Alabama Fertility Specialists (formerly ART Fertility Program of Alabama)

She takes care of any doubts you might have. When she looked through my file she noticed some discrepancies from my previous doctor and decided to do her own investigation to find out what my real diagnosis is. She gave my husband and me a better chance than previous doctors.

Be open-minded. I was super skeptical due to a previous doctor giving me no chance at having children. Dr. Honea will do whatever she can to help you achieve your dreams.

IUI $390 without insurance coverage

She’s been great. She knows my history and is willing to do whatever it takes. She always gives us her full attention and she is very kind. When she has done my iui she was extremely efficient and gentle. I look forward to my visits with her.

Write down questions ahead of time, it’s hard to think of them when you’re actually there.

First, clomid, because I had only used letrizole to date. Then we added follistim and pregnyl and iui. For a year, that was the plan every month except those that holidays or travel got in the way. We got pregnant after 5 months with dr. H but lost the baby at week 7. We did everything right, the clinic handled the situation with the utmost respect. After the iui and tons of testing, the Mc was deemed unexplained. We did 2 more iui after that and no result, so now we are preparing to move on to next step

Iui is $400 with sperm wash. My insurance covers most ultrasound and labs, I usually have a $25 copay per visit with doc/nurse. My RX is usually about $400 for follistim and pregnyl

Seems like she agrees to do 2

Since our first appointment Dr. Allemand had been very helpful and informative. He did somewhat get my hopes up by saying I'm young and thin and I'll have no problem getting pregnant. That was 5 months ago...But he's always had another plan and has always been open to my feelings and plans for the future.

Be patient.

At first he just wanted to up my meds, both letrozole and metformin. After several failed cycles though he gave me a list of 4 options. We have now tried two of them and am currently waiting to see how this IUI will go.

I think our first appointment was $250 plus lab work. I tend to pay $37 each time for blood work and ultrasound

I have no knowledge of this.

Overall, Dr. Houserman and my experience have been very positive. I like how caring and positive she is. However, she is also very straight forward, which is something I don’t mind. She also is only willing to try treatment plans that we are comfortable with. She doesn’t try to push certain treatments or procedures we aren’t ready for. We very much enjoy her.

Some people might think that her being straight forward is harsh, but she’s very genuine and has a good heart. So, don’t mistaken that for her being rude or uncaring.

We did many rounds of of timed intercourse and only one was successful but ended in miscarriage. We’ve also done two IUIs which were both unsuccessful. We used follistem injections and letrozole to help me have more follicles and better chances of conceiving. So far it just hasn’t been our time. However, we are still trying.

I have pretty good insurance. It covered most of my treatments and procedures. But I definitely wouldn’t be able to afford everything without the insurance I have now.

At first she seems cold and like she’s talking in a different language. But once you start talking to her she is super friendly and open to any questions or concerns and addresses them. She is just so smart it’s hard for her to tell us things in our way and not the medical way. But if you ask she will clear any confusion up! She’s a great dr.

To trust her. At first we weren’t sure of her so we questioned her decisions a lot. But she knows what she’s doing.

I did iui’s with clomid and then she switched me to letrazole just to see if my body would react better. Same reaction. So then we did a pure shot cycle with iui. Used follistim and HCG shot. Ovaries reacted very well. But my emotions were horrible i was super angry all of the time. Then i quit working and decided to go to IVF. did follistim menopur progesterone hcg leuprolide. Did egg retrieval with good results froze the unused embryos and am currently waiting to see if i am pregnant from the fresh transfer.

Prob around $25,000-30,000 in all

We thought really hard about this. We chose to transfer 2 embryos instead of just one because of me having unexplained infertility. We still don’t know what the problem is so we wanted as much of a chance that was possible just in case implantation has been the problem. We asked dr Houserman and she was immediately onboard with it. I thought she was going to push to do just one bc of the risks but given my age and all of my bloodwork and everything always looking amazing and promising she decided it would be worth it for us.

I've enjoyed working with Dr. Allemand thus far. He is a good communicator and thoroughly addresses my concerns and answers my questions. He is obviously very knowledgeable and passionate about his patients. I have not identified any concerns about his care.

He is logical and works in a stepwise fashion, wanting to avoid any unnecessary treatment. This philosophy aligns with my goals, but may not align with every patient's goals.

letrozole only letrozole + Follistim combo cycle for more flexibility with dosing and to assist with thickening of my endometrium Follistim only due to timing and to facilitate thickening of endometrium

My copays for general visits are ~$60 for the clinic, which includes ultrasound and labs.

Dr. Long has excellent bedside manner. He is very thorough, though not as aggressive as we would have liked at times. He’s very conscious of the cost of treatment, but sometimes can ignore that fact. Hence, we wish he would have been a bit more aggressive with out treatments. There were several cycles where we used injections, which are very expensive, and rather than up the dose or change the medication protocol, he would have me taking injections for more than two weeks. Honestly, we believe that contributed to late ovulation and therefore lack of success with our IuI procedures.

Ask him to be aggressive with treatment.

Cycles 1&2, Clomid with monitoring. Cycles 3-5, Gonal-f, Menopur, and hcg trigger with IUI. Rational was to try and produce one quality egg each cycle. Quality over quantity. None of the cycles were successful.

Each cycle cost us between $2500 and $4000.

Dr. Houserman is very realistic, without being overly blunt. She will answer any questions you may have, but over my entire course of treatment, I've only seen her a few times. Almost all of my interactions have been through the Nurse Practitioner. If I do "meet" with Dr. Houserman, it's a teleconference. If I want to meet in person, I have to drive to Birmingham, which is over 2 hours away. When she comes to the Montgomery clinic, it's only for new patients. It makes me feel like a level of personal understanding of my needs and goals is not being met.

She is practical and realistic. She is not overly soft & sensitive, so if you're looking to be hugged and coddled, she is not the doctor for you. She is warm and kind but matter-of-fact when it comes to prognosis, treatment, etc.

I have PCOS. I initially went to Dr. Houserman years ago, but my follicles would never grow to maturity to do a trigger shot. I was concerned about my weight, and I wasn't having cycles on my own. She told me it was a non-issue, as my treatments were essentially controlling my hormones and their roles for me. I took a break for over two years. I lost 40 pounds, and came back to her for treatment again. When I visited her for a new consult, she said they weightloss was great, but another 40 pounds would be even better. I was confused because years earlier, it seemed to be a non-issue. Anybody who's ever gone through fertility treatments knows what a difficult task it is to lose weight while injecting all of these meds. I didn't lose any weight during the next 7 months of treatment, but I didn't gain any either. My follicles definitely responded better this time, as I was ready to trigger just 10 days in! I went through 7 months of treatments, each ending with a negative beta. I started out with clomid+menopur for a couple of cycles, then just menopur, then increased menopur, then follistim+menopur. The longer I continued with treatments, the slower my follicles began to grow. It's as if my body was just tired, and nothing was working. I met with her a couple of months ago, where she told me I had made a 'valiant effort', but it was time to move on to IVF.

Insurance did not cover IUIs, so out of pocket they were around $400 per cycle. IVF starts around $11,000 per individual cycle.

Strengths were that I did eventually get in to do an exploratory laparoscopic surgery to evaluate the structure of my reproductive organs. Weakness - Although I had already been trying for over year and a half to get pregnant before I came to Houserman, it still took her over 7 months to give me any kind of diagnosis and she was willing to suggest I do costly fertility treatments, even if my problem could have prevented them from having any chance of working. I went to Dr. Houserman the first visit and gave her a comprehensive list of my health problems (heavy, long periods; back pain; pelvic pain; pain during intercourse; bowel trouble and bleeding bowel). What I know now is that all of these symptoms were reason to look into whether my problem was endometriosis. Instead, she prescribed me fertility medications which contained estrogen, which makes endometriosis worse and increases the inflammation, which decreases the chance of an egg getting fertilized and implanting. I feel like the 7 months and the hundreds of dollars I spent on fertility injections were a complete waste of time and money. Weakness - they do not do excision surgery on endometriosis and perpetuate the false information that burning off endometriosis with a laser will treat it and increase your chances of fertility. In reality (there is scientific evidence to back this up), the endometriosis can grow back as soon as the month after the surgery, so there is no guarantee that you have any period of better fertility. Instead of referring endo patients to an excision specialist, they continue to prescribe fertility meds and recommend iui and/or ivf without telling you anything about your decreased chances in those working if the endo grows back. Weakness: Do not give you any information on the possibility of any of your problems being cancerous. I went in the month after my lap surgery and was told I had a 7 cm cyst on my ovary and not given any information on the type of cyst, the precaution I should take to not increase the chances of the cyst growing bigger, or given any reason as to why a cyst that large popped up in a mere 3 weeks after my lap.

Do your research on all possible infertility problems before you visit her and if you think you might have a particular problem that they have not looked into or diagnosed, push for the specific tests that can diagnose that problem. Also, set your boundaries with her up front to let her know if you do not have the financial means to do iui or ivf. That way, she knows to be honest with you and tell you there is nothing more she can do to help you besides doing one of those procedures. It will eliminate wasting more time and money.

Dr. Houserman is a very knowledgeable and nice woman. She is blunt which I am ok with. Her bedside manner is pretty good. During a procedure she was very confident and reassuring, though quick. She is like most doctors where her time is stretched a bit and it’s a quick interaction

Don’t wait. If you think you need to see a specialist then do it. Houserman will do all in her power to try and get you to your end goal

The first strategy was IUI. And if/when those didn’t work we would start something more in depth. New plans are being set at the moment

Care and pricing seems about the same as all specialists in AL.

Very straightforward but compassionate. Her knowledge is exceptional. We have been so impressed with her. There has never been a time where we have had anything negative to say about her. My only wish is that we could continue treatment from start to finish.

Just listen to her suggestions. She knows what she is doing.

We used letrozole and trigger shots for each round and had great results with the response from my body. Once we got a positive pregnancy I began progesterone shots through 12 weeks. We were able to get pregnant however she was stillborn at 20 weeks.

I have insurance but it does not cover everything.

We liked how matter of fact Dr. Long is when explaining treatments and risks/benefits. He is very thorough, without overwhelming you with data. We like that he is optimistic but realistic. The only thing that really bugged us is that we felt that for all the money we were spending, he wasn’t being as aggressive as we would like.

Expect a slow and steady course of treatment. Always erring on the side of caution. It can be frustrating, but he has your best interest in mind.

Our cycles were IUI with donor sperm. Medication protocol was 10-16 days of ovulation stimulation, HCG trigger, followed by IUI 12 hours later. In three cycles, we used Follistim, Gonal-f, Menopur, and HCG. Progesterone supplements followed each IUI until pregnancy test.

Typically, $2,500-$4,000 per cycle.

Does not apply

As we are currently still in the process of Fertility treatment and about to start the IVF process we have been very pleased with Dr. Long. He has been approachable and candid on our situation. Hopeful, but not making guarantees that he can't accomplish.

After a failed cycle he would readjust medicines. After several failed he decided to do a laparoscopy and hysteroscopy to see about endometriosis. After readjusting meds and trying IUIs and injectables moving on to IVF.

I would say reasonable for what they are. Unfortunately insurance does not cover much.

When I saw her she explained everything she believed needed to be done. When I had a chemical pregnancy, she called me herself and showed compassion and talked to me when she thought needed to be changed to improve my chances.

Don’t have any

Cost a lot. Each visit was $400.

Dr Houserman can be very business and then personal at times as well. Dr Houserman seems very intelligent and helps to ease the nerves knowing she’s knowledgeable in what she is doing. She has always exhausted all options when doing treatments.

To ask a lot of questions.

At times expensive.

Dr Long has so many good qualities about him and his bedside manner as a doctor. I have nothing negative to say about him. During our initial consultation, he gave my husband and me his personal cell number and told us to call/text him whenever we had questions or concerns. One Friday I went in for labs to determine if I was pregnant, and his office staff did not get my labs back in time before they closed for the weekend. Dr Long took the time to go into the office the next morning (Saturday), check my results, and call my husband and me directly to speak to us and let us know the heartbreaking news. He always makes me feel as if I am well taken care of and as if I am an actual patient that he knows personally. I will forever recommend Dr Long to any of my friends who face infertility.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions or tell him when you can’t afford a particular medication, injection, procedure, etc. He and his staff are phenomenal in what they do, and they will find a way to change something up so that you can receive treatment without paying an outrageous price.

Most months, I begin taking 2.5 mg of Letrozole on cycle days 5-9. Letrozole helps me to grow follicles since I only ovulate on my right side. I then go in for my follicle check on day 9, and that would determine when I needed to take my trigger shot (Ovidrel—ordered from a specialty pharmacy in New Jersey). Once I take my trigger shot, we usually would go in for our IUI the next day. After our IUI, Dr Long would ask me to vaginally take progesterone which would help me to sustain a pregnancy if I had gotten pregnant.

Last year from August 2019-December 2019, mg husband and I paid over $1,200 in copays and parking. We also paid almost $1,000 in medication and injections.

I would say that as a patient he never made me feel like a patient but more like a close friend or as if I was a family member. when I would cry he made sure i had a tissue and a hug to follow to let me know we would get thru this. He has always been very through and explained things in a way I understood them. Back in February I had surgery because i had a blockage in my left tube well once he got in there he realized my other tube wasnt good either. so he went ahead and removed both of them. the first thing I remember coming out of surgery is asking what did he have to do someone said he had to remove both tubes I broke down, it was only a few minutes after that he was by my side explaining what he had done why he had done it and how much easier it was going to be for me to have a successful pregnancy. I know if he didnt truly care for his patients he would have been in there to explain his reasoning that quick.

If are having trouble becoming pregnant and your present doctor had no explanation why it may be a little further to drive and cost a little more but to know why and know that you will be treated as a human making an appointment with Cecil Long is worth every penny. He is one of the most amazing men I've ever met.

they were very affordable a lot better than I expected. and they worked with me if i had to pay out of pocket.

Dr. Allemand is very kind and listens to your concerns. While he is patient and seems like he cares, he doesn't tailor your care to your specific needs. He wanted me to pursue IVF after 2 IUI cycles (only on follistim and HCG) and one bad semen analysis after all the other SA's have been within normal limits. It concerned me that he was pushing IVF without doing ANY baseline bloodwork on my husband.

Be an advocate for yourself! Do your research and prepare questions prior to your visit, and write them down as soon as you get your answers, that way you don't forget:)

Letrozole and HCG cycles (3x, 1 IUI all with negative beta HCG) Letrozole, Follistim 75u (Resulted in me ovulating early) (x1) Follistim 150u, HCG and IUI (x1 negative beta HCG) Follistim 150u, HCG, IUI canceled due to low sperm count

IUI with semen prep $395 NP visit $45 MD visit $25 Letrozole $20 Follistim $200 HCG $130

n/a

I had a hard time filling this out. I have yet to start my treatments so sorry if my answers are wrong or confusing. I have had a major endometriosis surgery at age 20. I have stage 4 endo! I’m constantly in pain, no sex life, not much quality of life. I got married 2 years later and instantly met with him! The endo is back, I had present tumors on ultra sounds. He recommended IVF & surgery beforehand! I had my surgery April 12th. I meet with him again on the 25th to discuss beginning my IVF treatments! I’m only 23, And in my first 6 months of marriage IVF is a scary / expensive thought but he put me at ease that it was the best option for me to have a family even if we have to work more for it!

Ask questions! Any question he will answer honestly.

We haven’t started yet. I am meeting to begin the IVF process Thursday April 25th! I just had an operation removing endometretomas / adhesions / etc.

The IVF could range anywhere between 15-20 thousand for one try. I’m not sure how many times it will take given my ovarian reserve.

First of all I loved that he didn’t make me feel like I was too old to be wanting to have a baby. He made my husband and I feel at home discussing such intimate things with him. He has a great bed side manner and really cares about you as a patient.

Be patient!!! It might work the first month and then it might take a while!!! Keep your head up and stay positive.

The 1st month we used clomid with trigger shot, 2nd-5th months we added added follistim to the plan to help produce more mature eggs. Then next step is to add another shot (can’t remember the name) and then IVF.

IUI $395 IVF meds $5,000 then retrieval and all up to $15,000

We are doing IVF due to an inherited genetic disorder we do not want to pass to our children. Dr Honea listed to our story and supported us. She is very blunt and gives her honest opinion so if you can’t handle honesty she is not for you. For example, she is very honest about her opinion to not want to discard unused viable embryos.

Give her all the details you expect out of your care. She has 30+ Years of experience so has seen it all and will know how to tailor your cycle.

Menopur/follistim, then monitored every other day until cetrotide was added. One embryos were 1.8cm HCG trigger shot 36hrs before retrieval. Her rationale was it was the same successful plan used my first cycle so why change.

12,100 for IVF cycle. 2200 for FET

I respect her opinion for a single embryo transfer. A multiples pregnancy is higher risk so why try and achieve that first.

My experience as a patient with Dr. Honea has been pretty good. I think that she is very knowledgeable and I respect that she is easy to talk to. I really respect her that she has gone through a similar process to conceive her children, and that she was very understanding when we had to re-start our the process because my dad passed unexpectedly prior to us being the donor egg transfer; which put a lot of stress on our family. She makes you feel like you are not crazy for your feelings, and that you are not broken but just have to find a different way to become a mom. She has been our doctor for more than three years, and we would recommend her to other people. She has a personality that makes you feel comfortable and at ease, and makes you feel like become parents. She makes me feel comfortable and at ease, and answers any questions that I might have. I really appreciate her honestly, and I really like the fact that she is spiritual as well. She has made my husband and I experience pretty good, and help answer our questions.

A piece of advice that I would give a patient coming to Dr. Honea would be to come with any questions that you may have. Don't be afraid to ask your questions, and don't think that any question you ask are weird or not right to ask. You want to make sure that you questions and concerns are addressed, and don't be afraid to ask again if you don't understand. Don't be afraid that your questions are stupid or that you may have asked them more than once.

When I first started with Dr. Honea, I believe some of the first strategies that she used involved trying to get my period started. She used clomid, and birth control pills to try and get my period started, but I wasn't able to get my period started. She also had to remove a large fibroid on my uterus that was causing me pain and maybe the cause of me not getting my periods. After the surgery, she still continued to try and start my period, and I did get my period at least twice, but then it stopped. She would then start me on cycles of estrace, progesterone, and a round of metaformin because my blood glucose was extremely high and they thought that I might have PCOS. Moreover, when I would go for a uterine lining check, it was not thick enough, and my levels were not were they needed to be, so they would start the process over again. I continued on the cycles for about 2 years, switching my medicine out from estrace and progesterone to metaformin. After about 2 years Dr. Honea came to the conclusion that I was pre-menapausal, and that I may not get my period again,but she continued wit the estrace and progesterone in order to build my lining for the donor eggs; because she said that would be our best option for having children. However, I had to stop my cycles when my dad passed away unexpectedly in 2016, and I wasn't able to really start again until January of 2017. When I started treatment again, she also tried a round of Lupron shots for about 2 months in to get my lining and numbers up to par in order to get ready for the frozen egg transfer. She stopped the lupron shots because I still didn't get a period, but my lining was adequate and she ordered a SIS, and HSG back in October of 2017 which came back normal, as she wanted to make sure that my body would be ready to receive the donor eggs. I have continued to be on the metaformin, estrace, and progestrone for now until do select a donor from MyEggBank.

My insurance did not pay for any of my expenses with Dr. Honea; however, my husband's insurance did pick up some of the cost. Moreover, I was still responsible for payments that our insurace didnt cover such as medications such as Lupron that cost $179.00. Exams that would cost between $200 to $250. I have come out of pocket for medications, office visits/exams SIS, HSG, and the our psychological consult that we did prior to registering with MyEggBank. In total we have spent roughly $6,500 out of pocket.

Dr. Honea will be doing a single embryo transfer which I am okay with since this is our first time doing it, and we wanted to make sure that if it didn't work on the first try, that we had another embryo to try.

We love Dr Honea. She has always treated me like a human being, not just another number. She is very experienced and compassionate. She has personally called us when problems have arose and when I found out I miscarried. She is straight forward and always tells us what our next step is.

We started with an IUI and I️ think the cost was around $300. But we did a sperm freeze as well so I believe that was another $300. I don’t exactly remember how much the medicine cost. For IVF we decided to try the Shared Risk refund program where payment is due upfront and 3 IVF cycles are included. We paid $18,800 for 3 cycles, which doesn’t include the stim meds or monitoring office visits. The IVF cycles include egg retrieval and transfers and if ICSI is needed as well. We have had two egg retrievals so that means two rounds of shots each time costing around $1,400. Normally I pay $35-75 per office visit when an ultrasound is needed, which is every week after a positive pregnancy test is confirmed.

Dr Honea has strong opinions on multiple births. I have gathered because of my age that she prefers to transfer just one embryo at a time. After this miscarriage we may move onto two embryos next transfer. But she is very weary of multiples and the risks of carrying multiples.

She is always up front telling me you know you shouldn't be discouraged but then would say something optimistic behind it like I know your going to be a mother I just know it. Which was nice but also hard every time I got negative after.

Ask any questions you have don't be afraid

1st time we met it was just to discuss what was going to happen. 1st IUI was unmedicated just monitor and trigger shot. Negative. So we had to see the dr again she said I have PCOS without the cysts that I don't ovulate on my own so she recommends letrazol was it's less likely to make me crazy. So IUI #2 we monitor and add letrazol days 5-10 trigger shot in office I ovulate! Everything looks great this time they do an ultrasound to show I ovaulated and everything looked great but again negative. So they tell me we are going to do the same thing over so IUI #3 monitor letrazol days 5-10 trigger shot in office only this time no ultrasound. And once again a negative. So we go back to see the dr get told everything looks good on paper but because we use don't sperm we are ok to be more aggressive. So for IUI #4 we did letrazol days 3-7 then follistim shots till I my follicles were the right size then I triggered at home that night then went to the dr 36 hours later for Insemination . No ultrasound or anything this time and once again a negative!!! Now we are trying to raise money to try again.

For the 4 IUI we paid approximately $8000

My experience with her was great. She always told us all of our options and never encouraged us to give up. She also always did what was in our best interest, even if we felt like rushing things or taking things too slow. And she never discouraged us from getting second opinions or talking to other people. She was secure in her knowledge but also knew her limits.

To not necessarily expect a lot of warm and fuzzies. She is super nice and very smart and compassionate. But she is not a “touchy felt” type, which just happened to work for my husband and I.

We went through 5 rounds of IUIs and 2 rounds of IVF over the past 3 and a half years. Dr. Houserman seemed to find a good balance between aggressive and safe. She knew that we did not want to half do things, so she allowed us to keep increasing medications and the protocols when she felt like it would help. But if my ovaries were too large or I had cysts, she would make us wait a month.

Everything was very expensive because our insurance did not cover any testing or procedures. I don’t think they were necessarily better or worse than any other clinic or doctor. The medications and the procedures are what cost the most.