Ryan Steward

Dr. Steward came prepared to our consultation prepared and truly should concern and empathy for our situation ultimately showing the passion of his work. He gave very clear next steps and what our journey would look like by mapping our illustrations of the IVF process. He answered all questions very clear and held space for us as his patient.

Don’t hold back from any questions as Dr. Steward is committed to supporting and helping all his patients. There are no “silly” questions he truly makes sure you feel heard and seen when going through a hard process.

Cost was close to $14,000 for IVF

Dr.Steward felt strongly on eSET vs multiple based on our situation. He felt confident and typically never does more than one.

Dr. Steward was very kind and compassionate. He took the time to answer all of my questions no matter how over the top they were. He seemed knowledgeable. During monitoring I didn’t see him very often. He didn’t do my retrieval but did my transfers and followed up with me after negative tests. He worked to adjust treatment and listened when we had our second negative outcome but still didn’t have any clear answers to why we were not successful.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and take your time in making decisions. Get other opinions just so you feel educated when you decide to start treatment.

6900 dr fees 3000 facility fees $250 anesthesia 3000 meds 3700 2nd transfer 4750 pgs testing

There are not enough stars to give Dr. Steward at HFI. My husband and I switched to him from another MD/office that we had been going to for a year and looking back now, switching to him was one of the best life-changing decisions we have ever made. From our very first appointment, both my husband and I knew it was a better fit and that we were in the best hands possible with him. He has wonderful bedside manner and always provided us realistic expectations while still staying positive and optimistic along the way. We never felt rushed during our visits and he always took the time to answer all of our questions patiently and honestly. We were a challenging case for sure, but he never gave up and curbed our treatment to us individually (with various medications and approaches that hadn't been tried before, etc.) because he wasn't afraid to think outside the box to do whatever was needed in order to help us fulfill our goal of having a family. IVF is a roller coaster to say the least, but he was there with us every step of the way-- from personally calling to check in on us after receiving disappointing news (even after hours if needed) which meant the world to us, as well as providing huge hugs and encouragement when we made promising progress. When we started with Dr. Steward our chances of obtaining quality eggs and achieving conception at all were extremely low- but undoubtedly because of his expertise, persistence, and personalized attention to our individual circumstances, we are now 15 wk pregnant with twins-- which is unbelievable. We are forever grateful to him for giving us our family and cannot recommend him enough.

Dr. Steward is caring and compassionate, but also honest and open. He has been very optimistic with respect to the likelihood of success with treatment. However, he provided statistics and risks, and made adjustments based on data. Dr. Steward called personally following a negative pregnancy test to check on me, and was very comforting during a miscarriage. I would recommend him to anyone because even through very difficult times, he made us feel comfortable and hopeful.

Do not be afraid to ask questions or call outside of office hours.

My protocol for egg retrieval included Gonal-F 225 IU, Menopur 150 IU, and Cetrotide 0.25 mg. My trigger shot was Ovidrel. The protocol produced 14 eggs, 9 mature. We did PGS testing, which resulted in 3 normal embryos. For the first FET, we used estrogen tablets, Minivelle patches, and progesterone in oil shots, which resulted in a negative pregnancy test. For the second FET, Dr. Steward revised the protocol to have the PIO shots in the morning (instead of the evening) and a daily baby aspirin. The protocol resulted in a pregnancy with surprise identical twins. The pregnancy ended at 8.5 weeks in miscarriage.

Monitoring appointments were always conducted in the mornings, which worked well with my work schedule. Unfortunately, the pregnancy ultrasound appointments were also in the mornings which did not fit my husband's schedule.

Egg retrieval and first FET: $13,000 Medication for egg retrieval: $5,000 PGS testing: $5000 Additional FETs: $5,000 plus medications

We were encouraged to do eSET, but the ultimate decision was ours. We scheduled a consultation with Dr. Steward to discuss this issue, and he provided data and suggestions.

Dr Steward is incredibly knowledgeable about his field. He explains everything in detail, leaving nothing out (which is what I like). He is not afraid to be honest about expectations and I have never felt like he has been misleading with what to expect with our treatments. He is also not afraid to combine both Eastern and Western approaches to treatment (though he made sure to ask if I was open to it). His bedside manner is a little bit rough, but I have always appreciated his honesty. At first I think our treatments were a little too "cookie cutter" and not specialized for our specific needs, but he has since adjusted and I think our current treatment protocol is absolutely catered to our needs and with our history in mind. We are definitely on the same page and I am confident he is in my corner rooting us on.

Be open, honest, and not afraid to ask questions.

First two rounds were medicated cycles with timed intercourse. First round used 300 iu of Gonal-F, 2nd round was 200 iu of Gonal-F. Third round was IVF with 225 Gonal-F and 225 Menopur. Currently IVF with 225 Gonal-F, microdose Lupron, 225 Menopur, Omnitrope and viagra. We have also incorporated acupuncture this cycle and did androgen priming while preparing for stims.

We were completely out of pocket. Our medicated cycles (including all medication) was approximately $4K each cycle. IVF was around $25K (including medication, transfer and retrieval costs).

Dr Steward definitely encourages single embryo transfer most. He seems to want to avoid pregnancy with multiples if possible.

My obgyn gave me two options in The Woodlands. Dr. Steward or Dr. Griffith. In doing research, I chose Dr. Steward because he was younger, native Texan, trained at Duke , had personal experience with multiple miscarriages with his wife (At the time of the appt I had three miscarriages in a row and was desperate for answers) and had a kind, empathetic face. I just had a second d and c three days prior to my appt with him, so I was very fragile at that time. At our first meeting he set out an exact plan for us to complete at our pace and never pressured us to rush through the work up. Everything he hypothesized was happening with us came true. He said this is not a sperm issue, no need to even do a sperm test, we have gotten pregnant three times on the first try on our own, sperm could not be involved. And of course I forced my husband to do the SA and it came back with off the chart stellar numbers. He hypothesized I may have some lackadaisical hormones and mild "garden variety ovulatory dysfunction" which does not fit in any type of diagnosis and because of that, I ovulate late and can't ramp up the hormone supply needed with pregnancy. Since my AMH levels were great (5) and age was 33, we could build my entire family at the age of 33 with PGS tested embryos and give ample hormone support as well as aspirin and lovenox to prevent miscarriage with a frozen embryo cycle. Well all the testing was normal including sperm, uterus, etc and my hormones were exactly as he said. We elected to proceed with IVF instead of an assisted monitoring cycle so we could build our family NOW and take off any pressure to have more kids in a rapid succession later. As he predicted, I did not need a ton of medication due to the great AMH at 5. with embryo retrieval we got 13 total. 12 mature. 12 fertilized. 8 have been sent to PGS testing as day 6 blastocysts and we are currently waiting on these results. The process has gone exactly as he said it would. He nailed the medications. I did not have ANY left over. I did NOT hyper stimulate. I feel like we got the most "bang for our buck" with the 8 embryos for pgs testing (the max amount allowed without paying extra) and spent 4k on meds without wasting/having leftovers. He has been blunt with delivery but so kind and warm and most importantly has been 100% accurate thus far. I am in the medical field and it's VERY difficult for me to be the patient and I have surrendered and trust him with every decision here on out. no questions asked. I highly recommend him!

He knows his stuff. If you bring research he will review it with you and weigh in. He does listen and consider what you have to say but without a doubt every question I had, or concern I had, his knowledge prevailed and he was right. Be prepared for very cut and dry black and white approach. He is warm with more visits and he does have a great bedside manner. I felt I was in extremely competent hands with someone who is very confident in his skills.

After suffering 3 miscarriages in 2017 and the work up was done from oct 2017-dec 2017 and was essentially negative and no causes found for miscarriages, I was presented with three options. 1) do what he have been doing and call when pregnant for hormone support 2)assisted cycle with Timed intercourse to really nail ovulation time and with climid maybe producing more than 1 follicle with more options for sperm to find egg and also use hormonal support with progerstone or do 3)IVF with PGS testing and build our entire family at 33 years old. He said he would leave it to us. We ultimately decided to skip to IVF as 2017 was a long hard year with three losses and we were ready to be parents and surrender a little bit of control bc what he had been doing had not yet produced a live birth. So in january after a much needed vacation, I downregulated with birth control for 2 weeks, stimulated with Gonal F 150 and Menopur 150 for 10 days (with ceteotride for ovulation prevention added in when my follicles got to 13). He stated I did not need many meds as I have a garden variety ovulatory dysfunction in the pcos family but not severe enough to be pcos with an AMH of 5. He nailed the medications. I did not have any left over so there was no money wasted. I only had two monitoring appts week one and two appts week 2, so 4 total and it was not a disruption to my life or full time work schedule. I got 13 retrieved, 12 mature, 12 fertilized, 8 made it to 6day blastocyst and we have sent those for PGS and waiting on results. I consider this very successful at this point.

workup, including hysteroscopy, was billed under Recurrent pregnancy loss and was covered under insurance without any out of pocket cost, except for Sperm analysis which was 100$ doctor fee/cycle monitoring 6900$ anesthesia for retrieval 250$ surgery center cost for retrieval 2800$ pgs testing and other lab fees 7,750$ medications 4,100$ have not ordered medications for transfer yet but I think about 1,000$ FIRST transfer is included in the original costs. subsequent transfers of frozen embryos will be around 2,000$

Dr. Steward only recommended FET after PGS testing for me given that our goal was to not have any more miscarriages (we already had 3).

Dr. Steward is very confident. Our treatment went exactly as planned, even as far as having extra embryos to freeze to come back to for more children down the road. My husband loved his confidence, whereas I felt put-off by it. Sometimes I felt Dr. Steward was dismissive of my concerns (like in a discussion of how many embryos to transfer) or even placed blame upon me over miscommunications (Asking if I "misunderstood" instructions over post-transfer bed rest, as if someone would forget to request 3 days off from work.) Generally, Dr. Steward was kind, warm, encouraging and always had a smile on his face, which really put my at ease despite what may have been a minor personality conflict.

As a lot of questions, document answers, request clarification if needed, but trust that he is very good at his job.

I was started off on two different stim medications; Dr. Steward was very thorough in reading blood work and ultrasound results after each monitoring appointment. He made many adjustments, such as changing injection spot and upping dosages. (It turns out that we were affected by a recall of one of the medicines, which is why we constantly had to use more.) I give him so much credit for having to change our course of action so often and doing it so accurately that we still had such a successful cycle. Another interesting aspect was that Dr. Steward insisted upon a frozen transfer, not fresh. While it was frustrating to go through so much pain and stress only to take a month off before transfer, he was totally right. Taking a month off gave my body time to regulate and for me to fully recover from the retrieval.

$6000 for course-of-treatment only; all procedures and medication was additional.

I generally prefer my doctors/surgeons to be near retirement age. Experience is so important in medicine. Dr. Steward was an exception. He is young but extremely bright and current on research and new techniques (which is very important in fertility medicine). While with some patients his confidence may be a turn-off, I found that the more we worked with him the warmer he became. His bedside manner improved significantly throughout the course of our treatments. If we need to do fertility treatments again I will 100% go back to him.

Do not be afraid to push back or ask for more clarification on your treatment plan or progress. Dr. Steward knows his stuff and if you have informed and thoughtful questions he is more than eager to answer them with as much detail as you might want.

I was nervous with having to use fertility treatments to conceive. Dr. Steward was open and honest with all of his communication with me. He made sure I understood what would happen and what our plan was with treatment. He made sure I was comfortable and showed empathy when I struggled.

Just be open and honest with him. He will be there to help you.

I remember using Gonal-F and other medications. I had trigger shots for both retrievals. The meds used were to help mature my eggs and try to release several for retrieval.

Costs were for all aspects of treatment from office visits to the retrieval and to the transfer.

He seems very well trained. You can tell that this is he passion and that he has put in the work to stay current in this area of medicine. He never made us feel dumb for asking questions big or small. He took the time needed to explain and make sure we understood what he was telling us. Very personable, friendly and knowledgeable.

Be ready to hear the truth about your situation. He doesn't want to waste your time or money on treatments that aren't effective.

He is a very intelligent doctor. From my first appointment he has always been straight forward with me about everything that is going on with my infertility. I am very happy with him as my doctor because he has an awesome bed side manner.

Dr. Ryan steward will take care of you to the fullest. He is very compassionate and understanding of all of your needs.

I don't remember the actual protocol.

the ivf cost right ast 13,000

He prefers one embryo to be transferred at a time but he will do two.

He was very blunt and straight to the point which we did not like at first but later understood that he did not like to waste time and his end goal was to make us a family. He was very direct. He showed compassion when we thought we lost a twin.

He tells it like it is.

I don’t remember

Do not remember

He told us that he would not do more than 2 embryos at a time. That was his policy. He gave us the percentage for both as gave us enough information so we could decide on our own if we wanted to do single or multiple

Dr. Steward is caring and knowledgeable. He took all the time we needed to answer questions and provide information. I did feel like I still needed to be my own advocate and come prepared with my own research and information to be an educated patient and active participant in my treatment.

Continue to be your own advocate and don't be afraid to be skeptical and ask questions.

My first retrieval cycle revealed poor egg quality which was completely unexpected. We adjusted my medication protocol and added a number of supplements and are currently in the middle of a second retrieval cycle.

Dr. Steward was thorough in getting to the bottom of our infertility. HE ran multiple tests on myself and my husband to pinpoint the issue. He honestly told us that IUI would not be a viable option and that IVF was the only course. I appreciated him being honest and not just taking our money for a failed IUI

Be open and honest, he wants to know it all in order to better support you.

We have not moved forward with IVF because we cannot afford it.

For all of the tests run on myself and my husband, we spent about $1,000

We have not experienced this.

Dr. Steward is fantastic! He has made me feel so confident and given me the extra push to move forward with treatment. His bed side manner and willingness to explain every step are unlike an other RE I have experienced in the past

Expect long waits in the office, but everything is done in house. Dr. Steward is aggressive with treatment and ready to do IVF any second. In a good way!

$9,000

He’s a very nice and knowledgeable man. He was thorough in explaining many of the features of our treatment but he wasn’t the most personable doctor. He was very accessible but never felt overly invested in us personally

He was a very kind and personable doctor. When we asked questions he was honest and open. However, he did want to push more aggressive treatment than we wanted and it felt like we had to ask things to understand.

IUI with clomid - $1500 IUI with injectables - $2600 IVF - $12,900

When I am able to speak to Dr. Steward then I get plenty of information that I need. He explains everything very well. He is honest with what my #s were like. The complaint I mainly have is that I don't see him at every visit so if I had any questions, I would ask the nurse.

I would ask how often you would see the Dr out of all the visits once you start treatment.

I just remember after the initial blood drawing, and when the injections started..there were visits every other day thereafter. I didn't make it to egg retrieval as my #s weren't looking good.

If I mad made it to egg retrieval then the total cost would have been about 27k. Since I didn't make it to that point, the medication and pre-pay to Dr was about 17k which I believe I still have a credit (nurse mentioned) with the Dr since the treatment was not completed. I haven't heard anything about that yet.

Dr. Steward is very well-spoken, kind, and encouraging. He was very thorough in his explanations and our conversations. I didn’t feel pressured or coerced toward any particular treatment. I felt comfortable at all times and was very satisfied with my care. We have decided to take a break from treatment to reduce stress, but plan to return to see Dr. Steward if we do not become pregnant on our own. I highly recommend his care.

Be prepared to ask questions, because he will spend as much time as you need answering them! Definitely advocate for yourself through the process- he listens to your concerns and needs.