Sharon E. Moayeri

I have been very satisfied with my time at OC Fertility, and would highly recommend them to others. Dr. Moayeri is very thurough, and I appreciate the time she takes to answer all of my questions, and make sure that I understand and am comfortable with every step of the processes, for both IUI and IVF.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions

My first 2 IUI’s I took Clomid, and responded well to it, with 4 follicles each time. After those were unsuccessful, we tried 1 cycle with Femara, and I also responded well with 4 follicles. The IUI was unsuccessful, and for the final IUI I did 150iu of GonalF injections along with the Clomid. That cycle I only produced 1 follicle and we decided to do 2 IUI’s, which were unsuccessful. After that, we decided to move forward with IVF, and are in between retrieval and transfer currently. For my IVF protocol, I had 2 vials of Menopur, Clomid, and 450iu Gonal F. I responded well and had 8 follicles. At retrieval we got 13 eggs, 9 fertilized and 8 made it to day 5. However, only 1 made it to biopsy for PGS testing. I have low AMH, so this was not surprising. We are waiting on the PGS results before we implant.

Our total costs, including all monitoring appointments, medicstions, procedures, etc. was right at $30,000 for IVF. Each of the IUI cycles was around $1,000, including medication.

I have had a wonderful experience so far with Dr. Moayeri. From the very first appointment, I liked her confidence (without being arrogant) and her level of expertise in fertility. She explains tests and procedures really well, and is also good at explaining WHY she is performing any diagnostic procedure. She is also really really thorough, which is something that is really important to me. I also think she is more on the candid side, which I prefer. For example, she did not hesitate or beat around the bush when she recommended that we consider using donor sperm as a back-up plan. However, she was very empathetic and it did not come across as offensive. I sincerely believe that she wants the best outcome for me and my husband. I'm not sure if this counts as a weakness but I think that most of the detailed IVF information was provided to us through their paperwork that we were given before starting IVF. For example, we didn't discuss statistics, risks, and the details of IVF (what each medication does) with Dr. Moayeri. I think we had a brief conversation about it. However, I know I could have scheduled an appointment to have that discussion with her. The information I already had about IVF was sufficient for me since I also did a lot of research. Their paperwork was also really thorough and complete so I didn't have any questions about IVF when it was time to pay for my cycle. For those of you who need to get your information verbally from your doctor, you may need to ask for that explicitly. I trusted her and did not feel the need to question her about every detail. I had more than enough information. The one thing I did not do (and chose not to do) was to ask about her success rate (e.g. live birth rate). Some of this information is available online through the CDC website but I know the data is sparse. Dr. Moayeri is with CCRM, which is a renowned fertility clinic. I think there is a good reason why CCRM is working with Dr. Moayeri. Initially, I did have some concerns that I didn't choose the "best" reproductive endocrinologist (someone with the best success rates), but I chose to stick with Dr. Moayeri.

Don't be afraid to ask questions if you feel like you need more information or clarification

I was put on the antagonist protocol which consisted of Menopur, Follistim, and dexamethasone (0.5 mg) for 12 days, Ganirelix starting day 7, Pregnyl on day 12, and egg retrieval on day 14. I went in for ultrasounds +/-bloodwork (did not always need bloodwork), which became more frequent towards the end. There is another doctor at the practice who performed a few of my ultrasounds (because Dr. Moayeri was doing a procedure) but as I neared the end of the IVF cycle, Dr. Moayeri later reviewed the ultrasounds to double check my protocol. They always called me in the afternoon after the ultrasound to let me know if any changes needed to be made. The only change they made was to delay my egg retrieval by one day. Dr. Moayeri was able to retrieve 15 eggs! As far as side effects go, I had some mild bruising on injection sites, started getting more tired, felt bloated during the final week, and some mild tenderness/pain in what I assume were my ovaries as the follicles got really big.

IVF cycle costs about $15k Not included in fee to OC Fertility/CCRM - IVF stim meds (paid to pharmacy directly) - ~$5k for me - CCS analysis of embryo cells - depends on the number of embryos Frozen embryo transfer is a separate fee of ~$5k

Dr. Moayeri asked me about my preferences and I told her I wanted a single embryo transfer to minimize any risk to myself or the baby. We didn't discuss it further after that. I had already read about the risks of multiple embryo transfer and was also given that information from Dr. Moayeri (via paperwork). I do not know what Dr. Moayeri's preferences or recommendations are in general.

I honestly have zero complaints she was there for all but one ultrasound and wasn't the one who preformed my IUI but that didn't matter to me she was so hands on and the only reasons she missed those two appointments were for other patients in surgery, she was very present in my whole experience of treament for which I've already recommended multiple friends to her.

She put me on meteformin to help regulate my hormone imbalance to work on the annovulation and PCOS for about 2 months attempting to get my cycles going again before we did any kind of fertility work. they didn't return so I had a progesterone induced cycle once my husband's morphology numbers were better. And that was our treatment cycle which she also suggested using femara so we did... I had regular ultrasounds to monitor folic growth throughout the cycle, I was given estrogen patches as we approached my trigger date. And she even will come in on weekends to check if your cycle is that close, which she did for me, I administered an HCG trigger injection from home the day before my IUI.

Visits with insurance came in around $90 with an ultrasound, and bloodwork was about $35 but it all depends on insurance. My IUI aroud $1500 with meds procedure and out of pocket visits during my treatment cycle.

She is great at giving you realistic expectations. She is very dry and to the point but I appreciated that. She explains the risks of everything that happens. When I was faced with health issues related to the treatment she had referrals of specialists for everything.

Have your questions prepared. She is very busy and the visits are short. If you don’t have questions she will not ask.

I do not remember all costs but when I had an ultrasound done it was a $25 copay. The rest of the billing came after treatment. The medication was expensive. Over $1,000 for the injections.

We did not do IVF