Shannel Adams

I have been under the care of other doctor's and have not had the same experience with them as Dr. Adams. I felt that Dr. Adams cared and wanted me to succeed just as much as I wanted to succeed at starting my family. She was pleasant and always had a word of encouragement. Whenever I had questions, I was able to get an appointment to talk to her. Dr. Adams is very knowledgable at her field of medicine and can provide you with all kind of relevant information on things. Dr. Adams has great bedside manner and presence. I would highly recommend her to others.

I would advise that you will not see Dr. Adams until the day of your retrieval. If you are wanting a doctor that is going to be there to do the ultrasounds and talk with you about findings then Dr. Adams is not the doctor for you.

For my most recent IVF cycle, I did a luteal phase stimulation. I started out with priming with growth hormone. I took Clomid (150 mg), Menopur 75 IU, Follistim (300 units) and growth hormone (25 CC) throughout the cycle. I started out with lower doses and when follicles did not respond the dosage was increased (Clomid 250 mg., Menopur 150 IU, Follistim 450 units and 25 CC growth hormone.

The cost for one retrieval and two transfers was around $20K. I spent another $5K in medications for the retrieval that Dr. Adams performed.

Dr. Adams is clearly a very intelligent doc. She seems more focused on her new clinics numbers than patients concerns and values. When explaining her plan for our care she never gave us options, it was just dictated without explanation. This happened with ICSI vs conventional insemination and one vs two embryo transfer. It wouldn't be until I got the contract that I realized how many options there were. Everytime I had questions or concerns, I was just told by nursing, "this is your doctors recommendation". She wouldn't take the time to explain or consider my concerns. I'm a healthcare professional and read research to help me understand this process and what to expect. She was always very dismissive and gave anecdotal responses when her car plan differed from what I was reading. Dr.Adams was consistently annoyed by my questions. After 4 losses, you have a lot of anxiety, her refusing to answer my questions made the process so much more stressful and really eroded my trust in her. It felt like she was taking my questions personally, instead of seeing it as my way of managing my anxiety- which I tried to explain. With my second egg retrieval, even though we had 7 embryos, only one made it to PGT, the others arrested. I asked her about this and she very bluntly blamed this on our decision to opt for conventional insemination even though we were very successful with this method the first round. I avoid talking to her at this point because it's more stressful than helpful and I typically leave the conversation feeling worse than I did going into it.

If you're at the start of your journey this is a good clinic to start at. She's direct and eager for you to get pregnant. Also, if you just want a competent doctor to make all of the decisions for you, this could be a good fit. If you've experienced a lot of trauma and have been at this awhile and need a doctor to be able to explain in detail all of the options, her style is anxiety provoking.

The first egg retrieval used an antagonist protocol, using Follistim and Menopur. We got 9 mature eggs, and after PGT ended up with 3 great embryos. Because of my age, and us hoping for 2 babies, we were recommended to do a second egg retrieval. I don't recall much rational behind changing up the protocol other than hoping for better results, I thought the first retrieval went great. The second round was an agonist protocol. Very similar but added lupron. We got 11 mature eggs, 6 fertilized but only one made it to PGT stage.

$3500 introductory pricing for the new clinic (I'm not sure if this is still offered) for 1 egg retrieval and one FET. Including monitoring but not drugs and genetic testing. $13000 for the second egg retrieval. They were also great at forwarding the prescriptions to another pharmacy for me to compare prices so I could get the best deal possible.

We did a single embryo transfer. It was never discussed with us as to why this was chosen. In reading the explanations given by other doctors to other patients, I think it's because the embryos were high quality.

Dr. Adams does a very good job of explaining things but sometimes it sounds like a rehearsed speech which she has given many times. While I was at the clinic Dr. Adams was very busy and while I saw her almost every visit was rushed at times. Dr. Adams was always very kind, friendly, and outgoing. She always showed a lot of compassion during check ups or procedures.

If you ask questions Dr. Adams will take the time to answer them fully. Come prepared with questions or treatment options and Dr. Adams will review them with you. If you don't ask for the time Dr. Adams seemed so busy she would easily move on to her next appointment.

I used a standard antagonist protocol with FSH, LH, and Gonadotropin. I also used human growth hormone to help with eqq quality. I used a dual trigger. Due to a large number of follicles, I was at higher risk for OHSS which I did develop a mild case of. I don't think my protocol was tailored closely enough for my higher risk and it led to OHSS. I had a large number of eggs retrieved but only 1 embryo made it to day 5 which is very uncommon and Dr. Adams was openly surprised by my results. She even checked with the lab to make sure there were no issues during embryo development.

Dr. Adams is very warm and positive. She is able to communicate clearly and effectively. I appreciate how willing she was to discuss options and why she thinks they may or may not be appropriate. She is a capable and confident physician without being alienating or ever talking down to you.

We came into Dr. Adams clinic having completed 5 cycles of IUI with Kaiser. Kaiser was nice because it was covered on insurance, but really felt like we were on a checklist and when we made it through the checklist they weren’t willing to do more testing or try any alternatives. From the beginning, Dr. Adams and her office have been willing to listen to all our questions and hypothesis and explore them. We started at kindbody with some further testing and when things came back normal we tried one last IUI cycle - with letrozole, monitoring, trigger shot, and progesterone supplementation. Unfortunately, that cycle wasn’t successful and we moved forward with IVF and a retrieval cycle. We primed with birth control for 3 weeks and went into the retrieval cycle. It went pretty smoothly - my doses of medication only changed for the last dose. The retrieval procedure went well and recovery was much better than I was anticipating. We decided to try for a fresh transfer with one of our good graded untested embryos. It was unsuccessful and we were crushed. We moved forward with a frozen embryo transfer cycle, again with 3 weeks of birth control priming. The pre- and post- transfer meds were very similar to the 1st transfer. The cycle was unsuccessful. Very frustrated, we brainstormed with Dr. Adams and decided on a mock cycle to test for silent endometriosis, receptivity, and chronic endometritis. Everything came back normal. We also decided to thaw our frozen embryos and do PGTA testing. Moving forward with our most recent cycle we added in some additional medications to the premeds (enoxaparin, prednisone, famotidine) and changed the progesterone injectable we used due to me developing an allergy with the last transfer. We got our first ever positive pregnancy test, but the Hcg level was low - very low. Dr. Adams and her team were diligent about communicating with me about more labs, and following up with a scan. We were able to confirm that I didn’t have an ectopic pregnancy, or a viable pregnancy. It’s been a long hard journey. One, we are still walking on. We are so glad to be able to trust in our doctor and be able to communicate clearly with them.

Costs with kindbody were very clear and reasonable. Costs with other clinics in the area are much harder to find and much higher.

Dr Adams is a very effective communicator with an ability to speak to you about even the most complicated details in a teachable way so you understand and know all the facts you need to make an informed decision. In times of weakness when I’ve expressed mental difficulty in my TTC journey she has taken the extra time to sit and remind me that we are in it together, I’m not alone and build me back up. There is no doctor that I have trusted with my care 100% until I met Dr Adams. It is because of Dr Adams that I have been able to be as strong of a person as I have been during this journey. She is extremely efficient in her daily flow from my observation, continually looks for new and the best ways to help her patients and her ability to remember the intricate details of each of her patients allows her to be quick and proactive in all procedures. At this point I have had many ultrasounds and a few with other providers when mine was unavailable during my availability and she’s the only one that can perform mine with complete ease (and COMFORT!). My journey with Dr Adams isn’t over yet but I’m confident I’ll get a healthy baby soon because I trust my doctor and that means everything to me.

Do not be afraid to ask even the smallest questions, she’s happy to answer them and will be the best explanation during the process

I am TTC as a single woman so I absolutely need the help of a fertility doctor to have a baby. As it turns out, I also have a fertility issue. I underwent 2 IUIs on a Clomid protocol and became pregnant but unfortunately miscarried. I then had 4 more IUIs on a letrozole protocol resulting in 1 negative and 3 chemical pregnancies. At this point my Dr and I re-evaluated and decided to move onto IVF treatment. While undergoing pre-IVF tests I decided one more IUI with clomid protocol resulting in a chemical pregnancy. My IVF cycle resulted in 7 perfectly graded AA embryos. I have transferred 2 and both have failed. Next steps are a recurrent pregnancy loss work up, checking for a blood clotting disorder and a closer monitored FET cycle with added supplements.

Costs were relatively lower in comparison to the surrounding clinics. ORM is moderately priced on the lower to middle end of the spectrum, and worth every penny. They have some of the best success rates and proven embryo care in the country and definitely in the Pacific Northwest. I went with them over a significantly cheaper clinic because 1. They worked really well with my insurance and 2. I was both impressed by their success rates and brought peace knowing that my embryos would be properly cared for. 3. Because certain procedures that usually cost extra everywhere else (ie: embryo glue, assisted hatching, etc) are standard practice at their clinic.

Dr Adams provides all the relevant good and bad information about transferring 1 vs 2 embryos and likes to err on the side of caution but I have discovered this is really standard practice of all REs to recommend transferring 1 over 2. However, Dr Adams makes a point to explain that it is absolutely your decision and she will respect that decision.

I appreciated being seen as a human and not rushed when I had questions. She explained things quickly which I liked, but also would explain something again if I didn't quite understand. She was patient with us and was positive and caring.

I would say don't hesitate to say you don't understand something, because she is more than happy to explain something again.

The infertility reason to use IVF is from male side, so going into IVF I assumed they're be no problem on my end. The test results showed things looked good. Dr Adams started me on birth control and then my estrogen was too high to start injections so we had to postpone it, which I'd rather do since medications are so expensive. The protocol she started me on is the one that majority of women respond to, but not me. This was our first time so not knowing what to expect, but then having set backs I learned that every step of IVF is unknown. When we tried again I did not take birth control & we did proceed with injections for egg retrieval. I had 11 follicles, 9 eggs retrieved, 4 fertilized, 3 embryos, 1 made it to blastocysts stage then we did genetic testing and results showed it was not viable for transfer. When we met with Dr Adams after our failed IVF she went over why she chose the protocol she did and why she was surprised we didn't have a viable embryo due to my test results during the baseline testing. This was helpful because it would be easy to blame the doctor for a failed IVF. She explained if we are able to afford another round of IVF she would add a medication to our protocol to help all follicles mature at the same rate so we could have a better percentage of mature eggs retrieved.

We had to have sperm retrieval surgery with our IVF and we opted for genetic testing, so our total cost was $30,000.

Dr. Adams is new to ORM and to being an RE in that she recently graduated. However, I trust her knowledge and have always felt comfortable with her course of action for me. She is friendly, warm, and thoughtful. I would absolutely recommend her to friends and/or family.

Dr. Adams recommended an estrogen priming protocol for me. Unfortunately this protocol had the exact opposite effect it was supposed to have. So, when I went in for my Day 2 u/s, I only had two tiny follicles. I do have diminished ovarian reserve, but in past cycles I've had 5-6 follicles. She was very surprised by this and has told me to come back in with my next period at which time she'll measure my follicles again and see if it is time for us to start the medications.

The deposit was $13,000

Dr. Adams recommended transferring two embryos if I created that many. However, my plan has always been to have CCS testing done on the embryos and then only transfer one.

Dr. Adams is the rare combination of intelligence and warmth I seek in a doctor. It's hard to find! One thing that's stuck out to me is when I came in for bloodwork and got very anxious trying to remember if I had genetic testing previously, she saw me (I wasn't even supposed to see her this visit) and came out and reassured me, touching my back. It was such a simple but very profound, empathetic gesture.

Utilize her as much as possible! She has endless knowledge.

My wife and I are at the beginning of a reciprocal IVF cycle. After initial workup, she recommended my wife get a polyp removed from her ovaries, and we have that scheduled.

I'm unsure what the total amount will be, since we recently started working with her.