Verified
Verified
This patient has provided documentation of treatment at this clinic.
2014, Successful
Review of
We felt that Dr. Minjarez knew her stuff - seems to be a very intelligent person....She did NOT push us to use donor eggs, but was also realistic and honest about the likelihood of my own eggs being viable. Dr. Minjares was always friendly and willing to go over our plan time and again with us as things changed. Personally, I liked her very much and felt very comfortable with her.
While we really liked our doctor, we were very very disappointed with the CCRM clinic. Here, we felt like a number. After our initial consult with Dr. Minjarez, we had to go through the official orientation process, which was a wasted day for us. They herded us together with about 10 other couples into a conference room, and went through the general IVF process, legal stuff, protocol..... none of which was helpful in the least to us. It put a bad taste in our mouths from the get-go. They are very protocol driven. The worst example I can think of is that prior to our first IVF transfer, both my husband and I had to go through all sorts of very costly testing, some of which was communicable disease testing which is understandable. But after our first attempt failed, they wanted us to do the exact same testing all over again a mere 2 months later when we went to do transfer #2. They said they would not do the transfer if we didn't do the tests again (all through the CCRM labs, of course). The lab staff was wonderful. I had countless blood draws, and they were all very talented (I am a difficult draw) and friendly. Ruby at the
How was your experience with Debra Minjarez at CCRM Colorado?
We felt that Dr. Minjarez knew her stuff - seems to be a very intelligent person.
As I had already been through several failed IUI attempts with a different clinic, we had some very frank conversations with Dr. Minjarez about 1) the probability that my egg quality was likely poor based on my age and hormone levels (since I had done no retrievals, there was no way to know for sure), and 2) our financial situation and how it would realistically direct my treatment to some degree. She did NOT push us to use donor eggs, but was also realistic and honest about the likelihood of my own eggs being viable.
Dr. Minjares was always friendly and willing to go over our plan time and again with us as things changed. Personally, I liked her very much and felt very comfortable with her.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Debra Minjarez at CCRM Colorado?
Don't be afraid to slow her down. She is obviously a very busy person, and sometimes we felt a bit rushed in our appointments with her (not the transfer), but we learned to ask our questions until we understood everything.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Debra Minjarez at CCRM Colorado?
Specifically with Dr. Minjarez, I felt like a human because she treated both me and my husband with respect, she answered all of our questions no matter how many times we asked them, and I felt that she was very adept at sensing whether we needed warm fuzzies or down and dirty facts (that varied greatly depending on what stage of the process we were at).
Describe the protocols Debra Minjarez used in your cycles at CCRM Colorado and their degree of success.
We went straight to using an egg donor since we knew sperm were healthy and were pretty confident that eggs were not. FET #1
Birth control, Lupron injections, estrogen patches, progesteron in oil injections, progesteron inserts, mild antibiotics prior to transfer and a few other drugs I don't remember. I did pre and post-transfer acupuncture for both transfers.
Donor gave us 12 frozen eggs, 10 fertilized and we transfered one day-5 embryo and froze the remaining 9 embryos. Result was negative pregnancy test. FET #2 we thawed and transfered 2 embryos which resulted in twins!
FET #2 was 2 day-5 embryos from same batch as
Describe your experience with your nurse at CCRM Colorado.
Primary nurse was ok, but especially for our first IVF round, she assumed that we were already familiar with the protocols, drugs, acronyms, procedures, etc. When you are going through this process, the last thing you want to do is figure out the basics on your own. There were several calendar mistakes made along the way where I felt that I had to double check absolutely everything. Before we began our first cycle, she would talk about the "Calendar" like it was a big magical thing, and when I got it, I was very disappointed and confused. It was a photocopied piece of paper with dates handwritten in and notes in the columns. It used terms like "LMP" which I was not familiar with. Instead of using the term "luprolide acetate" (which was what the pharmacy called it), it referred to "Lupron", which I believe is the brand name of the drug. This all sounds really nit-picky, but for someone going through infertility and uncertainty and nervousness, it would have been so much more reassuring to have everything spelled out for us in a clear, precise and unmistakable manner. Communication was difficult in that we did not have a way to directly contact our nurse - had to either leave a message via their portal or leave a message in the general nurses mailbox.
Describe your experience with CCRM Colorado.
While we really liked our doctor, we were very very disappointed with the CCRM clinic. Here, we felt like a number. After our initial consult with Dr. Minjarez, we had to go through the official orientation process, which was a wasted day for us. They herded us together with about 10 other couples into a conference room, and went through the general IVF process, legal stuff, protocol..... none of which was helpful in the least to us. It put a bad taste in our mouths from the get-go. They are very protocol driven. The worst example I can think of is that prior to our first IVF transfer, both my husband and I had to go through all sorts of very costly testing, some of which was communicable disease testing which is understandable. But after our first attempt failed, they wanted us to do the exact same testing all over again a mere 2 months later when we went to do transfer #2. They said they would not do the transfer if we didn't do the tests again (all through the CCRM labs, of course).
The lab staff was wonderful. I had countless blood draws, and they were all very talented (I am a difficult draw) and friendly. Ruby at the Rose office was my favorite - amazing woman! Same with ultrasound technicians - they were all very nice and had their acts together.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Debra Minjarez at CCRM Colorado.
Around $50k which included donor eggs, donor medications, my medications and 2 separate transfers.
What specific things went wrong at CCRM Colorado?
- Lost appointments
- Provided conflicting information
Review of
