Thomas Burwinkel

Dr. Burwinkel was always available for whatever we needed. He never rushed our visits, he was kind and patient, he was always thorough in explanation of drugs, procedures, next steps, risks, and outcome probability. I had to have a surgery at a local hospital and Dr. Burwinkel was right there updating my husband and performing the surgery before going into the clinic for the day. We couldn’t have had better care.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and express your concerns. He will address any concern you have as many times as you need.

We started with a routine clomid cycle with an ovidrel trigger because my cycles were normal and everything seemed to be “okay” with us. After that cycle failed, I had a hysteroscopy which showed some uterine polyps. Not long after I had a polypectomy and D&C to remove the polyps and thin out my uterine lining. Once that healed, we went back for another clomid cycle + IUI and that also failed. By this time, we had spent a lot of money out of pocket and had to take a break to recover.

I honestly can’t remember. We spent a lot of money in a short period of time, but I can’t remember any specifics.

He was always polite to us, and prior to treatment after my baseline he was extra nice getting me ready for my injections. I went into it more than feeling prepared for the cycle to begin. I had my options already laid out and decided.

Do it. The office is a great place. I love all the doctors.

Took the pill for about 2 weeks. Then had a suppression check. Got my initial doses, which were updated at my first scan and adjusted from there. Adjusted again at my next two, and ended up with 100% fertilized from mature eggs!

They offer global billing with my insurance so the pricing was great. Even without insurance it was a fraction of the cost of a normal cycle.

At first I was hesitant but then I understood. If the cycle isn't successful I will approach the issue of transferring two.

Dr. Burwinkel was exceptional. He was easy to talk to and took time to explain all of our options and each course of action. He was on time, readily available anytime we had questions, and showed compassion while being upfront and honest about the situation. I highly recommend him and the staff at IRH.

Be patient & Dr. Burwinkel and his staff will do anything they can to help you through this difficult process. Ask questions and when you forget the answers don’t be afraid to reach out and ask again. Dr. B and his staff are so kind and patient!

We used chlomid for two cycles and then moved on to two fresh cycles of IVF and one frozen. The fresh cycles caused excessive bloating and Dr. B monitored me very closely. I never felt unsafe and always felt like they took my care at the highest priority.

We participated in a money back garuantee program at IVF. The cost was a little more than $20,000 not including medications. This cost about another $7,000. We were seen for 2 fresh cycles and 1 frozen during this time.

Dr. Burwinkel did a single embryo transfer the first time and then two embryo transfers with two. He talked us through the pros and cons of both, told us his recommendation, and listened to our concerns and wants. Ultimately it was a collective decision that I felt very good about.

Dr. Burwinkel makes you feel like you matter and not a science experiment. We had gotten a negative pregnancy result (January 2018) and he called me on a Saturday morning and explained our next steps and just took the time to sympathize with me. We've been going through fertility treatments for several years now and hes by far the best doctor Ive had. I had a miscarriage in June 2018 and he sat down with myself and husband just to talk about how we were feeling.

In the beginning he may not say much because he's doing alot of assessment and trying to find the best plan for you. But once he starts to share his plan and concerns, here comes all the compassion and long talks :)

For our transfer, we collectively decided to do ERA testing ( since we had 2 consecutive failed transfers) during a mock transfer to determine if we were transferring on the correct day. I took estradiol and progesterone 3xs/day and until transfer and then we did the procedure. The test turned out to be very useful. After the results came back and we did our normal transfer we go pregnant (ended in miscarriage).

General cost was around 7k

For multiples, he has made suggestions to us to try it but ultimately it was our decision on what we wanted to do.

He was very patient and explained things thoroughly at consultation and retrieval day. He was thorough and empathetic. He gave me advice when I had some tough decisions to make. He was also patient and thorough at our visits post-embryo transfer, and gave us a great personal recommendation for our OB too.

Write down the questions you want answered before consultation

I have the hormone profile of someone w hypothalamic amenorrhea but ovaries that appear like PCOS. I don’t have periods nor ovulate. So we did OCPs, gonal F and menopur (which I bought from overseas to save money and he allowed), Ovidrel, and PIO (which I prefer to suppositories so he allowed it). I believe gonal f is good when you have low FSH (to improve number of eggs retrieved) and menopur is good when you have low LH (to improve egg quality) - if I remember correctly - this may be reversed if I’m not remembering right. But since mine were both low, we used both! Gonal F was cheaper shipped on ice from Israel and the menopur was a cheaper generic version from the UK. Both obviously worked fine bc we have a live Singleton and one frozen we have yet to try: Ten eggs retrieved, 5 embryos, one was day 5 blastocyst 4aa and the frozen one is a day 6 blastocyst 4bb. I felt Dr. Burwinkle allowed me to give input on how I wanted to do my stims/cycle (I had a lot of opinions due to transferring from another local clinic that I had been very unhappy with).

We paid $20,000 cash for the “money back” program which allows I think up to six (??) fresh/frozen cycles with a two year (??) period. I forget the exact details but we decided to do that knowing that if it failed or I miscarried we could try again without paying more. The other option was lying $8500 (ish?) cash for one frozen cycle. My insurance really was no help so we went the cash route. It worked the first time so we call her our $20,000 baby! But it was worth it.

I would’ve like to transfer two embryos, but I only had one day 5 blastocyst. The other two needed another day to (try) to get to blastocyst stage - so I really didn’t have that option. They do feel strongly about “one healthy baby” at a time, but I believe would allow two embryos transferred if patient prefers

I instantly trusted him in my care, and the care of my wife. I do not do this lightly, he seemed confident, and competent without arrogance, and did so with compassion. I felt like he had done this so many times he probably could have done it with his eyes closed however he still took his time to explain and answer questions with the understanding that this was our first time going through this.

Ask questions, and tell him what you want, listen but also know that he will listen to you.

We did co maternity IVF this was our desire going in. He gave us information on sperm donors and did a mock ultrasound guided transfer during the first visit, also lab work. Then we scheduled our education visit where we received all of our prescriptions up front and the protocol, we were seen for our scheduled visits at the west chester location and then Cincinnati location for the procedures. 11 eggs were retrieved and 5 fertilized and the best two were transferred on day 3 unfortunately the others didn’t continue to divide. This resulted into a healthy Singleton pregnancy which was confirmed with blood work and then an ultrasound at 6 weeks and another at 10 weeks, then our care was transferred to my OBGYN.

Ours were covered through insurance and we were responsible for 15 percent. We were told all of this upfront with their financial coordinator and we continue to pay for sperm storage which is once a year.

I followed his recommendation of transferring 2 on day 3 or one on day 5. I felt comfortable with this approach and was explained the risk of course of having multiples.

He is very genuine and caring. He was the one to call with lab results and I really appreciated that. He was very knowledgeable and made sure we understood everything going on with my cycles. He made sure to run certain tests to rule out certain things that could be impacting my fertility and quickly diagnosed where my problems lied.

Be confident in dr. Burwinkel and know that he has your best interests in mind when figuring out your cycle.

My first cycle with him was Femara and injectables. I overstimulated that cycle and it was cancelled. He scaled back the Femara the second cycle only using a mild dosage with injectables and we had a successful cycle!

10,500

He was very understanding of either option, he just made sure we were aware of risks and success rates.