Sanaz Ghazal

Strengths: Dr. Ghazal is highly trained and has a lot of great experience in the field and she has the highest fertility rates in the clinic. When you ask her a question, she is straightforward, authentic, and detailed. When she shared information that I considered bad news for me, she was compassionate and did it in such a way that made me feel that there was hope for my situation. The only downside is that I did not get much contact with her and everything is communicated through her nurses and coordinators. Yet, when she did meet with you over the phone or in-person, she made you feel as though she was present with you and not trying to rush off to the next patient.

If you want a doctor who will be available by phone or text or more available, Dr. Ghazal is not the one.

Dr. Ghazal answered every single one of my questions each time I spoke with her. She has a great bedside manner and she makes it a point to answer your questions in a very detailed manner, so that there is no confusion. She listened to my struggle, and responded in a compassionate manner. I did not feel as though she was trying to rush me out of her office.

Because I am an older person, with great eggs but with numerous complications with my uterus, the goal was to try to go slightly more aggressive with my medications, so that I can produce a lot more eggs for my egg retrieval, in the hopes that when the eggs are fertilized, I can get the most genetically normal embryos possible. Then I would freeze these embryos, fix the problems with my uterus, and then do a frozen embryo transfer. The goal is to be successful in maintaining a pregnancy and reducing the chances of miscarriage. I believe the drug protocol is similar for most IVF cycles, just the dosage may be different. The overall goal is to have one successful IVF cycle with great outcomes in regard to have a number of genetically normal embryos.

Regarding the clinic, there seems to be people switching into new roles often within the office. When it seems as if you are going to do a procedure right away, they are very responsive to emails and other forms of communication. Yet, it seems as though if your procedure is not happening for a few months, they take longer to respond to emails (if at all).

Weaknesses: They seem more responsive at the start of your process (consultation/diagnostic workup/treatment planning); yet if you wait a few months for the actual procedure, they seem less responsive to questions you might have. You can be on hold for a long time early in the morning. Financial people seem to change often. I would have preferred more direct contact with the RE to ask questions when they came to mind. Strengths include having a very well trained doctor (Dr. Ghazal) with great rates of success. The cost of treatment is clearly delineated in their forms, so you are not going in blind. They have one of the best labs in the nation.

For one cycle of IVF, including genetic screening of any embryos, and freezing embryos, I was looking at a bill around $21,000 out of pocket. This estimate also includes the price of fertility medications for the one cycle. You can also tack on an additional $2000 to 3000 for diagnostic procedures conducted prior to treatment planning. These are all out of pocket costs.

My doctor had a strong preference for single embryo transfer, primarily because there is a higher success rate for a single embryo transfer. Also, she explained that if you place more than one embryo into the uterus, you never know whether one of those embryos will split and produce twins and triplets. So she wants to reduce the chance of multiple unexpected growing babies.

I've just started my journey at HRC but so far Dr. Ghazal has been warm, welcoming, and very thorough with her plan to handle our specific case. She understands the problems we are currently facing with our MFI, and currently undergoing the process to find out what if any diagnosis I have for my fertility.

Be honest and open throughout the process.

She really, really cares about her patients succeeding and overcoming infertility and does her best to help you achieve your dreams.

Since my husband has severe MFI, he would have to undergo a TESE or mTESE to extract sperm so that they can then be frozen and injected directly into my eggs via ICSI. This would also help our fertilization rates as an embryologist does this task skillfully. We do not yet know my current course of action as I have not completed all necessary testing.

So far we have only dealt with the front desk coordinator and she was very kind, soft spoken, and very accommodating to our inquiries and where we could seek out further information should we need it.

Their strengths is everything being in-house. From the REs personal offices, to the lab/embryo storage, to egg retrievals and transfers. It is nice to know that they do not send you elsewhere for any part of the process and you are set in one location.

Right now we do not know the total cost for a single round of IVF as we will be discussing these details in our upcoming appointment.

She believes that if you want one baby, you transfer one embryo. If you want two babies, you transfer two. No need to transfer two embryos if you just want a single child.

Dr. Ghazal is a highly knowledgeable individual. She is on top of the current research and statistics. She is straight forward and doesn't sugar coat the possibilities or outcomes. As well as, supportive and compassionate. This process in itself is very stressful, Dr. Ghazal is always very calming and caring. She was always easy to talk to and ask questions. She never mad me fell like I was bothering her or asking dumb questions. My relationship with Dr. Ghazal was very open because she's very personable.

Stay on top of the office staff.

Dr. Ghazal is very personal and knew me very well. I can't say that for the rest of clinic, but she is exceptional.

Metformin and Levothyroxine leading up to cycles and continued throughout. Injectable stimulation lupin, menapour, and 1 other. Two egg retival cycle, with PGS testing. Transferred 1 chromosomal healthy embryo. Currently pregnant, but may be loosing. :(

Face to face encounters with Natalija she was very personable and responsive. Over the phone is would add stress and was many times unclear and didn't answer all our concerns. Email was about the same as on phone. She mixed me up a few times. Nursing staff at RSA for all procedures were exceptional!

Hystroscopes were $500 each partial insurance coverage. 24,000 for two cycle retrieval, pgs testing, and transfer. There were other expenses along the way. Medications were separate. Ultrasounds once pregnant are $270

Didn't have a choice. Only 1 embryo resulted in healthy.

Dr.Ghazal is very professional and knowledgeable.She always answered all our questions and explained our procedure in details. We worked with her for a whole year, unfortunately, it did not work due to poor egg quality.

Do your best not to work with Dr. Ghazal's coordinator Natalija and request for another one from the beginning

Dr. Ghazal is very compassionate and caring. She made us feel very comfortable. She always explained the procedure and protocol thoroughly

Gonal F, Menopur, Centrotide Metformin and Omnitrope

Our first coordinator Natalija was not compassionate and never answered our questions and impossible to get ahold via phone or email. Our second coordinator Natalie was the opposite and always answered in a timely manner. She made us very comfortable working with her. We would highly recommend her. The nursing staff at the Surgery Center is amazing!

Good lab, nice office in Newport Beach. The staff in Fullerton office is sometimes disorganized (forgot to put our appointment into a system, and waisted our time coming to the clinic when the doctor was already gone for the day). We preferred working with the Newport office.

Our IVF and medication were partially covered by health insurance

Only had one normal embryo in three IVF's