Silvina Bocca

Dr. Bocca clearly loves what she does. I appreciate how much care she put into taking over my file after I stopped going to another doctor. She carefully reviewed my file and articulated next steps in a way that both my husband and I felt comfortable with. We are diagnosed with male factor infertility and we both felt that with our other doctor, my husband was cut completely out of the discussion but doctor Bocca is great about including both of us.

Come with questions and a notepad. She's great!

I first worked with another doctor prior to seeing Dr. Bocca. The differences between the two in their bedside manner is astounding. You can tell she actually cares about her patients and their partners and truly wants the best for them. She explained thoroughly why she wanted to explore a certain protocol and was open to answering questions, no matter how long it took, rather than casually brushing them off as me being a worrywart who Google's too much.

We did five donor sperm IUI cycles with another doctor. Three natural and two with letrozole and trigger shot, and progesterone. After Dr Bocca took over my file, she thought it'd be helpful to do a hysteroscopy. In that procedure, she found and removed a few uterine polyps, we will be pursuing a sixth IUI cycle with letrozole and gonal f, trigger shot and progesterone.

They are great!

They have lots of success and lots of patients. I didn't learn early on just how much you have to advocate for yourself, ask questions and if you need to, be a thorn in their side until you get the answers or attention you feel you deserve.

$250 per IUI, plus the cost if the sperm and medication. I've gotten quotes for IVF with ICSI at $12,000ish.

N/A.

Dr. Bocca has been helpful providing guidance regarding my diagnosis and recommendations for treatment. She has also been honest about the success of certain treatments. I was a little deterred from seeing her again as during our second conversation she initially only recommended an egg donor due to my diagnosis, but after another face-to-face appointment where my spouse was also present, she discussed the diagnosis a little further and what other options might be available.

I would definitely schedule regular appointments with her (perhaps monthly) to check-in and determine next steps for treatment. Ask questions and educate yourself on the options that she presents.

I feel Dr. Bocca is compassionate and empathetic. I do not feel rushed with Dr. Bocca and she answers my questions very thoroughly.

We wanted to try an initial protocol to try to conceive through timed intercourse as the least aggressive/invasive option. She recommend ovulation induction with a trigger shot and progesterone suppositories. The medication that we used for induction was gonal-f, which is an injectable. We are currently on our second month of treatment. If this cycle is not successful, she has recommended that we attempt IVF on the next few months to determine the quality of my eggs.

The nurses who I have been communicating over the patient portal, Shannon and Heather, have been extremely helpful. They answer questions very quickly.

The clinic is great about communication especially through the patient portal. I did call the on-call line and did not receive a call back which was a little concerning, but it was not an emergency so it wasn't a huge issue. I was calling because I got my period on a weekend and needed to schedule an appointment for the following Monday morning. I also showed up once for an appointment that they said they did not have on their schedule. They had provided me with an appointment slip confirming the appointment. They were still able to see me I just had to wait. I have had to wait over an hour on a couple occasions.

Two months of injections with timed intercourse have cost us over $4000.

Dr Bocca is very intelligent and knows her stuff. She has a way of being compassionate yet very direct in communication. I have always felt like she has my interest at heart. I’ve lost two babies to miscarriage in this process so there have been times where she is quick to diagnose. I think it shows her knowledge and sometimes it’s helpful to spend more time. However she is always willing to do whatever I need to do to make things easier to process.

In the beginning she is difficult to see because she is so popular. Probably one of the hardest to get an appointment with. But she is very knowledgeable about many things when it comes to endometriosis.

Dr Bocca is very patient and supportive. Even with not so good news I’ve been very happy with her treatment and encouragement

For my retrieval process I started with Lupron due to having endometriosis. I overstimulated this cycle and they canceled a fresh transfer due to being hospitalized. I think that was a good move because I was sick for a very long time. For frozen transfer I used patches/pills and IM progesterone. The first cycle we transferred 2 blasts and had successful twin pregnancy. We did lose one baby in the first trimester. Second frozen transfer was completed this month with success and literally completed a DNC this morning to complete the miscarriage. We have now decided to do genetic testing as a result of this due to losing to babies with viable heartbeats.

The nursing staff at the Jones is absolutely some of the best nursing staff I’ve ever worked with. And when you do this enough you really spend a lot of time with them. My Ivf coordinator is so compassionate. After my dnc procedure today I had hugs and support from every nurse i came in contact with. That’s HUGE. every appointment they always check on you and want to be sure your emotions are ok.

The front desk isn’t always quick and the Virginia Beach office shares with another clinic so the wait time is always super long. I don’t suggest going there if I can avoid it. You will see all the doctors at the clinic while there and all of them are great! They have amazing residents and I always appreciate the learning atmosphere. I feel like a teaching school is always best for a patient because they are always interested in educating.

The medications were some of the most expensive. I spent 4000 on meds for first cycle. I did have insurance pick up some of price but the most helpful thing is they bill me whatever is contracted pricing. I’ve had to pay for two frozen transfers which are a couple thousand each time. However I’ve had other experiences such as OHSS they required several days in a hospital. I’ve also just recently had to have a dnc due to missed miscarriage. All these extra costs are outside the normal fertility treatment.

Our clinic was ok transferring one blast due to the high quality of embryos I had. Initially I was ok with twins and we transferred two but we did not continue that the next transfer

Dr. Bocca is patient, a great communicator and is easy to understand. She doesn’t use too much medical jargon and fully explains all procedures and possible outcomes. She always takes the time to answer all my questions and concerns.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and request alternative medications (for instance, if you know of a cheaper option).

I never feel rushed when I meet with Dr. Bocca, she takes the time to answer all my questions.

I tried IUI twice earlier this year. Each time, I started with five days of femara, cd 3-7. Day 8 I would go for an ultrasound and they would prescribe my dosage of menopur. I would do 3-5 days of shots of menopur while getting ultrasounds every few days to check my egg growth. Once they were a good size (she liked 17 or larger). When my eggs were large enough, I would take the ovidrel trigger shot. Within the next 36hrs my husband and I would go in for the IUI. I did femara and menopur because dr. Bocca said she wanted to see two large eggs at the time of IUI and I had a history of only one egg from just the femara alone.

Some nurses were poor communicators (ie: their directions weren’t clear) and some weren’t very friendly but overall I had a good experience with the nursing staff.

The clinic is slow to post payments, so make sure you keep all your receipts. Also, they are slow to submit bills to the insurance company. The staff is overall friendly and they return phone calls quickly.

The overall cost of IUI including medicine was close to $3000.

Dr Bocca did a good job of explaining treatments to us, and took plenty of time to talk to us. After my 11 week miscarriage, she had a nice long appointment to talk to us. Dr Bocca is compassionate and caring. However, I didn’t get a whole lot of statistics from her or numbers when it came to my chances of success with different courses of treatment. Sometimes her nurses have trouble communicating with her (as in the nurses didn’t get back to me)

Do some research on treatment options/ infertility basics before you meet with Dr Bocca or any doctor. Be sure you are your own advocate when communicating with Dr Bocca’s team- they don’t always get back to you.

Dr Bocca herself spent plenty of time talking and consulting with us, but the team at Jones was hard to get to respond and get a straight answer from sometimes

We did two cycles of clomid/ letrozole with cycle day intercourse/ ultrasound/ ovidrel injection. Then we did two rounds of injectable hormones with monitoring and timed intercourse. I got pregnant the second time. All signs looked positive and things were going perfectly until I miscarried at 11 weeks due to a trisomy 14 abnormality. We then did one more cycle of injectables and iui with a chemical pregnancy. We have now moved on to ivf at another clinic that has a shared risk/ money back guarantee program and higher success rates when I comes to ivf.

The nurses were hard to get ahold of frequently and sometimes I had to leave multiple messages to hear back. I would recommend Dr Bocca a lot more highly than her nursing staff

Strengths: Dr boccas bedside manner and compassion. She is helpful, but if you want hard numbers/ chances of success, I didn’t hear much of that. Weaknesses: communication with the nursing team/ front desk. The patient portal/ voicemail system most of the time gets a response, but sometimes you need to leave more than one message.

My insurance covered our ultrasounds when we did timed intercouse with pills or injections. However, it did not cover any of our drugs or ultrasounds with iui. We spent roughly $1500/ month each cycle we tried

N/a

Dr. Bocca was very accessible when she was in town. She is knowledgeable and had a wonderful bedside manner. I just felt like I was going through the usual infertility routine and fell through the cracks. We completed round after round of timed intercourse with injectables. There was no change in my treatment even though we asked at the first meeting to go right to IVF at any point in the beginning if it seemed necessary. The only change was to try IUI and that was unsuccessful. Every month I just kept doing the same thing, that was not working. Then I found myself through a full calendar year with no change. It was stressful.

Do your own research and manage your calendar and meds yourself. Ask lots and lots of questions about what is next so that you are prepared and have your meds ready.

This is difficult to answer as Dr. Bocca was very accessible when she was in town. She is knowledgeable and had a wonderful bedside manner. Her nursing staff was very kind as well. I just felt like I was going through the usual infertility routine and fell through the cracks. There was no change in my treatment even though we asked at the first meeting to go right to IVF at any point in the beginning if it seemed necessary. Every month I just kept doing the same thing, that was not working. Then I found myself through a full calendar year with no change. It was stressful.

We completed round after round of timed intercourse with injectables. Twice out of the 12 months of being there, we tried IUI was was unsuccessful. Other than the IUI, every month I just kept doing the same thing, that was not working.

The nurses were very kind and sweet but not organized and made me feel like I was alone sometimes. After my first month of timed intercourse with injectables, I went in for appointments to see what's next. I went in on a Saturday which was my cycle day 3 and was told I needed to take menopur the following night, which is a specialty drug that must be overnighted and I did not have any. I left in tears frantically trying to find menopur. That was the first of some other stressful visits.

It's a teaching hospital so you never see the doctor you think you have an appointment with. There is usually a student also in your ultrasound. The nurses are kind but for sure have not been through infertility themselves. The doctors are very nice.

Since I was mostly getting blood draws and ultrasounds, the cost was ~$200-$400 a cycle. My insurance assisted some. For the monitoring patient only visits, they will not process through your insurance for you so it's $500-$600 a visit.

She has a very sunny disposition and a positive outlook. She has been my primary physician since 2009 for infertility and she has kept my hopes up when I was down. She is very focused on how I am 'feeling' and has been able to gently tell me things that I perhaps didn't want to hear. We had numerous frozen embryo failures and she told us to take a break for a few months to take the pressure off. She was also compassionate when we decided we had reached our last fresh cycle attempt.

If you want someone with glass half full, she is for you. If you are more of a glass half empty person or have trouble hearing bad news or set backs, you may want someone else.

She was always very kind and sympathetic, even when I would get very intense. They always scheduled a free consultation after any cycle that did not work which was very important to us.

We had minor issues for ourselves, but not enough to be guaranteed natural pregnancy. We did one cycle of IUI which failed and we decided we were better off doing full retrievals. We started on Lupron protocols which we did twice, we had one failed cycle because I was too suppressed by Lupron. They offered us our money back or to hold it for a new cycle. They put me on ganerilex instead and we went forward with three more full cycles. I also had enough frozen embroys for 8 other frozen cycles - only one took. I have 5 children now, 3 singletons and 1 set of twins. The program also got a new embroyologist recently who increased their blastocysts success rate to 60-70% survival. I have multiple blastocysts on ice. In that time Dr. Bocca stopped recommended day 3 transfers and went to day 5.

The coordinator is a bit no nonsense. The nursing staff has some turn over but they are generally very nice. The retrieval team is different than the clinic nurses.

This clinic is cutting edge and attached to the medical school They will do a good job of giving you realistic expectations. You will see almost all of the doctors in the practice whom have very different personalities. Who performs your retrieval and transfer is based on scheduling. They have Saturday and sunday appointments also. Sometimes the front desk is not as awesome as the rest of the clinic and hold times can be annoying if you call at a busy time. I do get phone calls returned within 24 hrs. There is also an on call doctor that I have talked ot numerous times. There are also 3 training fellows.

fresh cycles were 15000 all inclusive but you got a discount for repeat business. Frozen cycles were around 5000, separate ultrasounds were 300, medications were not sold by the clinic and had to be purchased at specialty pharmacies. 6 years ago IUI was 600

She originally recommended against multiple embryo transfers because I had gotten pregnant with two cycles back to back. I didn't mind twins so we started out on 2 embryos. When we failed and looked at our finances, we started doing 3 at a time. She recommended single blastocyst transfer also because of their increased twinning rates. I don't mind twins so I had 2 and 2 took. They never allowed you to put in more than 3.

Dr. Bocca is very nice and understanding. She seems knowledgeable. I felt like she has our best interest at heart. It's been easy to communicate with her and her staff. I found that if I call I might wait for a response but with an email I get a response within 24 hours.

Be prepared with questions (write them down). If you need to get in touch with her(her nurses) send an email using FMH (Follow My Health) portal. Don't stress about money- they work with you on payment plan.

Dr. Bocca took the time to explain all procedures to my husband and I. Someone from her staff always replied to my emails. After my hysteroscopy, which she performed, she called the next day to make sure I was doing ok.

I have PCOS and don't ovulate on my own, I also have one blocked tube. Dr. Bocca put me on Femara/Letrozole because it makes me produce more eggs than Clomid and the chances of ovulating on the side with open tube are higher. My husband has liw morphology so she recommended IUI. We tried 2 but they were unsuccessful. We're considering going straight to ivf now

Nurses are nice and knowledgeable.

I enjoed my visits with Dr. Bocca because she's my primary doctor there and knows my chart. Unfortunately I didn't always see her. A lot of times for ultrasounds and IUIs, I would see a different doctor and it seemed as if they didn't read my chart so I had to remind them of things.

My insurance didn't cover treatment: First visit - $190 Other visits -$60 Hysteroscopy $2,000 HSG -$600 IUI -$250 Sperm wash for IUI -$140

She has been amazing and very thourough with our treatment plan. We are a week away from retrieval and she has given us confidence every step of the way with the treatment plan. She was also easy to set appointments with which was amazing. She also recommended a specialist for my husband which made things smooth for our family planning.

Dr Bocca truly is one of the best Dr I have seen and she is very kind, upfront, and honest about treatment plans and expectations. Come with questions because she will take the time to go through everything in detail with you.

Dr. Bocca was very personable and remembered specifics about our life. She was very thorough with her treatment plan and I really felt like she cared and was very knowledgeable which was comforting. She was very kind and always upfront with expectations. We are almost to our egg retrieval and she has been wonderful every step of the way.

We have male factor infertility (blockage) and IVF with ICSI is our treatment option. We are currently doing stimulation leading up to our egg retrieval. We will then be implanting 2 embryos if all goes well with the retrieving and fertilization. Our fertility issues as a couple are male only and so far I have been on the low end for stimulation drugs (follistim) as my hormone level are good. Medication seems to be working great and my dosages for stims has stayed the same since starting 4 days ago (250cc). So far we are right on track with our treatment plan and have had no surprises.

Our coordinator was very thorough and super straight forward with medication and timeline.

Overall the Jones institute is a really great place. The typical wait time was on occasion a bit lengthy but only for certain visits such as talking about medication and timeline. But overall easy to set up appointments and their communication was excellent. I always got a call back from the nursing staff right away or my Dr. The billing department was not the best to get a hold of. I always had to leave a voicemail and would maybe hear back 2 days later sometimes I would have to call back again. Once you got a hold of them they were knowledgeable but it wasn't fun to always get a VM.

1,500 - ICSI 12,000 - IVF w/ ICSI 2,757 - medication 400 - anesthesia Initial Consultations - 260 Hydrosonogram- 1,000 Pre blood work - 300

We decided to do 2 embryos for our first round as I am young and healthy. Our doctor would never do more than 2 and that is something we would not want either.

The initial visit was very knowledgeable and left us with a good feeling of where to start. There wasn't much of a breakdown surrounding cost and what we could expect in term of finances we had to do some research. Overall it was a great experience for someone who had no idea what to expect.

I recommend that you ask all the questions that you could at the initial consultation because you will not be able to have many opportunities' to do so. Come prepared with all of your questions written down so that you don't miss anything. She was very great about answering any questions or concerns.

The initial consultation the Dr. was very warm and welcoming but we hardly interacted with her following the initial visit. The Hospital we went to did a great job but it does not focus on the LGBT community so it was gray areas when it came to some of the care and resources.

We didn't have a specific nurse assigned to our care we pretty much encountered whoever was available during the times of necessary appointments. I don't recall having any bad experiences everyone was professional and had a friendly manner but it wasn't a one on one type of care feeling.

This clinic had a overall good experience it's not as personalized that you would want it to be but everyone we encountered along the way had a very professional and friendly manner. I would like to see more resources geared toward the LGBT community and families. It would be great if you were assigned a personal nurse or had more of a one on one feeling with the doctor. We didn't know in the process that following the initial consultation we would not really meet with Dr. Bocca again. It did take 3 cycles over the course of 3 years so I guess the timing puts a strain on the process.

The Process for IUI cost average $345 per insemination, $50-$100 for consultation, $100 per hormone injection per cycle, $25 for co pays, suppositories averaged $40- $50, Ultra Sounds $50- $100, blood work $0.00 included with insurance

During my experience with Dr. Bocca I felt that she was very knowledgeable. However, I did not feel that she explained things as thoroughly as I would have liked. During my IUI the results from my husbands sample came back much lower than any other tests had. She did mention this to me during the procedure and noted that we would still have a small chance of it working. however, I got the idea that she knew it probably wasn't going to work, so I'm wondering if we even should have gone through with it or waited to find out what was going on from his end.

When she tells you something during an appointment don't feel that you need to just go with it and let them be on their way. Ask the Dr. to sit down and explain things to you thoroughly.

Dr. Bocca was always very pleasant, open and honest with me. She told me when unexpected things came up during a cycle. She was very sympathetic when my IUI and transfer did not work and was ready to get back to work to figure out what we could do next time.

I think that this is a great clinic. During my IUI process I felt very optimistic until the day of the procedure when we got the bad news about my husbands sample. I feel that people are spending a lot of money and the clinic does a good job to be accommodating to patients and they get you in and out so that you are not sitting around waiting for long periods of time.

The IUI procedure cost close to $1,200 with everything involved.

I genuinely felt safer in my decision process knowing she was behind them. She was easy to talk to and gave great advice and didn’t make me feel like an idiot for asking hundreds of questions! She helped guide us to make decisions that worked best for us!

Be honest with her about your feelings, she won’t know unless you tell her

I can tell the genuine care i her voice and actions in helping us choose options

So we had come to a cross roads where we could go towards IVF , but she wanted us to try an ovulation induction that required a lot more medication including injectibles - follistim and ovidrel - my body reacted positively and we were able to conceive : unfortunately that pregnancy ended up in miscarriage after 10 weeks and 2 days but we had not been able to get pregnant before this so truly grateful to continue with Dr Bocca on this journey!

Eager and willing to answer my hundreds of questions and with a smile on their face

Sometimes EVMs is difficult with their billing - I had been charged double in the past but once i brought it to their attention they fixed it immediately!! They never have a problem if I’m running late due to traffic and can squeeze me in - so grateful!!!

My insurance didn’t cover it with one job, and now it does

Doctor Bocca was kind and very good at explaining procedures before we actually did them. She was always very optimistic. I was diagnosed with polyps and went in to see her after several failed treatments. She was able to remove the polyps and explained every step of what she was going to do and then for post-op, she thoroughly explained the results and asked for my input on the next steps.

Learn as much as you can and be your own advocate.

She was always on top of things and responded quickly whenever I had questions or concerns.

It was easy to get appointments. They had multiple locations that were convenient for medication monitoring. The waiting rooms were comfortable and the other doctors I had interactions with were friendly and kind.

IUI's were about $800 total with medications, sperm wash, ultrasound, and actual IUI.

Dr. Bocca is very thorough and responds to all messages. She answers all questions and makes sure you understand before you leave the office. If you send a email she always gets back to you within the same day. She will make timelines to better help you understand how the treatment will work. At the follicle scans she is so good about including my husband and I in explaining.

She is so caring and understanding and goes out of her way to make you comfortable and answer any questions.

It takes a while to get a appointment but I've never had a long waiting time at my appointments. Everyone is very nice and supportive. The clinic is almost a 2 hour drive and I wish it could be closer.