Kristin Bendikson

From the very first time I spoke to Dr. Bendikson and I was anxious about my high FSH and low AMH results, she spoke with so much confidence as I hesitantly asked if I could get pregnant? Her ‘this is what I do!’ Response was just the boost I needed in that moment. From that point forward I knew if I trusted the process, no matter the end result I would be pleased with their effort and my commitment to be a good patient.

Listen to what she tells you because she has experience in the field.

I don’t really remember.... I just remember not taking any medication for my uterine lining

There was a window for an appointment. Sometimes the wait was a bit long.

About $15-$17K I also received a refund check about a year later for about $1200

During my pregnancy I learned that a lot of clinics no longer transfer multiple embryos. I was very pleased that my clinic chose to transfer all three of my embryos. I really felt like I was treated like an individual patient and not a statistic or anything else. I felt the correct decisions were made for my individual circumstances.

Dr. B was great at first, during our initial consultation taking a lot of time to explain things to me. But was not always the one conducting my US's and the US's themselves were extremely painful. After about 5 of them she mentions off-hand DURING the US that I might have endometriosis, something she had never mentioned before and is not part of my medical history. When my ovaries did not seem active after only about 3 months off of OCP (after 20 years on them) she wanted to start me on Clomid and just plow forward with a cycle. After leaving her and seeing my current RE, I realized that that course of action would have been completely wrong and ineffective given my hormone levels. I am very happy that I left then and did not waste any more time. Because she was ultimately totally incorrect about the course of treatment that was right for me and her abrupt manner and painful US's, I would never recommend her to anyone.

Find someone else.

Her strategy was to let my ovaries recover after years of OCP, and then administer Clomid which would have had NO effect given my hormone levels. I had zero results.

Costs were pretty similar to other providers in this area.

Dr. Bendikson is a very thorough doctor. She is very knowledgeable as well and I would describe her as a top doctor in her field. She is caring and kind. She is very understanding of how emotional this situation is. She is very blunt and up front with what is going on and what she thinks of it which I think is good because she doesn't set false hope. On the flip side of it, if something is good she doesn't hesitate to say that either. I think this just makes her trustworthy. I prefer a doctor who just tells me the truth. She is good about answering emails from patients as well. On rare occasions she has been a little rushed with us so we haven't felt able to take our time and ask questions but calling or sending an email solves that.

Definitely go with Dr. B. You will not be sorry you did. And of course, if you are a prospective patient for infertility, I wish you lots of baby dust and hope.

I was prescribed 2 estradiol 2mg tablets per day and 2 microprogesterone inserted vaginally morning and night initially to thicken my lining. I did not experience any side effects from these medicines. My lining thickened very quickly and early on. My dosage of progesterone was increased to 3 a day, morning, noon, and evening. This was sufficient hormones to support a pregnancy according to Dr. B. I had a transfer of a single fresh embryo using a donor egg. I did get pregnant but sadly the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage due to blighted ovum. We did the genetic testing on all embryos so it is unclear what happened to cause the blighted ovum. I had frequent blood work and ultrasounds done to check progress.

The clinic gives you a price sheet up front with all associated costs at your very first consultation. The consultation does cost $350 but you get so much information. You meet with the doctor, nurse, and billing personnel. We paid roughly 20k to the clinic for the egg retrieval from our donor, icsi and fertilization of our eggs, transfer, follow up ultrasounds and blood work.

Dr. B recommended a single embryo transfer due to my age and size. She felt I could carry a singleton fine and it would make delivery easier to have one. I expressed my desire to have a natural birth and she agreed a single was the way to do this.

Dr. Bendikson is truly a Godsend. She took it upon herself to befriend me, while helping us to achieve our dream. She is compassionate and loving and it shows with her care. She hurt when I hurt and helped in every way possible. She communicated everything to me, and when my husband was unable to attend an apt, she made herself available to him to explain treatment. She listened to all of my ideas and considered them in my treatment. When I was hospitalized she made herself available to the doctors on staff to help manage treatment. She also made the trek 25 miles to the hospital and visited me. She goes above and beyond. I'm not sure if this was just for me, but believe this is the type of person she is. She engages other doctors when she needs a second opinion and bounces ideas off them for the best course of treatment.

Know that she will go out of her way (for you) to ensure the best possible care.

I underwent my first IVF with Dr. Bendikson June 2015 due to severe endometriosis, as a result, hydronephrosis and multiple endometriomas. Medications used: Gonal f, Menopur, Ganirelix. I responded very well and opted for a freeze all - 38 eggs retrieved, 25 fertilized, 15 frozen blasts [13 PGS tested (9NL, 4ABNL) and two untested]. Although we froze all embryos, I overstimulated and was admitted due to pain management and hydronephrosis. Retrospectively, performed NGS and mitochondrial levels screening of embryos (I had an extremely high number of embryos with abnormal mitochondrial levels). AUG'15 we transferred one normal embryo and suffered a chemical pregnancy. The following three cycles results in negative results. During monitoring, my uterus appeared enlarged and globular and Dr. Bendikson recommended an MRI to look for adenomyosis. MRI showed endometriosis and adhesions from pelvis to diaphragm, adenomyosis and hematosalpingx. On Lupron depot from August to February. Underwent surgery in February to remove tubes (tubes were open and did not need to be removed), remove as much endometriosis as possible, remove adenomyoma (this was done outside of RE). Moving forward in May'17, will undergo a mock transfer and ERA.

Monitoring occurs within a time frame by physician, which works great for those of us who work. This was we are in and out. This also means that we get results mid afternoon and don't have to wait until the next day.

$27,185 excluding meds

Based on my medical history, initially it was determined that due to acute renal failure, we would only transfer one embryo. After the second failed transfer, we discussed the possibility of transferring one normal embryo and one untested embryo. While the decision was ultimately in our hands, we trusted Dr. Bendikson to help us make the decision based on optimal health.

She was extremely knowledgeable and made me feel completely at ease with her management of our cycle. She also came well recommended. She did have me do an endometrial receptivity assay, which I understand is not common, but it did come back showing our best day for implantation was 1 day later than expected. She also had me use progesterone suppositories instead of injections, which I greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if these things affected our success but so far so good.

We used a donor egg. There was a mock cycle to assess my response to estrogen patches and progesterone suppositories. This included several ultrasounds and 2 endometrial receptivity biopsies. We also did a genetic screening for my husband and our egg donor. My cycle was started based on timing with the donor and my biopsy results. I've stayed on 2 estrogen patches and progesterone suppositories until 12 weeks of pregnancy.

$1600 for IVF cycle with a donor, around $3500 for meds.

She gave us the opportunity to decide and we opted for single transfer due to lower risk of prematurity and better outcomes than multiple gestation.

I only saw Dr. Kristin Bendikson for my initial consultation and initial appointment. The rest of the time I saw different doctors for monitoring and treatments. My impression of her is that she's intelligent, thoughtful, competent, and warm. She was recommended to me and I'd recommend her to others. I also particularly liked one of the other doctors I saw a bit more often.

If it is important to you to consistently receive most of your treatments from the same doctor, I would ask about how that is handled at this clinic. I'm not sure that it's standard.

1st, lots of diagnostic tests. Then, because of financial considerations (was unemployed at the time), I started with trying Clomid + timed intercourse without monitoring: 50mg a day. She actually prescribed 100mg but I didn't follow it (I Know - bad patient!). I am usually really sensitive to meds and had a feeling it would be rough. Sure enough, I had a strong negative emotional reaction to the 50mg of Clomid (the horror to imagine what 100 would have done!). Having twice as much in hand, I stretched it over 2 cycles. No luck. Decided to go for IUI + full monitoring for the 3rd cycle and she recommended I switch to Letrozole which was much better for me (no side effects - modest dose). Only got 1 decent follicle and no one was super optimistic about it, but the 1st IUI worked! I feel EXTREMELY lucky. I think we would only have been able to afford one more IUI and probably not IVF, so were on the verge of giving up.

Letrozole, Bloodtests, 3 monitoring ultrasounds, HCG trigger shot, 1 IUI treatment = about $1600

Dr. Bendikson is extremely smart and warm at the same time. I trust her completely. I feel like she looks at my specific conditions and thinks about a strategy/protocol specific to me. She is well versed on the newest research. I am extremely happy with her care and cannot recommend her enough.

I can't recommend her enough. Please see her if you need help with fertility. She is beyond amazing.

I went to Dr. Bendikson after a horrible experience with another clinic. She looks at the records from my three previous IVF cycles and the prior clinic and I felt like she took the time to figure out what went wrong and what to do differently. She used an entirely different protocol and added hcg boost and human growth hormone. I'm still not pregnant, but the results have been better under her care.

Monitoring hours are convenient and there usually isn't a very long wait.

Dr. Bendikson was wonderful to work with. She was very caring and non-judgemental about my somewhat unorthodox circumstances (single mother by choice). She was also very helpful when I needed to make a decision about whether to do another round of IVF or to explore embryo adoption, providing pros and cons of both. I've been meaning to bring my gorgeous 6 week old daughter to meet her and Vicki. I'll probably do that in the next couple of weeks.

Best of luck - you're in very good hands.

Monitoring visits were convenient. They have early morning hours, so I was able to go in before work. Wait times were generally fairly short (10-20 minutes).

$23,000

For both the IVF fresh transfer and the embryo adoption (frozen transfer), Dr. B and I had candid conversations about the best number of embryos to transfer to optimize chances of success while minimizing the chance of multiples. We decided to transfer the maximum number of embryos (day 3) because of my age, which led to a chemical pregnancy. For the embryo adoption frozen transfer, we decided to transfer 1 embryo. I got pregnant with my daughter as a result!

Dr. Bendikson is professional, very knowledgeable and generous with her time. I appreciate her candor and what we've learned while in her care. Her approach plus the team she works with make visits feel productive and like we are taking the right steps toward our goals.

Ask questions and don't be afraid to get additional clarification if you need it. She is wonderful about explaining and giving info.

The prices seemed right in line with those for clinics that provide similar higher-levels of care. It wasn't "cheap" but not overly expensive.

She was very blunt but informative. She also reassured me that my journey wasn’t over. Although we haven’t been able to move forward with any treatment right now I have no doubt in my mind that she will be the doctor who handles my treatment and everything from here on out.

She’s blunt so be prepared.

We didn’t get far enough into treatment for me to say.

$200 for diagnostic testing

Dr Bendickson took time to listen to my complicated pregnancy history. She took time to examine my utuerus via ultrasound and suggested a plan of action I could start immediately. She was compassionate and kind

She will go through your history and suggest the best corse of action . She is very detailed and caring

She put me on progesterone to see if I could possibly get pregnant on my own in the next couple cycles before starting IVF

It cost $350 for my visit and I paid the pharmacy for my meds $107

She told me not to do any procedure that could result in twins because of my history of neural tube defects

I'm very grateful for Dr Bendikson - I had a very short time frame to get my eggs frozen before I had to leave the country, and my system was pretty suppressed due to decades of birth control. Dr Bendikson was patient, energetic and factual - kept me optimistic but realistic about the situation. We ended up getting pretty good results, and I cannot thank Dr Bendikson and all her partners enough for their professionalism throughout my process.

Be open minded to the operating model at USC Fertility - you won't see Dr Bendikson at every appointment, but all the doctors are great and they are all in a close partnership. Also the rotating schedules of all the doctors mean that monitoring appointments are very available, which is incredibly valuable.

Not a terrible wait in general, staff was very friendly and helpful.

About $10K total for egg retrieval

Dr. Bendikson is very competent, knowledgable, and professional. At the same time, she is warm and caring. I trust her completely, feel that she is very up to date on the field, and never feel like she is pushing unnecessary procedures. She always answers any questions I have without making me feel like it is a silly question or that she is rushed. I am very happy with the care she has given me.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. She is very knowledgeable and open to educating.

Dr. Bendikson is incredibly knowledgeable and compassionate. She works with an amazing team, and I would recommend USC Fertility to anyone.

Ask all the questions you want. She'll answer them.

It's a well-oiled machine at USC; however, the clinic is not as big as others & the doctors meet with you in person every time, so sometimes the wait for ultrasounds can be longer.

She's very pleasant but not overly saccharine. Will be totally upfront with you about what to expect from the procedure, and adjusts the dosages of he medications as necessary.

Don't expect someone super touchy feely.

Very easy - I went in during the monitoring hours and never waited longer than 30 minutes to be seen.

About 12,000 for the entire egg freezing regimen and retrieval.

dr was respectful and met with us. She was always being paved to the OR . She’s busy we get it . but once we were getting Ultra sounds for weekly visits just seemed like rushed I guess . she was knowledgeable and gave us her course of treatment.

ask many questions . Get both sides of her opinion .

Px pre NaTals , did a wide blood work up . Genetic testing . Gave my wife hormone tx to be inserted vaginaly for optimal environment for embryo . and ultra sounds weekly to monitor. Growth .

The blood genetics was pricey . Overall the visits were pricey. I guess expected . They were able to provide a discount code for the pre natal vitamins that helped costs .