Joseph Hill

Firstly, Dr. Hill is a very fast talker. Basically if you can’t keep up, this doctor is not for you. While he is very candid and straight to the point, this type of attitude doesn’t work when you’re dealing with an extremely sensitive and expensive topic. Secondly, this is the most fat phobic doctor I’ve ever met. My time was wasted beyond measure. Why would you allow a consult if going in you knew the patient was above your BMI limits? I was told by Dr. Hill that if I got down to a certain weight, we could begin treatment. I went through testing with FCNE and basically was told “hit this number and make an appt”. During this time I actually got pregnant on my own and suffered a horrible 2nd trimester loss. But I had reached the agreed weight to begin an egg retrieval so we made an appointment with Dr. Hill to move forward. Literally the appointment was 5 minutes. He said I was still too fat and needed to see a weight management doctor (already seeing one mind you, already on a weight loss drug). Then after I explained I was at the agreed weight he seemed shocked to have learned that I got pregnant on my own but had a loss. This is when he told me that overweight women genetically cause issues with their babies, basically blaming me for what happened with my miscarriage. I fired him immediately and requested my records be sent to me. How dare a doctor tell a grieving woman that her weight caused a second trimester loss. Inexcusable and digesting behavior.

Find another clinic and another doctor

Was basically told to just lose weight.

Dr Hill has been my fertility doctor for the conception of my son in 2021 and hopefully a second soon. He can speak very fast and sometimes assumes you understand the process when explaining something. A lot of times clarifying questions are necessary! He is very knowledgeable and I have found his protocols to be customized for me. He is kind but not very warm (I don’t need a warm bedside manner but I know some do!)

Prepare questions ahead of any appointment and take notes as he talks. If you miss something ask him to explain.

Given my DOR he chose to do Estrace priming and no use of birth control as to not suppress follicle growth. I also did back to back cycles of egg freezing.

The ultrasound techs are lovely and quick. Always willing to explain when asked questions!

Egg freezing two cycles (including medication= 10,000 each Donor sperm vials= $5,000 Iui (self monitored)= 500 each (3) Embryo thaw and genetic testing= $15,300

I am still in the stage of thawing and fertilizing frozen eggs to make embryos at this time.

When I first learned that FCNE was opening in Maine, I was thrilled, however, it was a huge disappointment and I will not be quiet about how disappointed I am. Dr. Hill was rushed, hardly let me get a word in, and frankly wasted mine and my husband's time. I was referred out due to my weight within 5 minutes of the conversation. FCNE could have declined me an appointment based on my weight, which while unjust, would have saved us all some time.Any medical guidance based on BMI (Bad Medical Information) is biased and discriminatory. I urge the entire practice to engage in some weight inclusive training and recommend starting with The Associates for Size Diversity and Health and learning more about Health at Every Size. Furthermore, the moment that I began to advocate for myself, Dr. Hill cut me off, spoke over me, and did not listen to what I was saying. He continued speaking at me and I made the decision to end the call as I do not tolerate disrespect from anyone, especially providers who are meant to support me.

I would recommend finding another doctor to work with if you are one of the following: a person of size, fat, overweight, obese, or have a BMI over 40 (please note I am using several terms with the understanding that people may have different preferences as to how they refer to themselves)

Dr. Hill referred me to either Mass General or Brigham and Women's

The clinic requested my husband's insurance and health information despite the fact that my husband is trans and plays no medical part in our fertility treatment.

My husband and I absolutely loved working with Dr. Hill. Though he can seem a bit overwhelming at first, the trick I learned was to wait for him to explain everything, write down all my questions during or ahead of time, and then ask my questions at the end. Dr. Hill always gave me as much time as was needed at the end to answer all of my well-researched questions. He never steered me wrong and after two failed IUIs (as predicted) we did one round of IVF which resulted in five frozen embryos. My first frozen transfer was successful and I am currently almost 33 weeks pregnant. My only regret is that I would recommend asking Dr. Hill about the necessity of ICSI if there is no male factor infertility. Current studies are showing the ICSI may be best avoided if male factor isn't part of the equation - though ICSI for everyone is standard at many clinics right now.

As stated before, I would write down all your questions ahead of time and/or during the session and wait until the end to ask them to Dr. Hill. He will always grant you a generous amount of time. I would again, also double check with him the necessity, risk, benefits and potential drawbacks of using ICSI when there is no indication of male factor infertility.

Though Dr. Hill recommend we proceed straight to IVF due to my age (36) and PCOS, I didn't feel quite emotionally ready so we did two rounds of IUI first. When those weren't successful we went straight into an antagonist protocol of IVF which resulted in five frozen embryos. My first frozen transfer was successful and I am currently 33 weeks pregnant.

We paid out of pocket, so I believe each round of IUI was around $2,000 - $3,000. I believe our round of IVF, including medications, retrieval and frozen transfer cost around $18,000.

Dr. Hill recommended a single frozen embryo transfer, which I agreed with.

Hebis extremely knowledgeable of this specialty. A bit of a fast talker and straight to the point. But never be afraid to ask questions or ask him to explain something. He will always break down a topic for you to be able to understand and even draw things out for you. His calling is medicine not art tho. I found him to be very approachable but I'm also in the medical field so it may not be as overwhelming for me.

Don't be afraid to ask questions if you want clarification. He may talk faster than an everyday person but he is more than willing to explain the process. He is incredibly knowledgeable about fertility.

Due to our situation, (LoR)I believe I was on a high dose of many of the stimulating drugs. Trying to keep track of the timing of administration of the meds was a little challenging. I recall our egg retrieval day and was a bit bummed that we only were able to harvest 7 eggs especially after hearing the next lady had over 20 eggs retrieved but Dr Hill was very pleased that we got that many for me. My husband also had male infertility as of a result of a failed vasectomy so we chose to go straight for IVF with hatching assistance and genetic testing. We were called on the day of the transfer that for the most promising result that our 1 embryo would be frozen. We nicknamed it "Elsa". After the covid lockdown, the case numbers lessened (I'm a first responder) we met with Dr Hill and decided the best was to prepare my uterus to the best of medical ability to prepare for little 'Elsa's' return. To our surprise 'Elsa' turned out to be a boy. I went full term, giving birth at 40 yrs old to a 9.2lb healthy little boy who will be turning 2 in a few days.

Roughly $9k for medications, due to my diagnosis of low ovarian reserve I required a large dose of many of the medications. We chose to do assisted hatching, we went straight to IVF and genetic testing. Roughly $20-$23k for all of this and meds.

Dr. Hill was very honest about the possibilities of multiples with us. Our situation was that only 1 frozen embryo survived for transfer.

Strong presence, and confident. He talks fast. Our actual time with him has been very little. Our follow ups and consult have barely totaled 30 minutes over past year. He does assume you know everything he’s talking about or will research on your own. He did acknowledge I’ve been through a lot and he would be there if I needed to call him. The clinic rotates doctors so he was not the one to perform my retrivals or do my transfers.

It’s a baby factory so just be aware of that and try to get over it.

First round. We did antagonist IVF and needed rescue ICSI. It was not automatically done. 150 Gonal F, menopur and Cetrotide. I over stimulated so we had to do a freeze all cycle. 24 eggs, two embryos. First transfer, negative second we got a positive but it ended up being chemical pregnancy. Second round, same protocol but we started with 225 Gonal F and decreased to try to avoid overstimulation. I still overstimulated in final days so we did another freeze all. 6 eggs, one embryo. Will be transferring embryo in next coming weeks.

Very early and with traffic, I’d have to leave house by 6am. Cattle call for sure yes, sometimes having to wait over an hour or more for an ultrasound. Lab work usually took only a few minutes. Everything just seems very systematic, no one making small talk or really getting to know me even though I’ve been there frequently.

Dr actually commented that due to my great insurance we could bypass some of the red tape. So all I’ve had is copays ($60 per visit) and paying copays for meds ($550 each round)

He only transfers one embryo to avoid multiples and we were happy with this approach.

We had one phone consultation with Dr. Hill before our first IVF cycle. He did not do our egg retrieval nor did he check in during monitoring. He did not call when the cycle failed. We met with him (which we initiated) to plan our second cycle. We were all still hopeful at this point and he was fairly outgoing and conversational. He did not do any monitoring or the egg retrieval, and again, no contact during the cycle. He called to recommend donor eggs when he called to tell me the cycle failed. We met with him several months later, and was a little less friendly at this point, because as he explained, we were using a “free cycle” that he didn’t feel should be free (he stated we had waited too long for to use our 2 for 1 cycle). He did do that egg retreival, and left me a voicemail the next day that was about ten seconds long, that said “Hey Meredith, not good news unfortunately. As predicted, no eggs fertilized this cycle. I’m going to recommend you try donor eggs. Bye bye now.” And we have never talked since.

His clinic is affordable, which is why we went with him. We did not have a good experience (x3). I would gladly pay a little more for a better experience overall— even if the cycle ultimately failed. Our cycles all failed, which may or may not have been Dr. Hill’s fault (he never really tweaked the protocol, he just continued to recommend donor eggs). It was the overall experience that we remember and want others to know about.

We used antagonist (Gonal-F, Menopur, Cetrotide) for two cycles and Long Lupron for one cycle.

Overall monitoring worked like a well-oiled machine, once you know the process.

We did a two cycles for the price of one deal that included monitoring, egg retrieval and transfer. Medications were separate.

Although we never got as far as a transfer, Dr. Hill indicated that he would transfer 2 embryos if that was our wish. He left it totally up to us.

Dr. Hill is wonderful. He is straight forward without being harsh and will give you the information you mean without fluff. I prefer that over sugar coating! I know some have thought he was "mean" but I never had that experience and from reading reviews, I think his was more often than not, related to him critiquing patient's weight.

Ask questions! He often comes across as speeding through appointments/consults, but it isn't because he doesn't care. He just has a plan and knows what it is! Trust him!

I have always done the standard lupin protocol, but for my next one we are changing it up to the micro flare lupron in hopes of getting more embryos!

Blood work is first, and usually that staff arrives really early so you can get that done and be first in line for U/S.

Self pay and it isn't cheap but FCNE seemed to have the most affordable.

We only did one transfer where we transferred two embryos, so i cannot speak to this much.

Dr. Hill is a very bright and experienced doctor. While he explains everything, sometimes I wish he would slow down a bit to allow for better absorption of information and understanding. At times, he seems closed off to alternate treatments, but I attribute that to the fact that he's been doing this for a long time and knows what works.

Bring a notepad to take notes when Dr. Hill speaks. Sometimes he goes to fast and it feels a bit rushed.

Now that I'm over 40, we use an antagonist down regulation protocol (using Estrace and Cetrotide). Stimmimg consists of 300 gonal-F, 150 Menopur and Cetrotide. I've produced 4+ eggs with each cycle. For one cycle, we tried the Lupron microflare protocol (in an attempt to harvest more eggs). Unfortunately, that cycle ended up being cancelled because I had one lead follicle and the others failed to grow.

Monitoring is done at several satellite offices, which makes it convenient. The hours at the office I typically monitored at were 7:00-7:30 am. I am a single mom of a young child so it was sometimes hard to get there by 7:30. Also, on Sundays, you need to go to the Reading office and sometimes you would need to wait for over an hour if you needed an ultrasound. I live 45 minutes away from that office so a Sunday monitoring, it was often close to 3 hours including travel time. I dreaded Sunday monitoring.

IUI-$500 per cycle PGS- $2650 regardless of quantity of embryos being tested.

Due to my age, Dr Hill was fine with me transferring 3 embryos at a time. He explained to me that it was highly unlikely that that would result in multiple babies. He was right!

Dr Hill is upfront and honest. He listened, did thorough testing, gave options and then we got going right away. Since the beginning he's been making adjusting and alterations with each cycle and hopefully we'll get it right soon. I trust his knowledge and compassion to help me and he makes me feel comfortable. The other doctors in the practice have also been great to be a patient of.

I would recommend Dr Hill & Fertility Centers of New England. Unfirtunately the whole fertility process is stressful and hard.

I was diagnosed with low ovarian reserve so Dr Hill was initially aggressive in my first IVF cycle. With only 2 mediocre embryos Dr Hill would have preferred to put them both in but unfortunately insurance only allowed 1. I miscarried at 7 weeks. We had to put in the frozen embryo next round despite Dr Hill wanting to do a fresh round and put 2 embryos in so again unfortunately insurance was holding us back. I've been diagnosed and treated for endometritis also. I'm doing aggressive stimulation now for my second IVF round, treatment for the endometritis before 2 embryos finally are transferred. I hope after the first trial, adjustments and 2 embryo transfer like we always wanted this round will have a positive outcome.

Monitoring was convenient early mornings

Insurance covered costs so just co pays for me

Dr. Hill has a warm personality, as described earlier. We didn't have a ton of interaction with him once the IVF cycle started as your care is managed by the team of doctors and nurses.

He can present a lot of information at once, which can be overwhelming, but is open to questions.

Because we had male factor infertility that could not be improved upon enough to conceive naturally, Dr. Hill let us know up front that we would need an IVF cycle with ICSI. We were lucky to get pregnant on the first try with a fresh cycle. The rest of the embryos were frozen for future use.

Ultrasounds were always done in the morning for set hours. It was first come, first serve. Since I work early I made sure to be there right when they opened. I don't remember a time that I had to wait more than a half hour.

We are lucky to live in Massachusetts, which covers fertility treatment. We've only had to pay the medication co-pays out-of-pocket. This was still a significant cost over about a month (around $500).

He talks really fast, until you know the lingo you can get lost. He is to the point, which can be a bit hard when you want more than what you got. Sometimes you just want to cling to your poor embryos

Double-check your regimens and information, it can be years between transfers, especially if successful, and they may not be reading everything. They deal with many patients, don't assume they remember you can't have a certain medication. As with any doctor, you need to be your own advocate. Don't get to caught up in what others did for their cycle but do check with Dr Hill to see if it might work well for you.

We wanted a lot of eggs because my issue leads to very few being viable. Even with my low weight, he had me take a medium dose of goal-f, my body reacted too well and he immediately adjusted my protocol to slow me down and bring my estrogen down. If my estrogen continued to skyrocket he was going to "coast" me which he explained can lead to diminished egg quality, fortunately, we did not need to coast. Instead of a day 10 egg collection, I was ready at day 9. He got a whopping 25 eggs... This led to 8 day 5, 1 compatible with life and 2 inconclusive. We agreed to let my body recover and skip the next cycle. The following cycle my lining decided to slough off mid-cycle, so we cancelled. Finally, having my body back to normal for transfer really was the best thing, my lining cooperated and we transferred. They monitored through the first few weeks then it was all my OB. I have a beautiful little boy

It was $11,800 for IVF with PGD, $2000 for medication, $3500 for the PGD probe, plus travel and hotel. Came out to $24,000, roughly, the first year. We have paid $500 each additional year to preserve our inconclusive embryos. To retest our embryos, it will be another $3500 plus lab fees. I need to ask what just a FET will cost, I am sure it is on their site. Their site is very informative. We try to take this one step at a time, after the number of miscarriages we have had you learn not to plan too far ahead. Right now we are enjoying our miracle.

Dr Hill is very to the point and very knowledgeable. He sometimes seems to be on repeat or auto play. I did have trouble were I needed to ask him to review my history as he was telling me information that did not pertain to me

Be patient and ask all your questions!

First cycle I did antagonist protocol. 14 eggs, We got 3 embryos, fresh transferred one and miscarried at 10 weeks. Other two were frozen transfers and both failed to implant. Second cycle we did Lupron and got 11 eggs, 2 embryos barely made it to fresh transfer day 5, no remaining to freeze, transferred both and got 1 live baby. We are starting again in Jan 2024 and dr Hill Wants to go back to first protocol. We also had a hysteroscopy before second retrieval.

Very quick and proficient and professional

I was allowed to transfer two after 3 failed transfers but had to beg for this even though embryos were of low quality, my age and health was the factor they did not want to transfer two, but agreed to.

We worked with Dr. Hill for our donor egg cycle. I live out of state so I have never met him in person. I sometimes felt a little rushed on the phone and wish he would of spent more time with me. I would hang up and realize I didn't get a chance to ask all of my questions.

Go prepared with questions and don't let him rush you. This is your time.

I do not remember that protocol we used for our donor. The cycle did not go so well and I was told that we should cancel the cycle but we kept going. We ended up with PGS tested embryos so I am glad we didn't stop.

His cost were reasonable compared to our first clinic. I still hope that one day insurance will help cover some costs. We were 100% out of pocket.

He recommended one embryo to be transferred and his reasons supported that decision.

Dr Hill is Extremely knowledgeable , compassionate and thorough. Will take his time to explain it until you understand and will explain it many times again without hesitation or annoyance. His experience is vast and his attention to individual patient detail exceptional. You are not a number. He treats you as if you were his own family.

Trust him. He knows what he is doing.

Agnostic protocol, TESA , IVF wifh icsi

It was drop in basis. First come first served. Blood work wait was minimal at times there was a wait for ultrasound. Overall well designed though

8400 for IVF wifh icsi

We were pleased that dr Hill was willing to transfer two day 5 embryos. Which resulted in Singleton birth

Dr. Hill was very matter of fact. He didn't waste my time at my age with so many other procedures. Dr. Hill stated what was the best solution in my case at the first consultation. I asked a LOT of questions and he was eager to answer every one. If I had a question during the process, he would answer any and all of them.

Direct and to the point and very knowledgeable.

I went with a donor for the eggs. I had to do the progesterone shots 2cc while carrying my twins, suppositories. I followed exactly what I was suppose to do. I had twins the first time 2008 and a singleton in 2010.

Cost for donor eggs, cost for actual procedure. The office submitted the cost of blood work, medication and office visits to my insurance which was mostly covered.

I was glad to be able to do multiple embryo transfer even at my age.

Dr. Hill seems very knowledgeable. He's also very busy, so you'll need to stay on top of the details of your own treatment and test results. His manner is more clinical and rushed than warm, but that doesn't bother me.

I have significantly diminished ovarian reserve for my age. Dr. Hill prescribed Letrozole.

My IUI procedure cost $500.

I felt very comfortable working with him because he is incredibly knowledgeable. He was confident in the treatment plan and was right. We've had the best outcome one could hope for twice now working with him.

Don't expect a lot of one on one attention and hand holding but know that you are still getting excellent and state of the art care.

While there was just a general monitoring time, it ran very smoothly! Only once or twice was I there for more than 15 minutes. The nurses and techs are very efficient about getting everyone in and out in a timely manner.

He is very matter of fact. We are still undergoing treatment so don't know the results yet. He is great at answering questions when you are with him but hard to get a hold of him when not at an appt.

He tends to move quickly through details.

I don't really remember. Sorry

Tends to be busy, but if you get there early, there is no wait.

Mine was covered by insurance.

I can't speak highly enough of Dr. Hill. When we started treatment I was a bit nervous as I had seen a few ratings where people thought he was "mean". I didn't find this to be the case AT ALL! My guess is is that people didn't like that he was being honest about things.

Book an appointment!

Fresh Cycle- Failed but eggs frozen Fresh Cycle- Success! Live Birth! Full Term Boy Frozen Cycle- SUccess! Live Birth! Full Term Boy

Early morning so could be to work on time! Very quick wait!

IVF Assist $7200

He is an excellent scientist but lacking in compassion.

Go in with a thick skin and question him on the source of his stats. Don't let him rush you.