when I needed one. All of the staff are very friendly and courteous.

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.

Great communicator, always on top of things, very compassionate.

It can feel a bit like a factory, just with the number of providers and patients. But I liked all the providers very much, and trusted their communication with me and with each other. I also have a lot of trust in the Penn medical system. If you need a lot of personal attention from your primary physician this probably isn't a good place for you-- but if you can handle having many providers, with your primary driving the decisions, it's great.

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.

Dr Butts made me wait over an hour each time I met her. When I would see her in the clinic when I was there for bloods or ultrasounds, she would walk right by and had no idea who I was- not even a smile or tilt of the head in acknowledgment. In appointments, she clearly did not recall any details about me.

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

nice enough but dr butts threw her under the bus. forgot to order my meds when i was supposed to start

long wait, but everyone was nice enough. they did not have a dr doing the ultrasound, but an ultrasound technician. my next clinic ahd a dr doing it. i have nothign else to say but it wont let me click next until i hit 200 characters

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.

Dr butts is extremely caring and compassionate.

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

Sometimes I feel like a number and I have to stay very on top of things to get calls back etc.

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.