Randall Odem (retired)

Dr. Odem is very compassionate and competent. He has a lot of knowledge and experience and really cares about you as a patient. He takes his time and fully explains everything. He went out of his way to talk to me at length when the cycle did not go as planned due to my body’s response.

Ask questions for anything you don’t understand and he will explain things further!

For IVF he used an antagonist protocol due to me having PCOS. He had my medications at the lowest dose due to fear of OHSS but it took my ovaries longer than expected so I was stimulated for 16 days much longer than was expected. I think this was a downside to my cycle and I did not get as many follicles as I had hoped. The number of eggs was 20 but the number of mature really was only 11.

Monitoring appointments were super flexible and a well oiled machine.

IVF was 11,500 and a frozen transfer was $4,000 but BJC recently raised the prices to around $13,400 for IVF and $4,800 for FET. These are private pay prices

He really encourages only transferring one but will allow you to make that decision. We transferred one the first time and two the second.

Dr. Odem LISTENS and tries to answer every one of your questions. He takes time and is not in a rush to see the next patient- you feel like he’s on your side and a friend. He ALWAYS called me back the same day with any questions or worries I had. I only wish I lived closer.

Be prepared to have a doctor who treats you more like a friend than just another number.

My situation was a bit different. I went to Dr. Odem only for Ashermans Syndrome. He worked around my schedule as I lived far away. He scheduled my surgery as soon as he could and helped arrange for care closer to home after the surgery.

He’s like a father figure, he’s direct but warm. He is a straight shooter, has tons of experience and cares about your emotions. My best interest was always at hand. He did 5 rounds of high dose estrogen and 5 hysterscopies in 5 months. One each month. I never felt rushed, never felt like a number. He would sit with us until we understood everything. Outline what to expect our options. I even discussed transferring care to 2 different providers out of state and he was supportive but shares his opinion.

Ask as many questions as you need, be transparent, share all your thoughts. He’ll help you work it out.

So he was treating me for ashermans syndrome. He suggested hysterscopies to clear the scar tissue out. I did 3 under general anesthesia and 2 awake. I preferred being awake I recovered quicker. He would have me do high doses of estrogen for about a month and then stop, start progesterone for a withdrawal bleed. Then we would repeat.

I work for wash u so my copays are half and washu just put fertility on the benefits package so we get 10,000 dollars towards fertility treatment but it’s out of pocket cost.

He was very straight forward during our tele conference. He was very friendly and seemed postive that we would have success without any issues. That was the only time we met Dr. Odem. Our phsycial visits to the office, which is a 3 hour drive, was always pleasant however we never met Dr. Odem face to face.

I was frustrated that because I have had a postive pregnancy in the past, that Dr. Odem and other doctor's I have seen, thought it would be easy for me to get pregnant, even after having multiple unsuccessful attempts.

The only treatment startegies we tried after my miscarriage were to try Clomid. Although I have always ovulated every month, we thought this might give the sperm an extra target. However, after several unsuccessful months of IUIs, Dr. Odem was unwilling to further evaluations because I have had a positive pregnancy.

There was a fee for our teleconference with Dr Odem, although I do not remember exactly how much, maybe around $100. The IUI itself was more expensive around $450.

Dr. Odem is an amazing person and a wonderful physician. I honestly don't have any weakness or negatives to say regarding Dr. Odem. I have many positive things to say in our time spend at the clinic with Dr Odem. From our visit, we could tell that he loves what he does, and he truly wants the best outcome for his patients. One specific visit was very very difficult for us, when we experienced an ectopic pregnancy. He was very calm and caring, and he was gentle and gave us plenty of time to grieve and then decide what our next step was. I cannot explain how much that meant to us during a very hard time. He took excellent care of us, and that was just very encouraging.

Ask lots of questions.

The first cycle we just used Clomid with no success. The 2nd cycle we used Clomid and IUI together, and we did have success with a pregnancy. At 6 weeks, it failed with an ectopic pregnancy. The next 4 cycles we did Clomid and IUI with no success. Our last visit consisted of an IVF discussion.

Office visits with Dr Odem himself costed anywhere from $130-250. IUI ranged $100-$300. I had to have surgery at Barnes for ectopic pregnancy which was around $15,000.

We did feel sufficiently educated on the IVF process. He strongly recommended a single embryo transfer in our case. He did explain why he recommended a single transfer versus multiple--examples: higher risk pregnancy, higher risk of premature births and higher risk of losing a pregnancy.

Dr. Odem has wonderful bedside manners. Makes sure we understand everything going on and answers questions thoroughly. My husband has a Male infertility factor and Dr. Odem is working alongside Dr. Johnson to see what our options are and give us percent of the chances of conceiving.

If you aren't sure exactly what is going on, ask. Dr. Odem will meet all your needs during this time of trouble in your life.

Dr. Odem started my husband on Clomid to see if that would help us conceive. Then started me on clomid as well to get a boost. We started IUI in January. First round failed, so we are trying again. Dr. Odem advised us of the percentages due to my Endo and his infertility issues.

Unfortunately, my insurance doesnt cover infertility. Ultrasounds are around $450 (self pay), IUI self pay is $510, if you have insurance, it is $610

He is kind and compassionate, willing to change a protocol if something is not working. He took the time to listen to our story and helped us come up with a plan that we were all on board with and adjustments if we ran into problems.

We started on Letrozole for one cycle to get myself to ovulate and then the next cycle did the same protocol since i was able to ovulate the previous month. We are going in for our first IUI this cycle.

He was very knowledgeable. I like that all of the doctors at Washington University work as a team and discuss all cases weekly to try to obtain the best results. Never felt that he was misleading me for his own personal financial gain.

Ask questions as he is more than willing to answer them.

I was on the long agonist protocol. This was due to my irregular cycle and endometriosis. I feel everything went as expected.

I believe the procedures were approximately 11,000 which included everything but the medication. Medication costs were about $5000.

If possible, they would like to do eSET; however, that depends upon the number of eggs retrieved and on how the fertilized eggs are developing at day 3.

Dr Odem is very knowledgeable and very thorough. I trust his experience and opinions. It felt, at times, that what we talked about and what was communicated to the nurses and staff was not on the same page. I very much respect Dr Odem and feel he is a great doctor but I did not feel he was the best doctor for treating a patient with Diminished Ovarian Reserve.

You need to be your own advocate in this clinic.

I used a microdose Lupron flare protocol with very high doses of Menopur and gonal f. I ended up with a cancelled cycle and moving forward with an IUI instead due to poor response to the medications.

Nothing specific

No comment

I have so much to say about doctor Odem and his group. They were absolutely fantastic. They took the time to take every single one of my phone calls. He spent hours in consults with me. When I was hospitalized, he came to see me every day for progress checks. His nurses knew me by more than just my chart. I had the best experience at Washington University in St. Louis. I would suggest anyone looking into RE's to look into the St. Louis area.