Fertility First (closed)

Dr Archer defiantly cares about her patients and is a creative thinker. I never felt like I was in a paint by numbers situation. She referenced recent studies & medical journals when I asked questions. She really seemed to care for my specific situation. She was the first person to suggest to me I had Endometriosis, and that severe pain during my cycle is not how the cards fall for some ladies. I found her meticulous and focused.

Dr Archer is creative and an out of the box thinker. I can see she may not be the right fit for a really type A personality.

I loved that Dr archer kept all drugs at her office, if you would like. She measured and prepared a lot of shots for me, which was very helpful. After ultrasound scans you meet her back in her office while she explains the next step. She offers websites, additional info, etc.

I do not remember exact costs but they were very in line with other local places.

For my age and general health, she did lean towards one

She was very thorough in her examination and in going over our records from our primary gynaecologist and urologist. She thorough explained everything. She drew pictures and wrote notes to help is understand. I do wish I had recorded our sessions so I could remember things later

Bring your partner to help remember questions and what was said. Record your meetings or ask her to write your plan down. I wish I had asked her to rewrite it because when I looked at them later at home I wasn't sure what it said sometimes.

We did one round of femara and trigger shot for an IUI, unfortunately my husband's sample did not yield enough sperm to continue. We have since spoken with his urologist who had him do a sample and freeze so we can move forward with IVF. I have endometriosis and haven't had a laproscopy in 13 years so I will be having one of those before we begin our IVF cycle

Lab tests are out of pocket for us. As are medications. Meds for the IUI cost $180. The IUI would have been $450 but we ended up not having it due to low count. IVF is supposed to be around $10,000 to $12,000

Not applicable at this time

Dr Archer goes above and beyond to make you feel comfortable and address all of your concerns each visit. During each consultation after a scan, she took the time to go over the protocol for every cycle and answered any questions we had without making us feel like she needed to rush to another patient. She works 7 days a week and nearly 365 days a year. I don’t know how she does it but I’m grateful that she does.

Write down questions that you have prior to each appointment and make sure to ask them before leaving so that you feel confident and fully understand all the details of each cycle.

I have completed 5 IUIs (3 medicated) and for the medicated cycles the protocol has been clomid + estrogen + progesterone + trigger shot. For each medicated cycle, I had 3-4 scans to assess follicle growth and determine the best timing for the trigger shot prior to the IUI 36 hours later.

When comparing prices of clinics in Louisville, Fertility First is by far the least expensive. With no insurance coverage ultrasound scans run around $115 and IUIs are around $225.

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I love Dr. Archer. She is the only doctor in her practice and no matter how many patients she had she knew who we were and what stage of the cycle we were on and what medications we were doing. She was very helpful.

Call soon to get the first appointment because she is the only doctor, so you may have to wait to get in.

I remember we started with clomid. Low doses didnt do anything, so when I wasnt responding we would up them. We did timed intercourse for awhile because we didnt have fertility coverage. We tried clomid for a bit until we were at max dosage. We did get pregnant but he was chromosomal abnormal, so we had a d&c. Since we got pregnant on high dosage we tried again. Got pregnant, but it was a chemical. We added supplements like COQ10 to help with egg quality since I have PCOS. We started adding femara instead, but still no luck. We tried IUI but eith injectables instead since I wasnt getting pregnant with pills. Once that didnt work we finally got coverage so moved onto ivf. We started lower with follistim but when I was responding slow so we slowly increased dosage while monitoring my estradiol since i was at risk for ohss. We triggered eith lupron for the risk of ohss and I took cabergoline to help after the fact. We ended up pregnant after our first fresh cycle.

She did all her ultrasounds herself (up until she got a resident) at the start of your appointment. I never had issues with monitoring

All my visits were covered because she doesnt charge an office visit only the ultrasound and she codes it so it is covered. So instead of infertility, she would code it to monitor my pcos. The iui was 425 I believe. And I had medical coverage for the ivf but I think it was around 10k

Dr. Archer suggested one. She partners with a different clinic that actually does the retrieval and transfer and that doctor suggested one. We decided to transfer one good quality and one bad quality to see if it would thrive in my body vs in a lab. Nobody had an issue with it. I liked that. It was my cycle, my body, my babies and I didnt want to have to argue with anyone over it.

She was amazing. I had transferree from another RE who treated me like just a number, never offeref to adjust treatment and had poor bedside manner. Dr. Archer was the exact opposite. When one approach didn't work, she tried something different. She did research and consulted with other physicians to determine what was best for my treatment. After 2 failed IUI cycles and 2 failed IVF cycles, we were blessed with healthy boy/girl twins in June 2019.

If you are strict type A, you may not find her as endearing. But she was 100% the doctor I needed and am blessed that I ended up in her care.

I did bot respond well to fertility drugs...for no apparent reason. Everything looked good on paper. My follicle counts were inconsistent with drug dosages. After one failed IUI cycle with Clomid and one with injectables, we switched to IVF. My first cycle was all over the place. One day it looked like we would have to cancel. The next the follicles were growing in unison. Sadly, bc of the way i ovulated only 2 of the 6 were able to be retrieved amd neither fertilized. IVF cycle 2- plan was to use the dual trigger approach to correct the release of the eggs at ovulation. Didnt make it that far...cycle was canceled by one of my follicles grew much faster than the rest. IVF cycle #3- agnostic protocol- to help eggs grow at same rate.Dual Trigger. 5 eggs retried. 2 fertilized. 3 day transfer. No pregnancy. IVF Cycle 4- agnostic protocol, introduction of testostrone cream to boost egg production. Dual trigger. 9 eggs Retrieved. 8 mature. 6 fertilized. 3 5 day blastocysts created. 2 transferred October 18. boy/girl twins born June 19. 1 embryo preserved.

My treatments and prescriptions were all covered by insurance.

Bc I was 35...2. 5 day blastocysts was the reccomendation.

I’ll start by saying my initial experience was positive. I had to have a hysterscopy to remove polyps and it went well and resolved the issues with heavy periods I’d had for years. She also explained everything in detail during those initial appointments. During our IVF cycle, however, I felt like I was constantly rushed through appointments, and I never had the complete picture on how my cycle was going and what that meant for my chances at success. I was not offered all my options when it became clear that I was at high risk of hyper stimulating. Two doctors since have looked at my protocol and were surprised to see how my cycle was managed. I think the issue is she was aiming for a higher quantity of eggs, when a more conservative approach would have been safer and more effective.

Ask not only what you are doing, but why. Ask for the implications of any and all results. Ask what all your options are, and what each means for the potential success of your cycle. Do not leave an appointment without knowing what your dosages are and exactly when to expect a call.

I started on 150 of Gonal-f, along with a dose of micro-HCG (can’t recall how much). I didn’t have a lot of response at first so she increased the Gonal-f every other day, ending up at 250. When my estrogen spiked, she didn’t decrease my dose but instead continued for several days. Then, she had me coast for 3 days before triggering with Lupron. At no point was I offered an option besides coasting.

I went through insurance so I can’t say exactly. Everything was in network.

Not applicable

Dr. Archer explains everything, but sometimes you may need to ask for clarification. She runs her own clinic and is sometimes very busy, but will exhaust every option in hopes of adding to your family. She has been celebratory with us along every success and there for us with every setback. She explains everything and is there when you need extra support.

Go to Dr. Archer with all of the information you want answered. It has been very beneficial for us to go with our questions, our medications, and our calendar. She is very thorough and it will help if you are thorough as well.

We began with clomid, then clomid and IUI, which showed I was producing 1-2 mature follicles. So, we went on to FSH injections and IUI. I became pregnant the first time around, but unfortunately lost the baby around 6 weeks. This was my second loss at this time, so Dr. Archer did bloodwork and other procedures. My bloodwork showed I have a clotting disorder, so she has me on baby aspirin and Lovenox after IUIs. She also has us on progesterone supplements after every IUI. The procedures included an HSG exam, a hysterocopy to remove polyps and a D&C, as well as laproscopic surgery to remove endometriosis. We are currently in our last cycle of letrozole, injections, and IUI but will be moving on to IVF.

Around $1,000 per cycle and extra costs for procedures/surgeries

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Doctor Archer is extremely unique. She has a sense of humor that makes you forget the crappy situation that is infertility. She also personally calls you with all test results, and is easy to get in touch with.

Doing IVF with her means going 2 plus hours away, be aware of that in the beginning.

We first began with clomid and a trigger shot-the idea was to make my body work with minimal assistance as I had regular periods. Next we went to letrozole due to my PCOS I responded better and also the trigger shot. This was done for many many rounds as I had good egg production. I also had a diagnostic laparoscopy with ovarian drilling due to PCOS and to verify nothing else was present. Nothing negative showed. We then did two IUI’s with trigger shot, to no avail. Then she had the IVF talk with us, to which we wound up proceeding forward with.

Dr. Archer was very affordable and they worked with you and allowed payments. They never demanded money realizing how expensive it all is.

Doctor Archer was okay with me transferring two embryos because of my height, I am 5’11”. We did wind up with twins so the risks and possibility was very well discussed with us and we were not twinphobic.

I think that Dr. Archer did what she thought was right for us, but it didn't work. I wonder if we would be more successful with a different set of eyes looking at the situation. She always seemed to care about us, but we repeatedly the same process over and over and over.

Be your own advocate and if you want to try something else push for it.

We tried ovulation stimulating medications (Clomid & Letrozole) with intercourse. Then we tried ovulation stimulating medications with IUI. Then we tried injectable ovulation stimulating medications with IUI. Then we moved on to IVF. We did over two years with medications and IUI until we moved to IVF.

This was an easy experience. I was always given a window in which to make an individual appointment. I was always seen individually and discretely.

Dr. Archer's office was GREAT with billing. That was probably the best thing about their office.

No comments.

My overall experience with Dr. Archer was that she genuinely loves what she does and wants to help everyone she can. She seems very dedicated to helping people have the children that they desire so badly, and is very flexible with scheduling and payment. And my husband and I would like to go back to her when we get in a position to afford IVF. That being said, she seems to spread herself too thin with too many patients. Our appointments with her rarely lasted more than 5-10 minutes, and she seemed to rush through the information and plan for the next step. Even after seeing her multiple times a month for over a year, she always had to review my chart during appointments like she didn't remember me. I know it's hard for a doctor to keep up with all the details of every patient's treatment, but it felt a little more impersonal than this process should feel.

Ask questions, get her to slow down when she's explaining things to you so you completely understand your treatment, and be open and honest with her about what you want and what your limitations are (financial, physical, emotional).

My first cycle, we used Clomid and Dr. Archer monitored follicle growth with ultrasounds every few days. She increased the dosage as we went if she wasn't seeing the growth she needed to see. After Clomid was not effective, we switched to Femera and followed the same strategies of monitoring follicle growth with ultrasounds and increasing the dosage as we went if needed. When at least 2 follicles reached the right size, we did a trigger shot to make me ovulate, and then timed intercourse. After 3 cycles of this not being effective, we moved to Femera with a trigger shot and IUI. The second cycle resulted in a chemical pregnancy. After the 3rd cycle failed, we decided to take a break from treatments.

Around $1000 per IUI cycle

I cannot say enough nice things about her. She was caring, understanding, informative, she listened and provided her feedback with our best interest at hand. NEVER did we feel like a number in her office. We wholeheartly believe she's the reason for us being parents.

Talk to her. Tell her how you feel. Always ask question. Never be afraid to say what you need/want because you are your own advocate on this journey.

We used letrozol on the 1st cycle with her and she seen us in the office several time during the cycle and more frequent closer to ovulation time. This time resulted in pregnancy but ended in a miscarriage at around 6 week. The 2nd cycle we use letrozol and Follistim. The same as before she seen us in the office several times and more frequently closer to ovulation time and adjust meds as necessary. We also used progesterone with both cycles. The 2nd cycle resulted in a full term pregnancy.

I remember the IUI being around $450 per cycle. Meds cost about $500. Somethings were covered by our insurance due to having met our deductible for the year.

Dr. Archer is brilliant and innovative, which shows in all her interactions with us. She is willing to do the research and explore the options that other doctors had just not bothered doing. I rarely had to wait more than 10 minutes for any appointment or procedure, and she provided quick, excellent referrals when our care needed something she was unable to provide through her practice.

Take notes! She speaks quickly and her mind works quickly, so it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the information she's providing. She's great at following up with questions and answering them multiple times, though.

Dr. Archer monitored all my cycles, but was not able to implement any protocols due to ovarian cysts and recovery from surgery.

All of my procedures and consultations were covered by insurance.

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Even though we have not had success yet, Dr Archer goes above and beyond to make you feel as if you are her only patient. She did every ultrasound, everything with my IUI. She is a great communicator and explains everything. She never rushes you and always answers any question you have.

Do not hesitate in making an appointment.

Due to my PCOS we started with Femara and quickly moved up on dosages. Dr Archer researches all up to date research and put me on metformin/femara and dexamethasone. While I responded to the meds very well were only successful once and that resulted in a miscarriage due to an subchorionic hematoma.

I have been to two clinics and my insurance usually covers nothing. Fertility first was about 100$/ultrasound and was 350/IUI. Compared to other places we saved a lot of money.

Dr. Archer would call personally to talk to us about any results we were waiting on. She always took the time to explain things, especially when we didn't understand the first time; she never seemed frustrated with us.

She is the only Dr. in the office, so you know who you are dealing with every time.

We started with clomid and IUI and switched to letrozole with IUI. We started with IUI's due to me having endometriosis. We then moved to injectables as my body started to grow and immunity to clomid and letrozole. Lastly, we moved to IVF. We had 5 day 5 embryos and we transferred 2 embryos in January of 2016, resulting in a negative pregnancy test. Then in June of 2016 we did another transfer of 2 embryos, but this time we added "egg glue" which resulted in a pregnancy. Twins, well one vanishing twin. I ended up miscarrying a few weeks later. Nothing was found wrong with the embryos after my D&C. Possible blood clotting disorder but I had inconclusive results form that test. One remaining frozen embryo waits for us.

Dr. Archer was very cost effective. She truly understands how financially straining fertility treatments can be.

Dr. Archer would only agree to transferring two embryos at a time.

I felt like Dr. Archer explained everything in detail to my understanding. She always explained the levels of the blood draws- always adjusted levels as we went along. When our cycle failed, she seemed very compassionate.

I would recommend Dr. Archer. She covered all the bases that I needed and wanted to know about. I felt as if I could reach out to her if I was having issues/questions. The only thing I would e changed is the outcome of our cycle.

Egg retrieval/ embryo transfer $8,000 Dr. Archer’s services- $1,500. Medications $2,200

We were allowed to transfer up to two embryos.

Always informative, took my feelings into consideration. Listed to concerns and considered my suggestions. Completed a surgery that I was told was impossible by the first fertility doctor. Would highly recommend her to everyone in need of a fertility physician.

Be open minded to options and listen to her advice

On a high dose of estrogen, she completed a SIS test, HSG test, hysteroscopy with removal of lesions and adhesions and now I’m ovulating with an 8.8 lining and hoping for the best

Thus far I have only paid co payments for my treatment

Great bedside manner. She was easy to talk to and explained everything very clearly. She had very positive outlooks on us, but we never achieved a pregnancy with her. However, now that we have moved onto another clinic, they've assessed that our protocol during IVF was so low as to be considered a placebo level.

Nothing.

For our IUI cycles, we tried one round of Clomid and three rounds of Letrozole. All were also accompanied by patches to increase my lining and progesterone after the fact. For our IVF cycle, we used a combination of Follistim and Cetritide, with a Pregnyl trigger.

Very reasonable. I don't remember the exact number.

She presented us with nationwide guidelines on transfer and said that it was up to us to either transfer one or two. However, after retrieval, with only 2 embryos reaching Day 3, she recommended transferring both.

She is very knowledgeable, took time to answer my questions. Personally called me back with my test results. She was always prepare to answer questions. Always nice and helpful. I would highly recommend her.

We tried so many different protocols over almost 5 years.

Reasonable cost

Good doctor. Works solo in the clinic 7 days a week as needed. Support staff is not much support. Miscommunications were mostly due to receptionist error.

Take notes. Ask questions. Double check all appointments and dosages.

Oral meds and suppositories for all iuis, all negative results. Follistim, ganrilex, Lupron, progesterone, Estrace for IVF, negative result.

I really like her a lot she fights for you not scared to try différents things such as treatments dose etc.. I like that she’s weeling to try anything to help and she goes for it and takes charge I know it hasn’t worked us yet we’ll we had on but misscaried but it’s not her fault we just not lucky I guess but we are keeping faith that it will for us one day just out of money and don’t know what else to do as treatments are very expensive

Just trust her she’s got experience in this and be patient as she could be very busy sometimes but still finds time to be for you as you need her

For ivf which is what we saw her for she will do ultrasounds to make my uterus was fine monitor everything closely she’s bey good at that we will meet up for a review on how to take the medication shots pills and comes for blood work and ultrasounds to make sure the levels were right results were great also I always responded to the treatments we did fresh and frozen xfers had great eggs 11 7healthy ones everything looked so good but didn’t work for us so sad she was so confident that we will get our miracle baby but we hopeful that it will happens for us!

She is definetly cheaper then my previous doc her her ultrasounds are $120 ivf less than $10000

Not really she was ok with us transferring 2 or one but that’s all we wanted the most 2 pet transfers

Dr Archer is very knowledgeable. She performed 2 lap surgeries and 3 hsg's on me with no complications. She gives you time to ask questions in order to completely understand what to expect. The only weakness I would say of the dr is her note taking. My medical history was difficult to review by other clinics because her handwriting was illegible. This made communication difficult when other clinics were trying to analyze my history.

Dr Archer will do everything she can to help you. She is a doctor you can trust, especially if this is your 1 st rodeo and you have little knowledge of what to expect with your infertility journey.

I had costs for surgeries, xrays, and ultrasounds