Michael Thomas

Dr. Thomas is very experienced and knowledgeable. I had a couple of insurance-based issues with medications that he was very willing to work with me to resolve. He is good at remaining calm and reassuring despite the emotional toll of the process on me as the patient.

Ask lots of questions.

Since I have PCOS, we started with 3 rounds of IUI using Letrozole which were all unsuccessful before moving to IVF. Our initial round of IVF was cancelled due to COVID-19, so we are waiting for the cycle to restart.

Without insurance, IUIs are $1,100. Medications are sometimes covered by insurance but it depends on the drug used. IVF treatments run $5,500 per cycle, not including medications and anesthesia costs ($500).

He was very thorough, compassionate, caring, professional, and knowledgeable. I felt like he truly wanted it to work. He supported me in my journey. I can’t say enough about how outstanding he is. Ivf was a rollercoaster but he stood by me and never gave up. I have the most perfect daughter because of him!

Always speak your concerns. He will listen and work with you. You are on the same team.

He started with what seems to be a default protocol and it was a smoke antagonist protocol. I started to ovulate despite the antagonist. This resulted in poor egg quality despite a high number retrieved. He tried one more time to see if it was just a fluke but it started happening again so he cancelled the cycle. The 3rd cycle he did a long lupron cycle instead. It worked. Despite a lot less eggs this time, they were much stronger. I had several embryos but none were freeze quality. They transferred the best 2, and bam. I now have the most perfect daughter. Thanks to Dr: Thomas.

It was very expensive but he also went out of his way to help make it more affordable. He covered my last cycle. His costs are very reasonable especially when compared to the National ivf rate.

We transferred 2. He gave me the risks, told me his recommendation but ultimately left the choice up to me.

Dr. Thomas was a wonderful doctor to work with at such a stressful time. He helped us get through the miscarriage and on to our next successful pregnancy. We couldn’t be happier with the level and quality of care that we received. We recommend him to anyone that’s having fertility issues. We will definitely use him to conceive our second child.

Be prepared to work with a doctor that actually cares

At my first appointment blood work was taken to check levels and it was discovered that my ovarian reserve could potentially be low. It was recommended that I lose weight. An HSG test was ordered to make sure my tubes and things were clear, which they were. I lost some weight and my ovarian reserve number improved. I was started with 100mg of clomid on cycle day 3 for 5 days. I then went in for a scan of my follicles and to check my uterine lining. My follicles weren't quite big enough yet so I had a second scan. This time they were and I was instructed to administer an ovidrel injection in the evening and have my iui 36 hours later. After the iui I started taking progesterone suppositories twice a day until day 14 when I got a positive pregnancy test. I went in for an HCG blood draw and it confirmed I was pregnant. I went the following week and my HCG levels rose. I schedules an ultrasound for 2 weeks after, which put me at 7 weeks pregnant. At the scan it was discovered there was a yolk sac but no heartbeat or fetal pole. At 9 weeks it was confirmed the pregnancy was not going to progress and I was to stop the progesterone and induce a miscarriage. After the miscarriage I had to have weekly blood work to make sure my HCG levels were going back to 0. At my second attempt I saw a different doctor in the same practice. She continued me on 100mg of clomid and at my follicle scan estimated when my follicles would be big enough and had me do an ovidrel injection 24 hours before the iui, this resulted in a negative pregnancy test. My 3rd try was with Dr. Thomas again and he upped my clomid to 150mg. I grew a decent size follicle and did ovidrel 36 hours before my iui. This iui resulted in a pregnancy that continued to a live birth.

Some of my initial visits and HSG testing were covered by my insurance. I do not have fertility coverage so had to pay $1400 out of pocket, which included the follicle scans, blood work, and iui. The medication was another out of pocket cost from the pharmacy.

We did not do this so I cannot comment.

Dr. Thomas was very hands on in the process. He did have other MDs on staff and frequently had medical students with him and they were all very professional. He was very good at explaining the process, involving me in timelines, and answering questions

Be prepared with questions when you go in.

I don't remember much about the original protocol. On the frozen embryos transfer I started with lupron injections, then estrogen patches and then a few days before implanting we started progesterone IM injections which continued until 10 weeks.

My original treatment I had insurance coverage. The second and third time I was self pay, there was a flat fee for FET.

We transferred 2 on the first time, which resulted in a twin pregnancy. The second attempt only one embryo survived the thaw, no pregnancy. The third attempt both embryos survived the thaw and both were implanted resulted in a singleton pregnancy that resulted in live birth

He was always great at calling me about my blood test results immediately when they came in. His office was great at getting me appointments when they needed to happen. The cost of treatment was actually fair. He was always giving me places that provided the least expensive medications to give us an even bigger break in price. He is great about bringing a smile to your face and having the answers. He does work with UC students so he has students with them and teaching them but only if you allow them in the room.

Be open minded and prepared for success! His staff will take you in like family and he will take care of you and come up with a treatment plan. He is so kind! Also be prepared for medical students to be at your appointment if you allow them to be (it’s only one student for a while then switches to another student).

He had me come in for blood tests and a test for my tubes to make sure they are open. I had to take letrozole and ovadrel shots. Initially he had me put on a couple estrogen patches to ensure that my lining built up like it should (I also have high testosterone so the balance was needed). I came in for ultrasounds to check my egg growth and if it was good, I took my shot, if not I came back a day or two later and checked again. From the day I took my shot to 5 days out, I had intercourse with my husband every day. And then began doing progesterone suppositories. Then tested two weeks later. When we finally got our positive (after upping the letrozole a couple times), I went in for blood work to confirm. Once it was confirmed then he did an ultrasound at 5 weeks and every other week until I reached 10 weeks.

They did bundle pricing for treatments to make it cheaper for those that would definitely need more than one ultrasound and Office visits in a cycle. They do take insurance and will tell you what is covered and also help to let you know when you’re close to limits.

He always explains everything thoroughly so I can make the best choice for myself, answers my questions honestly but gently, makes sure I'm still interested in continuing cycles, helps me stay positive

Ask him to elaborate if you don't understand something or have questions. He's always happy to explain!

Currently taking Estradiol for low estrogen. 5 cycles total. I've done 3 cycles with Clomid and Ovidrel, 1 with just Ovidrel, and 1 with Letrazole. 2 Clomid cycles produced follicles, produced follicle on my own once, no follicles with Letrazole. Next cycle will be an IUI if follicles are produced.

I've changed insurance throughout this time. I had copays previously, had to pay for 2 ultrasounds out of pocket (previous insurance), and paid for medications

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He was very intelligent and seemed to know what he was doing. He was professional. At times though it felt like he was too busy. We chose him because of his experience. We didn’t want to have to see so many doctors in the course of our treatment.

Be prepared to be seen by many doctors.

For our retrieval we stimmed with Follistim and menopur. I don’t remember dosages but do remember that we went up on the dosage midway in the cycle. We used ganirelix and we used pregnitude to trigger. On our FET protocol we used Lupron, progesterone, and estradiol.

Our single IVF package was $10,635. The FET package was $3,330. The IUI was $1,500.

They pushed for eSET too much.

Dr Thomas is overall very thorough and very easy to talk to. He is very upfront with you about the situation and what your options are. I asked for his to be honest and he told me he believed our only option would be IVF unless the meds helped with my husbands side of things. He said they would try IUI first if that was what we wanted but didn't have great feelings about our chances. When our situation changed slightly for the better, he then told us it was well worth trying the IUI first. I feel like he could have told us to go straight for the more invasive/expensive procedure and didn't.

We have put my husband on 25 mg of clomid which has increased his numbers and we have gone through one round of IUI which consisted of me taking 100mg of clomid for 5 days and then taking a shot of ovidrel to force ovulation before the procedure. It did not work the first round and we are readying for the second now.

Have not been billed yet

He new what he was talking about he explained thing for us to understand. Was very friendly. When it did not work he was able to comfort me still and be professional and explain the next steps when I was ready.

Right down your question at home because when you get there you don't forget them. If you don't understand something ask.

I don't remember really but I know I had to go in a few times a week to check and see if my eggs where growing.

About 5,000 with medication

He would only do 2 at a time because of the risk of it splitting

It has been a few years and I am partial because we have a child. But I always felt well cared for and was able to be honest with him and felt he was doing was was best and not just what I wanted or that his ego was involved.

We did shared risk and felt it removed a lot of the worry and that your results improve with the more attempts. Well worth the investment if you have to do IVF.

I did one flare and one long protocol. We had ICIS and assisted hatching also. And a frozen embryo transfer that resulted in one live birth.

Shared Risk about 16k. Meds 2x's for egg retrieval about 4k and the 1 embryo transfer about 3k in meds. Most diagnostic blood work was covered by insurance or shared risk.

Dr. Thomas didn't look past the number of eggs I produced. During my ultrasounds they mentioned the ovarian cysts they were tracking and did not elaborate past that. During my last IUI cycle they called them endometriomas. Turns out I have endometriosis, which they should have known from the fact that I had endometriomas. As a result of the growth of the endometriomas I lost an ovary as it was attached to my bowel (this explaining the pain I told him about). I firmly believe if they had addressed my endometriosis when they first spotted it, 9 months before I had my surgery, that my chances of keeping my ovary would have been significantly increased since at that time I had no pain.

If you have anything other than straightforward fertility issues, choose another doctor. Ask them to explain everything, don't just trust them to tell you what you need to know.

Dr. Thomas treated me for PCOS and did three IUIs. Dr. Thomas did two rounds of Clomid and one round of Letrozole, each followed by a trigger shot. Each round produced 3 eggs. No rounds were successful.

The base cost was $1100 for each IUI cycle. The genetic testing, I ended up having to pay $800 even though I wasn't told that up front.

Hes a great guy knows his stuff the best from what I heard but he doesn't perform his visits. His residents and fellows do it . Hes blunt, does not give very good instruction, does not up or change medications when a failed cycle has happened.

Do your research before and after every visit.

Letrozle 5mg for 5 days Trigger shot Metformin Prenatal Oh and to lose 40% of my body weight and that would help.

Copay $40 procedures $1,500

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I enjoy having Dr. Thomas as my doctor and believe that he genuinely cares and is very knowledgeable. He is able to relay the necessary information to me in a way that I understand and I feel like he is very thorough.

I would just say to be patient because this process can be both confusing and frustrating.

I had a laparoscopy to remove a uterine polyp and septum. After I healed from that I went back for a consult and began four months is clomid and timed intercourse as a first step. This will be my fourth month on the clomid and I believe the next step will be IUI.

Costs were minimal. We paid our copay for office visits and around $5-$10 each month for the clomiphene.

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