Spring Fertility East Bay

We had good experiences with Spring. You pay out of pocket and then reimburse with insurance after. There is a large nursing staff and several doctors so they are able to accommodate visits. There isn’t a ton of flexibility in time of day for some procedures/visits but going in early before work worked best for us anyway. There were nice to use in the waiting area and after procedures. Exam rooms were clean and all the staff we interacted with were friendly and competent. Billing was a little hard and the online portal is a little clunky but nothing that gave us pause.

At first, I was so nervous about this procedure because I hate needles, and I didn't know if I would be treated like a human being. I've wanted to freeze my eggs for a while because I haven't found my life partner yet. So, I wanted to make sure that I had options for my future. Thank you to everyone at Oakland Spring Fertility for giving me such a fantastic experience. Everyone was so kind, efficient, knowledgeable, and hard-working. I loved how diverse the team is and I never felt uncomfortable if a specific nurse was unavailable because I knew all were equipped to take care of me properly.

Clinic was in California, I live in Utah so I started off in Utah and the last two weeks were spend in California in a hotel. I saw the doctor a couple days after I got to California and I didn’t see the next doctor until a week after that, and it wasn’t my main doctor. It was another person because she wasn’t there. So I feel like one of the weaknesses is that I could’ve done one more monitoring in Utah so that I wouldn’t have to spend two weeks in California with one week of nothing. When I did see them, they were very nice and mostly thorough. Retrieval and transfer Or great. I was treated really nicely and it was a great experience.

The clinic was great. The wait was never more than 10 minutes to be seen (usually less) and appointments went very smoothly. Their care-team system is very effective and the staff is very communicative and easy to get a hold of. I wasn't able to get a hold of the on-call doctor they said to contact if need be by calling the main line after hours but I may have chosen the wrong options.

Strength - personable, experienced and knowledgeable doctors, nurses and staff. Weakness - they lost a couple of dr’s in their practice so dr’s had to split their time between offices so appointment days could be limited if you only wanted to see your practitioner in that one office.

I had experience with UCSF (from an egg freezing round) and I found the doc a little insensitive. (After I froze 13 eggs he told me that gave me a 39% chance of a live birth and therefore I should “just go get pregnant now”. Obviously I would have gotten pregnant on my own if the situation were right, otherwise I wouldn’t have been freezing eggs!) I didn’t get any similar weird comments from spring and the clinic was super well organized. I especially loved that since this all happened during the pandemic, the clinic was great about emailing out information about COVID risks in the clinic and during pregnancy. We had to put our treatments on hold for a month because we wanted to start in March 2020 but all medical facilities shut down non essential treatments for a bit. Dr Minjarez called me personally to explain that we needed to pause treatment due to the pandemic which I really appreciated. I also appreciated that there was more continuity with nursing staff at Spring than I experienced at UCSF. It helps to have a familiar face so many of the blood draws. Overall the clinic was clean and professional, all staff we worked with including the other docs were great, and although we were based in the Oakland clinic we had the retrievals and implantation in SF and all the docs and staff there were warm, competent, and proficient as well.

Dr Dovey took a couple days off so I saw a couple other doctors at Spring. They were both great and I felt like I was in great hands, no matter who I saw. Though it’s too early to report success or lack thereof, I would still rate Spring and their staff a 10/10.

Convenient location - few other options in Oakland area. Strengths: clean, well organized Throughout several transfers, I interacted with multiple Spring doctors. The one downside was that for the transfers, I have a challenging case due to my cervix and more than once it wasn't communicated to the Dr doing the procedure about my specific needs, which led to discomfort during transfer. Being used to more transparent medical records, I find their online system not the most clear.

My overall experience was truly wonderful. With the exception of a staff person who is no longer at the company, every person I interacted with was kind, professional, and courteous.  Dr. Fisher is truly a gem- from our first interaction to our transfer, he treated us with respect, consideration, and warmth.  I really appreciated the time he took to answer questions and his excitement at our promising results.   And although I never met Nurse Mel in person, during our phone interactions she exuded care, competence, and patience - she is truly an exceptional provider.     2. The guidance throughout the experience was, for the most part, excellent.  I really appreciated having access to the portal, and the portal is well-organized and information is easy to access.  While sometimes it felt like I was getting the same information explained to me multiple times, I appreciated the reassurance that I was really clear about what to expect.    Things that could be better: 1. The financial documents seemed excessively confusing.  The fact that the same information would appear in multiple places (see attached document) made it hard to know what we were actually responsible for. On the attached cost letter, there are things on it (like the medication) with dollar amounts listed that we didn't actually have to pay for, and other things, like the copay, which were much more than what was listed.  I would strongly recommend making the financial documents clearer and easier to understand.   Relatedly, the costs we paid for semen cryopreservation weren't included on this letter, but should have been.  If you're going to present a cost letter it should include all the charges.  2. The requirement that a known donor submit both a negative covid test and a negative antibody test conducted by Spring is both not medically indicated and an onerous requirement that places a further burden on people who are using donor gametes.  In my (totally unscientific) survey of other clinics, there aren't any that are requiring this.  3.  There were several instances in which my gender-non confirming spouse couldn't choose a box that reflected their reality, and I would encourage you to review your forms with an eye towards inclusivity of queer clients and gender non-conforming clients.(These forms were updated and resent to us).   4. The requirement for psychological counseling is both discriminatory towards people who are using donor gametes and not actually required by any accrediting body as far as i can tell. In the context of the family building process, there are certainly some people who might benefit from counseling, but I would strongly urge you to consider changing the counseling requirement to a recommendation.  Supporting the mental health of your clients who are undergoing fertility treatments is commendable, creating burdensome hoops that people who need donor gametes must jump through is not. 

Spring has great facilities and a very helpful patient portal where they post treatment calendars, medication instructions, pre & post visit specifics and where they publish all of your findings and results. The facilities are clean and modern with impeccable safety standards for COVID.

Over the course of my treatment, I met almost every provider. It was nice to be able to know each doctor personally. However, I could always choose to see Dr. Fisher for all procedures (except the egg retrieval which is more time-sensitive) but felt comfortable with the skills of all the doctors at the clinic.

Great clinic. Very organized and communicative. The chocolate at your procedure is a nice touch. Your doctor might not be the one who does your procedure, the doctors have a schedule that is fixed ahead of time abs the on call doctor is the one who does your procedure. The have a treatment calendar that you can access online and they have video tutorials for the various injections you’ll take.

The finance department could use help. As far as I can tell, this is one person trying to manage it all. She just seems, busy. The front staff are nice, at all the sites I’ve been to as well. Everything is clean.

Strengths- easy location in Oakland, clean and cozy clinic, amazing staff. The SF clinic is similar. Things to know- parking at the Oakland clinic is difficult but not terrible. We only went to SF for the weekends and the day of procedures and found parking easily. If you have any questions or concerns with finances work with your coordinator to manage them. Spring basically has packages and we had no surprises with our costs.

Clinic is excellent with doctor patient communication. Most sessions are with your assigned physicians and the doctors are very easy to reach by phone. The nursing staff varied in level of experience, but for the most part were very good. Less experienced nurses seemed to have less pivotal/demanding roles

The clinic is great. The layout, is modern, the receptionist is super friendly, it is spotless/clean and very easy to find. Each time we went there, the entire environment made us feel calm, which is a great feeling when stepping into a clinic. It was honestly one of, if not the best office I've ever been into.

All the staff are friendly and responsive. This clinic relies on the RN for most patient communications, so if you want more access to your doctor you need to push. I recommend meeting with the financial counselor regularly to assess payment options. I had a tricky insurance situation and we were able to get advice on how to minimize out of pocket expenses.

Spring is great - it was always very convenient to schedule appointments and the staff were always friendly and calm. They do their best to make it not feel too much like a hospital, which made it a little less stressful. I really liked the Oakland office.

This place is just great. Clean, warm, and inviting without being cloying or annoying. The staff is *very* well trained and their systems and processes work very well. I never had to wait long for paperwork or phone calls. I never worried that things would slip through the cracks or felt like I had to follow up myself. I felt like I was in good hands the entire time.

Clean, friendly, inviting, wonderful office staff and really flexible scheduling. The salve app is great for all the info and updates. I would absolutely recommend to anyone in Oakland or the area, great that everything can be done on site.

Spring is a wonderful clinic. Very friendly, organized, great aesthetic, and consistent in their approach and care. It is on the expensive side of fertility clinics, but absolutely worth the cost in the care and attention you receive.

Clinic team was well organized and efficient although the Oakland office was always running behind vs S.F. office. Billing/finance departments were much better/responsive than during our 2018 experiences. Medical assistants and phlebotomists were skilled and helpful too

The clinic is clean and centralized, which I really didn’t appreciate until I was pregnant and was working with my OB, who I love but is with Sutter and all of my appointments and blood draws were in different locations. I found the pricing to be consistent and fair. And did I mention that everything is clean, friendly and in one place?

I am leaving this review mostly for women/couples who are trying to decide between staying at Kaiser because you have Kaiser insurance or going with an outside clinic. I am very happy with our decision to leave Kaiser. After they cancelled all our appointments during the pandemic, their IVF doctor put us back on the waitlist even when they reopened because they had to restart other patients cycles. Understandable but waiting was not an option at my age. Spring was able to schedule us appointments, the same week as our consultation. Spring didn't pressure us into choosing them either, they offered us more information and availability. Spring helped us transfer medical records to their clinic so we wouldn't have to start over, which saved us money. The costs for Kaiser and Spring out of pocket were very similar. However I was able to save time being able to have ultrasounds and bloodwork done in Oakland instead of in Fremont. I got pregnant on our first transfer at 39. If you are thinking of leaving Kaiser, I am happy I did and feel my results are because of the care and intelligence of the staff at Spring. They are up to date on technology and have more than one doctor on staff.

I honestly didn't do too much research between clinics but I think my results speak for themselves. Their embryology lab must be amazing! And the facilities are all brand new. I honestly didn't do too much research between clinics but I think my results speak for themselves. Their embryology lab must be amazing! And the facilities are all brand new.