Deidre Downs Gunn

Dr Gunn leaves no detail unexplained. She is very thorough in giving all the facts and options for treatments. The information was overwhelming at times, but I always left with follow up literature. She is very reassuring and positive. I am in the middle of IVF treatments with her now and will potentially need to have fibroid removal surgery. She’s encouraged me to get additional consultation for the surgery to make sure we are making the right decisions on care.

Be prepared to take notes! She goes over a lot of info in your consultations. If you’re ready financially and mentally for IVF speak up. She is good about starting with less expensive treatments first.

Initially we were prepping for an IUI cycle with clomid and Pregnyl trigger. I opted to cancel IUI after the large uterine fibroid was found in their routine transvaginal ultrasound done in my first appointment. We didn’t want to risk getting pregnant and having complications. Instead we opted for IVF with a frozen transfer. On Dr Gunn’s advice we wanted to have embryos ready on the off chance that my surgery went awry and an overy had to be removed. For my IVF cycle I was on Lupron- 20 units, Menopur-75, and Gonal-F 225. Gonal was adjusted up to 300 for two days and then back down. I was frustrated that I refilled meds and then was taken off everything because of risks of OHSS. I now have $1,000 of meds just sitting around.

$10,500 for IVF Monitoring ultrasounds were separate. My insurance did not cover so they were $200 a visit. Medications total have been about $5,000

She has strong preference to single embryo transfer

Please be discerning when reading reviews; do your research and understand the care you are getting. I am a medical professional, and speaking as one I will tell you this is the best doctor you will encounter. This is for many reasons, she is both kind and knowledgeable - she will give you evidence based responses blunt, honest and sensitive. She has great bedside manner. She will listen to you, she will give you time to explain your concerns and thoroughly respond to them. She is responsive on the portal; she sent me numerous updates personally. She told me she would do things, and absolutely followed through every single time. She was gentle, she made me feel at ease, she explained exactly what she was doing every step of the way and why.

Again, discern what reviews are worth your time. While valid, some concerns are beyond the scope; meaning if a practice dismissed a patient -- there is a reason that has nothing to do with the Physician. You can expect great care. You can expect a doctor who cares about your wellbeing, will listen to you, will explain thoroughly and communicate well.

We used Menopur and Gonal injections for egg retrieval. We used Apri birth control to regulate my cycle and then we used Estrace and Progesterone Injections. We retrieved 25 eggs, fertilized 15, tested 7 and had 3 healthy viable embryos. We did 1 cycle. We have an active pregnancy with 1 transfer.

I was able to get insurance coverage; we still paid around $5000 out of pocket.

This is the evidence based and correct way.

As stated previously:As a young woman who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer my whole was upside down and spinning. From the moment I stepped into Dr. Gunn's office she was the grounding force that I needed to calm the storm. I had been presented with the option to be a part of a clinical trial, or take Lupron throughout my chemotherapy treatment to try and preserve my ovaries. Dr. Gunn called me one evening and stayed on the phone with me for over and hour talking me through all the details of both the clinical trial presented by my oncologist and the risks/benefits of Lupron. She didn't tell me what she thought was best, she asked what felt best for me and my life. Knowing that I was a sexual assault survivor, she was always very transparent with me about what was going to happen and how it was going to happen. The day before my egg retrieval she brought me into the office and walked me through the procedure, making sure I was comfortable with what was about to happen. She listened to my concerns every step of the way and allowed me to make data driven decisions. When I went into my egg retrieval she held my hand until I fell asleep. Dr. Gunn is the most incredible, trauma informed doctor that I have ever seen. Dr. Miss America continues to be my biggest cheerleader in my fight against cancer and I wouldn't be here today without her. Knowing that my father and my brother had passed away, she understood that it was important for me to be able to have biological children. It is only because she pushed my cancer treatment team that I was allowed to have the option to do that. She advocated for me when I needed it and I couldn't thank her more.

Forget that she was Miss America - she's so much more than that. She's an incredible physician.

As I was in the midst of trying to rush an egg retrieval cycle before I started chemotherapy, I honestly cannot remember what protocol I was given. I do know that is produced wonderful results and that 22 eggs were retrieved from one cycle.

A large part of my treatment costs were covered by the LiveStrong Fertility Preservation Foundation. So this isn't really applicable to me.

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Dr. Gunn was fantastic when we had one on time, but since I was not an IVF patient I do feel as this limited my direct contact with her. She was able to quickly review and accurately assess my problem and form a plan after I had spent months another physician. She explained things very well in a way I could understand.

Do not expect to meet directly with Dr. Gunn often especially if you are not an IVF patient. Dr. Gunn is fantastic when you work directly with her. She gives out her personal cell phone number and I texted her a few times with questions and she always responded. I often had to correspond with her fellows or nurse practitioner. Nurse practitioner was fine and kind, but the fellows at times were difficult to deal with. I feel as if the fellows missed a few things along the way (ex. calling in medicine and making sure we had sufficient quantity of injections on hand) and didn't fully explain to me what the plan was. Sometimes I felt that I had to blindly trust their judgement.

MENOPUR INJECTIONS

Insurance covered everything. I only paid copays. Dr. Gunn was very upfront about costs and made sure to take financial information into consideration for treatment options.

I went to Dr. Gunn to get my eggs/embryos frozen due to medical condition that requires me to be on chemotherapeutic medication. I never once got to see Dr. Gunn nor did she respond to my MULTIPLE messages in which I had concerns and questions. I saw her medical student/resident, Dr. Chang once during an ultrasound over a weekend in which she told me she was only there to fill in. At no point was I ever told Dr. Chang was overtaking my entire case. While she was very kind and responded to all of my messages, I thought it was strange I could never reach my "actual" doctor, Dr. Gunn. During one of my ultrasounds, it was so painful I burst into tears as the Tech struggled to FORCE the probe in. I emailed Dr. Gunn and notified her I left the office crying and was still in such pain a day later and felt swollen. The nurse responded to let me know that at least it'll be over soon as my retrieval was coming up and she would also let one of the doctor's know. Needless to say Dr. Gunn NEVER reached out or addressed the situation. To make a very long story short I had a failed retrieval. I was able to create one 4BC embryo but that was all out of 8 mature eggs. I had questions regarding this (as any normal person would) and I also was confused as to why it may have happened given my AMH was greater than 2.0 (I think it was 2.8) and all of my other labs were normal as well. I had no prior history of infertility and this was just very unusual. The medical student, Dr. Chang initially told me that she too thought it was odd and it seemed like my ovaries did not respond to the medications initially. She was the one who called me with the devastating news on day 2 (after I paged to get some sort of update since I hadn't heard from anyone). I would have thought Dr. Gunn would have made such a call or at least checked in on me. On day 6 a regular nurse called and left me a voicemail later that evening since I missed the call. I had to call back Monday to get the dang final results myself which was absolutely ridiculous. Dr. Gunn was on-call that weekend and just she still did not reach out or at least give me the final day 6 results. I had to wait until day 9 to find out only one had made it. I arranged a meeting with a Patient Advocate to get answers (about 3 weeks after my retrieval!) I met with Dr. Gunn and Dr. Chang and Dr. Chang seemed to be the one instructed to answer the questions. I started to get the feel Dr. Gunn DID NOT do my retrieval and in fact, Dr. Chang had done everything herself and perhaps I was her first "real case". It all made sense why I was in more contact with Dr. Chang and why during the surgery, it was Dr. Chang adjusting the bed and getting me in the right position before they promptly put me to sleep (Dr. Gunn was nowhere to be found in the room before I was put to sleep). I was unaware and nor was it ever disclosed to me that a medical student/resident would be performing my procedure. I am not saying she did anything wrong, however, my consent was NOT given nor even asked. Anyway in the meeting I was told that I just simply had "poor egg quality" with no further explanation. Dr. Gunn said if I did it again she wouldn't change a single thing and would expect the exact same results (well duh, if you don't change anything what else would you expect)? I told her I appreciated her taking the time to finally meet with me and I was very disappointed with the lack of communication. She vowed to do better and was "sorry I felt that way" (you know one of those fake apologizes where you blame the other person for their own feelings). I decided I would proceed with another cycle since she did seem like she would try harder to communicate. Six days after our meeting, I was contacted by a Nurse Director saying that they had met and Dr. Gunn had decided she is "unable to meet my expectations" and am discontinuing me as a patient. And that they would make all arrangements to find me a new clinic. I was just baffled and asked when did this take place and why would having open communication as my expectation be something she's unable to meet? I asked is that unreasonable to expect your own Doctor to respond to messages and communicate?? She said it was not unreasonable. So I asked then how is it that Dr. Gunn has come to the conclusion that she's unable to meet that expectation?? I could not believe what I was hearing or what was going on. That was in July 2019 and as of now Jan. 2020 I have had no contact or further explanation. Two months after that phone call I received a certified letter from Dr. Gunn that was informing me that she was discontinuing me and could see me up until August 20th for emergencies only. This letter was sent and delivered in SEPTEMBER!! It was intentionally held. My other doctors are shocked and cannot understand why she would treat me this way all because I asked normal questions regarding my retrieval. I was never assisted in finding a new clinic and had to do all the leg work myself. I found a FANTASTIC clinic that has worked miracles with me. My new doctor at Brookwood has been absolutely amazing and the compassion she has shown me is just unspeakable. UAB's Dr. Gunn slapped in my medical record "female infertility". However, my new Dr. Houserman took the time to discuss a different plan, medication dosages etc to get to the bottom of the mystery. She said she would not label me with "poor egg quality" after one single retrieval since I was able to create one embryo at UAB and there are multiple factors that could have caused my results. In the end, I now have 5 (FIVE!!) GOOD QUALITY embryos (4BBs and 5ABs) at Brookwood after changing the donor I'd used. We still aren't exactly sure what happened but changing the donor and trigger shot (we used Lupron) resulted in these 5 embryos. It also could have been my chemotherapeutic medication still in my system longer than anticipated since I had been on it for over 20yrs. I am still scarred from my experience at UAB and still even cry when I think about how I was treated and so abruptly dismissed out of the clinic for simply asking questions. I am so blessed to have been directed to Dr. Houserman and her team. Dr. Houserman HERSELF called me twice following my retrieval. She never gave up and did not label me something without trying all alternative. She is indeed such a wonderful, kind, understanding person to work with and I am forever grateful. I don't know what will come of my embryos once I am ready to use them but I am thankful that I have them.

Do not expect to EVER hear from her. If you send a direct message to Dr. Gunn do not ever expect a response. EVER. If anything a nurse will respond without fully answering your specific question. If she isn't sure why something didn't work according to plan, then it's YOUR FAULT. She will under not circumstances dig further and see what happened. If you ask questions, be prepared to be sent packing. I was kicked out of her clinic because I asked follow up questions about my procedure after it had failed unexpectedly.

Dr. Gunn seemed to use the exact same dosage of medication for all patients. Once drug fits all method. There was no separate evaluation or anything that indicated otherwise. After my failed retrieval, she said that she wouldn't change a single thing and just said I have poor egg quality and called it a day.

I qualified for Live Strong, a cancer foundation that covers the cost of medication for patients that have undergone chemotherapy. So my costs where cut down significantly. Any patient that qualifies has a set rate that they pay for their procedure determined by that clinic. I think my payment was $6000. However, they clinic was not shy (as well as the IVF nurse) about mentioning how they don't get any additional payments and seemed a bit bitter about it. I was told I must pay in full upfront or they would not proceed. I have heard other patients were offered payment plans and "worked with" however that was NOT my experience.

She is strictly a single embryo transfer no matter what. Regardless of your history or the "quality" of the embryo. She will not transfer more than one under no circumstances.

Dr Gunn is a thoughtful and knowledgeable doctor. She shared information with me by using facts and research and was direct with the process and next steps and options at every stage, but at the same time was compassionate and made me feel like she cared about my success as much as I did. I always felt like I was under the best of care with her and the team at UAB.

VIsit or meet with her as soon as you can (b/c I know you wanted to be pregnant already) and trust that whatever she's recommending is what's best for you and your specific situation. She won't throw tests or options out just because. She's considering all the options out there, but presenting what's best for you. Trust her.

Not going to lie, the details are a little fuzzy! I remember using Gonal f, menopur, estradiol, lupron, pregnyl. Taking low dose aspirin. Between the 1st and 2nd cycles we did change up the protocol (less lupron maybe?) and we did a freeze all for genetic testing, because all of my cycles had good numbers for fertilization, but with my advanced maternal age, felt like it was the egg quality that was the issue. My first IVF cycle, I had 8 retrieved, my 2nd had 15 retrieved and my third we had 16! For my 2nd and 3rd I cut out sugar for the 30 days before the meds started but that was not because Dr. Gunn told me too.

It was about $15k for each cycle w/ icsi, plus meds, and then $2-3K for pgs testing.

I really like Dr Gunn, I feel she is passionate about what she does and truly in her field for all the right reasons. She is an advocate for LGBT reproduction - which I think is amazing. I’m not LGBT, but I like that she helps many people with fertility. Dr Gunn is caring and listens. I think she is very well trained and trustworthy. The only downside to Dr Gunn is that I feel like I never see her. I don’t feel like she is checking in on me without my prompting. As anyone who goes through infertility knows, this journey can be isolating and mentally taxing. I went through so low points and wanted Dr Gunn to reach out. I went through two clomid cycles with times intercourse and had to take a break because - then I started back with an IUI cycle. Those three cycles have taken my almost 8 months to complete and would really like a meeting/phone call/ follow-up after each cycle or two to access the results and discuss next steps. Knowing more about the process I know this isn’t really possibly at her level - but perhaps a care team staff member could reach out? It’s just hard and lonely and I wish I’d had a little more hand holding after each negative pregnancy test. I do really like Dr Gunn, this is my only negative assessment of her and the care team. I would recommend her and know my expectations have made me be a little more proactive in my health care.

Ask lots of questions and don’t hesitate to reach out. It’s a lonely journey.

First meeting with Dr Gunn she suggested IUI w/ meds because of my age, 37, and we had been married 9 years and had tried 2 years to conceive naturally. I wasn’t ready to jump in to IUI, so I asked if we could start with clomid and times intercourse. She said absolutely and we did two rounds of timed intercourse with meds. I had to take time off between cycles due to cysts and mild depression caused by meds. After 2 failed cycles of meds and timed intercourse, I informed the staff I was ready to move to IUI, which is where we currently are.

Consultation was covered under insurance. Each ultrasound is $150. Clomid ~$20 Trigger shot ~$100. IUI $300

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Dr. Gunn walked me through everything we were doing, why we were doing it, and the expectations/risks with each approach. I appreciate that she takes the time to meet with patients so often instead of a few times a year like some other practices. She is very involved which made me feel even more like she was making great decisions for us along the way.

She will explain things, but bring questions with you. She is so kind and happy to answer ALL of them. I never felt silly asking about things I didn't fully understand. She is a great communicator.

I started with Dr. Gunn after moving from another clinic. I explained I wanted to be more aggressive with treatments as I had previously done 5 nights of 5.0 mg of Letrozole and 150 of Follistim for 3 nights. I was only getting 1 mature egg each cycle and had been doing this combo for several months. She reviewed my charts and agreed we could try this approach to increase the doses. My doses were upped to 7.5 mg of Letrozole and 175 of Follistim. Unfortunately I responded too well and had 7-9 eggs mature that cycle and we had to cancel. We returned to the lower dose and tried it combined with an IUI. Negative pregnancy test. Did the same again and had 2 eggs mature that cycle, another IUI, but another negative pregnancy test. It was at this time that we discussed IVF. Our first attempt was cancelled before medications were started because my estrogen levels were too high. Our second attempt, my levels were high again but we tried to move forward and monitor closely. Dr. Gunn directly called me to talk through the changes she was making to our plan and how we would closely monitor everything. She did exactly that, but unfortunately not enough eggs matured to the right size, and she decided to cancel the retrieval. This decision was hard but instead of just taking our money and trying for the retrieval, she recognized it wouldn't be a very successful retrieval and would be better to cancel and start over later. We are currently in the wait to try our 3rd attempt.

Unfortunately my insurance does not cover any appointments so these were out of pocket expenses for me personally. However, they have never demanded that we pay the full balance and we have made small payments each month towards our bill. The IVF costs are pretty comparable to other clinics in the area, however, the way they have it set up takes a lot of stress off the process. You pay for retrieval costs, and can add in ICSI or Genetic Testing, then you pay per transfer. Another clinic I worked with packaged it all together and you only had 1, 2, or 3 chances and total costs reflected. So if you had a ton of embryos left, but had used up your number of transfers, you owed even more money. UAB approaches the retrieval process with the mindset that they hope you will only ever do 1 retrieval to build your entire family. Instead of retrieving each time you are ready to try for another child.

Our clinic feels very strongly about only transferring one embryo, unless there is a outlying reason to transfer 2. The way the pricing is set up, it is much more cost effective because you pay per transfer. So it is much easier to only put 1 when you can pay per time instead of only getting 3 transfers as a part of a package or something (where you may feel more pressed to transfer more to increase chances).

Dr. Gunn was very calm and easy going. Just very even all the time. I felt like she was very competent and explained things well. My husband and I are both doctors, so we were very impressed with her care. She did things based off of evidence-based learning, which I loved.

You are in good hands.

1. Three rounds of Clomid with trigger shots. 2. Two IUI's. (It was suggested we do three, but we were ready to move to IVF) 3. 1 egg retrieval cycle and 1 transfer resulting in our 24 week old in utero son!

The ultrasound monitoring started at 7:15am. I would always take these early appointments because I worked. I even went in on a Sunday for an ultrasound and did an IUI on a Saturday. They were very accommodating.

IUI- $290 each Stimulation and Egg Retrieval- $11,130 Embryo Transfer- $1390 Genetic Counyl Screening Bloodwork- $700 PGS testing of the embryos- $1600 for six embryos Medications- $4200 total

My doctor recommended a single embryo transfer. Due to my age (31) and the quality of our embryos (very good), she would not transfer more than one embryo. She told us the goal of treatment was a single, healthy pregnancy which is better for mom and baby.

She is thoughtful, caring, and professional. She does a wonderful job explaining statistics, odds of success, and preparing us for outcomes. I would love if we could see her at every visit and procedure, but there have been a few ultrasounds and one IUI where we were seen by other doctors.

Get "Portal" on your cell phone ASAP because you'll never be able to get through to a nurse just by trying a phone call.

Letrozole was used in our first IUI cycle rather than Clomid because of its success in PCOS patients. I do not have PCOS but have many of its symptoms. I was also prescribed a trigger shot with ultrasound monitoring. This combo resulted in a pregnancy, the first in five years of trying. Unfortunately it ended in miscarriage. Dr. Gunn has since discovered polyps in my uterus and done a polypectomy to remove them. We had one IUI after the miscarriage and before the discovery of the polyps, but it was not successful.

So far we have done 2 IUI cycles at $295 each, and each also had a trigger shot of $100. We also paid $100 for polypectomy. We have paid maybe $200 in other fees like co-pays, parking, and small account balances.

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She was very kind and compassionate when talking to us and delivered hard news gently. She fully explained risks/benefits of tests and procedures before we did them. I felt she appreciated my questions and concerns rather than being irritated.

Write down questions before your visit and bring something to take notes so you can reference them later.

Antagonist protocol with a Lupron trigger and Frozen Embryo Transfer is our current plan.

Egg retrieval is around $11000-12000

Dr. Gunn suggested single embryo transfer for us. She said with my age and history she doesn’t see a need to try transferring 2 embryos especially since I do not prefer to have twins.

She is very understanding and compassionate but is able to give realistic expectations. She takes all of your concerns into consideration and develops a personalized course of treatment for you. I did not see her every visit but sometime saw fellows or nurse practitioners but if I ever needed to speak with her directly she was always available.

We spend around 20,000 for testing, 3 IUIs with clomid and 1 rounds of IVF.

She used an algorithm based on my age and health but most of the time recommends 1 embryo for most of her patients. Pros and cons were discussed with me and she would have honored my wish if I chose to transfer 2.

Dr. Gunn was knowledgeable, friendly, but straightforward and matter-of-fact. She did not beat around the bush or try to give us false hope. She answered our questions and gave us the information we needed, even if it wasn’t what we wanted to hear.

Only go to her if you want the truth and not false hope.

First cycle was 100mg Clomid with HCG trigger shot; second cycle was 150mg Clomid with HCG trigger shot.

$249 for IUI, $100 each for ultrasound monitoring, approximately $23k total for IVF with my own frozen eggs.

They stated they only do single embryo transfers

Dr Gunn was nice, seemed to care about our success on our first visit. However, we never saw her again. Never there for my IUIs, ultrasounds, etc. Never checked in with us. I had to prompt the conversation every time. Had a concern during our second treatment. Left a message and emailed through portal, never received a response. This is when we decided to change drs and clinics.

Don’t see her unless she moves away from UAB. I think she would be great at another, better run, clinic.

Only used clomid and trigger shot with IUI. 2 rounds, no success and no adjustments to treatment

Costs were in line with other local clinics. Did file through insurance, even though majority wasn’t covered. Still went towards out of pocket expenses.

Never discussed

She is very thorough, however she could use a little more consistency in making sure she is on time. She can also make sure to be present during routine visits and procedures. Overall though, she had a great initial consultation with me, and explained the process I would possibly undergo and my options as her patient in the future and was very encouraging to me.

Make sure she has explains everything.

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I do not remember, however I was under the charity care finance.

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Dr Gunn was amazing she made me feel like I belong there she explained everything what was going on she even email me after hours to make sure I understood what was going on.I totally love this women she made me not give up on hope

When you go in even if you don’t know what you want dr Gunn will make sure you understand everything that’s going to happen before you leave the door if your hurting or sick she will check on you. Ever single day you would love this place it’s like home from home

The injection shot also the pills to make me ovulation

4,000