Michael Swanson

I did like Dr. Swanson but he sometimes I wish the communication was better and more clear. I have come to realize through years of dealing with infertility and the different doctors I have talked to that they do not have enough time to devote to each patient to fully talk and explain things completely. It is a gamble each time you do a fertility treatment and they are guessing and doing the best with what they know.

Go in with the mind set that it could take several times and different treatments to hopefully achieve success. Do not be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to and do your own research to be as informed as possible.

I started with iui's and had three negative cycles before moving on to IVF. I kept having uterine polyps and had three different surgeries to remove them before my procedures. My first IVF was a fresh cycle and I got 3 embryos and transferred the healthiest one and froze the other two. With no success we did two more IFV rounds with the two frozen embryos and they were all unsuccessful. After the failed three attempts I met with Dr. Swanson and he told me that their might be an issue with the quality of my eggs. I have not tried again with my own eggs. We could not afford to try donor egg IFV in the US so we went to a infertility clinic in Europe two months ago to try IFV with donor egg and it was not successful either. Still hoping for a miracle.

It was about 19,000 for our first IVF and about 6,000 for frozen IFV. The IUI's were about 900 each.

Dr. Swanson explained to us the risk of multiple births on the mother and the babies. After he explained the reasons why they highly recommend one transfer at a time he told us the decision was ours but they would only transfer a maximum of two embryos.

He was great. I was pleased with his knowledge & bedside manner. I really appreciated his sense of humor, his kindness, & his confidence. We only met with him a couple of times during the entire process, however, I never felt slighted, disregarded, or felt like I was looked at as just another patient with money to spend.

Unfortunately, he has retired. I have referred a lot of friends to him and Conceptions as a whole. My nurses, ultrasound techs were wonderful.

Our journey has been in three parts with Dr. Swanson. 1) In September of 2012 I met Dr. Swanson. We started testing then and it was decided to move on from IUIs to IVF. 2) We began shots in January of 2013 to prep my body for my egg retrieval. 3) We retrieved my eggs in March 2013. We planned on doing PGD, so I knew we were going to have to wait to transfer. Dr. Swanson gathered 30 eggs. 14 of those eggs fertilized and of those, only 5 made it to the blastocyst stage. We sent those 5 to be genetically tested. I recall it was nice because to take a break because I did slightly overstim a bit and felt AWFUL after my retrieval. 4) I found out that I had a couple of cysts, so we did have to delay my transfer to the fall. I was devastated for the delay. I started meds in early September, and we transferred our boy embryo in late October. I delivered him on his due date in July. For this cycle, what helped me prep was an IVF Calendar that I could read and reminders. A number of shots and pills was crazy and expensive! Since we had one remaining female embryo, we did the same protocol for our girl embryo and transferred last March 2016. Our daughter was born in November 2016. I do recall we used lupron, estrogen, and progesterone to help stim. And of course we had those HUGE shots of progesterone for 12 weeks after my confirmed pregnancies.

As unpleasant as some of these appointments can be, I always had wonderful monitors. I loved this team so much!

We paid around $20,000 for our retrieval and first FET. Our second FET was around $8,500. These prices include meds.

I followed my doctor's lead on this. He suggested transferring only one embryo due to my "mature age". 33/34 and 36. He cited studies supporting his opinion on transferring one embryo. That worked for us!

I have no complaints about Dr. Swanson. He was wonderful to work with. He has retired since my last visit, otherwise I would continue referring friends to him. I felt he genuinely cared about my husband and I and our outcome. Even in some of the most awkward situations (let's be honest - there's nothing fun about the envasive testing a couple goes through when determining the cause of infertility), he kept me comfortable and happy.

Be honest and fully describe all your symptoms to him. Don't hold back. As embarrassed as you might feel sharing such intimate information about your body, knowing all the details will assist Dr. Swanson, or any doctor, in properly diagnosing you.

We did 3 cycles of monitored Clomid. On cycle 2, we were going to try an IUI, but the results of my husband's SA came back low morph and low numbers and Dr. Swanson advised against it as he feared the outcome would be no different and we would be wasting money. We tried one more cycle of Clomid before moving to IVF.

Insurance covered the Clomid monitored cycles and then we were on our own. IVF was a little under $13,000, with medication, if I'm remembering correctly, and it was due before we started the IVF cycle.

We were very much warned about the high possibility of multiples when transferring two, and even the chance that one or both of the embryos could split resulting in indentical twins due to the high embryo quality. We did transfer two and it resulted in a singleton pregnancy.

Dr Swanson helped us feel comfortable from the initial appointment forward. He explained each test as well as the need for the test to us. He then clearly answered any questions we had throughout the process in regards to our various procedures. He even called me personally when a change in protocol was needed.

He has retired so you cannot request him. Don't get your hopes up.

He told us that we would have to shove his head to the ground for him to be ok with us transferring two embryos.

When we started with Dr. Swanson, we really didn't anticipate any real issue with getting pregnant as we had gotten pregnant, naturally, within the first 2 months of trying, resulting in a healthy son. We tried for nearly a year before we got referred to Swanson and he commented that, given my age (I was then 36) I should have been in his office at 6 months. Given that we live in an area with a doctor that is widely known for his fertility expertise (Schoolcraft), once we realized we were going to have a more challenging time getting pregnant again, I did question whether we were in the right place, but I liked Dr. Swanson and, really, felt like it was going to be a numbers game, no matter where we were, so feeling comfortable with the doctor was important.

I found Dr. Swanson to be quite direct, but that was appropriate for me/us. If you enter this process already quite emotional, I think you need to give his staff that input so that he has a heads-up.