Ijeoma Okeigwe

As a Black woman, seeking excellent healthcare has always been stressful. We are treated differently, and I've always had to fight to get proper health care. At first, I was so nervous about this procedure because I hate needles, and I didn't know if I would be treated like a human being. I've wanted to freeze my eggs for a while because I haven't found my life partner yet. So, I wanted to make sure that I had options for my future. Thank you to everyone at Oakland Spring Fertility for giving me such a fantastic experience. But, I especially want to thank Dr. Okeigwe for guiding me through the process of freezing my eggs. She's a GEM, and it's so rare to find a Black fertility doctor. I was and still am ECSTATIC that she was my doctor! She took such great care of me, and I was informed every step of the way of who, what, where, and why of everything I needed to know. Dr. Okeigwe even helped me heal a trigger. At 20 years old I was in a dangerously abusive relationship, and I became pregnant and needed to have an abortion. Unfortunately, the doctor and nurses treated me like an animal and pinned me down while they did the procedure. So from there on, every time I went to an OBGYN and put my legs up, I would go into shock from that experience. I never thought that trigger would be healed. But, because Dr. Okeigwe listened to my story, answered all my questions, and equipped me with all of my options, the trigger began to go away. It got to the point where I would come in for a check-up, and we would laugh, and before I knew it, I was already lying down, looking up at all of my eggs progressing. This is why representation matters, and I know for a fact that I would not have received a better experience anywhere else. Give this woman a raise and hire more diverse fertility doctors!💛✨

You're in great hands!

About $10,000

With Dr. Okeigwe, I felt like I was in really good hands all throughout the egg freezing process. She made sure I was taking all the necessary steps to prevent OHSS. Her calm presence was very reassuring during the actual retrieval: this was my first operation and I went in with some anxiety. I felt that she was a very good source of knowledge and I fully felt like I could trust her judgement. She provided excellent care!

Aygestin priming, FSH + menopur, cetrotide, lupron-only trigger, cabergaline. All of these worked well and prevented OHSS even though I had a lot of eggs.

Costs were covered by Progyny.

I really have nothing but positives to share - very knowledgeable, great bedside manner, and felt like she really cared about us throughout the process. Even if I saw another doctor, I felt confident that she was reviewing everything and still supporting us.

Try to get as many appointments with her as you can!

We started with a consult and Dr. Okeigwe found a tubal blockage with an HSG test confirmed. After getting my left tube removed, we returned to Spring and started with IVF at our request (we did not want to try IUI given my tube situation and lower AMH levels). She was supportive and we jumped right into egg retrieval, followed by natural-modified transfer cycle about a month after my successful retrieval.

The full cost of IVF egg retrieval treatment and single transfer for us was close to $35K.

I did some of my own research and felt aligned with this approach

Dr Okeigwe was our least favorite doctor at Spring fertility. In addition to it being hard to get appointments with her, I had to be a really strong advocate for myself to protect my well-being during treatment as my body was really sensitive to some of the treatment medications and I encountered serious side effects that even landed me in the ER. Her focus was on getting us pregnant (which ultimately happened) but my body was in really bad shape after 3 transfers, 3 saline sonograms and 2 uterine surgeries and I wish that I would have not had to push so hard for her to listen to my concerns.

Talk to the other spring fertility physicians before making your decision.

2 letrozole natural cycle FET and 1 medicated FET

FET cycles were about $6000 each out of pocket

Dr. Okeigwe is professional, kind and present. The doctor you work with sees you at every emotional high and low — when you’re nervous and have no idea what’s going on to when you’re behind on a deadline and annoyed about coming in for your 28th blood test — so getting to work with a real human being was important to me. She was supportive when I opted to delay an implantation for a job opportunity and even more supportive when I lost a pregnancy.

Trust her.

She suspected that I had a polyp(s) and coordinated their removal with my OB right after my retrieval. Both implantations were pretty standard (from what I understand). After my first miscarriage we did genetic testing and tested for a uterine infection which came back positive. I did a course of antibiotics and further testing before the second implantation.

I don’t remember mostly because my husbands company started to offer fertility benefits shortly after we started so we only pid out of pocket for the retrieval.

I don’t recall

Doctor was very hopeful and confident in her ability to give us the results we want. She was very informative and answered every question I had. I wish she was more compassionate and gentle upfront, but was once I expressed my concerns and fear with her.

Ask tons of questions!

With my DOR- she wanted to start with iui with clomid and fsh injections.

Dr. Okeigwe was clear, compassionate, and committed to making sure I fully understood the biology of my own reproductive system and the egg freezing process. She kept my expectations realistic and I felt her sense of dedication to getting optimal results for all her patients. She answered all questions in a thoughtful manner.

Have a consultation and go from there, you will leave more informed about your body/reproductive future whether or not you decide to have treatment.

I had a "medium" stimulation treatment, not too high or low on any hormones in my bloodwork so the amounts and timing of injections seemed pretty standard. I didn't have any reactions (or mood swings) to the treatment other than bloating and a heaviness towards the end of the cycle just before retrieval. I had 19 follicles, 16 eggs retrieved, and 16 viable for freezing.

Single egg freezing cycle ~$9000, medication ~$4000

Dr. Okeigwe was warm, funny, compassionate, very real and professional. She had very up to date understanding of how to handle my own situation and as a nurse and nurse practitioner student myself, I was very impressed and felt very well taken care of (not that I know much about fertility). I feel very comfortable knowing my eggs are safely frozen with her and so happy I can come back to her when I'm ready to use them. What a gem.

Just do it! She's the best.

I used a mid luteal protocol, started injecting Gonal F and Menopur about 4-5 days after ovulation. I also started an oral medication, letrozole, that is also used to treat breast cancer, it lowers effects of estrogen on your body and used this the whole way through. I started cetrotide to block ovulation 4 days later and lowered my gonal F dose because some eggs were maturing faster than others. Lowered my dose of Menopur a couple days later and gonal F even lower. I did my trigger medication 11 days after starting my injections. My trigger was just lupron, which is commonly used when people have a lot of eggs so they don't increase their risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (because I was already so full) so they didn't use the HCG trigger for me. I had the retrieval 36 hours after trigger and she got 31 eggs out, 24 frozen.

I had a $1,500 discount for being a nurse and I saved $1,371 on meds basically for being a student and not having a high income. All said and done it was about $12,000.

Dr Okeigwe was simply an exceptional dr. I enjoyed our visits so much that I cried when I 'graduated' from Spring. Not only did I find Dr O to be extremely good at her job, she had a talent for explaining the process and procedures to me and my husband in a way that I actually understood. I had a million questions and she always took the time to answer them. I have/had VERY low AMH and poor egg quality and did 3 egg retrievals back to back. From the beginning, Dr O was very realistic while still being optimistic that we would be able to get viable embryos. I so appreciate that she didn't over promise what my results might be. Every time I saw Dr O i was met with compassion and I felt so taken care of during my treatment. I joked with my husband that I wanted Dr O to become my bestie!! The care and oversight I received from Dr O was beyond my expectations and would 1000% recommend her to everyone. I'm so so thankful that I was under her care and now have an almost 10 week old healthy baby boy because of her!

Don't be afraid to ask all your questions! She will give you as much information as you'd like so just think about how much you want to know vs how much you want to leave up to her.

For my transfer, we tried to do a modified natural transfer first (because it's generally easier on your body). However, I eventually had to move to a medicated transfer. For my egg retrievals, I was on a lower hormone protocol (focus was on quality eggs vs quantity because of my poor egg quality and low AMH)

Recommendation was to transfer 1 emrbyo and use PICSI to determine how to fertilize the egg.

Dr.Okeigwe was very thorough with explaining the process, possible outcomes due to age, genetics and retrieval and fertilization. She answered all questions throughout the entire process. Very friendly and compassionate.

Don’t be afraid to ask/ address any questions/concerns. She will not make you feel stupid for asking.

I believe in total I was on a combination of 4-5 medications. My hormone injection went a little longer than expected but Dr. Okeigwe explained that she wanted the eggs to be similar in size which will produce a good amount of viable follicles… which happened.

I was usually given a date with a few times that was available that I could choose from

$4400 unlimited meds $675 initial consult and ultra sound $1000 saline ?? $17,985 for cycle and egg retrieval $~10,000 for embryo thaw, genetic testing and transfer $900 for 2 additional ultrasounds once pregnancy was confirmed

Due to my age and hypertension I was informed that single embryo approach would be the best fit for me in which I totally agree. I was informed that the best embryo would be used, in which it was and was a success on the first transfer.

She is very good at explaining procedures and I never felt rushed at appointments. Her office runs on time so it was an easy to do monitoring appts before work. I would highly recommend Dr Okeigwe to a friend or family member.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions or raise concerns. She always was willing to answer everything for me.

I did two back to back retrievals due to my age. I did PGTA testing on the embryos. And I did an “unmedicated” transfer.

Spring is not cheap. Thankfully it was covered by my husband’s place of work.

I only wanted one kid from this pregnancy so we agreed one embryo transfer of a pgta tested embryo was the best route.

She is so personable and made me feel like she really cares about ensuring we had a successful procedure. She was great about checking in on how I felt at the beginning of each treatment. She also successfully retrieved a lot of eggs

Enjoy receiving the best of care!

Due to some fibroids I have my right ovary wasn’t as visible as we would have liked but given my other ovary had at least 10 follicles we decided to move forward but considered the possibility that I may need to have eggs extracted through my abdomen for my right ovary. I started stims and thankfully we were able to see many more follicles come up. I was put on a special med for women with a lot of follicles to prevent overstimulation. I had my retrieval and 20 eggs were retrieved and 18 frozen

My costs were covered by my insurance for the most part. I paid less than $2000 out of pocket

Dr. Okeigwe was excellent. I felt cared for, informed, and safe under her care and would recommend her highly. I was lucky that she was able to do almost all of my monitoring and also my egg retrieval.

It was almost $10,000 for the egg freezing cycle, and another $4,000 for the medications. There were no surprise or extra costs.

Nothing but good things to say. I never felt rushed, Dr Okeigwe always answered all my questions and showed compassion. I only wish she could have performed all my procedures so that maybe we could have found the polyp sooner.

No advice about Spring or Dr Okeigwe, only advice, more transparency, about how long of a process IVF is.

Natural/Letrozole Protocol

Around $40,000

Our preference was one.

Dr. Okiegwe was incredibly thorough in the consultation and with each appointment. I felt very lucky to have Dr. Okiegwe as my doctor and she did a wonderful job explaining the treatment and procedure to me as well.

Dr. Okeigwe performed my egg retrieval procedure. She did a phenomenal job of explaining everything that would happen before the procedure and then again, just before the procedure. She's a wonderful doctor.

Dr. Okeigwe has the rare combination of extremely high competence and extremely high care/ compassion. She is without a doubt one of the best clinicians I have ever seen. I would recommend her with no hesitation to anyone

Be open about anything important to you. Dr. Okeigwe is able to deeply understand and adjust as needed