Susan Willman

Dr. Willman is very knowledgeable and personable. She answers questions thoroughly and cites relevant research. I wish she was more available though. She is hard to have contact with outside of appointments and her schedule is very busy. Appointment times get bumped and phone calls get pushed back. But when you get her attention, she is very good.

Make a list of questions to ask at your appointment and cover everything you want to cover, because getting a hold of her between appointments is not possible.

~$15K for IVF egg retrieval plus ~$4K per frozen embryo transfer

She is very knowledgeable about preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) and will suggest adding this to the protocol. She prefers to use this to transfer single embryos.

She seems very competent. She is very good at explaining things in detail. She is thorough. She is very focused on genetic testing. I felt like she is slightly overly cautious. I tested as a carrier for a very rare genetic condition and I didn't want to pay to have my sperm donor tested for it because I was comfortable with the very small risk; she was a bit heavy handed in trying to talk me into doing further genetic testing. Similarly, she wanted to do an HSG test for blocked tubes right out of the gate, whereas other fertility doctors with which I consulted suggested doing 3 rounds of IUI before jumping to HSG. So, she likes tests. I think she knows what she is doing. Her bedside manner is mostly matter of fact, but she is not cold. She is nice.

Let her know if you don't want all of the tests she is recommending. For example, I told her I wanted to try 3 rounds of IUI before getting an HSG test, and she was okay with that plan. I just had to be assertive about it.

IUI $880 per cycle (including untra-sound monitoring)

For straightforward cases, I expect Dr. Willman could be great. But in my experience, as soon as anything deviated from the norm, it all started to fall apart. She's well-respected in the Bay Area and that's got to be for a reason, but I now doubt her medical opinion based on feedback from two other REs on her protocol. For example, she told me that blastocycsts from a rescue ICSI are no less likely to be viable than from regular ICSI or just IVF. She also told me that breastfeeding would have no effect on my IVF cycle. I have spoken to other doctors who feel the opposite on both those counts. She also tends to get defensive when challenged on some of the calls she's made, which while understandable, doesn't sit right with me. Despite some major setbacks, I did get pregnant and gave birth to my kid, though trying for #2 with this doctor was a complete failure.

Trust your gut.

My first IVF cycle was an antagonist protocol and canceled for a lead follicle. My 2nd cycle was a Lupron microdose flare protocol and ultimately did lead to a pregnancy and live birth. However, we were advised to use ICSI, agreed and paid for it, and then it was not done. We had an almost total fertilization failure--out of 15 eggs only 2 fertilized. Dr. Willman said that since the sperm had looked good, she decided against ICSI. We were livid and upset. The lab did "rescue ICSI" at this point, which ultimately led to 1 frozen blastocyst. I have heard since that rescue ICSI almost never works and that the blasts that result from it are almost always nonviable. Indeed, the FET cycle we did with that blast was a failure. For our last cycle, in an attempt to conceive a 2nd child, Dr. Willman prescribed another antagonist cycle despite the fact that in the past that had led to a canceled cycle for me. It was coupled with estrogen priming, FSH and Menopur. She also prescribed human growth hormone, but not beginning till stim day 5. In speaking with other doctors, the HGH should be started far earlier in the cycle. I had poor response to the drugs and my estrogen never reached above 900, even with 12 follicles. My estrogen dipped on the day of trigger. I asked Dr. Willman if we should cancel the cycle and she recommended going ahead to retrieval because this might be as good as I would be able to get. They got 7 mature eggs. Four fertilized, and only 1 made it to day 3. On day 6 it was deemed poor quality and not frozen or transferred. I really wish we had canceled the cycle. Now she recommends donor eggs.

It's far too much effort for me to try to quantify this unfortunately, between insurance coverage, canceled cycles, etc. It's all a blur. As I said previously, the financial and billing aspect of this process was a nightmare and it is here that the clinic has its biggest weakness.

Dr. Willman is a strong believer in the advantages of a healthy singleton pregnancy, and would likely recommend an eSET if the patient were on the younger side, or at any age if the embryos were normal as determined by genetic testing.

I explained this in the previous commentary. My wife experienced more of the clinical interaction and I cannot comment on this. As for my experience, she seemed very cold and was matter-of-fact about the initial course of action. She tried to sell us on IVF as a first-line treatment prior to Clomid or IUI. Then, we were presented with the financial details. We explained that we wanted to try IUI first. I remember she sighed and then explained the timeline and required procedures, along with associated costs. Compared with our IVF procedure, she performed about twice the number of ultrasounds during ovarian stimulation, at $325 each time. It seemed like they were maximizing billing. I work in radiation oncology, and I was very disappointed.

There are many options in the Bay Area. Choose a different option.

It was very costly compared with other clinics in the region at the time, but was more convenient for my wife.

I felt like I was on an assembly line. I went (and stayed) because of the SART stats but ultimately decided they were way too cavalier about our ability to keep financing treatment without a major reassessment of what may have been going on.

Be prepared to deal with nurses, techs, and all of the other doctors there almost exclusively, Willman will be your doctor only in the sense that is the primary doctor assigned to your case; she will not be making all of the treatment decisions or handling the procedures.

IUIs with lertozole, some with bravelle, and some with follistim with menopur. All negative pregnancy tests. IVF with follistim, menopur, and ganirelix. 5 fertilized eggs, 1 day 5 embryo, 1 day 5 morula, both transferred, low chemical pregnancy resulted.

It was efficient and impersonal, a different nurse or doctor each time. They were always pleasant though.

IUIs were about $600 plus meds, IVF retrieval and fresh transfer was about $24,000 with no PGS plus meds.

They recommended a fresh transfer of two embryos - a blast and morula.

She is very knowledgable. She is a likeable person. I don't think she adequately prepared for our appointment, though. For example, she looked at my genetic testing results and said a had a "very common" genetic disorder. There are actually two forms of the disorder and the one I carry is the uncommon one.

ask questions and be assertive about your individual needs

I did one unmedicated IUI

IUI $880 including ultrasounds

Susan Willman is very compassionate with patients. I have also dealt with other Doctors there when they are covering for her and they function the same way. I just wish she could help me achieve my second pregnancy so much easier than the first one.

I would recommend them to ask as many questions as possible.

This was in 2010 but the one thing that does stand out is when she recommended icsi.

The services are pricey and nothing is covered under my insurance. They have a program called Attain where you can try various fresh cycles and you get a certain refund if you don't take a baby home from hospital.

This time in 2018 I did want to transfer not than 2 but it is against their policy. They either transfer 1 or 2.

Please see my earlier comments.

Get a second opinion

I feel like I answered this in the first question. She explained everything clearly and set our expectations appropriately. We did get lucky on our first IUI cycle with her, after two miscarriages previous to seeing her, so that was the end of our work with her.

Don't hesitate, just go.

The initial round of testing revealed I had a balanced translocation. Her strategy, as I had good results for ovarian reserve and egg quality, was to try three rounds of IUI to hopefully speed up the process of getting pregnant, and if that failed, move to IVF. The first IUI resulted in a healthy baby.

n/a

(+) Smart, Experienced, Compassionate, Clear, Thorough (-) Too busy to actually participate in my care, Not creative in dealing with my low chances, seemed like she had given up on me having a baby with my own eggs before i was ready to give up

She's very good, but don't expect to see or hear much from her.