Questions about CCMR

[Anonymous]

I just looked up the success rates (SART) for CCMR and they blew me away! Their frozen embryo transfers are at 57.4%, way higher than Shady Grove which is at 26.4%. I have a phone consult with Dr. Schoolcraft in July, but we can't afford to do the rest of the procedure in CO. It looks like it costs about $30,000 plus hotel and travel, but most importantly they don't participate with Aetna.

Does anyone know if they will advise on a protocol during the phone consult? I thought I read that they would do that and we could implement the protocol at Shady Grove. Is it worth it to do the call then?

[Anonymous]

I did a (successful) cycle at CCRM.

The phone consult was thorough (mine was with Surrey) but he did NOT recommend a protocol. In fact, he emphasized the quality of the lab over the protocol or anything else. Indeed, he followed pretty much the identical protocol as my local doctor, with might I say slightly worse results in terms of yield, but the one lonely genetically-normal embryo I had did implant and became healthy babies. I had more genetically normal embryos with my local clinic but none of them implanted (which is what sent me to CCRM). AT least at the time (2013) they did not work with local clinics on protocols.

I had Aetna too as insurance. Even though we had to front the money, CCRM handled all the insurance forms for us, and we were able to get back about $14K (as out of network providers).

[Anonymous]

I, too, am thinking about changing from Shady Grove, maybe to CCRM. I am also absolutely blown away by their stats. It's almost unbelievable! My problem is not implantation but just getting quality, normal eggs. I wish they could charge a second opinion fee or something and give you a protocol. That is a long way to go when you don't even know the protocol. Ugh. It makes it hard to know if it's worth it to go all the way out there.

[Anonymous]

While indeed a good and successful clinic, they are more choosy in who they accept as patients. Frozen transfers are the norm there, as they require CGS testing, a freeze-all with transfer of any genetically normal embryos via a FET. (Hence their good stats.) If you can afford it, definitely go there as their lab is quite good, as well. Like PP mentioned, it is a package deal--you don't just walk away from the consult with a protocol. After the consult if you want to move forward you & DH fly out there for a one day work up of testing. That is an additional cost, as well.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, 18.49 and all! Now I'm rethinking doing the $310 call with Dr. Schoolcraft at CCMR since it just sounds like a call about their wonderful lab.

I had a question for 18.49. Did you have the Aetna PPO program? I have the HMO and when I called about getting some reimbursement for an out of network provider they said it was not possible. Also, I have cycles 3 times with natural IVF and had 2 healthy embryos and 1 egg that did not fertilized. Unfortunately, the two embryos did not implant. Is that a lab issue or an issue with me that it didn't implant? Like my uterine lining was not thick enough. It seems to me that even though a lab does fantastic work, my thin uterine lining is an issue and can't be overcome by a great lab.