Sincera Reproductive Medicine (FKA Abington Reproductive Medicine) (closed)

She explained everything simply so there were no misunderstandings. She did not hype us up either to where we expected results right away. She also did not push treatments that we did not feel comfortable with.

Have an open mind and follow everything that she tells you to do. She is super knowledgeable and wants the best for her patients.

I tried clomid with my OBGYN, and then letrozole with a trigger shot. I had blood work and ultrasounds to monitor follicle growth and hormones. then I did injectable medications followed with IUI each cycle.

Most was covered by my insurance, we had to pay out of pocket for the medications.

Dr. Business is very caring, takes time to explain every test, procedure and medications that she wants you to start. She makes sure that you understand everything and calls you back within a few hours of leaving a message for her.

Make sure you ask questions no question is silly or dumb.

Dr. Somkuti is not a touchy-feely kind of guy. If you are looking for someone to hold you hand and tell you everything is going to be okay, Dr. Somkuti is not your guy. BUT, if you want a direct and skilled doc, Dr. Somkuti is outstanding. He tells it to you straight without sugarcoating anything. I prefer honesty and direct feedback over gentle touch. We had actually started with Shady Grove Fertility and I was absolutely appalled by their lack of administrative organization. When we switched to Sincera, my expectations were admittedly low, but Dr. Somkuti and his team hit it out of the park.

His method of treatment is very direct. Sometimes, that means that he isn't the sweetest guy -- but he doesn't hide the ball. That said, if he has bad or hard news to share, he is kind and patient with you.

I don't remember much of it at all -- but I had two egg retrievals resulting in a total of three frozen embryos, one of which is not viable, one of which resulted in my baby girl, and the other one is on ice.

They allowed us to do remote monitoring -- i.e. monitoring from our local hospital instead of having to drive an hour + to the clinic.

Treatment and medication

Dr. Somkuti recommended a single transfer because I was under 40.

He completed my hysteroscopy procedure and made the experience as pleasant as it could be. He did the egg retrieval procedure and made sure I had all viable information available to me and what next steps I should try to take. when it was not successful.

He is awesome and very informative during your treatment. He tries to make the best of this sometimes frustrating situation and ensures you have all information needed to move forward in your treatment. He has excellent bedside manner especially when you have to do outpatient procedures either under anesthesia or not.

Did IVF agonist protocol and even with few follicles, tried to have an egg retrieval. There were no eggs retrieved but plan was made to move forward with egg donor/ embryo treatment plan.

Insurance covered most of the treatment services. Only co-payments for the office visits and surgical center fee ($50- 150)

Single embryo transfer is preferred as it limits high risk multiple pregnancy rate.

Dr. Sobel was a great communicator and clearly explained our options, tests, and treatments. He never pressured us to start a new cycle before we were ready. He personally called me to update me on all bloodwork and tests, including my negative pregnancy tests, which helped to soften the blow of that bad news. We didn’t get pregnant through any of our cycles with Dr Sobel so far, but still plan to continue seeing him.

Speak up about what you want to do and any questions you have. Dr Sobel was accommodating with treatments I requested or explained in detail why certain treatments weren’t the best fit for us at this time.

We did 4 cycles with letrizole and a trigger shot, then added an IUI to the last 2 of those cycles. We used this protocol because no red flags appeared in my or my husbands bloodwork or testing. Negative pregnancy tests on all 4 cycles.

Because our insurance doesn’t cover any fertility costs, our cycles all cost a flat fee of $1000, not including medication. Our IUIs were an additional ~$400

We did not do IVF so no comment

He was incredibly nice and compassionate at our consultation meeting. He wanted to know everything about us and our hopes and dreams. He promised that I was at the ideal age and in ideal health for the treatment we needed to do (IVF with ICSI) to be successful. That was where that kind of treatment ended. From there on he made no effort to know who we were or figure out why things weren't working for us. I barely saw him in office. He didn't physically have any hand in our treatment (retrieval, insemination, transfers) like his colleagues don't trust him either. His call to tell me each time the transfers didn't work was uncaring. He had no answers for us for what more we could do to help the process. He never gave me the information for the option of freezing our remaining donor sperm so it was discarded (like we had an extra $1,000 to buy it again for further treatment). He told me I must be depressed, that's why things weren't working. This was incredibly insensitive considering what we were going through. It turns out he missed my cycle change (ovulation impeding) in my bloodwork... An easy adjustment, as it turns out. His colleague caught it when I switched to her. She adjusted the timing of my transfer and we got a positive result. I don't think he even looked at my bloodwork.

Pick someone else.

We had to go right to the intensive treatment (IVF with ICSI) because of my husband's condition. There were no known medical conditions with me. We started the IVF medication for egg retrieval (12 eggs retrieved), used donor sperm to inseminate when my husband's procedure failed (8 inseminated), and did a fresh transfer. We had a total of 4 viable embryos. This transfer did not work. (3 embryos left). He gave us no indication as to reason and made no changes to our treatment. He said we had "plenty" of embryos. This is when I found out the lab discarded our remaining donor sperm because he never gave me the option or storage information in order for it to be saved. We had purchased the last of that donor's sperm, so we'd have to do the selection process all over again if we needed more sperm. He informed me of this, and unprofessional and cold is the only way to describe it. Next, we did a frozen transfer with no change and the same result. For the third try, I saw a colleague of his after a last minute schedule change. She suggested that we do one more test to get more information about my cycle. We did. The results came back normal, but because of how thorough she answered my questions, how she treated me and how she explained her rational and thinking, I switched my treatment to her.

My costs were mostly covered by my amazing health insurance. I had a copay of $35 for each visit and test. An optional test ($650) and anything associated with donor sperm ($900 for purchase and storage) was out of pocket.

He told me he wouldn't do a multiple transfer because I wasn't 35 yet. That was his reasoning and I should have realized he was incompetent right there. Yes those were the guidelines but he couldn't explain why they were the guidelines and what would constitute a reason to ignore them. He just didn't know why, he just knew the "rule".

Dr. Sobel was never there. When he was he was so out of the loop that he had no idea who we were what we were doing or why. Our first impression was that he seemed very compassionate, but we saw his true colors pretty soon after when he did not care at all about us or our treatments, how they effected my wife, and myself.

Do your research yourself because he explains things to you like you are an idiot and leaves out important information.

He had my wife take Clomid for a cycle by itself to see how she responded. Then we tried Letrozole and had 4 IUIs with the Letrozole. We switched because she did not have a good response to Clomid. We were told originally that we would probably only do 3 IUI's, but through miscommunication and poor treatment we went through a fourth. When my wife tried to ask why it changed we received a very unprofessional email from his nurse. Hind sight we should have left then, but we went through the fourth IUI with the same result.

Our first impression was that he was overly sensitive. We commented how I’m sure some couples need that, but we wanted to hear facts and base our decisions off of reason. We then did not see or deal with him, he handed everything off to his physicians assistant. They gave us conflicting information, constantly. He would call every so often, with lab results but not usually. He was unclear with his reasonings to do certain things, and again his staff (PA and nurse) conflicted his information to us.

Ask for facts.

We did a Clomid cycle with no IUI and had “good results” but no pregnancy so we did Clomid again with the intent of an IUI but my body did not respond the same way. We switched to Letrozole and had four IUIs all unsuccessful.

I truly was pleased and impressed by how he treated me as a patient. He cared about our life, our goals, and our vision for our fertility journey. He was honest, but with a caring heart. He explained things in detail and took time to make sure my husband and I understood. Bedside manners we're top notch, always making sure I was comfortable with everything.

Be honest and open about your vision/goal for your fertility journey. He respects wishes (example: we want to go as natural as possible) of you both.

I did medicated cycles with ultrasounds to track the process. They were very structured with how the process went, and gave a complete outline of the process. It was easy to follow. Medications, ultrasounds, and blood work. He also did a great workup of exploratory diagnosis of our fertility. When he found that I had a septum in my uterus, he moved forward with removing the septum before any pregnancy. I also had the HSG done to check my tubes.

Insurance covered the diagnostic testing. It was about $1000-$1500 per medicated cycle, and only about $20-30 per cycle for the medication. Per visit was our copay of $40.

N/A

He is very clinical, but also very knowledgeable. Fertility is such an emotional and complicated process, but it is difficult to have a doctor that is real and compassionate at the same time. We only say Dr. Sobel 2 times during our cucle- first to confirm our pregnancy, and to do my D & C after miscarriage.

Be prepared to be told negative information at each appointment. The staff will share all information regardless of your emotional state. I was not given any advise or guidance after my miscarriage and had to contact my OBGYN to find a therapist that deals with infertility and loss of pregnancy on my own.

I only did he Clomid challenge so far. Surprisingly my body responded well and I became pregnant the first try. I lost the baby at 7 1/2 weeks. We will be trying Clomid with IUI next.

My first cycle was covered under insurance, but moving forward will be out of pocket. Each IUI will cost $1400 a month.

N/a

Dr. Sobel is very knowledgeable and also caring. He stays up to date with research and implements that in his practice. He has high expectations with numbers (lab results, endometrium thickness), which I feel is a good thing. I had a lab result which was in the normal range, but barely. He called me and explained we need to add on a medication to get that closer to the middle of the normal range, which is better for trying to conceive. I do not know how many other doctors would do that.

Trust his judgement!

Very understanding, does not waste your time. He sets a plan and sticks to it. Explains everything that happens with the process. He works great with the main nurse. They both work together as a team to establish what will happen with the fertility process.

Just be ready for a lot of testing an information given to you.

I was on clomid for the first course to increase my chances with strengthening my ovulation. The clomid did make me ovulate however I produced too many follicles. So no IUI that round. I then did Letrozole and IUI my second round. My husband has low sperm count but the IUI was not successful and due to the Pandemic we are unable to get further rounds of IUI till the Pandemic ends

My insurance covered 70% after I met my deductible, my bill was around 60 co pay for every appt and the procedures were billed over 2,000

Did not have that done

Dr. Sobel is a great guy, but in our case, lacked insight to get my husband's sperm cultured for an infection that ultimately prevented us from getting pregnant. His sperm would not fertilize an egg, but we didn't know that until 1 year into treatment and several thousand dollars later. The infection is cleared with a simple course of antibiotics. We went through rigorous blood work, appointments, and 3 IUI treatments, none of which were successful because of this oversight. Changed doctors, they flagged it right away. Get a second opinion.

Talk to someone who has battled infertility before. They will help you understand more than your doctor can in a one hour session, plus you will need a lifeline when your head is spinning after an appointment. Don't be afraid to ask questions and ask them to repeat or re-explain. Keep a calendar or journal of treatment so you can refer back - you WILL forget.

IUIs were about $1,500 each

He was excellent, even though it was a tough road, he explained everything and walked though it with us. He gave us a realistic understanding of what our chances were despite having unexplained infertility.

I would say if you want excellent bedside manner, you can’t go wrong with choosing him.

After we had tried a few months of Chlomid with our OB, we went to Dr. Sobel. We tried 4 rounds of IUI (according to Dr. Sobel, we had an 80% chance of conceiving after 4 attempts). We had one chemical pregnancy but was not successful in conceiving. We then had a lot of hope that IVF would be our final treatment, hopeful that it would result in a baby. Unfortunately for us, it didn’t result in a pregnancy.

He was very pleasant to work with. I felt comfortable under his care. He clearly explained options and answered my questions. He performed a procedure the other practice had never mentioned. I had the stomach flu just prior to my scheduled hysteroscopy, and he quickly called back to address that.

Ask questions - he was always willing to answer.

One cycle after hysteroscopy to repair uterine septum (undiagnosed at other practice.) Only did Femara with no injectibles and IUI which was less than previous practice. Positive pregnancy test.

Annette Lee is extremely knowledgable and has a list of other doctors that she can refer you to if needed. She referred my husband to a Reproductive Urologist that she trusts. The nurses were extremely nice and compassionate. I have never felt uncomfortable or that I did not belong there. I would always recommend Sincera to anyone having infertility problems.

Trust her! She knows her stuff! Always ask questions because she knows her stuff.

When I first arrived to Annette's office I had blood work drawn to see if I had any underlying causes. Once that was done, she recommended I have an HSG and Hysteroscopy. I was then put on Clomid to see if I could get pregnant from that. I went back for bloodwork and I was not pregnant. She recommended us to do IVF because IUI would not be successful for us.

It is hard to tell what everything costed because it was all through Axia Women's health. When I was at the office I did not have to pay. Bloodwork, HSG, Hysteroscopy was billed to me through Asia Women's Health. I have paid close to $3,000 so far just for bloodwork

No information available

He has very kind and caring bedside manor. His team works together to accomplish his goals. He calls mid cycle to let you know your blood results, and his team works hard to make sure you feel comfortable during procedures.

Make sure you know what the expectations are moving forward and be sure you are on the same page, they want to make sure you are comfortable with your treatments.

We were planning on doing medicated IUIs with Chlomid until that stopped working for my body, so we switched to letrozole which seems to be working. We have done this for three IUIs and plan on doing one more then we will meet again and talk about future strategies of number four is not successful.

About $1,000 per cycle plus additional costs for medications and proceedures.

Dr. Nichols was amazing from our first appointment to our last one. She listens without interrupting. Answers the most insane questions without judgement. Is willing to try anything. Will explain information countless times until you understand. She’s compassionate, positive, friendly and understanding.

Don’t be afraid to say anything! It’s a judgement free zone with Dr Nichols.

I have PCOS and do not ovulate on my own. We started with an injectible cycle that was turned to an IVF cycle when I overproduced follicles. We did a fresh transfer, and then four frozen transfers before a positive pregnancy. When trying for a second, we attempted one round of IUI with IVF being recommended moving forward.

Around $20,000?

I was diagnosed with a bicornuate uterus. Nichols only recommended one embryo at a time for my safety

Dr. Nichols spent a lot of time reviewing results and outlining treatment, but I rarely saw her after the initial consult. She also provided a more optimistic outlook on my treatment than what actually resulted.

Stay consistent with the other providers in the office. Having one doctor say IUI should work while another says 5-10% is not promising.

Letrozole cycle, ovidrel and IUI. After the testing cycle, it was determined that I responded well to letrozole and produced one follicle each time.

$1000 for monitored cycle. $380 for IUI. Additional lab work that was not included in this bundle price.

Very smart, looks at your best interest and never seems about the money. Listens and provides honest feedback. Supports thoughts and ideas but also only within reason. Goes through all options, discussed experimental ideas but then advises if not necessary for your current situation. Compassionate but not too emotional.

His empathy can appear dry.

Testosterone protocols, which allowed for the follicles to start around the same time. I often experienced issues where one follicle would take off in size and this protocol has brought me the most success with number of eggs retrieved.

Cost were in range with other facilities and average cost in general.

Typically, I was allowed to transfer 2. They always explained everything in full detail.

Dr. Nichols was supportive and compassionate. She oversaw my testing and I got pregnant on my first IUI try. She then preformed weekly ultrasounds until I graduated at 10 weeks. She was good about explaining what was on the screen and answering any questions I had about what to expect.

I feel that you can trust her and she understands what you are going through.

I did one month of testing before getting the IUI the following month. The testing started with baseline blood work and an ultrasound. They said my uterus and ovaries looked good. I had 5 follicles on one side and 7 on the other. I started taking CoQ10 & Vitamin D at that time. I then did the Clomid Challenge. I had a saline hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to evaluate my fallopian tubes and the shape of my uterus. I had a saline sonogram to evaluate the inside of the uterine cavity for polyps, fibroids, and/or scar tissue and I also got an endometrial biopsy of my uterine lining and a blood test for FSH. Finally I got another ultrasound and blood work to test my ovulation in response to the clomid. My uterine lining got thin so they decided I should start taking baby aspirin and use Letrozole instead of Clomid for the IUI. I also had 2 matured follicles which was a little nerve-wracking because I didn't want twins. The next month I took the letrozole instead and when I went in for my ultrasound my follicle matured and I was ready. I got my Ovadrel shot to induce ovulation and set my IUI for the next day. It worked and I got pregnant on the first try.

I believe the testing cycle was $1000 and the insemination was $215.

Always good at listening and providing great information. Made me feel comfortable. Was delicate about my situation and did not push me to extremes. Let me start with IUI and move on to IVF later. Had a nice balance of honesty about my chances but was not negative/bleak.

Great for initial consults and to have as a doctor - would not change that. Not sure her treatment protocols are as creative as some other doctors; though I think finding someone great at this is rare. Important to stay educated by doing research on your own etc.

Up until my IVF cycle I liked Dr Sobel. Little did I know that I won't see him at all during the cycle itself. He was not the Dr who did my retrieval or transfer. I felt that Dr Sobel was a good sales person and offered an overwhelming amount of hope for a positive outcome. I passed Dr Sobel a few times in the hallways of the office when I was in for monitoring appoints and he didn't even say Hi to me. It was not the experience I was hoping for and it completely turned me off for doing another round of IVF.

Don't go there....after comaring notes with the girls in my support group there are better Dr's in the area.

Dr. Nichols was warm, patient, and took the time to explain the process with us. She also took the time to answer all of my questions and concerns in depth. I couldn’t have asked for a better, more personal experience.

Don’t be afraid to ask anything. She won’t judge you and she’ll take the time to walk you through anything you’re concerned about.

Dr. Nichols was open to doing two embryos if that was what my husband and I wanted, but she recommended only transferring the strongest so that we wouldn’t risk multiples.

Dr. Nichols is very nice and very sympathetic, but I rarely saw or spoke to her. I felt like I was dealing with everything on my own. She was not available to speak to on a regular basis, or to ask questions. It's very difficult to get in touch with anyone at this office, especially the doctors.

Get a second opinion before you proceed

The first appointment is very upsetting because a lot of information was thrown at me. It was difficult to digest. Everything is also on an extremely rigid timeline because everything is done within your cycle. This is briefly mentioned, but the ups and downs are not explained in depth. I went in for baseline bloodwork multiple times, a few ultrasounds, a biopsy, a test on my uterus and another test on my Fallopian tubes. My tests were inconclusive and I did not conceive.

$70 copay every time, in addition to medication costs (shot for ovulation, clomid, antibiotic)

I am still seeing Dr. Nichols, but so far, I am very upset and not sure what to expect going forward.