Serena Chen

As a doctor, she is warm and knowledgeable. She cuts to the chase and makes sure you understand what she is saying. She has a confidence about her that makes you feel comfortable and makes you feel confident going into the process.

She is a wonderful doctor, but you likely won't see her at appointments or hear from her directly, so be sure to ask everything up front and demand to speak to her or see her when you feel it is needed.

First IUI: Clomid cycle. After days 3-7 on pills, monitoring. Follicles were not growing sufficiently and was given another round of Clomid. Finally had a lead follicle and triggered. Second IUI: Letrozole. Was incorrectly told to come in for IUI when bloodwork did not match the follicles. Subsequently cycle did not end in IUI, but instead timed intercourse.

My insurance covered almost everything. We were not told ahead of time that a male genetic test could cost up to $400, but insurance did pay for it 100%

Prefers single embryo, but never got to the stage in discussing whether multiple could be appropriate.

dr chen is a knowledgeable doctor who spends her a lot of her time researching and making a name of herself on social media. however, her treatment plans for her patients are not of newer medicine that she often speaks about on social media. she does not reach out to you on her own free will bc you are her patient. she will only speak w you on an appointment basis. with that said, after failed IVF and IUIs, i only speak w a nurse from the office and do not hear from her personally. so if you’re looking for a doctor with compassion, find another one. shes even failed to show up to a scheduled appointment without notice and is often late to every appointment.

don’t get caught up with social media hype. find a doctor who truly cares about you as a patient

clomid and ovidrel for IUI and i can’t recall for IVF. IVF didn’t have any embryos to transfer.

care was covered 100% due to my insurance coverage

only does eSET for the safety of the mother

The doctor is very nice and very detailed, though it's expected that you learn the process through on-line videos and some questions you know to ask only after the treatment is finished. E.g. we did 1 cycle of IVF and during the visit it was expected that the meds would change due to poor response first time. During next cycle I received prelim chart with the same dosages and no comment from the nurse/doc. It took me some time to force a nurse to give me chart of IVF with expected timing, procedures and dosages since she didn't want to make me feel that everything will go as expected. The billing is messy unless you control it, there are no paper bills coming in mail, if billing person is on vacation there is no communication between the person on vacation and replacement person. So at the start of one of my first IVF they forgot to get my authorization from insurance. With meds: sometimes the authorization for the medicine is not sent to the pharmacy and the other time the prescription should be changed due to wrong med name. As usual some nurses and docs doing ultrasound are nice, but there are a lot of them who are very rush and abrupt, 50% of time i got bruises after routine bloodwork . People on the phone are most of the time talk to you like they've never were trained to talk to the clients on the phone, never mind patients. The only professionally sounded people are on the general Livingston number and nurses on call. Technicians doing ultrasound usually are not very warm (especially there is one in Hoboken and one other patient in the room said that her experience was not warm as well) and they don't talk to you/your partner what they are doing at all. Even doctors who do the ultrasound are not commenting on what they see. Dr.Chen only does ultrasounds during the initial visits and never the ones during the cycles. More times than needed I felt as a number and as a part of the huge standard fertility factory that making standard protocols and not addressing my particular situation. Dr. Chen is nice, but overall experience with the facility is not making me feel welcomed.

Be prepared to control everything in the cycle, insist on getting the schedules, read a lot on-line, read other reviews. Be prepare to have it rough.

IUIs were on chlomid, all looked very good, no problems with number of folluculs, but all 3 - negative. First IVF was on follistin 300 and menopur 150. Due to the planned facility shutdown, we had to time the next period and I was taking contraceptive meds. After that there was 1 follicul leftover and there were not enough of other so the cycle was cancelled. The doctor recommended the prep cycle, but i refused since i didn't know how my body will respond to extra meds and the studies show mixed results. The second cycle there is another leftover, and the meds added the ganorelix 150. the doctor recommends growth hormone (mixed studies), accupuncture and CoQ10 and Vit D (all - no proven medical results). Questions to doctor 1) what to do with leftover follicules - doctor recommend to do nothing, 2) the doctor never texted if I have an ovulation by my own - it's assumed that the meds provoke it.

it was round $2000 for IUIs and now with IVF - growth hormone alone is $2000, visits - $150

There is recommendation for only 1 embrio - since multiple pregnancy could be more risky for both mother and potential babies.

Our experience with Dr. Chen has been invaluable. Her knowledge and willingness to educate others has been essential to our process. Dr. Chen consistently made herself available to answer any question we had during the process. In addition, Dr. Chen always made the effort to supply us with resources that extended beyond her clinic.

Be prepared to take it all in! Dr. Chen is extremely thorough from the onset of treatment throughout the entire process. She is extremely knowledgeable in the field and loves to share the latest information.

At this point I wish I had more details to provide regarding fees. We are still in the process of completing the IVF process. We also were very lucky that insurance covered most of the IVF.

I should have trusted my gut, after the first time my name was mispronounced. But, I looked at it as not as important if her aid was going to ultimately lead me to the success that I was looking for. I emailed the nurse pretty much every day and would repeatedly ask for the Dr. I would say the only time that I really heard from was after the retrievals and when I had to come in after the transfer and after the last cycle ended. They didn't test my thyroid the first cycle, but she discovered for the 2nd that "oh, we should have tested this the first time around". There was also the way I felt they were pushing donor eggs on me; knowing my hesitance with that choice, right out the gate. I believe she is probably a great doctor for other patients; I just don't believe she was a good fit for me.

Just take the time to listen to your patients; and maybe make yourself a bit more available.

I honestly don't remember the overall protocol for either cycle. I know for the first cycle (where we were able to transfer) it was a more aggressive protocol. For the second cycle, there was not as many meds. Estrogen Patch Clomid Follistim Ganirellex Letrozole not in that order, were the main meds that I took

I had issues with one phlebotomist in particular, but they changed her out & sometimes the nurses that would do the Ultrasound didn't seem very versed on how to administer them.

in total over 22k.

Dr Chen was quite busy most days, sometimes arriving a little late or cutting our visits a little short. But I believe that was due to her being the director at the facility. But she has a good knowledge base and always remained positive during the 3 years I was under her care.

If you can’t have a face to face meeting with Dr. Chen, know that she’s also available via phone or email to answer questions or concerns. There were many of times that I called her clarity and she was very helpful. But you should also know, while she’s your main doctor, you likely will not get her for your retrieval or transfer, as that’s based on the rotating schedule they have between the doctors at IRMS. So if you want to be seen by her exclusively, that will be tough.

My first egg retrieval yielded 9 eggs and for my age at the time that seemed low. During the next cycle, the doctor and nursers provided recommendations to possibly boost egg quality to get better results. While my injectables remained the same, I also took dhea and cq10 for a few months before my second cycle to potentially yeild better egg quality. It was also recommended that I utilize acupuncture, which I did.

Through the 3 IUIs, 2 egg retrieval’s, and 3 transfers, he cost was approximately $25,000 (inclusive of meds)

Seeing Dr. Chen was a terrible experience. We started IUI and failed several times. Meanwhile, every single time I went in for monitoring, one of the Dr.'s commented on the giant cyst on one of my ovaries, but no one ever mentioned doing anything about it. After feeling confused by conversations with Dr. Chen, my husband and I decided to get a second opinion. When we went to the other fertility clinic (RMA - which I highly recommend!), the Dr. refused to start any type of fertility treatments until the cyst was surgically removed. He said it was dangerous and could potentially pop, harming the baby if I were to get pregnant. I went back to Dr. Chen with this information and she responded with "That seems like a reasonable plan of action". YET she never mentioned it herself and was actively trying to get me pregnant!

Run! Go to a different Dr.

I did not receive any positive results with Dr. Chen

Everything was covered by health insurance, which is what made it so attractive.

Dr Chen is warm, very knowledgeable and no nonsense. She explains everything, answers questions and truly listens to out concerns. She is also very kind when giving bad news, which is something I've struggled with in the past when seeing other doctors.

Call way ahead. It took me 6 weeks to get the first appointment.

Not there yet, but we'll 100% have to do IVF since my tubes are blocked.

The cycle of ivf (fresh transfer) will cost $9k, plus 5-8 thousand more for medication.

We have had minimal progress to date but are taking a cautious treatment plan to avoid overstimulation. Dr Chen sits with you and enjoyed the potential plan and answers any questions you may have. On the days that I have my ultrasound, the physician that is on call performs the ultrasound which may or may not be Dr Chen. I have had no problems with any of the other physicians in the practice although I would be more comfortable discussing the progress with my primary MD than the oncall specialists (even if they are more senior). I call Dr Chen or she calls me to update me on the revised plan our if we are going to stay on course.

Trust her and ask questions. She's open to dialogue!

Dr. Chen is excellent. I have and will continue to recommend her. She is kind, smart and came up with a course of action tailored specifically to us. We always felt she had our best interests in mind.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions.

3 IUI then consider moving on to IVF considering we were using frozen sperm

My embryos were very healthy and given my age they would only transfer one embryo to lower the chance of twins. We were happy with this decision.