Allison Bloom

I am still in treatment, but I am very happy with all my interactions with Dr. Bloom. She has a great balance of compassion, and being honest about next steps. She makes me very comfortable as a queer person and has constantly validated my relationship and never been phased by my partner and his pronouns.

Ask questions!

In the feminine and cis-het focused world that fertility care is, Dr. Bloom creates a very inclusive and welcoming environment. It is also helpful that she and her wife have been through fertility treatments as well.

I had some insurance coverage. Out of pocket I have spent over $3,000 in 4 months.

They have a donor sperm coordinator who is fantastic and a great asset to their team.

The first appointment she was great. Making so many promises and just kept saying “let’s get you pregnant”. The transfer I had by Dr. Bloom was horribly painful she said “your cerix is back” and spent 5-10 min pecking the catheter against my uterus (I could see it on the screen) and she finally got it in. They don’t do mock embryo trials at this clinic so she had no idea that my uterus is retroverted. After the failed transfer she explained her wife had many fails and miscarriages (she also said her and her wife didn’t do pgt testing, which is something she pushed for me to do which made it confusing since her and her wife finally had success). She was very combative and very overly confident after I told her I was upset about my failed transfer. She said at the end of the day I have a list of fails and list of successes. And they are similar in numbers (their success rate for pgt testing claims to be over 60% percent so those lists should not be even).

She comes off very kind and will charm you. You will then learn she is stretched too thin and need an ego check and needs more training. If you tell her you are in pain she will tell you no you aren’t.

She did a medicated cycle. She did suggest omnitrope for my egg retrievals. I did get 5 pgt tested normals embryos but out of those 5 none of them resulted in a pregnancy.

Cattle call and you will wait 30-45 min for a monitoring appt.

40,000

1 embryo

I truly can't say enough good things about Dr. Bloom. My husband and I traveled ~5 hours to see her and would do it again in a heartbeat (and will eventually, since we want more than one child). We transferred to Main Line Fertility after a disappointing first clinic experience, and she instantly put our minds at ease. She has the perfect mix of compassion, empathy, humor, realism, and optimism, and she always met me where I was. My retrievals did not go as expected, and she was tireless in trying new protocols and encouraging me that we would figure something out, while also checking in on my mental health and reminding me that it was okay to take a break. She was open to my questions and ideas about different protocols, and thoroughly explained what we were doing (and why) every step of the way. When I got disappointing retrieval results, she called to follow up with me the same day and shared my disappointment. And when I finally got good news from a retrieval, she called me with the news herself. Any time that I had a question or needed to talk to her, I got a call back the same day. I always felt calmer and reassured after talking to her, and have taken a lot of comfort in this bumpy ride knowing that I was in such good hands with her.

Make an appointment with her! You won't regret it.

First retrieval: 2 weeks of birth control suppression, antagonist protocol. 18 eggs retrieved, 11 mature. 9 conventional, 4 ICSI. 2 fertilized (both from conventional group). 1 day 5 blast, 0 PGT. Second retrieval - microdose lupron + growth hormone. 10 days estrace priming, growth hormone priming (every day for 5 days), then growth hormone every other day during stims. 15 eggs retrieved, 15 mature. All conventional IVF. 3 fertilized, 2 day 6 blasts, 1 PGT normal. Third retrieval - microdose lupron. 10 days estrace priming. 21 eggs retrieved, all ICSI. 9 mature, 2 fertilized, 2 day 6 blasts, 2 PGT normal.

I was very lucky to have excellent insurance that covered the majority of the cost of treatment after I met a $7,500 OOP max. I paid $2,500 for each batch of embryos that we sent for genetic testing, and a $500 anesthesia fee for each retrieval. I also paid about $2,500 for growth hormone during the retrieval cycle that we used it, as it was not covered by insurance.

We did not discuss the transfer of multiple embryos.

Dr. Bloom is straightforward without being blunt. She's compassionate without being too delicate- basically the perfect mix. When it became clear that I would have lining problems, she got creative and adjusted my protocol and I am now 11 weeks pregnant. I would not have been able to conceive without her creative thinking and willingness to think outside the box a bit. It was not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Just make the appointment today!

I always feel better after talking with her. She personally calls me after every ultrasound (outside monitoring) and is always reassuring. She is super patient and I never feel rushed. Pregnancy after miscarriage is so hard and I feel grateful to have an understanding doctor.

If something isn't going right with the office or nurses being it up to Dr. Bloom.

I used menopur + follistim. We then used ganarelix to prevent ovulation. For transfer we did modified natural. We used letrozole, progesterone in oil, endometrin, estrace, Prednisone, lovenox

I had insurance that covered mostly everything

At age 38, I was referred to Dr Allison Bloom for deeper dive into my fertility. From day 1, it was a total nightmare. I have fully normal menstrual history, average egg supply, hormone levels, and physiology. In our first consult, I told Dr. Bloom I had started trying with my partner and wanted to have two kids, so I wanted to make sure there were no issues with my fertility. She immediately told me I should start IVF ASAP and started rapid-firing terrifying statistics about the low odds of getting pregnant during any given cycle, the percentage of decline in my fertility with each year, and I was shell-shocked and burst into tears. She condescendingly told me “hey, don’t cry! Come on! Don’t cry!” as if that would help. The scare tactic worked and I started IVF with her right away. In every meeting she was rushed, distracted, and verbally misquoted my age, details about my health, or details about our fertility plan. To prepare for our first egg retrieval, we worked with a rotating cast of at least ten nurses who would share info back to Dr. Bloom for directions. We had decided to do frozen cycles to stockpiles embryos and in our first cycle we got one normal embryo. This was communicated to us through a lab technician with no context or understanding of our fertility plan or any sensitivity. We didn’t know if one embryo was good news or bad, and when we finally met with Dr. Bloom a week later, she was extremely defensive about being asked to meet and insisted we hadn’t scheduled properly and that she had “other patients who needed her attention.” When we asked for her medical perspective given the outcome of cycle 1, she accused us of having unrealistic expectations, said that she “had told us this wouldn’t be easy,” and made reference to my “advanced age and low ovarian reserve,” which were not an actual response to what we were asking. She said that 1 normal embryo was good news, so despite how rude she was being, we decided maybe she was a good doctor and we should just stick it out with her. On our next cycle, we got zero embryos. This time, the follow up meeting was more of the same, but much worse. She insisted she did not have time for our scheduled meeting and had other patients waiting. Her only medical response to the outcome was to repeatedly name and blame my age, egg supply, egg quality, and general fertility, and once again accuse of having unrealistic expectations, offering no actual insights or encouragement. She also mentioned that we should consider adoption, donor eggs, or other means of building our family. My partner and I were appalled. We got two second opinions—one from another doctor at Main Line, and one from another fertility specialist—and the meetings were like night and day. Both new doctors were thoughtful, considerate, and optimistic about our options. The both said “as I’m sure your doctor told you, we always say that one cycle does not predict another.” We had in fact been told the opposite. Both doctors questioned the protocol Dr. Bloom had used and were quite optimistic about the possibility of other protocols, or simply other batches of eggs, being more successful. We changed doctors and practices to one where a doctor actually paid attention to our specific cycle history, and our new doctor found critical things Dr. Bloom had overlooked: my eggs were not low quality, but they needed an extra day to mature before retrieval. Egg immaturity was something I had specifically asked Dr. Bloom about after our failed cycle, and she had dismissed it defensively. My new doctor paid close attention to this for every following cycle, creating a custom protocol to keep my eggs inside one extra day. My new doctor also learned that my partner had DNA fragmentation, which could be the root cause of our challenge in previous cycle—NOT my eggs or age, as Dr. Bloom had constantly told us. DNA fragmentation was pretty easily addressed, and with our new doctor, we had 2 normal embryos in our first cycle and one normal in our second cycle. Working with our new doctor and actually feeling cared for and paid attention, and getting better results, to has made me realize how truly inappropriate and inept Dr. Bloom was in her treatment of us. I’m sharing this review so that if anyone else experiences the same treatment, they know that there is something much better out there. I would never, ever recommend anyone see Dr. Bloom.

Avoid.

Cycle 1: Clomid, no ICSI. Cycle 2: Clomid, added ICSI

I paid for a bundl fertility package so that the cost of retrievals was significantly reduced.