Northwestern Fertility & Reproductive Medicine

I went through two rounds of egg freezing (for "social reasons") and worked with Dr. Feinberg for both - the first was disappointing and the second a success. There is more below but I would heartily recommend Dr. Feinberg to others; she is a fine physician who is kind, thoughtful, and truly cares about her patients. The first round I felt like a cog in the wheel of the clinic (which has more to do with the clinic than Dr. Feinberg) and didn't feel I understood how things were progressing until the retrieval when I was informed that I only had a handful of possible eggs to retrieve (this conversation happened to be with the MD on rotation/doing procedures that day). While the nurse had been in touch with me after each of my morning blood draws/ultrasounds, I wasn't informed of the details of my progress (but also didn't know what I should be asking). I learned that I certainly needed to be far more well-informed, a stronger advocate for myself and, in response, brought these concerns to Dr. Feinberg in our follow-up meeting. She was kind, human, thoughtful, and generous in response. She heard me out and owned that things should not have transpired as they did - while they cannot guarantee any specific outcome, they can keep patients informed along the way so that patients can make informed decisions about their care. In response, Dr. Feinberg went to bat for me and the hospital subsidized a second round. I chose to work with Dr. Feinberg again and had a very good experience. Communication was fluid and consistent, the med regimen was tweaked, and the results were much improved. I was lucky to have Dr. Feinberg on rotation the day of my retrieval and we were able to celebrate a happy ending to a tough journey. She is lovely!

I think this may have more to do with the clinic set-up than Dr. Feinberg but do your homework and be the polite albeit squeaky wheel so that you get the grease. While Dr. Feinberg is excellent at explaining things in plain english, the clinic is set up in a way that directs your communication towards the nursing staff rather than the physician. I had Dr. Feinberg's email and knew I could get in touch with her as needed but didn't know enough about what information was important the first time around to do so.

Due to freezing eggs for "social reasons," this was fully out of pocket for me. The most useful people in terms of saving money were the Walgreens as well and in-house Northwestern pharmacists.

She definitely knew what she was doing. Always very professional, and very knowledgeable. I never doubted her. I only wish she was more personable, and more warm towards us. She was never rude or anything like that, just cold. Maybe that's her personality. We plan to seek her care for our next baby next year.

She knows what she is doing, trust her. Don't let her emotionless personality steer you away.

When we didn't get pregnant the 1st time, she umped the dosage of the meds so that the egg retrieval came up with more eggs. She also upped the dosage for the fertility shots to make sure my body held on to the egg.

It was pretty in and out, the ladies were so very nice and they made me feel comfortable.

Out of pocket, for both procedures and treatments, we paid a little under 6k for both my wife and I. We do have private insurance that did cover some of the costs.

I always wondered why she chose to only do a single egg transfer opposed to a multiple egg transfer. I always thought that would give me higher chances of conceiving, but she never explained.

She is a wonderful dr. Being that she also has gone though infertility she can related to her patients. She is a good listener and always has a plan of how to move forward. She treated me on the spot for one of my apts. that was not even scheduled.

Ask her anything and she will have an answer or get you one, she's great!

I had been treated at a different dr for over a year and was not getting any results that were helpful. Dr. Fineburg was positive that she could get more then 8 /9 eggs retrieved (at my prior dr office in which only 4 out of both cycles made it and none resulted in pregnancy) and she did! I got 22 in which 8 made it. I did a fresh transfer and still was not pregnant. I am currently waiting on my ERA results to see if my implanting window needs to be adjusted.

$900 for ERA $1,500 for hystroscope $1,600 for retrieval

This is a conversation we had together and Dr. Fineburg listen and ultimately let my husband and I choose.

I originally sought out Dr. Milad because of his experience in gynecological surgery, specifically fibroids. It was through this experience that we learned of our infertility issues. He did extensive diagnostic testing and then met with my husband and me to go over all of the results and explain their implications and our options. We always felt that we were in the driver's seat. Dr. Milad recommended we do IVF right away, but we weren't ready so we pursued IUI's and chlomid. Dr. Milad did an amazing job on my open myomectomy when I finally had to have one, and then oversaw every cycle of IVF. Before each cycle and after we would discuss what went well and what we thought should be changed. He entertained my many questions, and personally responded to my messages. When we thought we may be having immunological issues, Dr. Milad laid out the scientific evidence on treatment options - including nonconventional options that had some scientific support (the endometrial scratch, acupuncture, baby aspirin, etc.) After our miscarriage, Dr. Milad met with us to not only discuss options, but console us. My husband and I trust him implicitly, and really feel as if he cares about us.

Patients that desire significant information on the treatment plans and options would be an excellent fit for Dr. Milad. if you need gynecological surgery - he is the best in the midwest.

IVF #1 - 300 gonal f/150 menopur - 7 retrieved/6 mature/4 fertilized with ICSI/transferred two 7-cell 3-day embies - BFN, none to freeze IVF #2 - 225 gonal f/150 menopur - 20 retrieved/11 mature/10 fertilized with ICSI/transferred two 10-cell embies on day 3 - froze 5 blasts, M/C FET #1 - transferred one 5-day blast - BFN FET #2 - had scratch done, baby aspirin - transferred two 5-day blasts - BFP

Scans are done in the morning between 630-800am. I found them efficient. The techs are professional and friendly. They aren't suppose to discuss the results, but mine always indicated whether things looked good or if there was an area for concern. If I wanted, instead of waiting for a callback later that day, a nurse would see me immediately after and go over the scan and talk about potential changes to treatment.

For two fresh cycles, and two frozen embryo transfers, we've probably spent $2K with our insurance, including $1K for the cost of freezing embryos. There is a financial counselor at the office that walks through all coverage points and prices.

Dr. Milad recommended two, 3-day embryos transferred and advised of trade-offs. He recommended one, 5-day embryo transfer because of his concern around the risks of carrying multiples. It was only after two failed fresh transfers and one failed frozen transfer that her recommended transferring two 5-day embryos.

Dr. Feinberg has a wonderful bedside manor. She is the perfect combination of being realistic while staying upbeat and encouraging. She was always available to take our calls when we had questions or wanted to discuss next steps in more detail. She never rushed our conversations. She handled very well mine and my husband's tendencies to need to know all the technical details regarding my treatment and to discuss studies and research that we had done on our own that might have conflicted with her suggestions. I was very confident in her abilities.

Speak up if you have questions or concerns.

I did two stimulation rounds with menapur and folistim. We froze all resulting 5 day embryos and did PGS testing. The first stimulation round only resulted in 1 mature egg that was not genetically normal. The second stimulation round resulted in 17 mature eggs, 9 of which fertilized, 8 of which made it to day 5 and 5 of which were genetically normal.

Very efficient. If you go 15 min before the monitoring window, you will be out by 7:20 am. It may take longer if you get there after 7:15 am. It also takes longer if you need to speak to a nurse following your monitoring.

My insurance covered most of the standard IUI and IVF drugs and procedures. However, we paid for egg freezing and PGS testing. I don't recall the amounts.

Not really applicable to us because we did PGS testing and only considered eSET.

Even though we miraculously got pregnant naturally between failed IUIs and planned IVF, I give Dr. Boots a ton of credit. She was always extremely warm, seemed sympathetic that we even had to be there in the first place, and explained things in a way that didn't make it seem so scary. I always felt like she took time and care with us and never felt rushed. She's a dream doctor all around.

Just to go to her in the first place!

Because my husband and I are both young (28, 30) and all of our test results came back normal (HSG, semen analysis, FSH, prolactin, thyroid, AMH levels etc) we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. Dr. Boots recommended that we try medicated IUIs first but also explained IVF as well. She acknowledged that for some people, budget is a definite consideration and that because IVF has a higher success rate, some people like to jump straight to that. I liked that she considered treatment from all angles - emotional, health, and budget. She recommended medicated (Clomid) because she felt like it would give us potential the highest chance of success and we also used a trigger shot which I liked so I didn't have to stress over when I ovulated. She did mention that her recommendation was 3 cycles and that the success rate over 3 cycles was about 30%. We did 3 back to back IUI cycles and unfortunately none were successful b. After that point we had a detailed meeting with her to discuss next steps and everybody was on board that IVF was next. I personally couldn't continue to do the same things over and over and was ready for something with a higher success rate. Dr Boots again walked through the IVF process. She did not recommend that we use birth control before which I liked. But otherwise we would have followed a pretty normal atoms for 7-10 days, trigger, and egg retrieval process. Thankfully we had a natural miracle positive test before we could even begin! That was after 20 months of actively trying to conceive

I don't remember exactly but I want to say that the overall costs for our IUIs were close to $2K with the actual procedure and ultrasounds creating the bulk of it. Bloodwork was $25 and Clomid was $5

Dr. Boots' and Northwestern have a one embryo transfer policy under the age of 35. She said the only time they'd put multiple embryos back would be if I was over 35 or if they decided to transfer Day 3 embryos that maybe weren't looking so great. At first this bugged me because the more the merrier right? But she explained to me the risks of multiples for me and the potential babies and seeing as she's a twin mom herself, she reassured me that was the right call.

I have had great experiences with Dr Robins. He is both blunt and kind. I appreciate that he explains everything in detail and his advice is grounded in scientific evidence. He was so supportive and always reachable. He paitently, thoughtfully and thoroughly answered all my questions. Plus he was always reachable, even if it meant he had to call us back at 9pm from his cell phone at a conference!

Don't be afraid to ask questions

I don't recall the specifics. We did two fresh IVF cycles, the second resulting in a pregnancy. We just came back for a frozen cycle using PIO, Endometrin and Estrace, and I am currently pregnant.

They strongly encourage eSET when appropriate for the patient and explain the medical rationale behind it.

She is very blunt and doesn’t sugar coat things- which I appreciated. She is also very realistic. She helped to set realistic expectations. Sometimes I wonder if we should have tried an additional cycle before moving to donor eggs but we could never afforded it.

Her calendar fills up very quickly- so book now!

Being DOR- I was pushed pretty hard with drugs. The first try at IVF resulted in 3 follicles so the cycles was converted to IUI. The second try only had two follicles- So we cancelled and did not do an IUI because later discovered a Male Factor. These cancellations saved us a lot of money.

I believe a full IVF cycle was around 10k-12k, plus meds.

We never reached this point.

We have only just begin working with Eve, but she has been patient, informative, and responsive to our inquiries. She also referred us to a urologist to address the male infertility issues and worked closely with the urologist to coordinate care.

Ask lots of questions.

our insurance does not cover infertility treatment, so we are in the process of switching coverage to be able to get the treatment

Dr. Feinberg was friendly and very upfront with treatment and what could be the cause of my infertility. She wanted to do testing to figure the cause. She listen to my question and give me input of risks.

Be ready to go hard. She really is understanding.

I used progesterone, estradiol and prenatal vitamins for both FET.

$2000 for out of pocket expenses.

She agreed to transfer 2.

She was not at all compassionate and didn't care about me as a person or my situation. However, she got us the results we wanted. She answered our questions, but sometimes it felt like we were annoying her by asking questions. We took it upon ourselves to understand our situation and I will say that she was willing to answer our questions. We also didn't really see her often - I can only remember 2 appointments before we got pregnant, and one appointment after to check-in before she released us to an OBGYN. This was through 4 rounds of IVF, so it seemed like we didn't really know her or she us.

She is blunt, expect that. Come with questions if you care about the intricate details of your treatment.

I don't remember.

It was kind of like a cattle call, but I actually liked how efficient it was.

My insurance paid for it.

She told us about SET and seemed to want us to choose that. We didn't, and she didn't seem to care. Although she didn't really seem to care about us, so it isn't that surprising.

Dr. Barnes was great for our initial and IVF consults. He answered our questions clearly (and there were a lot!) and was prompt with follow-up questions I sent through the patient portal. I wish he'd talked with us more during our failed IUIs to see if we could change the protocols, but ultimately I think we would have ended up doing IVF anyway.

Advocate for yourself! Ask questions and make sure you are clear on answers.

For our IUIs we used clomid with an Ovidrel trigger. The first month we did 50mg of clomid on days 3-7, the second 100mg days 5-9, an the third 100mg days 3-7. Once we decided to move to IVF I started birth control for 21 days. On day 15 I added 10 units of Lupron, which I stayed on through my stimulation phase. I began 150 units of Follistim and 150 units of Menopur on day 2 of my cycle. From there I stayed on the same dose for 13 days, along with the 10 units of Follistim. On day 13 I decreased the Lupron to 5 units and added the Ovidrel trigger. Egg retrieval was scheduled for day 15. 12 eggs were retrieved, with 11 being mature. 8 fertilized normally with ICSI. On day 3 we went in for transfer and still had 8 growing. We transferred two 8-cell embryos and on day 6 two were still growing and were then frozen. I tested positive 7 days after my transfer and had my beta 10 days post transfer. A week and a half after my positive beta I went in for an ultrasound where we saw one gestational sac; a week later we saw one fetus and the heartbeat. Our daughter was born in February 2017 at full term.

Monitoring appointments take place between 7-7:45AM on weekdays and 8-8:30AM on weekends. Only once was there a line out the door in the five months I worked with this clinic. The other mornings it was a breeze to check in, wait to be called for lab/ultrasound, meet with nurse (for IUI only), and then make a new appointment or head to work to wait for more information pending lab results (IVF). It's a well oiled machine.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think our meds were around $2700 (with insurance) and most of our procedures were covered by insurance. In the end I think we spent around $2K toward procedures, including embryo freezing, which was not covered by my insurance.

Dr. Barnes pushed SET and advised against transferring multiple embryos. We felt more comfortable with two and we were OK with the possibility of multiples. He was out of the office the day of the transfer and his chief, Dr. Jared Robins, did our transfer with one of the fellows (Dr. Okeigwe). Dr. Robins suggested transferring two embryos based on quality and my age. Be advised that Dr. Barnes will try to push you toward SET.

Dr. Pavone is very intelligent and knows that data behind the most recent theories in fertility care. In being on this road for as long as we have, unfortunately, I've done a lot of reading and gotten A LOT of 'advice' from people who really think they understand fertility better than specialists. No matter what crazy thing I brought to Dr. Pavone, she always took time to discuss peer-reviewed literature and why something made sense or didn't make sense.

Because of diminished ovarian reserve, typically we've used max doses of gonadotropins and I've actually responded fairly well for what would be expected. I've also tried DHEA, Co-Q 10, various other supplements, herbal remedies, acupuncture - have pretty much tried it all. Dr. Pavone always discussed these with me and most importantly went over the benefits and risks.

I felt like this clinic is a well-oiled machine in the mornings. There are certainly some patients who complain a lot about having to do any waiting but I felt that if you got there somewhat early, you would get in and out in good time.

Fortunately, our insurance has covered all of our procedures. We've only had to pay copays for procedures and medications.

Dr. Robins is very knowledgable and blunt with his opinions. He only uses methods that have a lot of supportive data, which is ok but also seems rigid when what we have tried did not work. He returns my calls and welcomes me to call him on his cell phone. I wish he was more decisive with what approach to take instead of me having to do my own research and then ask him if we can try different methods. I want Dr. Robins to be more of a leader in my care and not be closed off to other methods as long as there is no harm to myself or my pregnancy.

Be clear and direct because he can ramble off his thoughts when answering your questions and the you leave the coversation feeling like you never got an answer

My main issue was scar tissue in the uterine cavity and developing a thick uterine lining. Dr. Robins put me on Lupron and estrogen patches leading up to transfer and the results were good each cycle.

Donor cycle was roughly $16,000 IUI was covered by insurance. Frozen embryo transfers were between $5-$6k hysteroscopies laparoscopy HSG MRI were all covered by insurance.

I felt Dr. Robins was very candid and honest with me, which I appreciated. He felt our prognosis was good, which made me feel hopeful. Though I did not see him as often as I saw other providers in his clinic, he always responded to calls promptly when I wanted to speak with him and made me feel cared for.

The way the clinic is run, you will not see Dr. Robins too often, but he is overseeing your care. He is blunt but honest and will work to get you the results you desire. He has a huge knowledge base and always makes you feel as if you are in good hands.

First did workup, established that I had PCOS and my husband had a low sperm count. Once we had these results, immediately started me on femara for ovulation regulation, and started IUIs to increase the chances of husband's sperm getting to egg. Unfortunately we had no pregnancies after 3 IUIs. Once we had tried IUI 3 times we advanced to IVF (which Dr. Robins said we would likely need from the get-go, though he was pleased w/ my response to femara and my husbands counts so he felt several trials of IUI were appropriate). For IVF I was started on Menopur and Cetrotide, which I responded well to. Used ovidrel once the eggs were ready. Also as Dr. Robins predicted, I responded very well to low doses of these medications. We became pregnant with a single embryo fresh transfer at 5 days. We still have 3 frozen embryos in the clinic.

It was a bit of a cattle call experience, though there are so many u/s techs that generally the wait was pretty short.

Costs were minimal, was largely covered by insurance, with copays. Overall I think we spent under $2000 (several things werent covered, ie embryo freezing)

I spent much more time with the nurses than with Dr. Barnes, but I felt like he was always friendly and helpful and knew what he was talking about. He laid out short- and long-term plans for treatment, so I knew what to expect.

You might get pregnant sooner than you expect!

I believe I took letrazole with a shot each time- the plan was to do this for 3 cycles and then continue but with IUI added. We got pregnant the third time around.

I don't remember

Dr Confino is one of the warmest and kindest doctors. He is very personable and has a hilarious sense of humor. During difficult times it was such an asset to have a doctor like him

Be assertive and ask questions as you are seen by the nurses routinely and they don't always explain the whole picture

He has a wonderful reputation but due to his accent I couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying, especially on the telephone.

Make sure his nurse is there so she can repeat anything that you didn't understand.

My insurance was very good and covered a good portion of expenses related to IVF.

He was really personal, he tried to make jokes and make me feel good/comfortable. He would call personally with some test results. He listened to what I wanted (I wanted to try to do uiu without any drugs at least for the first time.) He was positive/optimistic but at the same time tried to be realistic.

Talk to your doctor; tell him your preference; work together as a team...

I had some blood work done first; then they checked my tubes and uterus to make sure I didn't have any issues there. I wanted to try first anything possible without hormones/drugs. So Doctor understood and worked with me. We did our first IUI without any hormones and it worked from the first time.

I don't remember plus my health insurance covers most of it

Dr Kazer was hands on and as invested in getting me pregnant as I was. Dr Kazer always took the time to talk to me in person or on the phone about my treatment. While being very upfront with medicine and its statistics he remained a my cheerleader as well. He was always warm, and when he could add humor to the situation he never hesitated.

Totally trust him. He knows what he is doing.

He is blunt and truthful. He is also caring and compassionate. He lets you know factually how likely pregnancy is and doesn't give any false hopes. I am happy he was my doctor. He was extremely helpful

Ask as many questions as you. Red to feel comfortable about the process

I had to do injections anf daily blood draws then use progesterone to keep levels high

Dr. Kazer was kind and compassionate. He was upfront with all information clearly set objectives. He was confident and professional while maintaining a good bedside manner. He always returned phone calls and called with test results himself.

Make an appointment with him. He knows his profession and is an amazing doctor.

With my son, we used clomid first to stimulate growth. We then moved on to IUI. Again we used clomid and injections to release the eggs. We had 3 IUI resulting in 1 single successful pregnancy. When I went back to see Dr. Kazer to conceive again, we went directly to IUI. Clomid and an injection to release eggs. After one failed IUI, we began the IVF process. I cannot remember the drug names. I used some hormonal injections to grow eggs. We did the retrieval and progesterone shots following. I had 2 single transfers of embryos and then transferred 2 embryos resulting in multiple(twin) pregnancy.

It was very efficient. Hours of availability made the process easier.

My insurance covered most everything. We needed to pay for freezing and testing sperm. We needed to pay with co-pays for hormone pills and injections.

Dr. Kazer gave me the choice for the eSET and then recommended the multiple embryo transfer when the 2 eSET were unsuccessful

Dr. Confino was kind and caring. He is extremely knowleable.

He is very funny. During my egg transfer(I was a little stress out) he made everyone in the room laugh.

As a strength for me was his complete candor. I can see how if you wanted more care that his style may not blend. It was ideal for us. There were times that another doctor did a transfer but at that point I was confident in the full team and saw no issue with using another team member.

Ask how many Confino babies there are - so many.... If you don't like direct, use another doctor. If you are mater a fact he's a super fit.

We started with oral meds to stimulate ovulation results. We quickly detected a cyst on an ovary that was going to be drained. Upon consult with another doctor there was concern of cancer. It was removed via laperscopic surgery when Stage 4 endometrious was discovered. That accelerated treatment after healing into IVF. One IVF process was successful for a couple weeks before miscarriage. We then took time under medical process to suppress my system (mini-menopause) so we might have a better shot at the next round of IVF. That healing and suppressing journey added time. From there we tried one more time on IVF and just could not produce viable eggs that could sustain. This far into the journey we were open to the idea of egg donation. We interviewed two companies and begin that new journey. Our first donor was rejected by the clinic on the day of extraction because she admitted to smoking. We were heart broken and had to start over. We would have used her eggs but the clinic has strict expectations. Our next donor and implantation was success - 2 in and 2 out.

It was handled very efficiently in my opinion

Don't really recall. It was very expensive and by the time we hit the 3rd round we were at the ceiling of our coverage. They enabled me to turn in my unused meds as a credit towards the donor process.

Dr. Confino has been doing this a long time and is very well respected in his field. As a single woman wanting to have a child, he was supportive and nonjudgmental. He explained his plan for my age of 39 and we agreed on a time schedule. I felt he was honest with me and that I was in great hands.

Ask questions and be prepared to hear the truth. He told me that if I was unable to become pregnant in three months that there was a problem. I listened to everything he told me to do and felt comfortable with out three month plan of IUI with and without drugs. I got pregnant at 39 after the first IUI

It was 16 years ago but I do remember a little bit. As I was only allowed to purchase four vials of donor sperm from the donor I selected, I wanted to follow all the rules. The plan was to do one insemination with without drugs, one month with clomid and then two the last month with clomid or another drug. I went in for an ultrasound on day ?, had an injection of profasi and came back a day or two later for the IUI. I went on to have a perfect pregnancy and healthy baby

It was in 2000 but my GUESS is that the consults, ultrasound and IUI were around $4500