Thomas Vaughn

Dr. Vaughn always is upfront about risk, what to expect and chances. He is calm but direct and changes his approach if you are not understanding terminology. I never felt rushed or like I couldn't ask more questions.

Dont wait. If you are having trouble go early and often. No question is off limits, make sure you understand and have all questions answered.

Dr. Vaughn knows me and my story. He never forgets what happened before, he asks about my children by name.

Clomid and iui was used for several years, because inwas not ready to admit i needed to go to the next step. Dr. Vaughn was patient and allowed me to go at my own speed based on comfortability. We added gonal f injections with iui and progesterone and had 1 miscarraige and 1 live birth. After that we went to ivf with gonal f, progesterone and one other drug that I cant think of. I had 1 negative, 1 tubal pregnancy and 1 live birth (one other live birth but we are not 100% sure if it was from tubal or natural)

Quick to return calls / emails same day, awesome about communicating results quickly. Always great about giving you time to process what they said and ask questions before they got off the phone. Excellent bedside manner.

Front office is nice, clean and well kept. Everyone was courteous. Even in billing, I was always treated with respect and compassion about our situation. They were helpful with providing ways to save and always did everything they could to assist with insurance filing and reimnursements.

10k per ivf cycle, 3k frozen transfer

My doctor recommended 1 or 2 embryo transfers not any more. My age and history was part of his decision.

Dr. Thomas Vaughn is punctual and I appreciate that he respects his patience’s time. He’s a great listener and I feel he has my health and safety in mind when suggesting different protocols. After each failed IUI and FET’s he’s called me every single time to check in and to answer any questions I might have had.

If you don’t understand all the abbreviations, ask. Ask lots of questions, write them down prior to your appointment

Dr. Vaughn is wonderful, though our fertility journey isn’t over I’ve been very satisfied under his care. He’s honest, I trust him & appreciate his kind bedside manner. We have experienced more downs than ups but his position attitude has kept me wanting to drive forward

4 cycles of Timed intercourse clomid/Ovidrel first iui was Clomid/Ovidrel 2nd - 4th IUI Femara/Ovidrel 1st FET estradiol, Crinone & PVS 2nd FET Estradiol, Crinone & PVS Upcoming 3rd FET Femara, estradiol, Ovidrel & PVS (potentially scheduled for 3/20/18)

I started my ivf journey in October 2017, prior to this we were trying different protocols and I wasn’t assigned a nurse until IVF. All the other nurses I encountered were wonderful, caring, attentive, followed up and knew me by my first name. Once I stared IVF and was assigned Jaime, this started my displeasures with the clinic. Jamie is forgetful, hard to get answers from, distracted and at times makes me feel as though I’m annoying her. I feel I’ve developed a better relationship with the on call nurse than my IVF nurse. The only time I’ve met with Jaime in person was to do my initial injection consult, other than that it’s primarily emails with the occasional phone call. I’ve asked to see her after a baseline appointment and she pawned me off to a different nurse. After my 2nd Failed FET I had to tell her I wanted to meet with her because I had questions I wanted to go over in person with a difference in progesterone days before FET. I remember something different than what she had written. We set an appointment and the day of she emailed me and had to push it back because she had forgotten a prior commitment. Dr. Vaughn had an emergency and was out of office unexpectedly, everyone was rescheduled but of course my nurse forgot to reschedule me until I called. I simply don’t trust Jaime at all.

The overall clinic is great, the location is easy to find, bathrooms clean, waiting room comfortable, exam rooms clean and warm. Front desk employees are helpful and willing to assist with any questions and guidance.

So far since October 2017 - current we have spent $31,000 NOT including all the other cycles like IUI and timed intercourse. Between Texas fertility, Ovation Fertility, CPL and the Austin Surgery Center. MY insurance doesn’t cover anything regarding fertility.

The first two FET Dr. Vaughn would only transfer a single embryo. Now that we are on our 3rd he is open to transferring two embryos

He's obviously incredibly experienced and has an amazing reputation in Austin. He's older gentleman, and I was initially a little nervous about being judged for pursuing a modern, slightly nontraditional family, but never felt that way. I did get the impression my case was a little...boring for him? My fertility issues were minimal, and in the decision to be more aggressive (with the health risks that involves) vs play the waiting game (with the financial & emotional stress that involves) he definitely leaned toward the latter.

I'm not unhappy with the care I received--I never felt rushed or dismissed by Dr. Vaughn. However it's a busy clinic, I wasn't a particularly complicated case, and just didn't require the attention some patients might. He was patient with my questions and concerns, but our appointments were quick and mostly business.

My first cycle was completely unmedicated, and my period arrived nearly a week earlier than planned. Dr. Vaughn thought either I hadn't ovulated despite a positive OPK, or I had a short leutal phase. I explained that this period was very out of the norm for me, but for the next cycle he recommended I take Femara to ensure I ovulate, and 200mg of progesterone 4 days after the IUI. The side effects of the progesterone were extremely unpleasant and for the next cycle he recommended I cut them in half to 100mg. After my third failed cycle I expressed desire for a laparoscopy to confirm my self-diagnosed endometriosis (I had discussed my pelvic pain with Dr. Vaughn, but symptoms were mild-ish and nothing showed up on the ultrasound, and he seemed ambivalent about progressing to lap until my third failed IUI). I had a laparoscopy and hysteroscopy done by my regular OB/Gyn so insurance would cover the procedures and she found and ablated one small lesion and removed an adhesion. Fourth IUI back at the fertility clinic, preformed by a different doctor due to timing- I got my first positive.

This is the only clinic I went to, so it's hard for me to compare. They have a reputation for being "traditional" but I think that is in reference to medical treatments not values. And honestly, my experience was limited to IUI, which is far less involved and invasive than IVF, so I don't know as much as an IVF patient would. It's a busy clinic, but the wait was never too bad, although appointments were always on the quick side. Very responsive by phone and email which was always reassuring. Easy to schedule.

Pretty much $200 for everything--ultrasounds and IUI. Fertility evaluation was covered by insurance.

Dr. Vaughn is incredibly thorough and direct, while also positive and compassionate at the same time. He always is kind and keeps things light, without trivializing what we're going through. He truly seems invested in producing a successful pregnancy in his patients. He has also been sensitive and thoughtful to the fact that we are price-sensitive, since we have extremely limited coverage through our insurance.

He's quiet and thoughtful, but don't perceive that as non-caring.

Dr. Vaughn has always treated me personally and he has designed our plan according to what is (or isn't) happening with my body. He never compares my situation to other people or stats.

We began our treatment with clomid + IUI, along with some standard blood tests. We did 4 IUIs and none of them produced a pregnancy. From there, he looked back at previous x-rays from my normal ob/gyn and noticed that I had a uterine septum, so he recommended surgery to repair that. During the surgery, he also found some uterine fibroids and corrected those. Now, we are moving into IVF.

Our IVF is Jaime Burkott, and we couldn't be more pleased with her. She is extremely attentive and communicates exceptionally well. She keeps us organized so that this doesn't seem overwhelming. She's also genuinely kind and excited for us.

Texas Fertility Center is one of the larger clinics in Austin, with lots of locations. I always go to the clinic on Mopac & Far West. They are extremely friendly and organized. Appointments do run behind sometimes, but they are also very accommodating if you are late, so this doesn't bother me. They are very popular and always busy, but you never feel like a number.

Our IUIs, plus the surrounding appointments, usually cost us around $600-800 a month. Our IVF is going to come in around $16K.

Dr. Vaughn prefers eSET. He says they have the highest success rate with that type of transfer. He only considers transferring multiples if the woman is closer to 40 or if there are underlying medical reasons that indicate this is a good idea.

Dr. Vaughn was overall great to work with. He seemed to truly care about helping us start our family. I was disappointed that he seemed unwilling to try something else when our own-egg IVF cycle failed. He jumped straight to donor eggs instead of being open to trying a different protocol. While donor eggs are what we ultimately proceeded with, I didn't feel listened to, and it felt like he was giving up very quickly on my 29-year-old eggs. I was also disappointed that he wasn't more disappointed or perplexed by the fact that nothing grew past fertilization. Our IVF cycle was a overall very frustrating to us, but it didn't seem that way to him. But as far as his bedside manner and his walking us through treatments during our IUIs and everything leading up to egg retrieval in our IVF, he was wonderful.

Be proactive and advocate for yourself.

I felt like a human until our own-egg IVF cycle failed and we decided to go abroad for our donor egg cycle. We needed the clinic's help for monitoring, and we were paying out of pocket for ultrasounds, but they were very unaccommodating. I told them that I felt like, since they were getting the big bucks from us for a donor egg cycle and only getting a few hundred from us for some ultrasounds, we no longer mattered. We only mattered if we were building a family their way.

I had no trouble producing follicles and eggs, so we started with letrazole and IUIs. Three cycles of that before moving on to a single IUI cycle using an injectable medication. We did this cycle only to test my body's response to the injectable medication in preparation for IVF. At that point, Dr. Vaughn was pretty sure IUI wasn't going to work for us. For IVF, we did a fairly high dose of injectable medications to get as many eggs as possible, but by the time egg retrieval came around, we were risking too many larger follicles trying to get the smaller ones to catch up, so we called it and got fewer than we'd hoped for. After our IVF, Dr. Vaughn said he wouldn't change the protocol if we tried own-egg IVF again, despite the outcome.

Laura was wonderful at communicating. Some of the other nurses showed less compassion, especially those who we dealt with less often. Once we decided to only do monitoring through the clinic to prepare for using donor eggs overseas, the nursing staff was much less friendly.

The clinic is organized, though they tend to run late for appointments. They're great about weekend appointments for monitoring and procedures. You won't necessarily see your doctor, but someone will be there. If you have issues with sample delivery for a procedure, as we once did, the on-call nurses are wonderful about walking you through what to do and keeping you calm. Once we decided to use donor eggs at an overseas clinic, the clinic staff became much colder and much less accommodating to our needs. I told the nurse manager that it felt as though they only cared about helping build families when we were lining their pockets through large treatments, and not when we were simply giving ourselves the best chance for success.

Insurance didn't cover much. Ultrasound monitoring was about $200 per ultrasound. The IUIs were something like $500 each, I believe. The total cost of our IVF cycle was around $15,000, but we received a refund since we didn't make it to transfer. That part was a bit confusing, but they made it as smooth as they possibly could given the circumstances.

Our first meeting with Dr Vaughn was interesting. He was not particularly warm and friendly. But he was honest and provided good information. We decided to move forward. As we actually got to know him over those next several months, he became friendlier and we could tell he truly cared. He is very good at what he does. The first time I became pregnant he was very honest and made us aware that the "numbers" from the blood work did not look promising but he also made sure we saw it as a positive that I COULD ACTUALLY GET PREGNANT. Ultimately, we did miscarry early on in the pregnancy which we were not surprised from Dr Vaughn's counseling. Our next session of IUI, he let us know we had twins and seemed truly excited for us. We took the boys up to visit him and the nurses when they were about 1 yr old and he was very kind.

Do not judge him on the first couple meetings with him. He warms up through the process. If you're looking for a hand holder, just know it will take a little time.

Dr Vaughn spent a lot of time with my husband and I answering our multiple questions. Advised us on all of our options due to our age, frustration and discussing moving forward with IVF. Ultimately the last IUI cycle we were going to try worked but it was nice to feel informed.

I truly don't remember all the drugs. The details I do remember are this: There is lots of blood work! Dr Vaughn did an exploratory surgery on me to try to diagnose my infertility. I had a previous myomyectomy (fibroid removal) with by normal ob gyn before I began treatment with Dr V. Dr V found some endrometriosis and the fibroid growing back so took care of what he could during that laproscopic surgery. We used fertility injections. I was seen very regularly for bllod work and ultrasounds while taking the injections to monitor the follicles for size. My first round I ovulated early so we did not get to do the IUI. My second round of injections they added another shot to keep me from ovulating. Once my follicles were of the proper size to release, I had another shot to actually stimulate the ovulation. The next day my husband would provide a sperm sample that they washed and the IUI was done that afternoon. I think it took a couple times for the meds to be correct and they learn your cycles. I do remember one cycle my ovaries were overstimulated because of the fertility drugs and I had to rest for a month which at the time was very frustrating. My first pregnancy resulted in miscarriage. But the second (which was just the cycle after) I found out we were pregnancy with twins and the numbers looked great. Dr V followed me for the first 12 weeks.

The nurses and staff were always very kind and efficient. Could not have asked for more.

I have no complaints with the clinic. Just be patient as this could be a really long process. They want to succeed as much as you want to be pregnant. This process becomes all consuming. I didn't realize it at the time but it is truly all consuming. I didn't have any other kids so this was my primary focus. You will also need a job that is understanding because there are many many appointments during the process for the monitoring.

I was lucky and my insurance paid for a lot of my visits. They covered the testing and surgery to diagnosis my infertility. I remember having to pay for the fertility injections, of course and my husbands labs and sperm washing.

His bedside manner is spectacular. Always remembers who you are, your case, and is optimistic. He has definitely seen a lot of cases and his expertise is something I trust. He retested my tubes after a doctor said my tubes were blocked, but they were just swollen from a procedure. When you have to see someone as frequently has once a week, you want them to remember you and he truly seems to care about all his patients.

If you are impatient, he may not be the doctor for you. He’s very calm and humble. Come with questions, he will take the time to answer all of them.

Dr.Vaughn has amazing bedside manner. I saw another doctor at the clinic but each visit was like I was a new patient. Dr. Vaughn is patient and always optimistic, which helps in a gloomy time.

For my IVF cycle he used a lower dose to see how I’d react.

I liked my pre-IVF nurse better... she was more compassionate. Both IVF nurses I’ve had seem like they have no time for you.

Strengths - quality care, multiple doctors that all converse with one another Weaknesses - can be hard for doctors to build relationships with patience if their load is too large. The wait times can be long for some doctors

So far I’ve spent 27k

We did single embryo transfers each time due to my age.

I love that he has been in this field for a long time. He is funny and kind and took the time to answer all of our questions. He was ready to proceed as fast or slow as we wanted. He did not seem to be in a rush or interested in his next patient, which is something our last doctor did. He is also very gentle during exams.

He’s an old man so it’s kind of like talking to your dad so just be prepared for that aspect.

My emotions, prior knowledge and busy life were all acknowledged.

Exam, genetic testing, looking at egg reserve. Recommended either laparoscopy or IVF but leaving that up to us. We are now deciding which to do.

We are seen immediately, which is huge because our last clinic would leave us waiting for forever to be seen. The nurses are all super sweet and feel like family members. They work as a team and get what needs to be done done.

Again, we are so relieved to be seen promptly. The waiting room is spacious and has a huge fish tank, which is calming to watch before an appointment. Everything is clean and spacious and you aren’t running into other patients when checking out.

Dr Vaughn was always the one to call with any questions or test results. Dr Vaughn did all of my procedures and the only time I wasnt able to see Dr Vaughn is when we had Sunday appointments and he wasnt on call. There was never a time that I left his office unclear of what was next.

the whole process is very overwhelming , but Dr Vaughn will guide you through it all

Dr Vaughn always remembered who we were and always personally called me with any info or test results

I did the Lupron protocol. My treatment was pretty simple since our IVF was due to male fertility issues.

My primary nurse was absolutely amazing. I could get ahold of her any time and she was so helpful

The only weakness was the wait times. They wernt horrible but they could work on that. Everyone in the office truly care and are so helpful. I do wish they offered financing in house. If they did we would have started another round there already.

I feel like they may be a little higher than some clinics and everything has to be paid upfront

Dr Vaughn was very pro single embryo transfer unless you were very addement on it or if he felt like it was best for you.

Thomas Vaughn is one of the kindest, most compassionate doctor and person that I have ever known. He makes you feel so comfortable when you are in his office. He is very calm and explains every thing in detail and finds the positive in everything. He always gave me hope!

Embrace every chance you get to spend with him because he truly is one of the best!

Dr. Vaughn and his entire staff were some of the most amazing, kind people I have ever met. They treated me like I was a person not just a number. They truly care about each and everyone of their patients.

I took Clomid and did IUI's. I always produced a lot of eggs so he felt like this was the best treatment over doing injections. They worked! I have three children because of him!

The staff as well as the other doctor's in his clinic were all just as amazing as Dr. Vaughn!

The clinic was very organized and thorough!

We liked him so much, we didn't want to leave his office after 12 weeks and transfer to our regular obgyn. He was so compassionate and caring. He was smart and paid attention.

Do exactly what he says! He knows what he is doing.

I genuinely think he really cared for us and wanted our success. I felt like he was invested in this just as much as us. He was smart and knowledgable and always in a good mood. He was positive and made sure we were feeling good about everything at each visit.

They understood our investment and respected our time and were very caring and professional. They treated us like we were celebrities and their only patient.

Dr. Vaughn is very serious and reserved. To some he may appear cold at first, but he's a true professional.

Don't jump to judge Dr. Vaughn, if he seems reserved. Go through a full cycle with him before forming an opinion.

Doctor Vaughn is a very serious, but caring doctor. When it became obvious that IVF egg retrieval would not be feasible, he quickly shared the alternative of embryo donation. It was done in a very balanced, statistical way, and he was supportive of any decision I made.

I don't recall other than a lot of injections and pills.

Just that we never had issues

30,000

Dr. Vaughn is extremely dedicated to his work. He is at the clinic almost every day of the year and is available via the nurses. If you have a procedure on a Friday, he will call you personally on Saturday to check on you.

Listen to all your options and then do tour research. Be tour own advocate. Ask lots of questions and make a plan with your doctor.

Dr. Vaughn is extremely knowledgeable and has a great bedside manner. He founded the clinic and has seen it all. I really like the way he takes the time to explain all of the available options.

Dr. Vaughn likes to do things as naturally as possible.

My nurse Lisa is fantastic. She really seems to care.

This clinic is open 365 days a year so if the cycle day you need something done falls on the weekend then it will happen on the weekend. They do not batch patients. Everything is based on tour personal cycle.

IVF Cycle approximately $20,000.

They prefer single transfers.