Sasmira Lalwani

Ms Lalwani is a very understanding and compassionate person. But, since she is very busy, you have to communicate with her through a nurse, which was fine, as the nurse was very capable; but without a good nurse this system may have been a nightmare. It is also very hard to get an appointment from her as well. Ms Lalwani stayed away from more complicated treatments such as IVF with me although I am older. She was even against medicated cycle for the first two times, but I had to force her. The same was true fro use of progesterone. She prescribed progesterone only after 2 chemical pregnancies, which frankly I am not sure was due to low progesterone. But after 5 cycles with donor sperm and 4 of them medicated, I kinda wish she was more forceful. But I really appreciate her bedside manners.

Make your research and be proactive.

Ms Lalwani has perfect bedside manners and she never forced me into more radical solutions just to be successful. She always tried to stay on the side of natural processes.

1- Natural cycle (negative) 2 - Clomid (Chemical) 3- Clomid (negative) 4- Femara 5 mg (chemical) 5- Femara 5 mg (cancelled due to poor response) 6-Femara 7.5 mg, prometrium after IUI

All team members in GWU are perfect communicators and are very compassionate.

GWU is a small clinic, which does not make you feel like you are a number in a factory. They have a system that works. The regular cycle visits are handled by stand in physician (or nurse) of the day, which I got used to. Still, I would like to see my physician more often.

$150 for first, $75 for subsequent visits. 1100 IUI cycle.

Sometimes Dr Lalwani had difficulty explaining concepts, though she was patient and kind and answered questions. Some embryo transfers were tough, in that it took several times to place the catheter. It never hurt, but having to go to the bathroom and feeling like your doctor couldn’t get the catheter right was upsetting.

Make sure you read a lot about your procedures and ask questions at appointments, but know she will also take phone calls and answer you on the patient portal emails.

Dr Lalwani is very kind and was willing to schedule time to talk to us. We had an appointment after a procedure to talk about what happened and what we might try next time.

I used GonalF,225, menipur, 150, &cetrotide. I triggered with leuprolide. This seemed to work for me as I had 14 or 15 eggs retrieved each time. I used pills for estrogen and progesterone suppositories for preparing for transfers. My first 2cycles I had 1 & 2 5-day blasts, after PGS testing. I was able to do 2 FETs, because one blast didn’t survive the thaw. My other 2 transfers were fresh, because the doctors didn’t know why my FETs didn’t take, and thought with older eggs, maybe the embryos would do better in a fresh transfer.

Sarah was a great nurse. She was very good with emailing me instructions (as I requested so I wouldn’t get confused) and called with results as well. She was very clear, could answer complex questions and scheduling questions, was thorough and kind. Her responses were very prompt. The other nurses I saw regularly were the flabotamists, Mia and I think Michelle. They were both quite good, very patient and kind. I had several different nurses for my retrieval’s, and I think they were all good.

The strength is that the doctors all meet once/week to discuss each patient so it seems it doesn’t matter which doctor is your primary at the practice. Also, they rotate procedure schedules so you might get any doctor for the retrieval or ultrasounds. Dr. Frankfurter leads the practice and I did like him a lot and he did one of my retrieval’s and transfers and he instilled a lot of confidence. You get a lot of attention in this practice, get a lot of face time with the physicians, who perform the ultrasounds. It’s hard to be unbiased since I did not have any success here, but I wonder how much larger clinics have an advantage of seeing so many more patients. I have heard that smaller, university places will take tougher patients, but I didn’t have any compounding issues other than age.

You would sign in, wait in line for a blood draw, return to the seated waiting are for an ultrasound. There were two changing rooms for the one ultrasound machine, one patient would get undressed while the other was in the room. It actually ran very well and only a couple of times was it very crowded. Most of the time it was very busy but quick. Typically in and out in 30 minutes or less.

I believe each round with ICSI were $12000 plus PGS (plus meds, $6000) and the last two rounds were a package with ICSI of $17500, and the meds were still $6000/round)

For PGS tested embryos, they only do SET. They only tell you the sex once the lab chooses the best embryo. I was fine with that, I don’t know if they may have accommodated had I asked for a specific sex, but I think no. When the PGS tested rounds didn’t work, I had multiple embryos transferred at 2 & 3 days fresh. All rounds were negative. (Not even chemical)