Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine

[Dr. Cristin Slater is] Very blunt, set in her ways, not willing to think outside the box or do further testing to figure out what is wrong. Shuts down any recommendations to try something new, doesn't recommend any supplements that may help, doesn't recommend updated blood tests or semen analysis. Thinks endometriosis isn't something to check for..... She didn't customize anything to us and wanted to repeat the same generic protocol for over 9 months until I finally said enough is enough.

As a patient of Dr. Slater's I felt like I was in good hands. She had/has amazing results with IVF and donor egg IVF, we just knew we had found the right one. She did a phone consult with us and was so knowledgeable and informative, it was amazing. When we did our DE transfer she was genuinely excited for us and how many eggs made it to day 5/6!... We did Lupron shots for about 2 months before our transfer. We did Estrogen IM shots every Tues./Fri and IM PIO shots as well. Everything has worked so far!

[Dr. Cristin Slater] She really pushed for IVF during our initial consult. We were not ready for that financially, so we told her we wanted to try IUI again. She prescribed femara, since the side effects were more mild than clomid. Also, there is a lower risk of hyperstimulation with femara. The Femara helped me ovulate, and then we did insemination. Though everything seemed to work, the treatments were unsuccessful.

[Dr. Kevin Mass] is straight forward with all information and is quick to explain all the technical pieces that can be quite confusing. He spent time getting to know my husband and I, and shared his own family fertility...We did 3 cycles of meds with timed intercourse and tons of ultrasounds. We had 2 failed treatments and found success with our 3rd treatment that resulted in a beautiful baby boy. We decided to try for another child after a year and we had to add injections along with a higher dose of meds. We did 4 rounds the second time but did not have the same luck...

Dr. Slater is very professional, and gives a very detailed explanation of how the IVF process works. Her knowledge on the topic is amazing. We only saw Dr. Slater twice, but she has an amazing team of staff members that we felt very comfortable seeing. Although our first cycle was not successful, we feel confident going back to Dr. Slater for another cycle. When we asked to meet with her to discuss our embryo PGS results, she had no hesitation

During the initial consultation, Dr. Maas was extremely kind and he described our options thoroughly. I felt informed and educated. He didn't try and persuade us to one infertility treatment over another. ... Dr. Maas was friendly and informative, but he was not super personable. ... Overall, I don't feel like communication is that great between him and his patients. I think more contact with the doctor would have made our experience smoother and made me feel more comfortable.

Dr. Maas has always taken the time to explain the situation and course of treatment and has offered free consultations to answer questions that my wife and I had about changes in treatment options.... The original course of action was to use Clomid to to induce ovulation. When it was found that my wife was fairly resistant to ovulation on Clomid alone, Dr. Maas incorporated injectables to help stimulate ovulation, which has worked 3 out of 3 times. We are attempting IUI's for now as a less invasive and less expensive course of treatment, for now. Nothing has resulted in a positive pregnancy test, yet.

Going into the consultation he [Dr. Maas] was very friendly, made us feel hopeful when we weren’t feeling that way at all beforehand. I do have to say since the consultation we have only seen him one other time after 5 months of going there, I thought we would be dealing with him more than we have been...First he did a hsg test to see if there was any blockage and he didn’t see any, so then they put me clomid and ordered me an HCG shot. I went in to check my folicles and I ovulated before I even did the HCG shot so they started to schedule me for the IUI and then they called me after we left to tell me my uterine lining was too thin and they wouldn’t suggest going through with IUI. I believe Dr. Maas was out of town for this so the nurse asked another doctor. After that we tried again the next month but with femara and we actually did the HCG shot as well, when they checked my follicles they said they were great but my lining was still thin so I was put on Estrace until the day of the IUI. They had me come back in two weeks for a blood test to see if I was pregnant, I wasn’t. So they wanted to try some different injectible medications and I had left a message to the nurse that I was supposed to and they called me back too late so I wasn’t able to do anything that cycle either. So far we still haven’t received a positive pregnancy but we are still trying.

I have only seen the doctor one time...6 plus months ago....Dr Slater was very thorough and precise when speaking with me....I didn’t know the protocol was clomid for days 2-6 because I never got any kind of instructions. So I only found out after two months of taking it on the incorrect days. I finally asked for a treatment calendar once I knew about it...There is little to no instruction or education provided...

Dr. Maas truly is one of the kindest people I’ve met. He’s an amazing listener, patient and made me feel so cared for during the process of IVF....Dr Maas knew exactly what do to and when do things necessary for treatment. Weather that meant adjusting medications, having conversations about results etc. He made sure I knew that through the planned protocol he wanted me to have a baby and it was important to him. Medications used were birth control, menopure, gonal, and leuprolide for ivf portion.

Dr Slater has been great. She is very smart and explains things very well. She shows compassion and empathy and really wants to help achieve my goal of getting pregnant.... I have endometriosis and one tube is blocked. My options for the most success is IVF. That is costly for me but we may have to go that route. In the meantime Dr Slater has mentioned IUI with an aggressive approach as far as fertility drugs go.

Dr. Maas remembers who I am and certain details. He never rushed me when I had a million questions. And whenever I called with a question or concern he spoke to me with care.... He also always had a slideshow to explain the process which is good for me because I am a visual person. He took his time and always made sure I understood every step we were taking.... We were going to start IUI but we had to go through some test and blood work first.

My main problem is ovulation, I just don’t ovulate. So he [Dr. Kevin Mass] tried specific doses with me of medication and trigger shots combined with what he called his “Hail Mary”. We did this a few times, none of which worked - but through ultrasounds we could at least see what we needed to do next. Now we are just preparing and hoping to start IVF with him soon.

Dr. Slater always took time to explain to me what was happening with our treatments. She was clear on our chances of conceiving via IUI and then using a surrogate. We met in person, spoke on the phone, and corresponded via email.... The one negative is that she speaks really really quickly, but I found that to be good: not a lot of time wasted.... At every step, I felt like she wanted to help us, like the specific us, have a baby.

Dr. Slater has piles and piles of specialized scientific knowledge. And obviously, she is so immersed in the world of fertility treatment that the esoteric, jargonistic language, and acronyms, and process descriptions are second nature to her. But for patients embarking upon these complicated, expensive, overwhelming treatments, it's really important that they be communicated with carefully to ensure full understanding.

My experience as a patient of Dr. Slaters was nothing short of amazing after my last FET failed she called me personally to say how bad she felt for me, how sorry she was, and how baffled it did not work and went over what we had done and what she would recommend before the next cycle... Dr. Slater recommended an ERA where we found out I need additional progesterone We are currently getting ready for the next cycle

Dr. Slater prefers to transfer one embryo because of the risks associated with multiple pregnancy. We agreed and proceeded with a single embryo transfer...She doesn't just treat you as a number, she is very personable. When I did my cycle she personally called me after the egg retrieval to let me know the results and ongoing progress with the embryos. She was just as ecstatic as we were about the results! We love her!

She [Dr. Slater] was always good at getting to the point, but never wanted to try anything considered to be "contriversial" in treatment plan (ie: blood clotting disorder tests, uterine infection tests, she barely recommended the ERA). She is nice, but she loves to push for testing (like pgs) even when you specifically tell her no many times,...Not very good bedside manor, when she called w test results there wasn't any empathy in her voice, always pushed for pgs testing when we acknowledged not wanting it many times...

I really enjoyed Dr. Slater. I, too, have a dry-ish sense of humor. She might come off as blunt to some, but I actually prefer that in a person. These visits can be overwhelming, but she takes time with you without rushing you out the door and really tries to make sure that you understand what's going to happen, and what's next...Dr. Slater gets to know you and is very involved in the process, which she tailors to your specific needs. She takes lots of time with you and answers any questions you may have.

Dr.Mass was always very straight forward with us, but kind and thoughtful at the same time we it came time to explaining treatment to us. He has also been through many treatments with his wife and knew what we were going through, and it was so nice to have a doctor you could relate to. I remember when we lost our twins he talked with us and told us that even though this is one of the hardest things we will go through, we CAN get pregnant and that is a huge blessing in itself. Even though I was devistated about losing our twins, I heard onto those words and a couple months later we were pregnant with our daughter.

Very kind, calm, mild mannered and approachable but also very knowledgeable. [Dr. Maas] Spent time looking at our fertility history up to that point and offered his opinion on what he thought we could do differently. This made me feel confident and understood.... The main one was doing PGS testing. The rationale was that if we were investing that much time an money into the process it wouldn’t hurt to make sure that the embryos we would use were chromosomaly normal. That way we weren’t wasting time with an embryo that wouldn’t survive.

We started seeing Dr. Slater after trying Clomid with no success. We immediately started planning for IUI. My body took a long time to respond to the injected medications. Dr. Slater took a cautious approach when upping my dosages. On the day of our scheduled IRI, unfortunately I had to many follicles that could have resulted an egg, so we had to cancel. As disappointed as I was to cancel, I appreciate that Dr. Slater made a wise choice to do so. After that, we moved directly into preparing for IVF, with a frozen egg transfer. Dr. Slater performed my egg retrieval and transfer. Because both me and my embryos were so healthy, she strongly suggested transferring only one embryo. I became pregnant during this, my first round, with identical twins!

Dr. Slater is very knowledgable, she herself went through IVF to better understand it and to relate better to her patience. However, sometimes my spouse and I would leave confused due the amount of information thrown at us.... My husband has low sperm count and mobility giving us a less than 1% chance of conceiving on our own. We could have done IUI's but again the percentage was to low to even consider. We were recommended to do IVF with ICSI giving us, If i recall correctly a 30% chance of conceiving.

Dr. Maas was very compassionate, kind, and as informative as he could be. We never felt rushed during our appointments or felt like he was in a hurry to get to the next patient. We would have liked more specifics and better communication between him and the staff- he would sometimes tell us one thing while the staff would tell us another. I also wish we would have established a more detailed plan to go off of because I was never 100% sure what he felt would be best for our next step.

She [Dr. Cristin Slater] won’t get emotional on you. She’s very kind yet very matter of fact. Her confidence is encouraging & she makes you feel like she genuinely wants to help you accomplish your dreams!... We were mainly dealing with me having very resistant ovaries that never wanted to ovulate. I have PCOS & we were trying to conceive for 4 years. I was put on several cycles of metformin, clomid, injections of FSH, & a total of 6 rounds of IUI’s over the span of 4 years.