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

At our very first appointment, she immediately put my mind at ease. I was hesitant to take birth control as part of my IVF protocol, and she assured me that she prefers to have her patients cycle naturally, and works around their cycles for all appointments and retrieval’s. That made me feel like I wasn’t just a number.

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.

The nursing staff at OC Fertility is fantastic! They are so kind, thurough, and helpful. They take time to get to know you beyond infertility, and give so many suggestions and helpful tips for surviving the treatments. They always are willing to answer any questions, and call to make sure things are going well.

The clinic is really great, and I have nothing but s positive experience. There were times I was confused or didn’t understand something in my protocol, and I was able to call and get all of my questions answered very timely and easily.

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

Dr. Moayeri treated me with respect and answered any questions that I had, both thoughtfully and kindly. Her staff were also warm, kind, always helpful, and really knowledgeable. On the day of my egg retrieval, she was so reassuring and helped put me at ease right before anesthesia.

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.

Treena is WONDERFUL. She is super organized, explained the IVF protocol in good detail (including med administration), and is incredibly nice. She really helped me feel at ease about the whole process and was so reassuring about everything. She didn't candy coat everything and prepared me adequately. For example, she warned me that Menopur might sting (which it did!). She also gave me a great tip, which was to ice the injection site beforehand so that I don't feel the needle going in. It totally worked! Treena is also super prompt at responding to emails/questions. Susie, the financial coordinator, is also super nice and really organized. We are paying a lot of money for IVF but the payment process was really simple and clear. She explained the fees in detail with an easy to understand fee schedule. There were no surprises when it was time to pay up. The rest of the nursing staff were all really great. Blood draws were quick and easy and I had no issues with scheduling appointments. Everyone was really courteous, professional, and respectful. The one negative feedback I have is that a couple of my messages/questions were not relayed to Treena so I had to email Treena directly. I also wanted to mention that Dr. Moayeri's nursing staff at CCRM Orange County (where they did my egg retrieval) were phenomenal. I was so nervous about getting an IV catheter and going under anesthesia, but the entire process was so smooth. Everyone was so nice. The nurse who took care of me brought me a warm blanket, put me at ease while I got my IV catheter, and brought me a heating pad after the egg retrieval. It's not just about the doctor, but also the support staff. OC Fertility and CCRM Orange County have a great support staff.

OC Fertility isn't big. It was smaller than I expected, but I think it's totally sufficient. It did not have the feel of a hospital, which hopefully puts people at ease. It felt more personal. During one visit, there were a lot of patients (which I think is unusual for them) but the clinic didn't feel cramped and they didn't make me feel rushed. CCRM Orange County was really nice. I was there only for my egg retrieval but the facility was quite shiny and new. Despite it looking so fancy, the people were really personable and friendly so it didn't feel intimidating at all.

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 sat us down to start went through a whole analysis of our tests, Health habits and gave us a game plan to give us the health lies shot at treatment before she would actually let us start a treatment round. Most patients want to just start treament rounds, she wanted to wait to get us in a heather place before she would start a treatment round to try to get my hormones balanced better, my husband's health habits in a better place and his morphology numbers up. She gave us a game plan of what we needed to do to begin a round of treatment before we even started, so she helped us know what to do and where we were going. She flat out said she wanted to go this route so she wasn't wasting our time and giving us our best shot at success. She also personally called me to tell me once my hormone test was positive for being pregnant, which I still have that voicemail saved on my phone because it meant so much to me to hear it from my doc rather than just front desk or a nurse.

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.

Trina and ashley were the nurses I dealt with and were AMAZING they were so wonderful to see each visit, which is so important considering how often you're there during treatment cycles.

I loved that all of my visits were billed to insurance, seeing how I had zero fertility coverage with my insurance, they were creative with billing as gyno care till we started my treament cycle, once I was diagnosed and treatment began those visits were out of pocket and as soon as I had a positive pregnancy visited went back through insurance as OB care for all the weekly visits in my first trimester under her care till I moved to my OB. I really appreciate that they understand that IF isn't wildly covered by most insurance, so their willingness to find ways to work around that is greatly appreciated.

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.