RISE Fertility

She has been our biggest cheerleader.. our daughter was born with a genetic defect despite PGS testing and passed away at 7 weeks. She has taken good care of us, treated us gently and helped us explore all options when it comes to growing our family after our loss.

Do your home work.. she’s extremely intelligent, and I’ve found that it’s easier to communicate when you have done your research.

During our initial appointment, Dr Ghazal wanted to know everything about us. Not just our medical history, but our family values, careers, and fertility goals. After understanding is as people, she helped us strategize how to work around our infertility in the most cost effective way. We wish we had found her sooner, as we were clearly going down the wrong road. Dr Ghazal dedicated a lot of her time to us, calling us directly with news and always ready to answer our questions. She was never unreachable. She constantly searched for answers, tweaked our protocol, and devised new strategies until we landed on something that worked. I believe our case would have scared most fertility doctors away, but she took us on whole and gave us total dedication. Knowing Dr Ghazal was in our court simply made us feel secure at a time when nothing feels secure.

Dr Ghazal is all about the numbers, and will tell you professionally when your emotions are pushing you in a direction that’s counter productive. That input may make you feel disappointed, but remember, she’s got your best interest in mind. For example, she will not hesitate to cancel a transfer or egg retrieval if your numbers are not spot on. In the moment, that feels like one setback, but in the grand scheme, she’s saving you from future worse news and disappointment.

I’m sorry, as I cannot speak to this very well. Here is what I do know: 1. Prior to transfers, we did PRP’s 2. We did tried both controlled transfers and natural transfers. Natural transfers worked best for us.

I unfortunately do not have these numbers in front of me at the moment. A full egg retrieval (including lab fees like fertilization and cryopreservation) was around $20,000. An FET (including lab fees) was around $6,000

Nothing good came from our time at Rise Fertility with Dr. Ghazal. From the moment we stepped foot in the office to our last day (8 months total), it was mistake after mistake and failure after failure. We brought over 4 healthy embryos from another clinic. We started out with an egg retrieval since we were told by Rise that our insurance would cover it AND we could do an embryo transfer in the same cycle. We had a zoom with the financial coordinator and she double confirmed that we had insurance coverage. During the retrieval I was overmedicated and was hyper stimulated resulting in zero normal embryos. PLUS because my hormones were so poorly managed, I was unable to do an embryo transfer like Dr. Ghazal planned. To add insult to injury, we we found out that the egg retrieval was NOT covered by insurance and that we owed $27k. So we had to pay for a retrieval that we never would have done in the first place if we knew insurance didn’t cover it. Dr. Ghazal was not apologetic and offered no remorse. We were not offered any sort of discount or refund. We moved on to a frozen embryo transfer since we already had embryos made. Our first transfer failed (HCG 0), which can happen. So we moved on to a second embryo transfer, which also failed (HCG 0). I have no history of endometriosis or uterine issues. We are strictly male factor infertility. I requested that Dr. Ghazal speak to colleagues or mentors on what could be going wrong. She came back and admitted to transferring the embryos at THE WRONG TIME! She seemed confident in how to figure out proper timing and we went ahead with a 3rd transfer that ALSO failed. After the 3rd fail, Dr. Ghazal did not call us herself to let us know…the IVF Coordinator (who is not even a nurse) called to tell us. Next we did a biopsy called EMMA & ALICE, which Dr. Ghazal never called and reviewed with me. Months later I had another doctor look at the results and found out it was normal. We lost 3 precious embryos and over 50k due to Dr. Ghazal’s lack of knowledge on the IVF process and her poor managed business.

Do not choose Dr. Ghazal as your Reproductive Endocrinologist. There are plenty of amazing REs out there.

IVF (egg retrieval): Microdose lupron Follistim 375 Menopur 225 ( 3 vials) Lowered significantly to 1 Menopur and 225 Follistim when the doctor realized this was too aggressive of a protocol for me Transfers: modified natural due to having a normal, predictable cycle

Since the first appointment with Dr. Ghazal we felt we could fully trust her and the clinic. She took the time to listen to our story and understand our explanations, and provided us with a clear path forward. She was always available for follow-up calls and clarifications. Most importantly, we never felt alone in this journey and fully trusted her and her knowledge. We are so grateful we found Dr. Ghazal and the Rise Team!

You’re in great hands! Don’t be afraid to ask questions and know that the Dr. Is there for you!

I was diagnosed with endometriosis and came to Dr. Ghazal after a few failed IUI cycles. Dr. Ghazal went straight to the point and advised that IUI wasn’t the most effective strategy in my case. We decided to move forward with hormonal stimulation and egg retrieval, and that went according to expectations! We retrieved 10 eggs of which 6 resulted in normal and great quality embryos (she recommended PGT testing).I also had barely any side effects. I wanted to address my endo before the transfer, and Dr. Ghazal was open about it. Thus, I first did a laparoscopy which resulted in the removal of several adhesions. After that, Dr. Ghazal motivated me to start the hormonal protocol for the transfer and we transferred a day 5 embryo which resulted in my very first pregnancy!

Treatment Costs were almost entirely covered my insurance. I was responsible for copays ($25 each visit) and for the out of pocket cost of egg retrieval and embryos conservation (around $12K)