Victor Fujimoto

Dr. Fujimoto is just the right combination (for me) of passionate and clinical. He took plenty of time to walk through all the options for us - as number of insurance cycles and age and timing were all of the essence. He had a number of suggestions for working around insurance which I thought was really keen of him to even discuss with us. His clinical approach is clear and concise. Every time I asked a question (why didn't I get my period, is my lining supposed to be that thick? what EXACTLY does it mean that you slowed down my medications) he answered it and did not rush, was not condescending and always followed up to ensure I really understood. He does not have what I would call a "delicate" bedside manner, but a warm pat on the leg and a smile and a let's get you a baby attitude when he leaves the room just always made me feel like he was totally on my team. Like a really great little league coach that you never forget. :)

Don't be discouraged if he talks over you. It might seem rude but it's not. He is just full of information and you can see it bubble over and he just wants to share his knowledge. Just be patient and repeat yourself. I said "hold on" a number of times and he was very receptive to that.

UCSF is a very busy clinic. It is a teaching hospital and therefore you do not always see the same doctor or nurse and it's rare to have your actual doctor perform your monitoring or retrieval. I got incredibly lucky and because of his on call schedule, Dr. Fujimoto ended up doing 3 of my monitoring appointments as well as my retrieval (therefore the question later on in this review re: the topic of how often I saw my doctor and did they perform the procedures should be taken into consideration - I got lucky).They run their clinic like clockwork. This can be a bit off putting if you were looking for a more personalized approach and can perhaps make you feel more like a "number". It worked for me because it is a highly emotional situation, and this approach made that easier for me to handle. It also is very great for work schedules, I was always in and out quickly. But every person there is wonderful. The front desk, the phlebotomists, the nurses - so kind hearted. Even with the busyness, I always felt like they aren't just treating a "fertility patient" - they taking care of ME and they SEE ME. They all truly show empathy and care with every interaction.

OCP Antagonist Protocol 7/21: Cycle Day 2 - Eskyce (Birth control) 8/06: Cycle Day 17 - last active birth control pill 8/09: Baseline US 8/11: Gonal F 225, Menopur 2 vials (150 units) Continue all meds 8/15: First monitoring appointment. Reduced GF to 150 units 8/16: Start Centrotide before 11am, continue all other meds 8/21: Stopped all meds, HCG 5,000 trigger at 9:30pm 8/23: ER 19 eggs retrieved 14 fertilized 9 to PGS 1 PGS tested embryo waiting for FET October 2018. (My first cycle with a different doctor was less eggs and embryos, 2 fresh transferred that failed, and ultimately resulted in 1 PGS tested embryo frozen. Relatively same results, but who knows why those 2 fresh transfers failed.)

Danielle is the first person I spoke to when I expressed wanting a new Doctor (who ended up being Dr. Fujimoto). She spent a good 20 mins on the phone with me to understand who I am and what doctor would be a good fit for me. She works in partnership with Anna, who I never met. The two of them seem very overworked but still organized, and there were some vacations and days off that seemed like someone was always covering for someone else. They always apologize for any slowness or confusion (there rarely was any, I didn't even have to call for help with medication once they sent in the order). Don't get me wrong - this was actually never a problem for me. I worried it would be. But I got all the info I needed when I needed it and they were very kind hearted.

I believe in teaching hospitals and think that is a strength in and of itself. If you are looking for someone to get super creative with how to make things happen for you, I'm not sure this is the right place but both of my protocols have been pretty "textbook" antagonist protocols, so hard for me to judge. It is not a boutique fertility clinic - understand that up front. It isn't a weakness, it just is what it is.

I paid $0 because I'm very lucky to have great insurance (at a job I hate, but hey, beggars can't be choosers). Overall: $5k FET ER: $15k Meds - depends on where you get them filled. They offer "self pay" which he said was "better than military rates".

UCSF is VERY adamant that their goal is a singleton birth. They give you a chart up front that shows age and issue and number they will transfer. In my case, I have 2 PGS embryos and he was 100% willing to do both. (My last cycle with different doctor also transferred 2 fresh, which was their standard recommendation and also on the recommendation of the lab.)

Dr. Fujimoto is very down to earth and warm and has access to the latest research. He was honest about what the research supported, and what aspects of diagnosis and treatment he simply couldn't answer (based on the research). Sometimes I had to be more proactive than I would have liked to raise different options (such as an ERA test). He also put me in the driver's seat more than I would have expected - for example, one time he asked what dose of a medication I thought I should take.

Do your own research and be prepared to ask questions -- he may not raise all issues you should consider, and he may not fully talk through issues unless you push him.

All doctors and nurses were very warm and compassionate. However, sometimes they had to be reminded multiple times of my unique circumstances.

Nursing staff and coordinator were very warm and compassionate and responsive. However, they sometimes had to be reminded of my specific situation -- for example, the calendars I received were often incorrect or reflected the wrong protocol.

The clinic is absolutely top of the line and has the latest research. The staff was warm and caring - even staff members you might see only once. They also are able to help patients get medications at low prices - I saved thousands of dollars. Wait times for an initial appointment can be months.

I purchased a package that cost $15,000 for one retrieval (including ICSI) and two transfers. PGS was $2775 more, and I paid about $2600 for additional tests and services. So, about $20,000 total.

I was surprised that the doctor made it sound like more of an open-ended decision -- I would have expected him to recommend eSET and educate me on the risks of multiples more strongly than he did. He did, however, recommend transferring a single embryo.

We met on my first visit with my wife present so we could start talking about what it would take for us to start a family. I come from a medical background, but a totally different field, so I knew some things, but still needed a good amount of background information and anticipatory guidance. He sat down with both of us, which I appreciated, and laid out what we could expect. He explained the blood work we'd need and the potential ancillary testing. I did feel a bit pressured to get an HSG and the genetic testing, even though neither was something I really wanted. I think it was around that point that I felt like he perhaps saw me more as a woman with infertility than a young lesbian with her wife trying to start a family. At the time, I had no such diagnosis, and had never had any sort of blood work to suggest infertility, so I was a bit taken aback when the ICD9 code associated with the visit was for Anovulatory Infertility. Later down the road, that changed, but it wasn't something that was known at the time of our initial encounter. Dr. Fujimoto was knowledgeable about the process though, and even went the extra mile to print off a recent study from a journal to show me more concrete examples of conception data in my demographic group. I remember him saying "My concern isn't getting your pregnant, it's not getting you TOO pregnant". Subsequently, I felt like my access to him was slightly guarded through his gatekeeper/assistant, who would forward my emails to her on to him.

Come in with a list of questions in advance--when directly approached, he is direct in response.

I think that he appropriately met me where I was--I come from a medical background and wanted to discuss data and details, which is what we did. I may have projected more confidence than I had because I was nervous, but there wasn't much in the way of assessing me/my wife's psychological state of being, other than mentioning there was a therapist on staff.

I had an elevated Anti-Muellerian Hormone and a history of irregularity, so we went with Clomid for our IUI. I took 5 days of 50mg Clomid each night (CD2-CD6). Then on CD10 I had a transvaginal ultrasound, but my dominant follicles were still too small. So we are planning for a repeat on CD13 with a tentative plan of doing a trigger HCG injection (Ovidrel) prior to IUI.

Danielle was actually super helpful during the process. She was our primary contact point as we figured a lot of things out for ourselves. We had some back and forth on whether or not to use a known donor or a sperm bank, and she explored both of those options with us. She was very responsive via email and gave quick responses. Every time there was a new hoop in my care to jump through, she helped to delineate it and help us through it.

The clinic is pretty great--in a fairly new building that has other things in it like a restaurant. I don't know why, but somehow it made me feel better that I didn't have to walk into some sort of clinic labeled from the outside INFERTILITY in giant red letters. It felt nice to go somewhere that felt more private, but still spacious and nice. The lobby is nice. I also appreciate that there are dedicated financial coordinators who email you. They are a little bit hard to get an immediate response to, but at least I didn't feel like there were surprises in this (very expensive) process. The rooms were always very clean, and there was a quick turnaround from check-in until the time that I was seen. The Nurse Practitioner led class on IUI and injectables was very helpful as well.

The bloodwork bill that my insurance generated for the preliminary tests (CBC, HIV, RPR, Rubella, GTT, Prolactin, FSH, Estrogen, Testosterone, Free Testosterone, Estrone, Blood type, Insulin, Glucose, LFTs, Hgb A1C, CRP, Cholesterol pannel, VZV, Androstenedione, SHBG, AMH, Estradiol, TSH) was about $6,100 plus about $300 of doctor/lab worker fees. The IUI Package was $1566 plus an additional $288 thaw fee. Each sperm vial from the sperm bank was $795. The Clomid and Ovidrel were both partially covered by my insurance, so I paid something to the tune of $40 total.

We got pregnant on the first try. But I would not attribute this to Fujimoto, rather the other people and the clinic. He was a little checked-out. But friendly. I think we saw him twice, but had probably 7 or 8 different visits. I found the residents to be FAR better than him.

Sure, use him, but don't expect much from him. You will get the value and interaction with residents and nurses.

Fujimoto often forgot basic facts of my profile, e.g. during an exam (i.e. when I was on the table, legs wide open!) he asked me if I had been pregnant before, something we had reviewed twice before. Fujimoto also explained "next steps" to us that we had already completed. Fujimoto also asked us to fill out paperwork already filled out twice.

I had MASSIVE allergic reactions to the progesterone in oil. I reported this repeatedly and no one took me seriously. They thought I was complaining about giving myself shots. In retrospect, I should have complained even more. The pre-transfer week and weeks immediately thereafter were awful. Worse than giving birth.

I had MASSIVE allergic reactions to the progesterone in oil. I reported this repeatedly to the nurses and no one took me seriously. They thought I was complaining about giving myself shots. In retrospect, I should have complained even more. The pre-transfer week and weeks immediately thereafter were awful. Worse than giving birth.

The results were great. Pregnant on the first try with the first transfer. You can't argue with that. (Also, note, not using own eggs, so statistically we were highly likely.)

Strongly advocated for single transfer, which is what we wanted anyway.

We had a great experience with Dr. Fujimoto. I think he really understood our set of circumstances and put protocols together that led to success. As previously mentioned, he is a great blend of caring and candid.

Dr. Fujimoto was kind and caring and always spent as much time with us as we needed. He was straightforward, but at the same time helped us weigh the pros and cons of certain decisions (in helping us make those decisions).

I went through one Antagonist IVF cycle with Follistim, Menopur, and Ganirilex. My body responded pretty aggressively and resulted in 24 eggs and ultimately 9 five-day blasts. We transferred 2 fresh blasts, and neither took. Dr. Fujimoto encouraged us to not get too upset, as he suspected it was possible my body rejected the embryos because it was still too overwhelmed from the aggressive response to the stimulation meds. For the frozen embryo round, he added Letrozole to the protocol (studies show it helps for women with endometriosis). We transferred two embryos and one was successful.

Anna was my in cycle nurse and she was excellent. Very responsive, very clear in her communication, compassionate, etc.

I had a great experience with this clinic. They always ran on time, facilities are brand new, and all of the doctors/nurses I saw were excellent. My only complaint about the clinic is between the pre-cycle coordinator, patient navigator, and billing dept, things can get very disjointed. I am lucky in that my insurance covered my procedures, but UCSF did very little upfront to help coordinate with my insurance (I had to stay on top of it every day to make sure things didn't fall through the cracks like required tests, prior authorizations, etc.). And there were multiple times I would have not gotten my medications on time if I hadn't been so on top of it.

I was lucky in that insurance covered so I was out-of-pocket relatively little.

Dr. Fujimoto is very knowledgeable and very experienced. He will tell you the truth and not sugarcoat it. If you present him with an option he is often willing to try it, but he tends to favor a very traditional and conservative approach.

Be proactive, and research your options.

Dr. Fujimoto was very professional, and he seemed interested in me as an individual, but I felt that the treatment options that he tried were part of a standard set of treatments that were not particularly sensitive to what might have resulted in success.

IUI w/ clomid; IUI w/ follistim; IUI w/ Menopur; IVF w/ Menopur; mini IVF w/ clomid

There was one nurse practitioner who was quite competent and compassionate, the rest were pretty dismissive, and although they saw me many times over three years never bothered to learn my name or take an interest in me. One whose name I blocked out told me that I was wasting my time, and that I was never going to get pregnant with my own eggs. I told the doctor that she should never speak to me again.

UCSF is a big place, and they have a big program. It's easy to feel lost in the machine like environment that they create. If you have standard needs they will work for you. If you require more individualized care they are not the place for you.

I was covered through insurance so do not know the cost of care.

After nearly 2 years of grueling treatment with him, without success, he told me due to advanced ovarian aging (I was 29!) I wasn't ever going to be able to carry a pregnancy with my own eggs and should consider adoption or egg donor. Luckily I went and got a second opinion (at CCRM) and thankfully they insisted to retest everything as they discovered Dr Fujimoto had completely undiagnosed a uterine septum that was causing the losses I had the few times I was able to get pregnant through the treatments. He had diagnosed me with crappy eggs and never bothered to check the uterus! CCRM fixed the septum and despite my crappy eggs, I was able to get pregnant and keep the pregnancies, and now I have 2 kids.

If you want great bedside manner, he is lovely. If you want/need anal, thorough, painfully detail oriented, I wouldn't recommend him.

His bedside manner was good-- very comforting and kind. That was not my problem with him.

I did 3 injectable IUIs, 2 IVFs. 1 IVF resulted in a chemical pregnancy. Turns out I found out through another clinic after I left UCSF I had a uterine septum that meant all those treatments (time/money/pain) were for nothing and never would have worked until the septum was fixed (which the other clinic did in a simple outpatient surgery).

Fine if you don't have any complications or a super hard case. challenge is you don't know if you are one until you try, so I don't recommend this clinic.

I selected Dr Fujimoto because he dealt with infertility issues of his own. He was very matter of fact about what our options were and the results we would likely see. While in his care, and suffering many loses and obstacles, he remained a great partner in this journey. I have recommend him to others as well.

UCSF sees a LOT of patients and his team can be forgetful at times. I advice you to stay on top of him and his team. While they do great work, they do have a lot of patients, so they might forget some small details you discussed last time.

Dr Fujimoto and the team were great. They really did wish us the best. Some of the team was awesome, always remembered us and honestly cared about our outcome. As mentioned before, you still need to stay on top of your protocol as some of the assistance have a lot of doctors they are supporting, so they might forget a few things. But for the most part, the staff was awesome.

Stephanie who I always saw and think it was one of his main nurses was amazing. She went through all the ups and downs with us. So wonderful.

Overall a great experience. The care teams were top notch. It would have been nice to see Dr. Fujimoto for all my procedures, but he did most of the important ones (egg retrieval, transfer) and all the other doctors, nurses, and NPs that worked with me were great. My only complaint of the practice is the billing team. I had to send them multiple emails and call them multiple times before receiving responses to my questions. This happened each time I needed to reach out, so I don't think it was an anomaly.

Great communication throughout

Strengths: high performing and knowledgeable team, availability was excellent for appointments, compassionate, clear they knew what they were doing and have a high % of previous successful patients Weakness: Billing department, seeing multiple people throughout

IUI cycles were about $700 per cycle. IVF about $16k + $4k genetic testing + $1k medication (discounted for out of pocket)

I feel he did ok. He was almost too passive in his communication. My biggest issue is that he knew I had Endo but waited until the 4th year of treatment to introduce a $10 pill regime that has been proven to be a near magical pill. It was the only reason I got pregnant at all. It should have been part of a much earlier course of treatment.

Clarify at the beginning and end of an appointment or email. He has a lot of patients, don't expect them to remember you.

Dr. F has a decent manner, but has confused me with one of my egg donors and even changed a medication due to the confusion. He continued to confuse me with her for a better part of a year even when being corrected.

Anna was very compassionate and a wonderful communicator. If she wasn't as wonderful, I don't think I would have made it for as long as I did.

While the overall desired outcome was achieved, UCSF left much to be desired from an administrative standpoint. We also had one notable mishap that created unnecessary duress related to the embryo implantation

Be willing to move to IVF faster as opposed to continuing with unsuccessful cycles of IUI

The doctor took time to explain procedures and understand our desired outcomes. He seemed to care that we felt comfortable and well informed.

Upbeat and professional

He is gifted and compassionate and really really wants success. Like I said he has been through it himself and was beyond thrilled for us and our success.

Again he has been through this. He is gifted and will help if he can.

He seemed to have a tough exterior but omg he seemed sad when we were and thrilled when we were. He had a ton of sympathy for our struggle. He has been through infertility himself so he knows!

I called her crying a few times and she was supportive and wonderful