Vishvanath C. Karande

Dr. Karande seemed straight forward and honest about treatment and expectations, which I appreciated. Everyone was nice. However, I do feel like they weren't proactive about being informative, like they assumed I knew what was happening without telling me. For example, at our initial consultation it was presented as if we would begin testing immediately (which we did), and begin our cycle the following month. But when the next month arrived, they made me redo the testing I'd already had, as if it was the first time and delayed my cycle by another month. When I questioned the nurse, she acted like it ward the first time I'd been examined despite me telling her I'd already done the baseline tests. It was odd to say the least, and frustrating to have to wait even longer top get started. And no one seemed capable of telling my WHY I had to do it again.

Get your plan in writing. Don't let them just tell you verbally. That way you have a record of it that you can refer to, and there's no delay or confusion due to miscommunication on their part or on yours.

$10k +

Dr. Karande outlined our initial treatment cycle on paper, in person in 2019. I saw him once in a while during treatment, for maybe 5 minutes towards the end of appointments. I don't remember who did the egg retrieval. His partner did the actual fresh egg transfer. At our last appointment of 2019, I felt my feedback about his billing department was brushed off. They didn't improve in the intervening time with storage billing. After being released from treatment, I saw him occasionally as we worked in the same building (I worked for a different company). He was polite, but I didn't feel like he recognized me. My virtual appointment in 2021 was very brief. He didn't ask about my fiancé or previous experience. He asked to see a photo of my child, but I was on my phone at home during the appointment, which has all my photos. He didn't remember that I showed him a photo in the elevator at work in 2020. He's old school.

Do not expect Dr. Karande to be personal. He will give you information if you ask, but doesn't volunteer it. He is completely detached from the billing department. He is strict about following policy. This office will only transfer 1 embryo at a time, no exceptions.

Dr. Karande described their typical egg retrieval process for separate petri dish fertilization. He outlined the medications used and each cycle, a hysteroscopy is done (uterus is filled with liquid to check for pregnancy potential). Our cycle produced 3 embryos. 1 was fresh transferred and 2 were frozen. We have a healthy toddler now.

Billing was vaguely detailed in the beginning. Dates, costs. I always compared them to my insurance benefits statements. I had to push back on them multiple times about billing errors. Many costs are in their fine print, but they didn't follow their fine print. I had to deal with multiple billing errors over the years. Phone calls needed to be made. Errors with double-billing months, not acknowledging online payment, receiving letters and phone calls about nonpayment after, and beware, if you want to sent records to another place, there are fees for every 5 pages. Storage billing began as vague. I felt lied to about their mistake in billing in the beginning. I think it is part of why they double-billed a month and then had to correct the invoice. Even with insurance, medication costs were very expensive. I was thankful to have reached my out of pocket maximum before the end of the year.

This office never does multiple embryo transfers. No exceptions. The reason I was given was "for healthy babies."

Dr. Karande had told me my chances of success were high because I was so young yet he never gave me an actual reason why I was infertile. He didn't do anything before jumping right Into IVF which I now realize was because my insurance would pay Boohoo bucks for it! During each ultrasound he would say I had a little Endo but no big deal in fact he said "the best way to cure Endo is to get pregnant". After I aged off my parent's insurance I had to stop IVF. 4 transfers still no live baby :(...Fast forward a year later and I had exteme pain. I went to a regular gyno who did a lap and I have stage 4 Endo that was attached to both ovaries. That dr and the next Endo dr I went to said I never would should have done IVF without cleaning the Endo out first. It was so bad I apparently had little chance for success. So Dr. Karande wasted my little time that I had on my dad's great insurance and let me do all those cycles only to have my heart broken. Oh and when I wasn't getting pregnant he said to me "well I know its not my clinic because everyone else has been getting pregnant this year"...ummm??

Get a second opinion before you go just to be sure he isn't missing anything.

For My IVF cycles I used small doses of lupron, follistem, monupur, gonral x(I think that's the name) and I can't remember the HCG trigger I used. The Follistem was the easiest to administer. I took Crinone progesterone suppositories each cycle. After a retrieval I had doxycycln to help stop any infections.

My insurance covered almost all of it but it was pricey! However the clinic is more towards the city so that's to be expected.

He said single was better because of my little size but after the first one didn't work he allowed me to try 2.