Vito Cardone

I appreciated his willingness to try to work with my own eggs, as I have POF and most will not. However, I would have preferred if he were easier to communicate with regarding any questions or concerns.

Think of any possible questions that you may have and write them down ahead of time so that you can get the answers that you're looking for.

He took the time to explain the treatment plan and answered all questions during the appointment. However, during a treatment cycle there isn't any way to speak with him, only the nurses. If you have a question that they can't answer, you're told to make an appointment. By the time you can get an appointment, the cycle will usually be over and the question is no longer relevant.

Gonal-f 300 units - no response, cancelled cycle. Menopur 4 vials twice per day - one follicle produced to 19mm in size for IVF but he cancelled the retrieval due to estrogen diminishing from 360 to 260.

If there are any questions that I've had, I've been told to make an appointment with the doctor. By the time I have an appointment, the cycle is over and the question is no longer relevant. The nurses will tell you what to do next in your cycle, but don't take the time to explain what your results mean.

Dr. Cardone is willing to take on difficult cases, which was a big sell for me. I could typically get an appointment within a few weeks. However, I wish that the staff was more open and helpful during treatment cycles.

My insurance covered all expenses. I only had to cover co-payments.

N/a

Dr Cardone is very kind and took time with us to explain and answer questions. We had been through rounds of IVF with other clinics, so he asked what we wanted to know more about, etc and didn’t assume we knew everything. He has been doing this for a VERY long time and is very confident and knowledgeable. We liked that he was one of the first Drs/Clinics in New England to Do donor egg cycles, which is one of the reasons we made the move to him. We were also being treated remotely by a Reproductive Immunologist (AEBeer Center in CA) and I liked that Dr Cardone’s international/global background and felt that made him more open and accepting of some of the treatments that are less common here in the US, but widely accepted in other countries. So while he wasn’t an expert in some of the RI treatments we used to prep for and layered onto my cycles, he didn’t openly oppose them or discount them like others RE’s I’ve worked with.

To me he seemed to offer up as much info as you asked for. So if you want more info, ask lots of questions... I think he’s also one of those Drs you can easily just hand over the keys to and say “ok doc go” and they’ll just tell you where to show up and when... so it’s really whatever your preference is

I felt they did a nice job of seeing me as a human and adjusting treatment based on my specific case and results from prior rounds with other Drs... I did however hear feedback from the donor’s agency where they were not always considerate of her time/giving her a heads up or a calendar of when she would need to do what, etc. Dr Cardine’s wife is the donor coordinator on their end and there seemed to be some communication isssues between her and the agency. Our donor and agency were both remote (in CA) and there were a few times she mentioned to me that it’s much easier with a local donor/agency, so I get the feeling that having a remote donor made it more complicated on her end too. In the end, everything worked out fine, but I felt badly that it wasn a very good experience for our donor (luckily it was her 4th time donating, so she knows it doesn’t always happen that way and we tried to make sure she knew how appreciative we were for everything, but I definitely felt like we needed to apologize for the lack of communication... often the agency was getting updates and info from me before they heard from the donor coordinator)

I don’t remember the specifics of the protocols, but by the time we saw Cardone I was over the age of 40 (we had been trying for more than 4yrs) and I do recall him saying that sometimes less is more with stimulation... in the cycle we tried with my own eggs I believe we only retrieved 2, both fertilized, but we were only able to transfer 1 of them (and we got a negative test result), he said at this point it could be a numbers game and we just need the one high quality egg, but since we had been trying so long we were ready to move onto DE... but had we started with him sooner, I think he would have had more (egg reserves) to work with and I think we would have had a higher chance of getting one good one with him (than we had with the original clinic we started with) Like wise when the donor cycle happened, he was much more concerned about quality over quantity. She also had a history of a lower retrieval number but high fertilization rate. So we were comfortable with that approach. One thing I wish we would have discussed more in our DE plan was ICSI. We did not discuss it at all and it was not used, but in hindsight we had 12 retrieved, 10 fertilized, but 4 were abnormally fertilized and we found out later that those 4 abnormal had double fertilized, so it makes me wonder if we would have had more viable embryos with ICIS. But thankfully we had success with our fist fresh day3 transfer and we have 4 remaining frozen, that we may not even use, so it all worked out fine.

I honestly forget their names. I want to say there were 2-3 that we worked with and one was super sweet and nice. The other was perfectly competent, but kind of sounded like she was following a script when she was talking to us (maybe she was just younger/less experienced). The staff who did the blood draws were outsourced from an agency and unfortunately not the best. I remember cringing when certain ones were there (it was a couple of years ago, so I doubt they are the same people now). There were two ultrasound techs and one had better bedside manner than the other (but again I forget which one). In general they could improve on that whole process, it’s never comfortable as it is. I had scar tissue from an unrelated surgery and it helped if I could guide the probe myself... one was fine with it, the other never seemed to remember and I felt awkward having to explain it every time. IMHO, that should always be offered as an option. The donor coordinator also seemed to have some lack of communication with the agency and donor. She was fine with me, but the agency said something after about how difficult it was for the donor compared to other clinics the donor had worked with. It may have been because they were not local and that made it more challenging, but I definitely felt like I needed to apologize and was glad this wasn’t that donors first experience.

It’s small and that has both advantages and disadvantages. They definitely seemed to rely heavily on paper files, but did post results to the online portal which was nice (but there could be a significant delay). The office itself is clean. At the time Dr Cardone was the only Dr, so you didn’t have an option to be seen by someone else if he was unable or something came up. But that didn’t end up being an issue for us. He did all fertility procedures through Boston IVF in Woburn (which was a hike for us), but the day to day visits/check ins were in the Stoneham office which was about 1/2 way and better for me. We had one hysteroscopy procedure at an outpatient surgery center in Danvers, which was nice and went very well (he does them under general anesthesia btw which is SO MUCH MORE HUMANE than in the office like other providers typically do)

Our insurance covered most or all of the IVF round, visits, monitoring, meds, etc. I believe there was a copay we received a bill for after everything else was processed. If I recall correctly that bill may have come directly from Boston IVF so was a smidge confusing (it as the other Dr’s name on it), but in the end it was fine. For the DE cycle, we paid a cycle coordination fee directly to the clinic (not covered by insurance. Then all of my meds, monitoring, etc. was covered by insurance. All donor procedures, labs, etc. that happened IN/AT the clinic or with them at Boston IVF were also covered by insurance. But any remote monitoring needed for the donor (because she was not local) was paid for out of pocket (through the agency). There ended up being 2-3 blood draw/labs and 1-2 ultrasounds that happened before she flew to town for final week of monitoring and the retrieval.

With my own eggs we didn’t retrieve more than 2 eggs and only ended up having 1 embryo... but had we retrieved more, he was not opposed to transferring up to 3 at a time (given my age was over 40). When we tranfered embryos made with donor eggs, he said he would only transfer a max of 2, because she was younger and there was a higher chance they would both/all take. We we completely comfortable with the chance of twins so tranfered 2 and had a live singleton birth and are happy with the result. If we were to do an FET to try for a 2nd, I’m not sure what we would do, the thought of twins would scare me at this point (due to other immune and anatomical issues/uterine scar tissue, I had trouble getting to full term and only got to 34 wks)

Dr. Cardone is pretty matter-of-fact. He came across as very experienced and he took the time to explain test results to us in detail, which I appreciated. He was also completely non-judgemental about our family plan (my wife and I were TTC with a known donor). I did have a hard time with the hysterosalpingogram, and when I saw him afterwards, he joked about me "surviving." I also never spoke to him at all during or after my cycle of treatment, which seemed a little odd.

They're good about talking about all of the logistics, but if there are things you prefer or specific questions you have, it's good to go in prepared with those. Sometimes they need to be reminded if you're new to treatment that you need things explained!

My primary contact was with the nursing staff, who were warm and responsive, and I always felt like both they and the doctor when I saw him were paying attention to me as an individual. The only way in which I felt like a number is that they have very well set-up procedures (a plus overall!) and when I was first getting the run-down of those, I felt pretty overwhelmed by all the details, but the nurses were super-patient in answering every question I had during my cycle, even though I'm sure they'd told me half of the answers already and I'd forgotten!

I have PCOS and don't ovulate, and I hadn't had success with Clomid, so Dr. Cardone used injectable hormones (Gonal-F) plus a trigger (Ovidrel) and then supplemental progesterone (Crinone). They monitor extensively via bloodwork and ultrasound, every few days at first and then more frequently.and my Gonal-F was adjusted after a few days. I had an endogenous LH surge and then took my trigger, and I ovulated on day 17. I used timed intercourse on days 16 and 17, a positive pregnancy test two weeks later, and a confirmed twin pregnancy by ultrasound at 6 weeks. I lost one twin to miscarriage at 11 weeks and had a healthy singleton birth.

The thing I most loved was that they were extremely responsive -- they apologized if it took more than a day to get back to EMAIL and were always available by phone. They were very patient-focused and always took the time to answer my questions and to help me solve problems. (One time, for example, I had to figure out how to refill a medication for the next day and they helped me figure out the best way to get it.)

Bloodwork and ultrasounds for monitoring are done early AM only -- I think it's 6:30-8 am. The affiliated hospital for testing is Winchester. The insurance coordinator is AMAZING.

My insurance covered basically everything because I had diagnosed infertility and had been TTC for a year with our donor. We paid out of pocket for the donor's tests, which were a few hundred dollars, and we also were required to do social worker visits because we used a known donor, which were another few hundred dollars.

He was great at explaining the plan he proposed and why he proposed it. He would listen to our questions and was available for follow up if we had questions when we left. Downside was we didn't see him all that often.

Ask questions and don't hesitate to ask to talk to Dr. Cardone directly.

The nurses would call me each week almost like a recording with my "instructions". Some nurses were more caring and warm than others. I had minimal interaction with Dr. Cardone unless we were making a change to the plan.

Jen was amazing. Amanda was pretty good. Kim had little bed side manner and generally gave off an attitude that was not what I was looking for in my fertility care. It was a tough road and she always made me feel bad about things--even blaming me for doing a shot wrong once when in actuality their clinic had given me false information.