Norbert Gleicher

I think I already answered this question in the previous answer! :) He's the one to go to when you're older and want to use your own eggs--he will listen to you, give you all the information (a lot of it would be news to other fertility "experts") to help you make your own decision about your body and your future.

He'll ask for a ton of pre-cycle tests. It was expensive and took a while to complete, but it was totally worth it. Tests picked up a bunch of issues that I didn't even know I had, and Dr. Gleicher was able to add treatments to address these issues. Yes, the tests add up fast, but when you are paying tens of thousands for IVF to begin with, it's better to identify all the problems to address before you waste a ton of money on a failed cycle or two (something that happened to a friend of mine)!

I used estrogen priming, maximum ovarian stimulation with RAFs for all my cycles. Timing of trigger was adjusted earlier each time because my eggs were luteinizing faster and needed to be taken out faster. I also used viagra to thicken my lining.

I qualified for their discount program, so it was a bit over $10K for a cycle. They have a few other income tiers above and below mine and the prices seem to adjust accordingly. I was also given an option of buying a 4-cycle package they created for women with low ovarian reserve, but I didn't use that.

Dr Gleicher is an experienced doctor and conducts a battery of tests and evaluation to provide analysis, which as scientists appealed to us. However he and Dr Barad (doctor who conducted the procedure at CHR) are both past their prime and quite rusty in actual execution. The clinic does not consider the huge financial, physical and emotional cost a patient goes through. Even when early scans showed that the stimulation was not working properly, they pushed us to complete the cycle. For this we had to make international travel and stay in NY for a week. Also we were advised to take prophylactic IVIG for another 6K while the basic process of producing good number of eggs and fertilization was botched up.

Please consider the cost benefit ratio of the cycle for the patient and not treat them as data points for your research.

Gonal F (300 iu) and Menopur(150 iu) for 9 days. However medicine initiated before period and no antagonist added to prevent early ovulation. Double trigger by HCG and Leuprolide Acetate. Prophylactic IVIG infusion 40 gram before transfer. Post transfer prednisone, Baby aspirin, Progesterone oil injection plus capsules.

20000 USD plus another 5000 USD on Tests and 7000 on medications, IVIG etc. Adding our lodging and airfare it was close to 40000 USD

I felt that everything was rushed and poorly planned. I made my first appointment about a month in advance, but the day before I received an automatic email saying that I had not uploaded my records to the patient portal and that my appointment could be cancelled. No one had provided me the info to access this website so after a phone call to the clinic I uploaded everything right away, but Dr. Gleicher did not review any of these records before my appointment. He was actually reading my medical history for the first time (which I had provided when I scheduled the appointment) during our appointment. He explained the clinical trial well but diverted me to IVF without providing a clear rationale. During the IVF cycle, I was always seen by Dr. Barad. Dr. Gleicher only showed up once during a routine ultrasound and both doctors started arguing about my so called follicles (Dr. Barad did not think it was an actual follicle, Dr. Gleicher wanted to proceed with the IVF injections). Dr. Barad was more empathetic and spent more time explaining things but it seems that he was just following the plan set by Dr. Gleicher.

I would not recommend a prospective patient to consult with Dr. Gleicher so I have no specific advice.

Menopur 2 vials of 75 IU each daily followed by Follistim 450 IU daily, injected hCG 10,000 U 4 days later. No eggs retrieved. Rationale was not explained to me. I was provided with hormone levels but there was never explanation about the results. I received instructions to adjust dosage by email very late in the evening.

I was an out of state patient and staff was aware but that did not make a difference. There were several women waiting for the ultrasounds but I did not have to wait too much.

I had a discount based on my salary (at the time I was making around 80k per year). I spent about 5k on meds. Besides the supplements and prenatal vitamins, I must have spent about 5k more on monitoring and egg retrieval.

Not applicable

After two failed IVF cycles elsewhere, we joined the second opinion program with Dr. Gleicher. He reviewed our records and sent us his opinion within a week. When we spoke with him, he was very warm and encouraging. He explained to us that he thought we were receiving "cookie cutter" treatment instead of treatment specific to my condition. Also, based on my lab work, he had a suspicion that I have autoimmune activity. He also diagnosed me with Hypoandrogenic PCOS, a diagnosis never given to me before. He ordered a THOROUGH workup and his suspicions of autoimmunity were confirmed. He also gave us advice on supplements based on my lab work. For example, my previous clinic told me my testosterone levels were normal. Dr. Gleicher, however, looked at my SHBG levels and DHEA-S levels to identify that my levels of testosterone were too low FOR MY BODY, and it was due to adrenal insufficiency (as evidenced by low DHEA-S). The one thing that I am nervous about is that he put me on daily baby aspirin for the rest of my life without re-testing for the presence of the antibodies that would require daily baby aspirin. When re-tested with another doctor, the antibodies were no longer present and, thus, I am not sure if I need daily baby aspirin after all. I will talk to Dr. Gleicher about this when I meet with him again. Overall, though, I believe Dr. Gleicher to be highly knowledgeable and an expert on diminished ovarian reserve. Based on the written second opinion, three Skype consultations, and thorough workup done with Dr. Gleicher, we are planning on pursuing IVF with him. We currently believe him to be our best shot at having a baby.

We haven't had a treatment cycle with him yet. However, when discussing future IVF with him, he told us that he would increase my dose of Follistim to 450 and my dose of Menopur to 150. He would not use an antagonist. He said an antagonist would suppress my ovaries and would interfere with the effects of DHEA. He also would not put me on birth control. Because of my low grade autoimmunity, he would add an extra layer of treatment that would likely include Prednisone and Lovenox.

We spent about $1000 between the second opinion program and three Skype consultations with Dr. Glecher. We received pricing information for IVF. A single cycle of IVF costs about $16,000 not including medication. They have a program for four IVF cycles that's about $41,000, but it costs extra for things like anesthesia, ICSI, and medications.

We haven't gotten to this part of treatment with him yet. However, he told us that he would transfer 1-2 embryos if we don't want twins or 2-3 embryos if we are OK with twins.

I went to Dr. Gleicher and CHR after failed treatments and treatment refusals at 3 other centers. We didn't know why we couldn't get pregnant, other than the fact that I was in my 40s and my egg quality was suspect. He put us through a battery of tests before putting together a plan of attack. As it turned out, I had some immune problems on top of my DOR. He did emphasize the much better chance of success with donor eggs, but had a whole range of treatments the other doctors didn't mention at all, like DHEA (which I was on already after watching his videos), early egg retrieval and immune protocols, to increase the number of eggs I produce (and the quality), so we felt confident in giving them a try. I'm so glad I didn't give up--I was so close to giving up on my own eggs before finding Dr. Gleicher.

On busy days, I had to wait a while for monitoring, but mostly it was done efficiently.

Around $15K for a cycle of IVF, plus $4-5K in medications. Initial testing round was around $5K.

Dr. Gleicher and CHR don't push eSET. I ended up with single embryo transfers, but that was because I only had one embryo each time, but Dr. Gleicher said he would not hesitate to transfer 2-3, based on my age.

Dr. Gleicher is blunt but he definitely knows what he is doing. He doesn't stop at the superficial assessment and autopilot treatment protocol and really tries to get to the bottom of our problems so we can address them proactively and individually. For example, he found out something that our previous two doctors didn't even test for (I apparently have a low-level inflammatory/immunological issue that might be affecting my ovaries), and added a couple of medications to address it. We don't know if it'll make the difference we want just yet, but we are hopeful.

Don't be put off by his bluntness. Be prepared to wait a bit for your appointment sometimes.

First cycle: DHEA, CoQ10, stimulation with FSH and hMG, RAFS. I had the hCG shot at 18 mm lead follicle. Two eggs retrieved but we didn't have any embryos to transfer. Second cycle: Same medications, hCG was at 16 mm. We had 3 eggs, 1 embryo to transfer. Dr. Gleicher said the earlier retrieval was because my eggs were overly mature in the first cycle when they were retrieved. We were thrilled to have more eggs and an embryo transfer, but I didn't get pregnant. Third cycle: Same medications but with more FSH, hCG was at 16 mm. 5 eggs, 2 embryos to transfer. I'm currently pregnant!

Dr. Gleicher was professionally appropriate for the Skype session however not open about any additional fees or charges after that appointment. He had appropriate questions for us at the time and obviously was well-spoken about fertility in older women.

Ask a lot of questions

After my Skype consultation and blood work and testing in 9/2018, I still have yet to receive any recommendations or treatment strategies to date (1/2019).

Only a initial consultation: $450 as listed on the website

I do not necessarily agree with Dr. Gleicher's IVF protocol for egg retrieval and transfers (i.e. day three fresh transfers, no PGS etc.), which is why I stuck with NYU and I also prefer their lab. But I do find that Dr. Gleicher treats the WHOLE patient, he looks not only at your AMH and hormone levels but does a a deep dive into your partner's full health picture as well. He is extremely knowledgable in the autoimmune infertility areas and is one of the few doctors in NYC who supports IVIG when necessary. In addition to his willingness to work with NYU and oversee my case from an auto-immune standpoint, I found him extremely knowledgeable and supportive all around.

Ask all your questions! Don't be shy, don't be scared to call a million times-- he is super patient and will explain everything.

Because I have auto-immune indicators he prescribed an immune protocol for my transfer cycles: IVIG Prednisone Plaquenil Lots of Supplements (DHEA and Conflam forte most importantly) Lovenox

Covered by insurance.

I had a girl via IVF in 2015 with Dr. Gleicher and CHR's help, and went back to him again in 2018 for baby #2, which ended up being another girl. Our 2014 treatments started with a consultation with Dr. Gleicher. Though I didn't see Dr. Gleicher a lot during my actual cycles at CHR (I saw Dr. Barad and Dr. Kushnir much more often for monitoring and procedures), I had the distinct sense that Dr. Gleicher was the one orchestrating the treatment, modifying the approach as we got more informed about how my body responds to medications. Most of my consultations were with Dr. Gleicher, and I liked his fact-driven approach. It meshed well with my own penchant for getting all the information and making our own decisions, rather than having someone else tell us what to do. It took us a few cycles to get pregnant with our #1, and I truly believe that his (and CHR's) philosophy of treating each cycle as a learning experience is what got us there. In 2018, I was obviously much older, so we used a more aggressive protocol with heavier dose of medications. I was also monitored more frequently--every day toward the end--and had my eggs retrieved earlier than I had before. To be honest, I wasn't enthused about having to go through IVF again for #2, but going back to CHR after 4 years was like a reunion of sorts. Most of the nurses and physicians who treated us were still there, and they seemed genuinely delighted to see me again and see how our first child has been thriving. That human side made it much more bearable.

If you are unfamiliar with IVF or infertility, you might initially feel overwhelmed. You might not be able to clarify everything in your first visit, but don't give up. I did my homework for my follow-up visit and wrote down everything I wanted to clarify, and that helped us understand where we were and what our options were.

He seems to have ideas that are different than most other IVF doctors. He is able to justify his rationale for doing things the way he does. He is a good communicator. He is very thorough in his explanations and approaches. He gave us hope with a different approach.

He seems compassionate. He is very knowledgeable. He has a scientist type of demeanor and actually doesn’t do retrievals or transfers. He never saw me for a monitoring appointment. But I felt like My treatment was based on his recommendations at all times.

I was given DHEA prior to treatment. During my stimulation cycle, I was treated with 150 menopur and 450 of gonal f. I was given doxycycline, prednisone, baby aspirin and lovenox. I triggered with HCG. After transfer I was given intravaginal estrogen and progesterone as well as progesterone in oil.

There was very little wait time. Labs were performed efficiently. On rare occasion it seemed understaffed and so there could be a wait slightly longer than usual.

It was about 15K for monitoring, retrieval and fresh transfer.

My husband and I decided on the day of the transfer along with the doctor (not Dr. Gleicher) to transfer all our 3 day fresh embryos. 3 out of the 6 were high grade.

I was grateful to Dr Gleicher and CHR for taking my case, as another clinic had rejected me after my DOR diagnostic. I gave me hope that someone was willing to take on a difficult case (so that is very positive and I am very thankful for that). It is important to note that Dr Gleicher does not perform any procedures. So while you have appointments with him to discuss protocol prior to starting a cycle and you meet with him in case of negative outcome, only Dr Barad and Kushnir do the ultrasounds/retrievals/transfers etc. So this already adds a challenge, as I sometimes had the impression that the communication between doctors was not up to par, and therefore I ended up falling through the cracks. Also, the communication after the first appointment is exclusively done through the coordinating nurse. So whatever question you may have about ANY thing goes through the nurse, except if you keep your list of questions for when you do the monitoring and then you get to ask Dr K or Dr B in person (but even that is not necessary great as I just feel more reassured knowing that there is ONE doctor who has the complete overview of my case). My first cycle went well (all the way to transfer but had a BFN) as I felt that, as a new patient, the Doctors were paying attention to each step of the cycle and were closely monitoring me. That feeling started to fade at the second cycle, where the decision to trigger was taken by the Dr on call for the weekend (and I think without consultation with Dr Gleicher) and ended up being too soon and with absolutely no egg retrieved. I was pretty distressed at that point but still felt new to this whole IVF thing and did not learn to advocate for myself yet. For the third cycle, Dr Gleicher proposed to put me under a new protocol. This gave me renewed hope. However, when I started the new cycle, I ended up ovulating spontaneously very quickly despite being on Lupron. The feedback I got was that maybe I had not taken the meds properly (I knew I had respected the protocol but was very willing to blame myself for this failure...). During the follow up appointment I was even more lost as it was clear that Dr Gleicher had not read my file and was just discovering some of my hormone levels as we were talking... He suggested doing another cycle back to back with the exact same protocol, which I did, paying even more religious attention to the time of my injections! We started the fourth cycle, and after about a week, I got the news that I had ovulated - again!! This time I was absolutely sure I had taken the meds perfectly. I was so distressed that I asked if there was any chance we could retrieve anything. The nurse told me that if I wanted I could convert this to an IUI (if I want it??). Which I did (only to discover during a second opinion appointment with another Dr that my hormone levels clearly showed that I had ovulated at least a couple of days before and therefore the IUI was just pointless). Overall, I have the impression that the level of attention paid to my case decreased tremendously after the first cycle, and I just became a number.

Of you are keen on trying CHR, I would recommend going with Dr Kushnir instead of Dr Gleicher. He is the one doing the monitoring during the week (and on rotation every other weekend) so at least there would more consistency and less risk of info falling through the cracks. They have weekly staff meetings so the 3 Dr talk and if there is a need to consult Dr Gleicher Dr K would surely do it. If you already are with Dr Gleicher, I would just recommend that you warn the nurse that you will have loads of questions when you meet Dr Gleicher at the beginning/end of your cycle so that he will be more prepared. For the follow up of my 4th cycle, I had told her that I was expecting a full review of my 4 cycles during that discussion and that led to a more substantive discussion...

- priming with estradial patches or pills - lurpon - follistim 450/day - two vials of menopur/day - estrace 3x/day orally and vaginally to support lining growth (I was on vaginal viagra for one cycle but the combo of that and loads of estrace led to my lining crashing before the retrieval) - prednisone and baby aspirin (he said that some of my test indicated a hint of auto-immune problem) - lovenox and PIO after transfer

It was a relatively well oiled machine that was convenient for my schedule.

First cycle was out of pocket and cost about 13K (without meds) and another 10K of med from their recommended pharmacy (as I was on very high doses of stimulation for about two weeks and I did not know I would shop around...). After that I changed insurance and the cycle and some of the meds were covered.

in my case I only had two embryos and he indicated that for my age bracket it was better to transfer both to increase my chances.

Dr. Gleicher has one way of treating patients. He throws the kitchen sink at them for immune problems and scoffs at day 5 transfers or pgs testing. I understood where he was coming from and agreed initially until it didn't work several times and he admitted he didn't know why. Because I am a physician, I karyotyped myself and my husband and found he had a balanced translocation which greatly reduced our odds of pregnancy. I was upset, because I feel he was just continuing to take our money without being honest about what was going on. He blustered that he wouldn't do anything differently, but the standard for our problem is ivf with pgs which he refused to do with us. I felt he owed us some money back for not being thorough and leading us down a path without all the info we needed to make informed decisions about what we would need to do. They kept saying we were doing do well and very much expected us to get pregnant. Meanwhile, I spent $45,000 with nothing.

Don't go there. Go to Cornell. They are much better, more professional and more thorough with better results.

I had recurrent pregnancy loss which he attributed to immune issues although all my tests were normal. He used the micro dose lupron protocol both times with good results at retrieval. Their lab got good fertilization results and embryos looked good. He put me on aspirin, prednisone, lovenox and ivig for immune issues without result. I eventually discovered my husband had a chromosomal issue which needed genetic testing to find normals. We lost a lot of embryos with the freeze thaw process as I don't think they do that much. I think we lost all our normals.

10,000 for ivf without monitoring (I did that at home). $3800 for ICSI and assisted hatching. $1200 for freezing embryos and $250 every 3 months to store frozen embryos.

Dr. Gleicher was the first doctor to look deeply into my medical history to find potential causes and possible remedies for my infertility...when my previous doctor had just immediately recommended I use donor eggs after my first failed IVF attempt.

Take notes, Write down all questions and be prepared for your consultation, don't be afraid to ask for clarification on everything. All the information is overwhelming, at a very emotional time and it's easy to miss things...each consultation is very expensive so be sure to do your best to cover everything in one session.

There was a window set for monitoring. The earlier you got there the better.

Around 17k or 18k

Not a good communicator, not compassionate, cold personality.

don't expect a warm welcome

over $10,000

Blunt. Will persist and get you pregnant if u want to be pregnant. He is a research doctor who travels a lot to share gains at the clinic. Very straightforward. Not a doctor that will give you a hug.

Know his personality is by the books.

Tubal blockage so went right to IVF and their standard treatment.

Monitoring hours were organized. Often busy but varied from just one other person to a full waiting room.

Most all covered by insurance

I can’t recommend him. All I remember was waking up from my retrieval with him telling me that we triggered too early and therefore didn’t get many eggs. The ones that we did, were bad quality. His protocols are dated.

Look into other doctors.

He wanted me to use a modified stim protocol due to my age. He assumes anyone under 40 that walked into CHR is an easy case- he’s wrong.

The earlier you go, the better. The waiting room id small and gets busy.

$17000

None

Good experience. Easy accessible, informative. Good experience. Easy accessible, informative. Had feedback and protocol for me for my next IVF transfer or cycle because of my underlying autoimmune conditions which played into my miscarriages.

Be open to the possibility that this can happen for you after an exam for underlying conditions

Rafs Protocol. Blood thinner, steroid, aspirin, Estrace, progesterone

$500 Skype consult fee the $250 2nd consult after blood work and genetic testing. Out of pocket then put through my own insurance for reimbursement.

He was too busy to call me once so i had to speak to another doctor. I paid 750 for only 2 consult appts with him. He was late for appts and then it was so rushed and i paid alot of money for them.

Don't go there!

Hjgh dose of gonal and menopur with microdose lupron

450 for first consult. $250 for follow up calls or Skype. It is expensive.

Fresh transfer w no PGS test

Our first interaction with Dr Gleicher began with a long distance telephone consultation, whereby we shared with him our past failures at another clinic, and he reviewed the file, and provided his expert opinion on what needed to be adjusted in order to succeed. Of note was his unshakeable confidence in his ability to succeed, and to tailor a plan to address the underlying conditions that were standing in our way. We found him to be very approachable and tolerant of our perhaps pesky needs and wants, questions and concerns, and were consistently eased by the knowledge that his experience with cases like ours is second to none, and that we were in the right place.

I read that some people find his tone or communication a bit dry or sometimes short. I find him to be very to the point, concise, and precise. Understand that while we may interrogate him based on our limited knowledge, obtained from reading blogs and books, Dr G has devoted his entire career to mastering his craft, in fact authoring many of those blogs and books, so provided certain decision milestones, I would encourage you to defer to Dr G, and trust his ability to succeed. I feel that had we done things differently at our own insistence (frozen transfer vs fresh in order to facilitate gender testing, etc), we would have introduced additional risks that would have affected outcome, while not really being that important to the very binary objective of having a family, or not. In that sense, put your trust in Dr G, that's what you're there for, that's what you're paying for, and let him do what he does best.