Randall Barnes

Northwestern Fertility Clinic is a large practice, which means you deal with lots of different people throughout the process, from multiple nurses, to schedulers, to financial advisors, to psychologists, to doctors who are on call the day of your procedures. It is not guaranteed your doctor will perform your retrievals or transfers. Overall, I had a positive experience with NFC, and with Dr. Barnes. I am in the midst of my treatments still, so I am not able to speak to my results yet... that is still to be determined! Also, in the midst of my treatment, and after several appointments with Dr. Barnes, I received a letter from Northwestern letting me know that he was retiring. So, in the midst of my treatments, I was left without a doctor and had to switch to a different doctor in the practice. My husband and I were surprised that this was never mentioned to us during multiple appointments with Barnes or with the nurses. It seemed like something they should tell us, so we could've started the process with a different doctor verses being caught off guard. This was my biggest critique of working with the NW Fertility clinic thus far.

Dr. Barnes is now retired from Northwestern Fertility Clinic.

I took 300 units of Folistim and 150 units of Menopur for 5 days, and then started a daily shot of Ganirelix to prevent ovulation. Day 10 I took my trigger shot and went in 36 hours later for my ET. 7 eggs were retrieved, 4 fertilized. I also thawed my 18 frozen eggs, 11 which fertilized. Overall, 15 eggs fertilzed and we are now waiting for our results on day 5 blastocyst stage, after which the remaining blastocysts will be biopsied and sent for PGD testing.

Morning appointments were an open window from 6:45-7:45am. Some mornings the wait was longer than others. My shortest appointment time was around 20 minutes, and my longest was 45 minutes.

Luckily my insurance covers this process.

My doctor strongly steered us toward eSET, although I had my heart set on transferring 2 embryos. He explained that due to complications from multiples, the best practice now is to recommend an eSET.

He was very patient, took time to explain and to sit with us as we processed information he gave us - which we very much appreciated. He was "fatherly" - not a chatter bug, so sometimes communication was overly "clinical" instead of "warm" - but a consummate professional. He made you feel like you were in good hands, which was reassuring.

He won't be "warm", but you will feel safe with him.

My wife and I had tried "at home" for 6 months "turkey baster method" - then we tried IUI's for 6 months, with my eggs. Then we tried 4 IVF cycles with my eggs. Then we tried 3 IVF cycles with my wife's eggs - which resulted in two pregnancies, but two miscarriages.

The window of hours was "do-able". It didn't feel like a cattle call - but certainly it was noticeable that a lot of women were having fertility issues - which I found depressing (but I'm sure, some people must find that comforting to know they are not alone). I very much appreciated when they separated the fertility dept. from the obstetrics - talk about depressing, seeing pregnant women, or women pregnant and with kids - as you struggle.

I have no independent recollection of how much any procedure cost. We were fortunate enough to have wonderful insurance coverage through Blue Cross and Blue Shield. We had primary and secondary coverage for most of the treatment time.

Dr. Barnes was great for our initial and IVF consults. He answered our questions clearly (and there were a lot!) and was prompt with follow-up questions I sent through the patient portal. I wish he'd talked with us more during our failed IUIs to see if we could change the protocols, but ultimately I think we would have ended up doing IVF anyway.

Advocate for yourself! Ask questions and make sure you are clear on answers.

For our IUIs we used clomid with an Ovidrel trigger. The first month we did 50mg of clomid on days 3-7, the second 100mg days 5-9, an the third 100mg days 3-7. Once we decided to move to IVF I started birth control for 21 days. On day 15 I added 10 units of Lupron, which I stayed on through my stimulation phase. I began 150 units of Follistim and 150 units of Menopur on day 2 of my cycle. From there I stayed on the same dose for 13 days, along with the 10 units of Follistim. On day 13 I decreased the Lupron to 5 units and added the Ovidrel trigger. Egg retrieval was scheduled for day 15. 12 eggs were retrieved, with 11 being mature. 8 fertilized normally with ICSI. On day 3 we went in for transfer and still had 8 growing. We transferred two 8-cell embryos and on day 6 two were still growing and were then frozen. I tested positive 7 days after my transfer and had my beta 10 days post transfer. A week and a half after my positive beta I went in for an ultrasound where we saw one gestational sac; a week later we saw one fetus and the heartbeat. Our daughter was born in February 2017 at full term.

Monitoring appointments take place between 7-7:45AM on weekdays and 8-8:30AM on weekends. Only once was there a line out the door in the five months I worked with this clinic. The other mornings it was a breeze to check in, wait to be called for lab/ultrasound, meet with nurse (for IUI only), and then make a new appointment or head to work to wait for more information pending lab results (IVF). It's a well oiled machine.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think our meds were around $2700 (with insurance) and most of our procedures were covered by insurance. In the end I think we spent around $2K toward procedures, including embryo freezing, which was not covered by my insurance.

Dr. Barnes pushed SET and advised against transferring multiple embryos. We felt more comfortable with two and we were OK with the possibility of multiples. He was out of the office the day of the transfer and his chief, Dr. Jared Robins, did our transfer with one of the fellows (Dr. Okeigwe). Dr. Robins suggested transferring two embryos based on quality and my age. Be advised that Dr. Barnes will try to push you toward SET.

Dr. Barnes did not seem interested in actually seeing me as a patient or making sure that I was taken care of. I only saw him for the initial consultation and then once I was finally pregnant (before miscarrying). Once he determined that I was likely miscarrying and could potentially have a tubal pregnancy, he fell off the radar and left me hanging without confirming if I did or did not have a tubal pregnancy.

I am unsure of how Dr. Barnes is as an IVF doctor, but if you are going to see him for anything less, I would be prepared to see very little of him.

In my initial consultation, Dr. Barnes' assistant doctor diagnosed me with PCOS based on my ultrasound. (I had gone a significant amount of time without menstruating). I then met with Dr. Barnes and he determined that I should start on letrozole to encourage follicle growth, then once I had sufficient follicles, I would take a trigger shot to induce ovulation. I was able to get pregnant twice, but miscarried both times. I do believe that the treatment strategy was effective an appropriate.

Dr Barnes is incredibly warm as a person, though is bedside manner is a bit old school. I felt that once I had 1 failed cycle, my protocol was not changed prior to my second cycle. In between my 2 cycles, he discovered I had anemia. Anemia is perhaps the FIRST thing that should be tested for anytime you give blood so it was frustrating that it took an entire IVF cycle to discover this. Due to the anemia, Dr Branes wanted to do further testing to rule out internal bleeding since I showed no signs of anemia. This resulted in a colonoscopy and endoscopy which both came back clear. From there, Dr Barnes didnt have any other explanations as to why my first cycle failed so we moved forward with my second cycle - which also resulted in an early miscarriage. After 2 failed cycles I decided to move on to another clinic. We transfered our 1 frozen embryo when we left.

Be your own advocate. This would be my advice with any Dr, but especially with doctors at NW who barely know your name let alone your case.

I started my protocol with 3 months of timed intercourse on Clomid. Each month resulted in a negative pregnancy test. I then moved onto IUI. The first 3 cycles were on Clomid. Each resulted in a negative test. Each month on Clomid Dr Barnes bumped up my dosage, yet I only had 1 or 2 viable follicles each month. After 3 cycles of IUI on Clomid and little reaction, Dr Barnes put me on Femara. We did 2 cycles on Femara, both resulting in a negative pregnancy test. Dr Barnes wanted me to do a 6th cycle of IUI, but we insisted we move to IVF. We did our first round of IVF which resulted in 2 quality embryos. My husband and I had decided in advance of our fresh transfer that we wanted to put 2 embryos in, however at NW their Dr's rotate and on the day of my transfer, a Dr Kazer was on rotation. He came into the room prior to transfer to confirm we had 2 viable embryos and when we let him know we wanted to transfer both, he basically used his scare tactics to force us into only putting in 1 embryo. I feel like this is a result of both his bedside manner, and the fact that NW does not like multiple pregnancies and look down upon transferring more than one embryo. We felt almost bullied and defeated and when I got pregnant, then quickly had a miscarriage, we regretted not following our hearts and transferring two. During our second IVF cycle, we insisted they allow us to transfer two. Again, Dr Barnes was not the Dr that did the procedure. This time it was Dr Robins who also tried to convince us to transfer one, but we stuck to our guns and transferred 2. Dr Robins is also a fan of 3-day transfers which did not sit right with me, but at the time of transfer, being hormonal and vulnerable, unfortunately you often listen to the Drs as opposed to following your gut.

Cattle call with numbers

IVF was $10k per cycle. IUI was $700. This was the out of pocket (cash) cost.

Dr. Barnes is a nice man, but I have always preferred female doctors. It was hard to get an appointment and he was the only one available when I could come in. He seems a little shy so I had trouble talking to him at times, especially after the miscarriage. He is very competent and knowledgeable.

Make sure you ask lots of questions and understand every fully during all procedures. Get support from a therapist or a support group from the beginning of your fertility treatments! I wish the doctors and staff had talked to me about this from my first appointment.

I did one IUI with him with 50 mg of Clomid.

Insurance covered almost all of it luckily.

I spent much more time with the nurses than with Dr. Barnes, but I felt like he was always friendly and helpful and knew what he was talking about. He laid out short- and long-term plans for treatment, so I knew what to expect.

You might get pregnant sooner than you expect!

I believe I took letrazole with a shot each time- the plan was to do this for 3 cycles and then continue but with IUI added. We got pregnant the third time around.

I don't remember

I had a very positive experience with him. He has a warm demeanor and is knowledgeable. In my opinion, he is very optimistic about treatment (which is a nice-to-have through this process). I did felt like at a certain point when IUI wasn't working, I was leading the process rather than getting answers about next steps.