Debra Schell

Dr. Schell is highly qualified and knowledgeable, and that was obvious from the beginning. She is warm and genuinely seems invested in your success. I trusted her completely and I'm glad I did. She gave her phone number (which I tried to use sparingly) - I've never had a doctor do that and I cannot express how valuable that was and how personal it felt.

Trust her; this whole process is scary and stressful and it's nice to trust that you are in good hands.

Standard stimulation drugs, as far as I know. Daily monitoring and adjusting doses (Folistim & HCG) as needed during stimulation. I had a lot of follicles and they were monitoring for OHSS so she used a Lupron trigger shot instead of HCG, which successfully avoided OHSS. We did a frozen cycle with PGT-A testing due to recurrent pregnancy loss. Our first transfer was successful and I'm almost 13 weeks pregnant.

They were flexible with scheduling and ran efficiently.

Insurance covered some, so we spent about $2000 on medications (we went over the $10,000 max for insurance) and close to $7000 for PGT-A testing.

She strongly recommended a single embryo transfer as she knew (correctly) that I was likely to have success and multiple embryos would have resulted in twins or triples. To avoid risk/complications with multiples, she advised one embryo transfer. It was the right call!

She was very accessible, and very willing to talk with me and answer any questions I had. She really listened to my concerns and let it guide the recommendation for treatment. I felt heard and seen as an individual. Her explanations made sense and were really helpful.

Be open about any concerns and ask any questions you have -- she is very receptive to hearing them.

Folistim twice per day, HCG once per day, then Ganorelex later in the cycle one per day in prep for egg retrieval. In prep for transfer (and continuing through early pregnancy), estrogen pills 4 times a day, progesterone in oil shot once per day, medrol and doxycycline leading up to the transfer, plus progestorone capsule the morning of injection. As well as low dose aspirin and pre natal vitamins.

Having to do monitoring is inconvenient, for sure, but the process was relatively smooth. I think only once did I experience any real delays in waiting for my monitoring appointment. Otherwise it was a pretty well oiled machine! And the nurses were really great to interact with.

In excess of $20,000

One embryo was the "official" recommendation, but I wanted to do two as I felt comfortable having twins. I wanted a candid conversation with her about the risks of doing two and becoming pregnant with two, and she spent an hour discussing it with me. She told me about the risks, but didn't use scare tactics and ultimately let me make the decision.

Dr She'll is compassionate and knowledgeable. She always took time to thoroughly explain things. I am so happy I found her to manage my fertility journey. After moving to the area from out of state, I needed to find a new Dr., one with fertility expertise. After seeing three other Drs, I was referred to Dr. Schell. None of my previous Drs had been able to explain why my husband and I were unable to conceive after nearly two years of trying. Dr Schell was compassionate and knowledgeable. She took the time to explain the results of our tests and to go over our options. As opposed to the other Drs I saw, Dr. Schell helped me to understand my condition and what we could do to maximize our potential for having a baby. Given my advanced age and a condition that was diagnosed with Dr Schell that would make it extremely difficult to conceive naturally, we decided to move to IVF. We were successful on our very first attempt with DR Schell. Throughout the heart wrenching process, Dr Schell remained steady, optimistic, encouraging, and grounded. She gave me her personal mobile number that I could call or text any time I had a question (which was often). She always responded even on nights and weekends. Dr Schell is an extremely dedicated Dr who continually sacrificed her own time to accommodate my busy travel schedule for work. I've spoken to other friends that have gone through IVF in the Milwaukee area and when I tell them my experience and close relationship with my Dr they are so envious. They often only see their Dr for their initial consult, the retrieval, and the transfer. Dr Schell closely and personally monitored me throughout my cycle and my high risk pregnancy. And, when I gave birth, she insisted on being the one to deliver our baby, regardless of whether she was on call or not. We now have a beautiful baby girl and are in the middle of working with Dr Schell for number two. I would highly recommend Dr Schell for anyone looking for an OBGYN, particularly if you are having any difficulties conceiving. I wish I had found her sooner as she would have diagnosed me sooner and I would not have lost so many years trying to start our family. The office wait times sometimes run long (10-20 mins after scheduled time) but I don't mind that. That has been my experience in just about every Drs office and I know it not always the Drs fault. And, when I am with Dr Schell, I never feel rushed. She always takes as much time as I need to answer my questions and thoroughly explain whatever is happening in our cycle. I find that so refreshing when in so many other places Drs rush through their appointments in order to see more and more patients to meet quotas. I

Most of my care was covered by insurance

Dr Schell explained the risks related to multiple embryo transfers and let my husband and I decide what was right for us. I appreciated her honestly explaining to us the pros and cons and letting us decide what was right for our family.

I liked how Dr. Schell was ready to go on to treatment, though we had only been trying 7 months. Each month we tried a progressively more aggressive treatment. After 3 months of failures, including an IUI with injectibles, we decided it was time for IVF or a laproscopy to check for Endometriosis. We talked about our options and pros/cons for a while and decided to do the Lap. Dr. Schell performed the surgery within 3 weeks and was able to remove mild endo. I don't really have any complaints and I liked Dr. Schell. The only reason we choose to change doctors is because her clinic for IVF didn't take our insurance (which fortunately had some IVF coverage).

Her office is a little outdated and appointment times aren't available super early or late like big clinics, but she is quicker to get into and will work to get all the necessary testing done quickly.

The first child we did clomid and ovidrel with time intercourse. The second cycle we did clomid, trigger and IUI. The third cycle we did injectibles with trigger and IUI. Each cycle we had multiple follicles and very good sperm count, so after these cycles didn't work we knew it was time to move on to IVF or a laproscopy to see if anything else was going on. We also did an HSG test and all the other normal bloodwork (TSH, AMH, etc) to make sure nothing else was wrong.

I have insurance that covers infertility up to a life time max, so everything was processed through insurance after hitting a high deductible/OOP.

I cannot say enough good things about Dr. Schell! It didn’t work out for me with IVF but she was clear about the odds, she had a plan of how to alter treatments if we tried again and we had an alternative presented to us.

Don’t expect to be in and out, Dr. Schell is thorough and personable so it takes time.

Due to my PCOS and low egg reserve we started on higher doses of follistem and menopur, and increased dosage once during process. I produced 8 eggs, 2 made it to day 5 and 1 was generically normal. Moving into transfer everything looked really good, just did not take. Had we tried another round Dr. Schell did have some ideas about how to adjust the medications.

My insurance did not cover anything. Full cost for one IVF cycle was roughly $30k, but I needed additional meds, some additional ultrasounds, and we did genetic testing.

N/A

Dr Schell was amazing and treated me like I imagine she would treat her own daughter during treatment. Our appointments were always lengthy and she described everything in detail while also asking how I was holding up and genuinely listening. When our IVF failed she even offered donor embryos she had from a previous patient. In the end she ended up connecting us with the birth mother of our adopted son.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time there during an appointment getting to know one another as well as learning about the procedure.

She is known for going after the root cause. She may order a lot of tests and consult with other REs to find the best protocol for you. My body did not respond to Lupron so she consulted and came up with an alternative.

We were provided a cost breakdown of the IVF, ICSI and ultrasound/blood work monitoring. We paid exactly as quoted.

She informs you of the risks involved with multiple births but ultimately leaves the decision up to you with no judgement.

Very open...blunt discussion of odds and prices/pros and cons...took extra effort to address concerns with use of medications and anesthetics when concern of becoming physically sick was brought up.... Called and visited at the hospital to personally check up after fibroid removal....discussed different options for ivf very honest about low odds of using own eggs at 47... Recommended egg donation but did not insist

Be ready for honest odds even though it may be disappointing

I have not had treatments yet... Only fibroid removal.... I did have bloodwork, uterine ultrasound, hysterogogy.... Dr schell decribed everything she was doing every step of the way

Insurance covered my fibroid removal and other pteliminary procedures.... In the process of looking to get ivf started working with egg donation coordinator looking at 20,000 for egg donation and about 5-10,000 for ivf

Dr.Debra isn’t just a doctor she’s like a mother always compassionate every step of the way, Dr. Debra was also optimistic that we will achieve the needed goal. At first it seems like the process was slow due to some sort of hormonal imbalance which Dr. Debra made sure she dealt with after which we agreed based on the results on the most possible method to conceive. It worked perfectly even with some hitches it came out beautiful. I had my first ultrasound today and was close to tears I can’t be more grateful. Knowing that my dreams have come to reality is the sweetest gift ever. Thank you Dr. Debra.

Trust Dr. Debra she’s very knowledgeable and will guide you through.

Insurance with co pay plan

Dr. Debra recommended PGTA testing which was helpful.