Christopher Sipe

While I appreciated that he would try to simply diagnosis and treatment for us (non-scientific folk), it came across as though he wasn’t as driven to get results - felt more like he was trying to be our friend. When after the second transfer (all from 1 Retrieval) we still weren’t pregnant, we changed treatment protocol for our 2nd Retrieval...we got less eggs but NO embryos. He recommended just going back to the initial protocol for our 3rd Retrieval (we decided to get a 2nd opinion instead). He also didn’t fully disclose efficacy risks of freezing/thawing to genetic test/freezing to wait for Transfer/thawing for Transfer...we wasted 2 embryos that were perfectly fine

If you want friendly, he’s your Dr!

Cattle call, with a line around the corner

It varied greatly as my insurance went from not being covered to pseudo covered

Dr Sipe was very personable from he start. He was thorough with explaining treatment and was realistic with us. A lot of communication during treatment was via his nurse, she was great but would have preferred to have his email.

Make sure to ask questions if you’re u clear about something

They were open in early AM which made it convenient so that it didn’t impact work hours

Approximately $30K including all transfers, procedures, appts and meds.

Our first transfer we transferred 1 embryo (our “best”) one that resulted in a negative. The second transfer we transferred 2 - it was negative. Third transfer we transferred 2 and that resulted in a singleton pregnancy.

Dr. Sipe was friendly, but didn't explain things in detailed terms. Hr tip toed around questions. Really rush face to face interviews. I felt like a number and not a patient. I wish he would have done all tests before hand than waiting to test after failed cycle.

Ask questions and do medical research before going.

I really don't remember, but a lot of injectables with progesterone. Babys aspirin taking daily until pregnancy test. Clomid given first retrieval and second retrieval lupron and follistism.

I had insurance but out of pocket total $4,000 for labs and deductibles.

Yes, Dr. Sipe suggested to transfer 2 to increase my changes.

He is very informative and nice and doesn't sugar coat. I have already referred 3 people to him and 2 of which have children and one is currently in his care. That pretty much speaks for itself.

You will be more in contact with his nurse than him, but they do deliver questions to him for answers.

Estrogen priming worked for me.

11K for all of the monitoring and egg retrieval/transfer. 15k for medication

He is a wonderful doctor. The fact that I had a disappointing outcome was not due to him. Very knowledgeable, a good communicator, and (unlike the rest of the clinic) actually runs on time

Advocate for shorter wait times. He is a great doc but I'm considering leaving due to the obscene waits.

Typical ivf cycle and FET

$25k

Be certain to bring specific questions. Especially if you will be having testing done outside the downtown Chicago location.

We started with 3 rounds of IUI with Clomid (5 days 50 mg start day 3). And ended up moving on to IVF with ICSI with assisted hatching using lupron, 75 units follistim and 75 units of menopur and 10 units of luprone 6pm-9pm for 5 days and then triggered with 500 HCG. After the 5 day transfer progesterone patch was used along with POI (until 11 weeks).

I'm sorry, billing came in over such a long period I am not certain how cost really broke down.

He is genuine & kind. He gave us the percentages & was willing to work with us to help us achieve our goal of having a child. I miss not being able to see him regularly as I would my obgyn. He is one special doctor!

Trust him. He's patient & personable. He's down to earth & an awesome doctor. He makes you feel relaxed & at ease.

2 rounds of IVF involving injectibles & success in round 2!

Around $5000 out of pocket for 2 rounds of IVF, including meds. I'm lucky to have good insurance.

He is very friendly & honest. I think his biggest fault is the system he works in which is big & not personal. He explained the big picture, but left the nurses to explain the details. He was always willing to help out - especially in the donor egg process

Make sure to ask all your questions ask for the email for him directly

i don't remember exactly but we started with low dose and then proceeded up

10,000

It was professional and pleasant.

Ask questions and take notes. Dont be afriad to tell him to repeat it his answers.

I really don't remember but a lot of lupron and progesterone

$32000 with insurance

I highly recommend Dr. Sipe. he is a very honest and caring person. I felt that he did not lead me on about my chances. he was easy to understand. Dr Sipe was very smart and is a good doctor. It was a good experience working with him!

Be prepared to hear the truth.

with insurance probably 20k including egg donor

He's blunt, which doesn't really bother me but may other people. My issue is he doesn't really listen to the patient. When I transferred care to FCI I wanted a biopsy before we did a transfer knowing my body wasn't timed like other women, he refused and lost the embryo because when we did do the biopsy it showed I needed 6 days of support instead of 5 like other women. After the second transfer implanted, I bled and knew there was something wrong. I wanted an hCG test and was refused until well into the week after my hCG had already dropped to 25% of the second beta test. Again, I ignored and dismissed of my concerns which were well founded.

If your cycle is outside the standard 28 days, this may not be the doctor for you. You will be forced to have 2 failed transfers before a biopsy and that's a lot of time, energy (mental and physical), and money wasted.

Our experience here was awful. While Dr Sipe is personable and nice, he unexpectedly went on medical leave in the middle of our treatment. We were not assigned another doctor in the practice to fill in for questions. Our nurse was gruff and rude about this. Nurse Agnes and the woman at the front desk (Linda?) are unhelpful, rude and short. I dreaded working with Agnes or having to ask her any sort of question. She is impatient and cold. And with IVF you will have many many questions especially first timers. IVF and infertility is an extremely expensive, stressful and emotionally draining process. This clinic does nothing to make this process easier or more compassionate. If anything they make it 1,000% harder and 1,000% more confusing. Never once did Dr Sipe call us personally to deliver any results or news as our new clinic has. Never once did he do any of our IUI’s himself. There is no personalized care here. Their online portal is a way for them to avoid you. Email is not the correct means of communication in this particular industry. Sometimes you need a live person. This clinic makes you feel more vulnerable and makes you feel like you are just dollar signs to them. I lost all trust in them and trust is essential in this industry. Their billing is not clear and we received one quote from Dr Sipe and a much higher estimate and invoice from billing. It feels unclear on purpose. When you want your medical records released they are basically held hostage unless you push and stay on top of them and pay exorbitant fees or they say they have 30 days to release them. We were caught up on all bills from them and they still set up road blocks to not give me access to my information. Unacceptable and borderline unethical. I gladly paid the fees to get as far as possible from this practice as quickly as possible. This type of experience is not one that will help you get pregnant. Adding more stress will only make your timeline longer. Also, look up their SART data. www.sartonline.com. It’s great compared to other practices in Chicago. I absolutely do not recommend FCI. If you want TLC, knowledgeable and compassionate nurses go to Advanced Fertility Centers of Chicago and see Dr Irani. He was a godsend. FCI was a terrible experience for us and I thank god we stopped working with them and found AFCC.

Don’t go to FCI.

He said we could try IUI or injectables or go straight to IVF. Based on my age.

He gave us a completely wrong estimate. Billing sent me an estimate that was triple what he quoted for IUI and IVF.

Great doctor. Very specific of what you have and the best solution for you. Do not waist time. Has a clear plan and he is very specific on what to use as the best result for you. Also, had a great personality to make you feel comfortable with your situation.

Make sure to follow his orders as he truly knows what is the best for you.

I had an IVF and with the first treatment I got pregnant. I don’t remember the specifics. I do recommend to write everything down as it can be a lot of things that you have to do. It can be confusing at times.

I was lucky as my insurance covered most of my treatment. I don’t remember how much I have to pay after insurance coverage.

We have single embryo transfer and he recommended and I am happy for that.

Dr. Sipe was very blunt, which is fine, but he almost seemed to take pleasure in the whole thing which was strange and off-putting. I didn't leave feeling confident that we'd have a good experience or be given tailored treatment options.

I really appreciated how thorough Dr. Sipe has been with my care. Hes been great at communicating next steps and what he thinks my chances are and what he recommends for my treatment. He always tweaks my treatment to help with the road bumps we have found and I really appreciated that. I have had 3 miscarriages but not from anything that Dr. Sipe did. I am still figuring out what my body and how it responds to pregnancy. He has helped me achieve pregnancy 3 times and I hope soon hell help me get pregnant and stay pregnant for the whole 9 months.

Be advocate for your own care and make sure you have a list of questions you may want to ask because he is very open go asking questions. He has even gone as far as calling me personally to talk about a retrieval that could have been harmful to my body and he always let me know the risks along the way. So just stay informed and ask a lot of questions.

My IUIs we use first clomid which we discovered thinned my lining so we quickly got rid of it. My second IUI we used Follistim but because I have PCOS my follicles overrespond. We got to use it for that IUI that resulted in a miscarriage because my egg was not of good quality. We then tried another IUI but I overstimmed so we move onto IVF. We did a retrieval using menopur, lupron, lupron trigger and very small amount of HCG so we could retrieve. All of my transfers have resulted in pregnancy but have resulted in miscarriage so far.

I dont have many costs because my insurance has been awesome.

We talked with our doctor and because of my younger age we decided on transferring one embryo over two embryos and j was perfectly happy with that.

Dr sipe always made you laugh he treats you like a individual. He was going to do my transfer of a fresh embryo but he couldn't find the exact place to out it so he did a freeze of that so we didnt waste a perfect embryo since he has never done any other procedures on me he wanted to do a hysterectomy to see exactly what was reason behind bot being able to get cathator where he wanted ended up removing a pylop and we are waiting for transfer next month. He is very thoughtful and patient.

Just be patient and take all his advice he is a very smart dr

He used a different protocol compared to my last cycle that resulted in only very few eggs for retrival.

I had insurance to cover 2 full cycles so I only paid like 3000 out of pocket in the past year