Vito Cardone

My overall experience was great. This process can be overwhelming what with the terms, meds, options & possible change in protocol. Dr. Cardone explained everything in a manner that we could understand, a third grade level was was helpful. When my first IUI failed he changed things up a bit. When the second one did, his team called me the same day to share that Dr. Cardone already had my IVF treatment plan in place. He was pro active about it. When my husband presented with a sudden worry about embryo distraction, Dr. Cardone saw us the same week to walk us through the issue. (Due to my age it wasn't actually an issue for us). Dr. Cardone always kept us informed and educated. No question was foolish. For that we are grateful and for that we didn't ever question his plan.

I would say that they shouldn't fear ever being treated like a question was foolish or that they were overreacting. That was always my fear as I was so uneducated about infertility. Dr. Cardone and his team are very skilled at what they do & are great with customer service.

We started with IUI as it was least invasive. Also, I think that my ins required two failed before moving to IVF so we had no choice. (Not any fault of Dr. Cardone, but I felt that I was up against a clock as I was in the final few months of my 39th year. At 40 ins coverage is complicated). I have 2 embryos on ice and start about 15 days of prep on Oct 2 to get those little things back in me.

Co pay, some of meds.

I trust his judgement implicitly.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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.

Very knowledgeable Easy to talk too Compassionate He is willing to try different things if patient can make a good case He is very knowledgeable When talking to him- did not feel rush He was attentive to details

Make sure you discuss in advance what the treatment would be and what will be the ajustement if there is any concerns during treatment

I was diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve as a result of years of severe endometriosis- cycle starter with the idea that response to medications was expected to be poor. Dr Cardone chose a very low dose protocols- I was very please as many RE usually chose an aggressive protocols that personally I did not agree. I was satisfied that Dr Cardone opted for this treatment. However cycle was cancelled due to premature ovulation which is common for women with poor ovarian reserve

Cycle was 10,000 plus medications

DR cardone prefer eset as it is more healthy for the mother. Considering i may be high risk pregnancy I also agree with that choice

Dr. Cardone was very straight forward in his words and actions. I knew exactly what to expect and appreciated his experience. He radically changed the treatment plan that I had followed for my two previous cycles.

Call him, don’t waste time at other places.

All costs were covered by insurance.

I was very hesitant about the idea of transferring multiple embryos. The idea of twins was completely overwhelming. I transferred one and have identical twin boys now.

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.