Southern California Reproductive Center

Dr Surrey clearly has had success in the field and though somewhat arrogant, he is nice enough. However at this point it comes across as though patients are just a number to him. I don't need a doctor to hold my hand through it, but a doctor that at least cares enough to call with results or let me know my prospects. When I asked him how many follicles he saw on my ultrasound he said "as many as you'd expect from someone your age but enough to still make it worth the exercise" No thank you.

If you don't have the time, don't take on more patients.

He honestly didn't even have the time to talk about any of that.

I spent $850 for a consult that took 4 months to schedule, an ultrasound with no follicle count and bloodwork that took over a week to get results for.

My experience with Dr. Alexander started well, however, when I actually started needing things, treatment felt all over the place. She would say one thing, I would get a call later in the day with the office/nurses saying another. Unnecessary treatments were being done to both my husband and I (confirmed by other Doctors I went to after). I never felt like I understood what was occurring. Treatment felt all over the place, things were not explained well, and I felt shut down when I tried to ask for any clarification or understanding. The staff was not kind or friendly, and the billing department was all over the place. My whole experience there was truly just a mess.

Find another Doctor and office.

Dr. Alexander put my husband and I on medication without researching or having any science behind our needs. She just said "this may help" and we blindly followed. She tried to complete an unnecessary biopsy to me. I actually showed up to the appointment, and the pre-care from the staff was a mess. Luckily I trusted my gut and decided to walk out of the appointment. It's the best decision I made.

Costs were absurd here. On top of that, the billing department was so disorganized. I would pay in person and then receive bills in the mail. Keep your records if you go here.

Not relevant

As I mentioned in a previous question, she's the most wonderful, thorough and caring Dr. I've ever had. We went to her feeling pretty hopeless and with PCOS and AMH level being off the charts high. You could tell she was so careful and thorough with every course of action she chose along our journey. SHE LOVES HER PATIENTS. Called to update me after every single appointment, and even outside of that she'd call some days outside of her normal hours just to see how I was feeling and doing. She's incredible. And we forever have her to thank for our little boy and the greatest love and joy we've ever known.

Have patience and know it might be a longer process than you expect and trust that if something is not working, she's always brainstorming to figure out the next best option.

Oh wow, I don't know if I remember everything! I went in for a LOT of ultrasounds to track my follicles for retrieval and then many more to track the injections/my lining as we approached my transfer. I was also able to bring an acupuncturist with me to my transfer which I HIGHLY recommend. Blood tests were run frequently too. My antibodies came back abnormal on one and she had me go to a rheumatologist which I really appreciated to rule things out. I ANA was elevated, and so I was put on prednisone with my other drugs at my transfer time. I had to do a LOT of injections for IVF- progesterone in my butt (the nurses walked me through this which was so helpful), a blood thinner shot in my stomach and then vaginal inserts which I believe were to keep my lining thick. The at-home progesterone shots continued for several weeks after I found out I was pregnant as well. No fun, but worth it in the end! She also saw me regularly for the first trimester until it was time to "graduate" me to my OBGYN.

They were a whole lot. I truly wish there were more insurance options for fertility care, or in the very least for the medications which aren't included in the IVF package cost and add a lot.

My terminology is not great, but as we did not want multiples and also only had 3 embryos, we did not want more than one being transferred at a time, as we felt focusing all of our energy on one held better chances. We also didn't want to risk multiples and/or losing those that didn't stick. So I think we were always on the same page with the Dr. there.

Dr. Alexander had come recommended to me by an OB that I love. My newborn daughter had died due to an unexpected placental abruption the year before that also involved a pretty traumatic emergency c-section. I explained to Dr. Alexander what we had been through and that I was only looking to work with a doctor that was ready to answer in depth all of our questions. After what my body had already been through, I wanted to feel in control of my medical information and confident in every step of this process. While Dr. Alexander did seem to genuinely care about her patients, she also always seemed rushed and never did a great job explaining the treatments, why she was making the decisions she was making and what she was learning along the way. I always left appointments and phone calls with half the information I wanted no matter how hard I pushed for answers. She was able to retrieve three eggs, none of which developed into healthy enough embryos for implantation. That's fine - I get that none of this is guaranteed. However, when we discussed next steps, I asked "well, what did you learn from this cycle that you would do differently next time?" She just responded "well I'd change the medications." I pushed again - surely something had been gleaned from this very expensive round of treatment, but again all I got was "we'd just change the types of medications and the amounts." The whole experience felt a bit like a fertility farm where they were just pushing patients through rounds of IVF without much regard for digging into the root causes of the fertility issues. I didn't feel confident that going through all of that a second time would yield different results so I discontinued my treatments with SCRC. On the positive side, Dr. Alexander was quite responsive - she would call you on weekends and at night. I do think her heart is in the right place but her lack of clarity, the pace with which she rushes appointments and the overall insensitivities of the clinic itself just resulted in a really negative experience for me.

If you're not concerned about the ins and outs and whys of your treatment and just need someone to execute then Dr. Alexander might be right for you. But if you want to be in the weeds of getting answers and understanding why decisions are being made, then I would consider a different doctor.

Because I had not-ideal FSH, Dr. Alexander suggested skipping right to IVF rather than exploring IUI. In one of my initial ultrasounds she saw 8 follicles naturally forming so she suggested actually just jumping into a luteal start IVF the next day. It felt quite rushed as I thought I was just going for a consultation but she made it sound like this was a golden opportunity because she didn't expect to see that many follicles with my FSH levels. I was on a combination of Gonal F, Clomid, and Cetrotide, from what I remember. Because I wasn't responding to the treament as expected, we extended stim for another two days. Dr. Alexander gave me the option of cancelling my retrieval since I only had two-three potential eggs. However we decided to go ahead with the retrieval. She was able to get all three eggs, two of which fertilized and only one of which developed. That eggs underwent genetic testing and unfortunately had a chromosomal abnormality. Unfortunately when asked what was learned from this cycle and what she'd do differently next time, I got pretty generic answers. "We'd try a different medication protocol" but no specifics. It was frustrating to feel like they weren't interested in learning more about WHY the first round didnt work or what might be contributing to my sudden loss of fertility after five years of very easily being able to get pregnant.

Dr. Akopians was everything I needed in a doctor. Ever since my initial consult with her, she was direct and straightforward but compassionate and kind. I wanted someone to give it to me straight since so much of infertility is up in the air. It was important to me that she be the one doing my procedures and she was. Every egg retrieval and then every prenatal ultrasound was done with her as well as her nurse present.

I had done so much research on everything there is to know about IVF and like most people, had tried to micromanage every last detail of my infertility experience. With Dr. Akopians I immediately knew that I could pass the torch because I was in good hands. Trust her because she knows what she’s doing, however she was also open to debating studies and cases I had read about. It was the perfect mix.

The first cycle I had a slightly elevated FSH so we waiting a cycle till it dropped down. Then we primed for 4 days with bcp before stimming for 14 days (slow responder) before the egg retrieval. Dr. Akopians saw my low AFC and lower AMH and did not was to over suppress. The second cycle my FSH was too high so we did estrogen priming for a month or so prior to the stims. This was my best cycle with the most PGS normal embryos.

My package was $28k for monitoring, retrieval, genetic testing of 8 embryos, transfer, and after transfer monitoring. I banked embryos in two cycles. Second cycle was a la carte without a package for $14k including genetic testing. Meds were not included for any of this.

Dr. Akopians does not believe, or at least in my case did not believe in the need to transfer multiple normal tested PGS embryos as science has shown better outcomes for mother and child when only one is transferred. This was in line with what all I had read.

From our first meeting with Dr. Surrey, I really like him and his thoughts on what would be good initial treatment steps for us. However, I felt there would be much less hand holding, which worried me. But I quickly realized that while I wouldn’t see Dr. Surrey at each visit (for convenience you often just see the nurse and ultrasound tech for quick check-ins) he would call me every time with my results from that day. Anything important was always communicated directly from him, not another member of the team. I really appreciated that. Dr. Surrey has a supportive but not emotional method to his treatment. I felt like we really built a strong doctor patient relationship throughout my time. And when something didn’t go according to plan, he was sensitive to it. He had a very calm and friendly demeanor.

Ask him questions as they arise, he is very open and easy to talk with.

We did IVF cycles with him. He utilized injections and oral or vaginal medication for harvesting/retrieval prep and transfer plans. Our first retrieval prep was cancelled prior to the actual retrieval because of the poor egg numbers he saw. This was hard but I was so glad that he made this decision based on my numbers, it felt personalized, rather than just having me move forward with what would have been a poor retrieval. After that he adjusted my medications and got a better response for our next cycle. His transfer plans also felt specific to me, he adjusted as often as he felt necessary to allow for optimal results.

I had the most wonderful Ultrasound Tech, Neha! I had other techs as well who were fantastic, but I saw Neha at 90% of my visits. She was so knowledgeable and kind no matter the circumstance. We had good and bad ultrasounds and she was always a strong support. She was incredibly professional but also personal to my care. It meant the world to me.

The costs were in line with what we had experienced elsewhere. However, SCRC provided all costs upfront and at the start of each treatment. There were no hidden costs. It removed anxiety to know there wouldn’t be any unforeseen costs.

He recommended single transfer but was open to discussing this with me. Ultimately we did both single and multiple transfers. He listened to me and we agreed together that a double embryo transfer was best for my last transfer that resulted in the live birth of our son.

Overall, Dr. Surrey was very great and very pleasant. He always remembered us and our situation. He would always contact us with lab results, new information or just to check in. He was very informative and always presented us with options in moving forward with procedures or testings. Financial stresses and work related challenges have been very present throughout our process. This is probably just a personal/emotional experience, but I felt as though Dr. Surrey was not mindful of our financial struggles. I understand he has an accounting department for that, but sometimes it almost seemed like we were encouraged to take the most expensive procedures/actions to move forward. However, if finances were not an issue, I probably would not feel that way.

Educate yourself as much as possible, talk to others who have gone through IVF treatments successfully and unsuccessful. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

We began with an egg retrieval, followed by a FET cycle a couple weeks later. My fiancé experienced hyper stimulation, severe bloating and swelling. Resulting in 2 taps to remove the excess fluids. The hormone injections may have been too strong for her body. We retrieved 33 eggs, made 5 embryos, 2 were mosaic. Of the 3 viable embryos, two were Day 7 and one was Day 5, which we transferred. Unfortunately our transfer was not a successful pregnancy. A couple months later we decided to do another egg retrieval and freeze. This time Dr. Surrey lowered the hormonal dosage, which prevented hyper stimulation happening again. This time we got 20 eggs and just froze them due to finances at this time.

Dr. Surrey was very neutral and didn't really encourage one way or the other. He educated us on the tradeoffs.

Strengths are he is a highly qualified doctor. Weaknesses are he is dismissive, arrogant, and always in a rush to get you off the phone. He would raise his voice at me several times over the phone. When I would raise my concerns or question him he would not handle it appropriately.

I came to him understanding he may not had good bedside manner. But i truly believed he would help me achieve a successful pregnancy. He did not. He uses the same protocols over again even when i was not responding to them. When i would ask question he responds with your body tells us what to do. I never wanted a natural transfer but it was pushed onto me when i stated i wanted a medicated transfer.

Mini ivf where lower doses of the stim meds were used in a much shorter time frame. This resulted in 3 eggs retrieved and 1 embryo. These are the exact same results as my previous ivf with a different doctor.

Total cycle plus transfer about 35,000. This included retrieval, transfer, and one surgery. I had fertility coverage only for my medication.

I only had one embryo.

I had a fresh embryo transfer. I became pregnant. I was told throughout the entire process my age would determine quality. She called me her success story. I miscarried. She said that is the risk you take with transfers. She abandoned me, canceled my follow up appointment. I told staff something was not right. Her nurse canceled my follow up u/s the same day. I later discovered i needed immediate medical treatment. Dr. Akopians was not there to follow me. I seeked outside care. She “called in sick” the entire week and canceled all her appointments.

Do not go to her. She is not direct. She is unprofessional. You are nothing but another check to her. She will abandon you, not follow up on patient care. I received an email she no longer works for the clinic. Shortly after she abandoned care.

Gonal 300 increased to 350 menopur 75, omnitrope 25

Still waiting for rest of the bills. But around 5k for meds. 1020 non refundable scrc fee, 7 k for art fees.

I had only one embryo. So i did a single transfer

Would not recommend whatsoever. From start to finish, I would say my experience: 2/10. As someone who leaves 5 stars on Yelp for 90% of businesses she frequents, please know this is not a common occurrence. Dr. Ghadir's communication, demeanor, interpersonal awareness, careless badmouthing of others in the ART community, were not to professional standard. He occurs as someone who has spent life in an echo chamber, not someone who has had to be present outside himself or with his patients. Beyond this, my ideal retrieval date (follicles were ready) fell on a holiday. By the time my retrieval was performed, it was late. While this could have occurred at any clinic (as timing is everything), I did not have an easy time reaching the doctor to adjust course of action. The reason I chose Dr. Ghadir was based on him preferring a protocol which others do less frequently. I would very much have chosen another doctor had I interviewed Dr. Ghadir first. I would have happily done another protocol, to have worked with someone more attentive, and who conducted themself with more dignity and care.

Really ask yourself if there is not someone better in SoCal. It is your money, and you can choose from a wide array of professionals.

Microdose Leuprolide, Omnitrope

Dr. Chang knows how to sell herself in a consult. She was very caring at first, made me think my fertility could be solved with increased vitamins and walking, but that we had to do tests to make sure. During my first exam, she said she saw a cyst, and it was either a cyst from having just ovulated or a problematic cyst, and I should stop eating garlic and get a pelvic ultrasound if the cyst was still there in my regular ultrasound the next week - and that if I didn't hear otherwise, to assume the cyst was there. I never got the results, proceeded with the ultrasound (which was painful and scheduled at a clinic over an hour drive from my home!), and when I asked her for the results she said "You never had a cyst!" and when I asked if I could eat garlic she said "Sure, you could always eat garlic, just not more than 2 cloves per day." Before starting with Dr. Chang, my OBGYN had prescribed me progesterone suppositories because I had low progesterone. He told me not to stop taking them until I had took a pregnancy blood test. I asked Dr. Chang if I should do the blood test with her. She said yes. I scheduled it, and when she called with the results she told me I shouldn't have scheduled the pregnancy test, and that my progesterone was high which was great. I told her of course my progesterone was high because I was taking suppositories and that I had already been diagnosed with low progesterone and she said that the numbers said my progesterone was high, so that was a good thing. She called me with my initial diagnosis and told me that my numbers were fine except my AMH was on the cusp for my age, and that she didn't recommend any invasive treatments but would call me to discuss further. She set a 30 minute call for further discussion, in which she told me that my numbers were clearly an indication for IVF - which is pretty invasive! She had no recollection of talking to me a week earlier. She didn't give me time to ask questions, tried to rush me off the phone, and wanted to schedule a saline sonogram before my egg retrieval (which my next clinic told me was silly, since we needed to find out if I could get eggs before assessing my uterus). She spent the majority of the call going over the risks of the saline sonogram, with zero information about IVF. She also kept saying my husband's semen was "perfect" in a very strange way and it was incredibly creepy.

DON'T GO. I wouldn't recommend Dr. Chang to my worst enemy.

She told me to take Vitamin B, Vitamin D (5000 IU), magnesium, a prenatal, and a probiotic. I was already taking a probiotic - femdophilius - and she wanted me to switch to Garden of Life, which hurt my stomach tremendously.

Egg retrieval - $14,750 PGT-A - $3800 Consultation - $275 Bloodwork/diagnostics - $556

I was recommended this clinic and Dr. Alexander by my OB-GYN. She was nice in the beginning but the clinic, her, and her staff are a disorganized mess. Outside of acting kind and a couple of nurses that were sweet and caring, the clinic as a whole just treat you like cattle. They would forget to call with critical instructions, there was no communication between departments, I would get billed for things that didn't happen. She didn't give me any information going into procedures, she would say here's my cell, call me anytime, but if you dared ask a few questions she would either say "that's a great question" and not answer it or make you feel rushed and like it's not her job to answer. She didn't give me tests that every fertility doctor I consulted with after (4 total) were shocked to hear. She didn't tell me what options there were, what to expect. The whole time I felt crazy because everyone is nice, but it was to date one of the most frustrating experience of my life. I finally dug in properly after this experience and consulted with 4 others... ALL were better and more informative in one convo than she was my whole experience with her. I ultimately switched to pacific fertility and it is NIGHT AND DAY. I realized quickly that I am not alone in how I feel. Many women that leave for a different doctor say the same things. I will spare details but I have stories for days on how many balls were dropped, and issues they have. I would implore anyone considering this journey to speak to at least 3 other doctors. I switched doctors and went through 3 successful cycles following my experience with SCRC. The doctor is so knowledgeable, the coordinators are nothing short of AMAZING. SCRC was not at the top of anyones "best of" lists, haha, but If for any reason you do go here still, connect with Primo in customer service. He's the only person who actually seems capable, and at the very least try for a different dr. I warned a friend about going to Dr. Alexander as well as someone else recommended her and she did it anyway, only to be disappointed after. I really really wish I did proper research and conferred with multiple doctors, but I am glad I switched.

Do NOT see her. You will regret it. And at the least do your due diligence and consult with as many doctors as you can.

Over 30k for one procedure (without transfer) and there were missed tests we didn’t discover she didn’t order until the end of the procedure. The other doctor who did discover it was visibly shocked and they never apologized or gave an explanation. I was also billed by the lab for things not done.

Dr. Alexander was a perfect fit for our needs and family. She is brilliant, caring, professional, and I cannot recommend her highly enough. She was clear in her communication and I had the utmost confidence in her skills.

Don't be afraid to ask questions and have instructions explained clearly to you. We ultimately went the IVF route (successful after 1 round), and there was a lot of ownership on me as the patient in the success of the process. I quickly realized I needed to have a solid grasp of what was expected of me as the patient and to not be shy when it came to any questions I had. Dr. Alexander and her team were wonderful and patient in explaining processes and procedures to me.

During my very first in-person consult, Dr. Alexander immediately saw I had uterine polyps which were most likely preventing me from conceiving. Her team scheduled me for surgery to have them removed and we then tried IUI. It was unsuccessful so we then turned to IVF. We had went through the egg retrieval process and ultimately had one viable embryo to work with. Unfortunately, due to the medications/hormones for the egg retrieval my polyps returned, so I underwent another removal surgery. It then took several months of appointments, treatments, hormones to get my body in perfect condition for the embryo transfer which was successful on the first try and resulted in a healthy baby boy.

It was a costly process that spanned over 10 months. However, we are fortunate in that we do have fertility coverage through our employers so some of the costs were reimbursed. The entire costs was probably around $30K between all surgeries, treatments, medications, office visits, etc...

After 7 years, multiple failed IUI's and 7 failed cycles of IVF, with 3 doctors prior to Dr. Akopians, we were blessed to finally become patients of Dr. Akopians and to have our miracle baby. Dr. Akopians and her entire team were incredibly thorough, explaining everything we needed to know along the way. She was also very nimble, redirecting as needed as we received new information and results to ultimately get us the best outcome. You never feel rushed or treated like a number with her or her team. Patients are able to easily access their results and she goes over the results each time, himself. She's extremely cautious and will communicate the potential outcomes, considerations and risks of what she's recommending. I always felt like I was in great care and have since recommended Dr. Akopians to everyone in need to fertility care. She's one in a million and I wouldn't look to anyone else if you're in the LA area and considering fertility treatment.

You're in good hands.

we pivoted from a frozen to fresh transfer considering how our embryos were performing. It was a successful outcome and strategy and Dr. Akopians was the only doctor who was nimble and pivoted to that strategy which ultimately led to our baby.

monitoring appointment were smooth and seamless, I always saw Dr. Akopians and that was incredibly important to me to be monitored by the doctor.

Dr Ghadir is the kindest doctor we have ever encountered in our IVF journey. After our embryos were created I was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer (not hormone driven). He was so kind and encouraging and once our first transfer began he held our hand every step of the way. It made the journey so relaxing and calm and we are forever grateful for him as our baby boy was born November of 2022.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and please listen to him as his guidance is amazing. Also, understand everyone’s body is different and journeys will be different but he will be honest kind and thorough throughout the journey.

It’s all a blur with the cancer diagnosis but the Mock ERA was so important and we are so glad he recommended this as it helped with our first transfer being a success!

Our costs were partially covered by our health plan which helped! The finance/billing department will look into this for you. Out of pocket costs were high but we managed with my husbands career as a firefighter/paramedic.

Dr. Ghadir makes the recommendation of single versus multiple based off the mothers health. He is honest and that should be appreciated!

My experience with Dr. Akopians is incomparable to any other doctor. I have never met a doctor with so much knowledge and compassion. As a patient with a professional medical background, she never made me feel like I was expected to know all of the medical terminology or how this process worked. She was thorough and thoughtful with her delivery of information. Her bedside manner made it so comfortable to discuss even the most intimate of issues. I was always informed of every step of the IVF process and never felt that my needs were overlooked. I can't thank her enough for the kindness and care that she has provided for me.

Dr. Danzer completely mislead me to convince me to do IVF with him and then he failed to deliver on his promises. From the beginning, I did not have infertility issues. I did IVF to eliminate a dominant gene from being passed down. Dr. Danzer kept telling I will have plenty of embryos after one round and not to worry. I had 34 follicles when we began treatment, I was 28 years old, and I had absolutely 0 signs of any health issues or infertility whatsoever. I am an IVF clinic dream patient. Mr partner completed a semen analysis and Dr. Danzer said his semen was "in the top 10% of semen [he has] ever seen." Dr. Danzer started my treatment by loading me up on 300 units of Gonal F and 75 units of menopur to begin treatment, failing to consider my age, health, lack of infertility issues, etc. I was on stimulants for I think 13 days!!!! At retrieval, Dr. Danzer removed 20 eggs. Of those eggs, 15 fertilized and only 5 became blastocycts! After genetic testing, we had 1 fair quality embryo left. This is the result of Dr. Danzer's promises of "plenty of embryos." Not to mention, Dr. Danzer convinced me to pay thousands of dollars additional for the embryoscopy because "we would have so many options and it would be good to know which ones are the best quality to transfer." We had ONE embryo and every other clinic has since told me that they do not even offer embryoscopy because they are almost useless these days. We had a fatal gene that we were trying to avoid passing down. We had so many people chip in to help us pay for Dr. Danzer and his result for a fertile, very healthy 28 year old woman was one fair quality embryo. I am SO upset. 20 follicles retrieved, 19 mature, 15 fertilized, 5 blastocysts, 1 fair quality embryo all while promising "plenty of embryos." Again, I had 0 fertility issues and was a 28 year old extremely healthy person. After recovery from the devastation from SCRC and Dr. Danzer, months later I decided to go to Dr. Marrs at California Fertility Partners. Dr. Marrs comforted me to let me know it is still very likely that I will be able to have plenty of embryos. Despite being scarred by Dr. Danzer, I trusted Dr. Marrs and gave it a shot. Dr. Marrs was ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC. He retrieved 35 follicles, 30 of which fertilized, 16 became blastocysts and they are now off to genetic testing. Can you please recognize the difference in quality between these two doctors? 5 embryos to testing from SRCR and Dr. Danzer vs. 16 at a later round with California Fertility Partners and Dr. Marrs is a completely different result. I actually have a real shot at having healthy babies now. It is also important to note that SCRC has two floors: One floor for blood work and one level for doctors and retrieval. I barely saw Dr. Danzer. I went in every other day for blood work and ultrasounds and only saw nurses and ultrasound technicians. At California Fertility Partners, I saw a doctor every time I came to the office and everything is handled on the same floor as to not make you feel like the doctors are (literally) above you and unreachable. Choosing an IVF clinic is so difficult. Please don't make my mistake a waste over $30,000 with SCRC and Dr. Danzer.

Leave and go to California Fertility Partners with Dr. Marrs where you are treated with a plan customized to your body and needs.

Dr. Danzer loaded me up with Gonal F at 300 units and Menopur at 75 units. I was 28, 34 follicles, and no infertility issues. He completed diminished the quality of my follicles. He later dropped my Gonal F, but it was too late. He ruined my cycle.

I don't remember, but Dr. Danzer and SCRC were more expensive than Dr. Marrs and California Fertility Partners.

I loved my IVF experience with Dr. Akopians. I had two rounds of ivf and one frozen embryo transfer from Feb 2022 until November 2022. Dr. Akopians is a machine! She studies your outcomes and makes appropriate plans and changes. I always felt she gave 100 percent to my care and family planning goals. My personal preference for doctors is that they are compassionate, direct, and well- researched in the latest research and practices. With Dr. Akopians, I found that perfect match.

A piece of advice I would give patients for Dr. Akopians is that she is really focused on your labs and ultrasounds, so she is not prescribing a one size fits all approach. She is incredible with the amount of time she spends studying your case. When I first met her, I knew this woman meant business! And I loved that about her. As I got to know her throughout the IVF cycles, I felt that we developed a relationship that was honest yet compassionate. It is pretty impressive the amount of families they are trying to get pregnant and I know that a busy clinic may be off putting, but you want a well oiled machine! Finally, I felt with Dr. Akopians that her medication doses and appointments reflected my age and medical history that was necessary. Of course, you want to compare your treatments and medications with friends going through IVF- DON'T DO THAT haha. I felt Akopians was right there with me in our goal to get me pregnant. And she was right there celebrating with me when we got there.

IVF round 1: regular protocol IVF round 2: estrace priming protocol for low responding ovaries

46K total cost: 2 rounds of IVF medications, 2 rounds of IVF, 1 frozen embryo transfer, tons of labs for bloodwork, and visits for ultrasounds.

We selected a frozen embryo transfer with ONE embryo since the embryo was PGT tested and graded good.

My husband and I appreciated how much Dr. Ghadir candidly expressed his perspective about the best steps to take for our fertility journey. When testing after our consultation determined that we were most likely struggling due to MFI, he directed us to move towards IVF, and with his leadership, we were able to move through the whole process to our current pregnancy (our first successful pregnancy after 4 years of ttc) within 6 months! From Day 1 in our Zoom consult to the last day at my "graduation", he was direct and honest, and I am so grateful that his direction changed our life for the better; we simply cannot imagine doing any future transfers to grow our family again without him.

I would advise a prospective patient to be sure to speak up and ask clarifying questions if needed! He is incredibly patient, and while he may speak quickly at times, he is always willing to answer any questions you may have with complete openness and honesty.

Dr. Akopians is clearly intelligent and I felt a compassionate doctor. However she seemed too overworked to pay specific and individualized attention to each patient. If you don't mind that and are just looking for a straight shooter who will assign the protocol and oversee your treatment, she may work for you. If you are seeking more hand holding and attentiveness, this might not be the right doctor for you. I chalk this up to being more an overall issue with the clinic itself than the doctor. I didn't receive any treatment from her, I only had a consult and the initial diagnostic workup with her.

Consider your individual needs when choosing a doctor. I recommend having multiple consults with other doctors/clinics before making a decision, if feasible. Advocate for yourself, do your own research, and ask lots of questions. If she suggests a certain protocol ask her why she would recommend that for you specifically.

I have diminished ovarian reserve and Dr. Akopians initially recommended we do the birth control start. I have come to learn by consulting with multiple doctors that the birth control can actually suppress the ovaries too much which would result a lower egg number at the retrieval. The doctor I am with now has put me on an estrogen priming protocol which apparently may be more beneficial if you have DOR. I reached out to the Akopians team and asked them about the estrogen protocol and all I got was a response saying that Dr. Akopians won't order the meds or assign the official protocol until I come in for day 1 or 2 testing and ultrasound. The issue with that is that the estrogen priming protocol is supposed to start in the previous month's luteal phase in order to prevent one egg from maturing too quickly before the others. This was one of the main reasons why we chose to go with another doctor over Dr. Akopians in the end. We didn't love the protocol she suggested and didn't feel like we could get in contact with Dr. Akopians to really talk this through - she seemed very inaccessible.

My consultation was free because I had a coupon from my OB/GYN. The bloodwork and ultrasound was run through my insurance.

I am still in the middle of treatment with Dr. Chang. My husband was diagnosed with Chronic Leukemia and we were desperately trying to determine if his sperm could be used for IVF. She is connected with some of the top cancer doctors in the world and we were able to receive recommendations from a male fertility urologist and oncologist if it was safe to proceed with IVF given my husband's poor sperm quality. Dr. Chang is very candid and respectful with her patients. She clearly provided us with our options for IVF and her recommendations with the risks of each procedure (ICSI, genetic test, frozen embryo transfers etc). I am grateful for Dr. Changs attention to detail and "taking care of business". We were getting ready for the frozen embryo transfer and we did some pre-testing to make sure I didn't have any infections --- turns out I did and she immediately put me on antibiotics and probiotics. She never rushes in to something and takes all the necessary precautions, even though I am anxious to get pregnant! All in due time. I can't recommend Dr. Chang more. I drive 3 hours each way just to go to this clinic.

Dr. Chang will conduct lots of necessary pre-testing to ensure you are set up for success. Critical, but can take some patience if you're antsy to get pregnant.

We used stimulation hormones leading up to the egg retrieval. I was able to use smaller dosage since my eggs were in good shape and my PCOS actually helped create 30 eggs. I was hoping we could do a fresh embryo transfer but our sperm were of poor quality and we needed lots of testing done to the embryo. We have not done our Frozen Embryo Transfer yet, but the plan is to try with no medications at first and just monitor my growth after I stop birth control. We will intervene with Letrozole as needed.

IVF Embryology with Cryopreservation (no transfer) - $3950. ICSI- $1650 Embryo storage $750 Embryoscope $2500 Embryo Biopsy $1800 PGT-A/PGT-SR $2000

My doctor recommended single embryo transfer since it is safest for mom and embryo. We agree with this approach.

Danzer is an extremely caring doctor who is great at explaining things, parsing our information so as not to overwhelm, and keeping in touch and making his team available to answer questions. I didn’t want to leave after my pregnancy was deemed viable, because he treated me with so much more care, education and attention than my OB

Danzer had a strong preference to transfer just one embryo which was aligned with my research and my husband and my expectations. I had 2 embryos so was happy to only transfer one so we have the second in case we want to use it down the line.

Dr. Alexander is very knowledgeable and empathetic. She truly knows hers patients' stories. For me I came to her for secondary fertility. We lost our first baby half way through the pregnancy but then was able conceive 1.5 years after that loss but at the cost of exhausting cycle tracking. We saw her for IUI's for our next pregnancies but sadly they all failed and we fell pregnant when we stopped treatments and went back to relentless cycle tracking. After suffering a miscarriage in 2018 I decided I wanted to try IVF and knew they only doctor I would trust my time and money with to do this would be Dr. A. Because of her we were able to conceive another healthy boy . I owe that to her competent and compassionate care. She knows the science but she also knows there is an emotional side to this field of fertility medicine that needs to equaly be supported. Without her constant and positive care I really don't think we would have had success.

Open up to her. She will listen to all your concerns and do her best to set your mind at ease and support you through this process. Also track your meds and dosages in your own organizer. We used an excel spreadsheet. That way I knew exactly when and how much medication I needed to take as well as how much I had left so I had plenty of time to get refills. I live 3 hours away from the clinic and specialty pharmacies. It wasn't always easy to get meds so I had to be prepared.

I had some symptoms of PCOS but always ovulated regularly with or with out meds. So there was this unknown cause for my infertility as well. We did a medicated egg retrieval cycle. Followed by ICSI fertilization for half my eggs (I had so many she decided to fertilize the other half just by mixing sprem and eggs in the petri dish). Then at day 5 we got 9 embryos, which I wasn't expecting that many! We did PGS testing on 8 of them and left one untested. 1 embryo came back euploidy (normal), 1 came back mosiac for chromosome 12 (60% normal cells and 40% missing chromosome 12) and 7 completely aneaploidy (abnormal). We decided to transfer the normal embryo in a medicated, single FET (frozen embryo transfer). To prep for that transfer we did an ERA (Endometrial Receptivity Array) it tells you exactly how long you need the progesterone injections before the transfer to be successful. And it worked we had successful transfer and a healthy baby boy. Also after the egg retrieval Dr. Alexander looked around my uterus via ultra sound and saw I had an ithmocele (a c-searan scar defect) this needed major surgery to correct it before a tranfer could be attempted. Although sad for the set back I was so grateful for her attention to detail to make everythng as perfect as could be so we could have a successful transfer and healthy baby. I look forward to working with her again for another embryo transfer.

The IVF and gentic testing and embrology fees was just under 20k, including meds. The FET with the ERA was about 6k

Because I had one golden embryo that we knew was normal we decided on just the single embryo transfer to give that embryo the best chance of implanting and growing in to a healthy baby.

I’m grateful to have found Dr. Ghadir, even though I am still without a baby. He is honest and compassionate. We had a running joke that I was his favorite patient because I had been going to him for so long. You will not see Dr. Ghadir for routine lab work or ultrasounds. They have techs who handle that. So no, you won’t see him EVERY appointment. But he handled all of my cycles and major procedures. He was always there during my ultrasounds when I was pregnant. So happy for me. And when I miscarried, he wrapped his arms around me and just let me cry. I trust him completely and I feel safe, which is why I will continue my journey with him as my doctor.

Take notes and ask all the questions.

My AMH was low. Extremely low. So we decided to dive straight into IVF. I began stim meds to prep for an egg retrieval. I had purchased a package for 2 cycles. My body was not responding to the meds as Dr. Ghadir had hoped. He didn’t want me to hyper stimulate so I stopped. Failed cycle #1. I waited a few months and tried again, same outcome. I had no eggs. Premature Ovarian Failure. This is when we discussed using donor eggs. I chose my first donor and was genuinely excited. She ended up not responding to the stim meds, so I moved on to another donor. We got 17 eggs, and I ended up with 5 healthy embryos. We did an ERA before the first transfer of my only female embryo. We had a positive reception and moved on to the transfer. The transfer did not take. Neither did #2 or #3. We did another ERA and proceeded with transfer #4. And I got pregnant! It was the happiest 8 weeks of my life. I went in for an ultrasound during week 5 and 6 and everything seemed fine. My ultrasound in week 8 confirmed there was no heartbeat. Transfer #5 had the same outcome. Got pregnant and during the ultrasound in week 7, there was no heartbeat. I went for blood and ultrasounds every 3 days to check hormone levels and lining leading up to each embryo transfer.

In total, I’ve spent around $80k.

No comments, but my doctor did encourage me to do single embryo transfers.

Wendy Chang is a very knowledgable, meticulous and thorough doctor and always careful in her approach and communication delivery, process, explanations and expectations. She was always answering my questions, she was always very calm and careful not to set high expectations. I appreciate the fact she always focused on the task at hand each time rather than encouraging the what ifs later on. I would recommend her undoubtedly to anyone. I respect her knowledge and communication.

Listen to her, trust her knowledge and take her careful and meticulous approach as a good thing. She will not sugarcoat or give false expectations and that is what I liked about her during the whole process.

My treatment was during Covid, for that she was very cautious with all safety measures in place for absolutely not exposing herself or her patients to added risk. Her strategies were to focus at each step each time and not look far ahead as, depending on the treatment process, there are multiple steps involved over a lengthy period of time.

Around or slightly under $40K

She will not make any decisions for you, decision making is all you. But once you’ve made your decision she can agree with it and be encouraging.