The Fertility Center of Michigan

Valerie has always been very warm anf compassionate. In the beginning we did state we wanted to do embryo adoption right off the bat and were told to do 3 iuis first, which all failed which was discouraging. We wasted a lot of money and time for it not to work. But shavell has always been reassuring and positive!

She is almost overly kind sometimes, but thats important when dealing with such sensitive topics.

First IUI was a natural cycle and it failed. Second cycle we used clomid and trigger shot, it was very hard to get through my uterus and ended up having to do an ultrasound, that cycle failed. Third cycle was clomid, estrace, and trigger shot with ultrasound guidance, that failed as well. All 3 cycles were with donor sperm. I just started week 2 of lupron shots as we start our frozen embryo adoption cycle.

Expensive! But in Michigan most insurance doesn't over anything for infertility. Ive had 4 or 5 ultrasounds each being between $275-$350. 3 iuis each $550, multiple appointments ranging from $200-500 each time. Medications have been about $900 so far, male factor testing has been almost $2,000, my testing has been about the same at $2,000. We just paid almost $10,000 for embryo adoption.

Valerie recommended a single transfer due to my age but was VERY receptive that we wanted to transfer 2, and we will be transfering 2 hopefully in May

She gave sympathetic gestures and comments when appropriate, but they did not seem genuine. We were very upset when we asked questions even concerning but husband on cycle 5 (looking to start cycle 6 with more injections and visits) we asked about checking him and why we haven’t after doing so much with me. We were brushed off and my husband wasn’t ever checked by them. Took my PCP/obgyn to actually order the test for us. Very very disappointed after spending so much time and money there

Be firm on what you feel you need as a patient. If you ever feel dissatisfied, get another drs opinion before continuing your journey.

It has been a few years, but she tested my blood and put me on thyroid meds. Then I would be on femara and go in often for ultrasounds to see my cycle progress and timing for ovidril shots. Then we wait 16 days and take a pregnancy test. 2nd cycle we conceived but then had a very early misscarriage. There was so much going on in each treatment that it is hard to remmeber

My insurance covered some of the cost. I think it was between $100-$200 per visit after insurance.

We never explored either option

Dr. Dodd’s was very friendly and informative every step of the way. He was very compassionate when we had a miscarriage. He did adjust our meds protocol for our second retrieval which we had wonderful results with. However, I did always feel rushed during our consults.

Be prepared with all your questions for him. So you feel informed of the process you are about to endure.

We started with IUI and gonal f shots. All resulting in a negative pregnancy test. We moved onto IVF and the first retrieval gave us 4 embryos. We transferred two and I became pregnant with a singleton resulting in a miscarriage at 9weeks pregnant. We then transferred the last two 4 months laters, which resulted in a negative pregnancy test. A year later we started the retrieval process again and this time the started the drugs at a stronger dose to jump start my follicles and we received 9 embryos at a 3 day blast. We transferred 2 and one embryo split and I was pregnant with triplets. Unfortunately at 10 weeks I lost the faturnal Twins. However my 3rd baby grew strong and we now have a 6 week beautiful baby girl!

8,000 for the ART program. 5,000 medication 2,000 blood work /ultrasounds, etc.

We felt like family with Dr. Dodds. I think he truly cares about our story and knows how badly we wanted a family. On the visits we didn't see Dr. Dodds, we saw exceptional and caring Drs I felt like if I ever needed to talk to Dr. Dodds about something he would make sure he was there for me. You can tell he has been doing this for a long time and creating families is his passion.

Keep going. What you are doing is a team effort with Dr. Dodd's. He will do his part and you will need to do your part.

My husband and I had been trying to conceive for 4 years prior to seeing Dr. Dodd's. We had tried several IUI's with my OBGYN. One resulted in a pregnancy that ended in a stillbirth at 30 weeks. We never got pregnant on our own or any other time trying IUI with my OBGYN. In the consult with Dr. Dodd's, he talked about trying IUI twice with Clomyd before moving to more intensive treatment. I got pregnant and then miscarried with my first IUI treatment with Dr. Dodds. He then allowed me to try more than 2 IUI's, knowing I was able to get pregnant with the first round. After the 4th or 6th (can't remember how many we did) IUI that year, he then suggested we move to IVF due to my age of 38. My husband and I were hesitant due to the cost. We soon realized we needed to take the next step to IVF. We contacted Dr. Dodd's to let him know we wanted to take the next step and then it moved fast from there. We did the egg retrieval a couple of months later and did a live embryo transfer (3 embryos) two days later. We froze the 5 remaining. I had a successful pregnancy and gave birth to our son at 36 weeks and 5 days in May 2017. We then did an embryo transfer of 3 frozen embryos in March/April 2018 that resulted in a negative pregnancy test. Then in August 2018 we transferred our last 2 frozen embryos with a IUI two days prior to the embryo transfer. This round resulted in a positive pregnancy test. We soon found out we were pregnant with twins. Then I miscarried the twins at 7 weeks. At that point I was done trying due to my age and all that we had been through. We are happy with our son in heaven and our son on this earth. We are so grateful to Dr. Dodds, Dr. Shavell and Dr. Thakur for all their support and care they provided through our treatments. They showed compassion and humanity and some of their own personal stories. I can not say enough good things about The Fertility Center's team of doctors.

We were very happy Dr. Dodds allowed us to transfer 3 embryos on two separate occasions due to my age and my biological clock running out.

Dr. Shavell is to the point, and obviously extremely intelligent and well educated. I'm a person that wants everything explained in detail as I want to absorb all the information I can. I could have asked more questions, but I wish she had approached us without thinking we were as familiar as why she would suggest some of the procedures. I wanted the detailed reasons why. She is very kind, which is very important to me. I have met with her twice, and am scheduled with her in 1.5 weeks.

Ask your questions, she gives you time.

I'm diagnosed with recurrent pregnancy loss after three miscarriages. Dr. Shavell suggested a saline sonohysterogram and a endometrial biopsy. The SHG was to check for scar tissue after two D&C's 7 days apart. The biopsy was to make sure the infection (endometritis) in my endometrium was resolved. Both came back normal and great, thankfully.

Cost has been fine as my insurance has covered appointments and procedures. Thanks to the staff that scheduled the two procedures, she made sure they were scheduled on two different days. Otherwise my insurance only would have covered one. That was a great experience. One negative experience was the Counsyl genetic testing they recommended; I had already had karyotype testing; so, I don't know if it was even necessary, but the MA gave me inaccurate information about being able to cancel the testing when I received an email from Counsyl. Thankfully Counsyl worked with me. I am slightly irritated they do not accept Tricare. My husband is a veteran and in the national guard and soon I will be on his insurance.

does not apply

Dr. Dodd’s is a great doctor. He didn’t beat around the bush. He told us where we were at and what we needed to do straight up, all while maintaining a warm and open approach. He made us feel very confident in him and of The Fertility Center as a whole.

Come with lots of questions and ask about anything you are unsure or confused about.

IVF - ART consultation, egg retrieval, embryo transfer = $8,000 Sperm analysis, wash, and storage = $1000 Ultrasounds = $225 (before insurance) Storage of embryos $400 a year. $100 charged per quarter

For the fresh embryo transfer they prefer to transfer 2 embryos.

We are in the middle of our fertility journey so I haven't had too many encounters with Dr Dodds yet, however the ones I have had been positive. Upon meeting him he was very informative, but in a way thats easy to understand. He let us know what he thought the best plan for us was and also took some time getting to know us. He is professional but understanding and compassionate. He also called me personally the day of our IUI to discuss how it went and his thoughts for moving forward. We are confident and happy with the care we are receiving.

Don't be afraid to ask questions! He is more than happy to elaborate if you don't understand. Also don't be afraid to ask for a different option if you're not comfortable with the one he gives. For example, he thought we may be better off trying IVF but we decided to exhaust the IUI option first. He was supportive of this decision.

We have done one round of IUI Femara Protocol so far. We are using Femara, a mid cycle ultrasound, and ovidril injection. We have not conceived yet so are trying another round of that same protocol and increasing the dose of Femara

We are only beginning. Our first patient visit we just paid a copay because our insurance covers diagnostic costs. The cost of IUI was $600 (not including our medication, that was an additional $120)

James is a good doctor. He explains the good and the bad. He gives guidance on what to change and his knowledge on how to move on to the next step when the last IUI’s failed. He has improved being relational sense 2014 vists.

Confident.

First cycle- femara 2.5mg pills cycle day 3-7. Had four mature eggs. I have one daughter from this cycle. Sencond cycle I was put on femara 2.5mg cycle day 3-7 only produce ONE egg. We backed out of the IUI. Third cycle dr young bumped my femara as I only produced one egg last time using 5mg cycle day 3-7 and had four mature eggs. IUI failed Fourth cycle femara 7.5 cycle day 3-7 had four mature eggs. IUI failed.

$500 for IUI

Even though we haven't had our miracle baby yet, I still am so thankful for having Dr. Dodds as our doctor. He has stuck with us and has kept us hopeful during a tough journey. He is always comprehensive in his treatment planning and when a treatment hasn't proven to be successful, he is great about tweaking things or offering other options. He is direct and very smart. He is also caring and empathetic. If I had to start treatment over, I would absolutely stick with him as my doctor.

Schedule to meet with him if you have questions and make sure to bring a list of questions! He is great about explaining options and also great about listening to you.

He first ordered blood work, sperm analysis, and HSG for diagnostic testing. It was determined I have a heart-shaped (bicornuate) uterus, otherwise we were unexplained. Multiples is a big risk with this condition, so he made sure to start me out on the lowest dose of Femara when I started medicated cycles. He had me come in for one midcycle US and we were able to adjust meds to get the anywhere from 1-3 follicles. After 4 cycles on femara, we met with him and he offered IUI or IVF. I was close to overproducing follicles a couple times (and again multiples is risky for me), so IVF would be more predictable. But, due to cost, we decided to do IUIs first and he was very understanding. We added in injectables to help with egg quality and ended up having to cancel our first month due to overproducing. After that, he had me come in a lot earlier and more frequent to monitor closely. The next 3 IUIs went smoothly (except for not getting a positive pregnancy test!). We then moved on to IVF. Before starting, I was on birth control for 6 weeks to quiet everything. We had a great retrieval with 17 eggs retrieved, 16 mature, all 16 fertilized, and 12 made it to day 2 freeze. I had to do a freeze-all because of risk of hyperstimulation. After our first day 3 embryo FET, I got pregnant, but miscarried at 10 weeks. I then went on to do 3 more FETs, all failed. We met with him after each FET to discuss next steps. He did try an immune protocol for resistant uterus for the last two FETs due to some indications that I may have autoimmune issues. This last FET we ended up transferring two embryos, as we hadn't had luck with single embryo transfers. After 4 transfers and 5 embryos transferred, we met again and Dr. Dodds had discussed our case with the other three doctors at the practice and gave us several options moving forward. We are now considering doing a fresh round of IVF and PGS testing all embryos, new and old. We got karyotyping done on me and are waiting on results. I also have a hysteroscopy scheduled for next week to look at the inside of the uterus to determine if anything obvious could be preventing implantation.

IVF without PGS for healthy 28-30y.o. was about 8-10K. With PGS clinic cost is about 12.5K and seperate PGS fee is 5.8K. IUI ended up being about 1.5K per cycle. Medicated cycles alone were pretty cheap, usually $100-200.

With a bicornuate uterus, we were encouraged to transfer one embryo. Not until our fourth transfer did we end up transferring two. Dr. Dodds went over all the pros/cons with us.

Dr Thakur’s approach is that of passion, compassion, expertise, and specialized education. She specializes in individualized care and doesn’t make you feel polarized based on your journey thus far. Her first question to my husband and me was “What is it that you have planned for your treatment. What would you like to this journey to be?” We expressed our thoughts on med induced cycles with timed inter course and if those failed after a few attempts, we would like to move on to IUI. After looking at our medics history, she agreed that that is a good approach. She expressed concern about not “wasting time” and that we will need to be more aggressive as we go. We left the consultation feeling confident in our new RE. I believe it take some a special confidence and tremendous courage to put faith in your doctor and we felt both and still feel both working with Dr Thakur.

Be honest about your journey. She is very receptive. She has the experience to guide not only to where you want to go, but down the path you want to travel. She gives excellent and advice and has a fact based approach to back it up. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and for clarity.

We started off trying 50mg of Clomid, with prenatals, Vitamin D supplements because let’s be honest, living in Michigan doesn’t provide optimal Vitamin D. I’m also taking Synthroid to keep my T-SHIRT down to a level that can sustain pregnancy. She felt strongly that my ovaries would respond well to 50mg of Clomid, and they did! Although I have had 3 failed cycles, she holds confidence in us moving on to IUI. She wants to put me on Progesterone to lengthen my Luteal Phase and increase the Clomid to 100mg to give us optimal rate of success. We are very excited to move forward!

My insurance has covered a great deal of my office visits and ultrasound appointments. I have paid maybe $300 out of pocket so far for Clomid cycles with timed intercourse. The IUI will be $600 our the door and I think that’s affordable as all get out. This clinic is known for their success rates and fair pricing. Lowest in the state if I’ve not mistaken.

Dr. Dodds is very knowledgeable and has lots of experience. He is compassionate in the room and will call depending on the result. He also provides hope for future round of treatment. It may be that he has too many patients, as it seemed as though he did not remember me and needed to look over my chart prior to each meeting.

Make sure to ask lots of questions.

For my first IVF cycle - I was on the antagonist protocol with Cetrotide, Menopur and Gonal-F. This produced 13 eggs, 8 fertilized and 4 embryos. We transferred two on a fresh cycle and two on a frozen cycle on none of them stuck. For my second cycle (current), I am on the microdose flare Lupron protocol. Three days after stopping birth control I start on 20 units of microdose Lupron twice a day. Two days of that I began 450 IU of Gonal F in the evenings. I have also had an endo scratch and will use Embryogen for this cycle in order to help with implantation. Egg retrieval is in 2-3 days.

IVF treatment with ICSI was around $9000; ultrasounds and blood work were separate costs. Medication was between $2800-$3400

I was provided information on the risks of single vs. multiple and the recommended number to implant based on my age.

Dr. Shavell was kind and seemed deeply aware of the stress and emotions that go along with infertility. She always made sure I knew what the next step of the process was and that I was comfortable with it. What I like most is she reminds you that you are strong and capable of handling the stress and struggles of IVF.

She is ready to work for you and make sure you are ready for the work!

Gonal-F, Follistim, Menopur, hCG

ART case management $1850 (deposit to schedule) Follicle Puncture/ Oocyte Retrieval $1795 Culture and Fertilization of Oocytes/Embryos $1570 Embryo Transfer $1060 Abdominal Ultrasound $225 ICSI $1850 Assisted hatching $630 Blastocyst Culture $620 Cryopreservation of Embryo $910 Cryopreservation of Oocytes $910 Time Lapse Photography $805 Embryogen $465 Thawing of cryopreserved embryos $1075 This is the cost breakdown provided to me. Obviously I did not require everything here. My total from this list was $10,065

I was education on risks and likelihood of successful implantation.

My husband does not love seeing drs, especially after we went through an ectopic pregnancy and a lot of unknowns. We both felt like Dr Thakur was very smart. She takes the time to go over all the options. I never felt pressured to do one course of treatment over the other. She outlined what she thought would be the best course of treatment and how long we should go through with that and when to move on.

Ask lots of questions! Also, if you have information about something that you’ve read online, tell her about it. She is very smart and will tell you whether or not there is any sort of evidence to back it up.

We have always done femara and ovidrel because I respond well to the femara. The first month I only had one mature follicle so she upped my dose and I seem to be responding well to that!

Our initial appointment was $285 and every appointment after that was $180. Ultrasounds were about $110. The IUI is around $700. For us, the femara was covered by insurance but the fertility center helped me get the best price for ovidrel at about $95/shot.

I have only seen Dr. Dodds once, but he was pretty good when we met with him. He met with us in his office instead of an exam room. He took the time to review all of my previous tests and surgery. He asked us about our jobs. He had a connection to the place where my husband works and he told a long story about that. I appreciated that he waited until the end of the appointment to talk to us about that. I did feel like he was a little matter of fact and didn't explain things in great detail. He just laid out the plan and gave us the next step. I left a little bit confused and felt a little like we had been rushed into moving forward with an IUI.

Make sure you ask questions! We didn't really know what to ask at the time but we felt like we left with more questions than answers.

Dr. Dodds suggested that we start moving forward with an IUI. He put me on Femara, an ovidrel injection, and progesterone. He didn't really explain what each of these did or why I was taking them. After my husband and I discussed it, we weren't comfortable moving forward with the IUI right away. I called back and talked to a nurse about it. We decided to try timed intercourse first. So, she said to take the Femara and the progesterone, but I could wait on the Ovidrel. I went in for a mid-cycle ultrasound and the nurse told me when to have intercourse. After a negative pregnancy test that month, we decided to go forward with the IUI. Then it was back to the Femara, Ovidrel, and Progesterone. Then a mid-cycle ultrasound and the insemination. The Progesterone gave me really bad side effects so after I called and asked, my dosage was reduced by half and that seemed to help. I got another negative pregnancy test, so we started all over again. I am currently scheduled for another IUI later this week.

My initial appointment and ultrasounds are covered by insurance. The IUI procedure was $500. The meds were ordered through a pharmacy and were $100-$200 each cycle.

At first he seemed quiet and I wasn’t sure what to think of him, but towards the end of our first appointment I knew he was very good at his job just by what he was explaining to us. He evaluated my past before I came in and knew what tests to run to find the problem. He explains things in terms that we can understand.

Ask questions if you are unsure.

First cycle used fermara only. Resulted in a pregnancy that ended at 16.5 weeks, no reason found. Second cycle used 375 Gonal F And 75 menopur for about 9 days (ganirelix and HCG shot towards the end also) resulted in 4 eggs retrieved, one embryo frozen (Grade 3). About to start another cycle with same meds but add clomid on day one. We will be doing PGD testing which is why we froze the one embryo.

My insurance covers all ultrasounds and 4 estrogen blood draws a month. Paid $10,500 for first cycle and $3000 for the next 2 (multi cycle discount up to 3 cycles). Medications cost $130 for first cycle. Office visits were covered by my insurance.

The Dr. seems to want to transfer 2 for our case as I have trouble carrying them so the hope is that at least one will stick.

Dr. Young is kind and understanding. He has a dry sense of humor which always makes me smile. He and his wife also went through fertility treatments which give a better understanding of what a patient is going through.

Ask questions. He likes Ohio State, so you have to look past that flaw. (Go Blue!)

Early on, we used a medication that had the opposite affect on my system, this was adjusted for the next cycle. This was more successful. It's difficult to remember all of the things we have done. Dr. Young was always very honest with us. I felt that he gave us all the facts and helped us to make decisions based on our personal case.

A round of IUI was generally atounf $1,500 and IVF was around $9,000. You can apply for the Assured program, which costs around $19,000 and you get up to 3 IVF cycles, if they are all unsuccessful you get almost all of your money back.

Dr. Young is definitely very wise and I felt I could trust him with our treatments. Personally, I feel like his bedside manners could improve a little. He is very kind and thorough, but somewhat awkward at times. I felt like I had to push treatment changes when things didn't work but that's also largely a part of my personality. He always explained things in an easy-to-understand way.

Keep in mind that although he can come off a little quiet or awkward at times, I do believe he has plenty of wisdom and experience to handle direct treatment courses. I'm still undergoing treatment (more aggressive, I'll add) so I'm very curious to see how my thoughts on him will change, if at all!

I responded very well to Femara 5mg for my IUIs, so we stuck with that for 3 cycles. Although I was ready to change things up, I understood how he wanted to keep the course. I was also thankful to move on to Gonal-F for IUI #4, though my dose was small (75iu nightly). I actually responded with fewer follicles than on 5mg Femara. My 5th and final IUI, we tried a higher dose of Follistim (125iu) and I responded very well! Almost too well: 6 follicles. I'm very glad my clinic was upfront and honest with me about the risks and let me make that decision alongside of them. We still went for that IUI and it was a negative, but I feel very good about that last shot IUI: we tried our best and I feel much more comfortable moving forward with IVF, especially since I've gotten comfortable with injections.

I have zero fertility coverage besides 50% coverage for meds (which I realized was truly nothing since most pharmacies have an agreement and give women who are completely out of pocket a discount, so my med coverage didn't really do anything). Specifically with my clinic, a semen analysis was around $130. IUI including the sperm wash was $500. Most ultrasounds/appointments were in the $100 range, depending on your coverage, of course.

We are just about to start our first IVF cycle with Dr. Young, so I can't speak about embryo transfers yet. But, I did trigger and have an IUI with 6 follicles and they were very straightforward and honest with me about the risks. You could tell it was very important to them that I knew what I was doing.

Dr. Dodds is willing to explore all avenues and alters your treatment as needed. I have noticed that amongst friends going through treatment, he does work through trends in the market (uterine scratch, embryogen, etc.). He is upbeat and has positive relations with his team at the clinic.

Do your research and go through every option that you have available to you. For example: ICSI, time lapsed photography, genetic testing. Decide what is right for you and ask the hard questions including success rates with each treatment.

For our IVF cycle we did ICSI (which is apparently used on 90% or so patients at TFC), time lapsed photography (differentiates between quality and keeps them in one enclosed space versus taking them out to check under a microscope), day 3 transfer (standard at this clinic), and freeze all cycle (I was at risk for hyper stimulation).

Shana, the ultrasound tech, is the best! She is so sweet and knowledgeable.

I became pregnant with twins after the first transfer (two embryos). We lost both of them at eight weeks. Therefore, knowing that pregnancy can occur, we opted for a single on the second transfer. Pregnancy did not occur, however.

He made me feel comfortable during the visit. After a dismal first retrieval result (only 2 poor quality embryos made it to day 4), he called personally then changed my plan to multi-cycle plan which is much more cost effective. I saw him just one more time after the initial visit, as his other colleagues did the procedures. After 2 retrievals, I had an FET which was successful

You may request him as your doctor or see him the first time, but most likely you’ll see different doctors the rest of the way

We discussed my first egg retrieval with another clinic which had to be terminated as only one follicle was developing during treatment, and his opinion was that my med dosages were too low. Stim meds were increased in dose and the results were better than the first but still not good (2 poor quality embryos produced). The next cycle I took estrogen supplements first to stimulate follicle production and my stim meds were increased further (maximum), and the results were better - 3 embryos but their qualities were better. I decided to do fet then instead of going through a third egg retrieval as we moved and it was too hard to go to appointments for egg retrieval. 2 embryos were transferred, and I had one baby born

They were very flexible, and the good thing was they have a lot of clinics so if the schedule would not work out in a clinic, you have other options

I thought they were reasonable. The multi-cycle plan was cost effective. There were no hidden costs

The clinic gave me a choice. I’m not sure if they transfer more than 2

He always took time to listen and was so very compassionate. He took the time to explain everything. He always worked to keep a positive attitude no matter what set backs arrived. I can not understate his kindness and how well treated we felt at the fertility center.

The most important thing I had to remember was to stay positive. Follow treatment instructions and if you have questions don’t hesitate to call.

We started out with clomid and timed intercourse. Unfortunately a previous OB has me on Clomid for some time so I did not do many cycles of this. We then moved to estrogen and fsh injections. We continued timed intercourse. We did get a positive but the pregnancy was chemical. We repeated the cycle and achieved pregnancy but had a blighted ovum. We tried one more cycle but could not get a good number of follicles. We took a year off due to back to back losses and a cancer diagnosis in the family. On our first cycle in 2018 we did estrogen, fsh, progesterone and IUI. With this we were successful in achieving pregnancy and had a beautiful baby girl.

The costs were fair and well described prior to my consenting for the treatment. They do work with you to try and reduce costs where needed.

Dr. Young is very intelligent and explained everything slowly and in depth, answering all questions. He used evidence based information and cited/provided studies. He’s not the warm and fuzzy type but I don’t need that in a provider. My main critique would be for more follow through from Dr. Young himself but I also understand that’s not possible with how the office is run. I always hear from the nurses who are wonderful but don’t always receive the details I want.

He will do everything he can to customize the protocols to your needs and to meet your requests. While he isn’t the warm and fuzzy type, he’s professional, intelligent, and experienced. I would suggest to anyone to bring a list of questions to a consult and i my experience he was happy to explain discuss all my questions and concerns.

I did 2 rounds of clomid and 4 with femara doing timed intercourse, followed by 3 IUI’s with femara (none with injectables d/t lack of insurance coverage. Currently undergoing micro flare IVF. Microdose lupron with gonal -f. I have DOR.

IUI -$500 without meds IVF >$10,000 not including ultrasound, blood draws, HSG, Mock embryo transfer, and meds meds are usually $3,000-$6,000 each US about $250 each E2 $115 each progesterone draw $115.

I haven’t transferred yet, but the office provides information with studies on the topic and Dr. Young discussed it at length in the consultation as well as the IVF nurse in the prep prior to starting IVF.

Dr. Shavell is very nice. She's a little too soft spoken at times; meaning her demeanor is almost too sympathetic. I want answers, I want to take comfort knowing you (the person I am trusting) has a plan of action specifically designed for me and that we aren't just going through the motions. There were times where I felt she was more focused on me thinking she cared than her actually trying to fix any issues. I also feel she is not very available when needed.

Ask her to give it to you straight. Also, request a full description of treatments with all the why's explained.

After my HSG, I had to have a polyp removed. Then we started on 50 mg clomid because that's the starting point, which I responded well to but nothing came of it. We did four cycles on this with the HCG (Ovidrel) shot. Then we moved onto letrozole and Gonal-F. I can't remember the specific dose of letrozole but the injections were 300. I did not respond as well to the letrozole as we had hoped. I am currently going to do one timed cylce of 100 mg of clomid (back to clomid after under-performance of letrozole) while we wait for insurance pre-authorization. If that is approved (different insurance company than the last round) I will have one last IUI cycle of 100 mg Clomid and Gonal-F 450 injections. IF this does not work, we will immediately be moving on to IVF.

Each IUI is $500 (sperm wash and procedure) plus the ultrasound and office visit. Each visit was a co-pay amount. Hybrid cycle had an extra ultrasound (echogram) which was more than the ultrasound. Medications were all based on what insurance would cover; most of it out of pocket.

Dr. Dodds is amazing. He has a great personality. Fertility is serious but Dr. Dodds is able to lighten the mood and make you feel at ease. He genuinely cares about your success. I had a great experience with Dr. Dodds - not only did we have a great egg retrieval, embryo transfer, and successful pregnancy with Dr. Dodds but I felt great about it the entire time. I knew that he was doing the best he could for use to ensure success. I like being able to joke around with someone and feel like a friend rather than having a stuffy doctor!

I know that fertility is very serious and for some people it's not a joking matter. For us, we had been trying to conceiver for 2 years before we saw Dr. Dodds for IVF. We had been through the ringer with lots of failures and it was just our life at the time and we wanted to be able to talk and joke with someone and make it not so serious. IVF is HARD - might as well try and make it somewhat enjoyable!

IVF at the clinic cost about $8000 not including medication.

Dr. Shavell is super nice and well educated. Our personalities are just very different. She is very, very soft spoken and serious. My husband and I appreciate a more laid back approach. I honestly preferred speaking with the nurses instead of her directly. There was nothing wrong with the way she treated me or anything, our personalities just did not click.

If you don't mind soft spoken, cut and dry, then you will like her.

An IUI procedure was $268 (my insurance would cover in full but I had to submit for reimbursement). My insurance covered all office visits after meeting my $125 deductible. The IVF procedure cost around $8000 in just the center costs - not including medications.

He took the time to deeply explain things in ways that we could here. I appreciated that he didn’t speak in absolutes like other doctors who told us we would never get pregnant on our own—which we did we just miscarried. He instead explained our odds and what he recommended based on our aged and his knowledge and our factors.

Bring all your questions to your appointment as you won’t have many with him.

Yikes I don’t remember the protocol except I was in a ton of Gonal F.

They were laid out and totaled with meds around $15,000 for IVF

They don’t really push or recommend PGS testing and suggest three or four embryos to transfer given my age over 40. We transferred 3 and had a singleton and have 4 embryos remaining.