best fertility clinic in D.C. or Maryland

[Anonymous]

I left Shady Grove for CCRM, but honestly I have a pretty dismal view of the entire industry. I don't think there is a single clinic in the area that is a standout. The things that have actually improved outcomes for me have been things I researched and insisted on myself. I've made a commitment to dig through medical journals, do multiple second opinions in DC and NY and just in general be a really active participant in my treatment. The most important thing has just been an RE who I can have regular contact with (unlike SG where you never see your doctor and all communication is filtered through a nurse).

I will say this: CCRM is definitely the most thorough of the two. For example, they do PIO AND suppositories for FETs. After having had an early miscarriage where SG was barely monitoring my progesterone, I'm grateful for that. And they have me on baby aspirin and a steroid before an FET, something that a lot of other clinics do, but not SG.

Also, SG's billing has turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Their billing office is completely unreachable and an incorrect bill they sent me is about to go to collections. I've left voicemails, emails... and complete silence.

Finally, I'm part of a support group of women who have been doing infertility treatments for at least a year. All of them who started at SG have left. I think that's pretty good evidence that they are fine for easy cases, but not for tougher ones.

[Anonymous]

If at SG your testing shows low odds of success, and they have tens of thousands of previous patients to measure your results against, then not recommending IVF or recommending donor egg is keeping you from spending huge amounts of money and undergoing extensive medical interventions that aren’t likely to be successful. IMO that is the most ethical advice they can give.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You may not have liked Shady Grove for whatever reason, but you are not qualified to state they "steer patients away" from IVF and that is the reason for their success rates. It's ridiculous that you insist on making that bald assertion as if it were a fact.

We can all read this board and see that they treat people with high BMI, PCOS, AMA, and a whole range of other issues. They treat more women in the 41+ category than any clinic in the area. They obviously do not tell them regularly to go to donor egg immediately. Good grief.

I don't want to derail this thread but all the issues you mention are very different than severe DOR or POF. Which is why I specifically mentioned those two diagnoses. I have POF and was diagnosed at 30, that's a hard diagnosis and I was very much told that my options at Shady Grove would be donor eggs. Even though I knew my chances were not great both GW and CCRM were willing to let me cycle with my own eggs. And I did end up cycling at CCRM 3 times. I used to lead a support group for infertility in this area and heard similar stories from women with POF and DOR about their experiences with Shady Grove. So just sharing my own experience with that particular diagnosis.

So after SG turned you down and CCRM agreed to three cycles, we’re these successful?

[Anonymous]

23:31 to answer your question, yes I do have one child. We accepted my diagnosis might mean more cycles and even with a low chance still wanted to try. CCRM was open with us about our chances, and that donor eggs would have a much much higher success rate. We agreed to do up to 4 cycles. So 1st cycle resulted in no viable embryos to transfer, 2nd cycle resulted in an early loss, and 3rd cycle resulted in one child. Donor eggs weren't an option for us.

[Anonymous]

If you have complex issues requiring uterine surgery, I'd recommend Mayo Clinic. There's a gynecologic surgeon there (whose name has slipped my mind, it's been a number of years) who is well known for taking on extremely difficult cases that other surgeons refuse.

We were there. Very good care. Their RE practice is more focused on extremely complex cases that are expected to have a low success rate, as well, and they are willing to try things other clinics are not.

[Anonymous]

PP adding on: I know that it's not DC/MD/VA, of course. But they do a great job compressing your care into a reasonable timeframe, so it's workable as "destination medicine". Infertility treatment is so expensive anyway that it's worth considering the journey if you have an intractable problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I left Shady Grove for CCRM, but honestly I have a pretty dismal view of the entire industry. I don't think there is a single clinic in the area that is a standout. The things that have actually improved outcomes for me have been things I researched and insisted on myself. I've made a commitment to dig through medical journals, do multiple second opinions in DC and NY and just in general be a really active participant in my treatment. The most important thing has just been an RE who I can have regular contact with (unlike SG where you never see your doctor and all communication is filtered through a nurse).

I will say this: CCRM is definitely the most thorough of the two. For example, they do PIO AND suppositories for FETs. After having had an early miscarriage where SG was barely monitoring my progesterone, I'm grateful for that. And they have me on baby aspirin and a steroid before an FET, something that a lot of other clinics do, but not SG.

Also, SG's billing has turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Their billing office is completely unreachable and an incorrect bill they sent me is about to go to collections. I've left voicemails, emails... and complete silence.

Finally, I'm part of a support group of women who have been doing infertility treatments for at least a year. All of them who started at SG have left. I think that's pretty good evidence that they are fine for easy cases, but not for tougher ones.

Would you mind sharing info about the group? Looking for a group and have been trying for 2 years.

[Anonymous]

does CCRM offer multicycle packages?

[Anonymous]

In my opinion -- GIVF. Before I picked them I looked at all the data on the CDC ART site, including patient characteristics and OE to DE ratios (Make sure to look through all the data tabs. The front page success rates are a fraction of the full story.) They take older patients and patients with multiple conditions, which was important to me. (Did not want to go with a provider that cherry-picks their cases to game the reporting stats. If you do your research and look through the comments on this board, you'll find a couple that fall into that category...) I was relatively young and we're unexplained, but still wanted to know this stuff, because to me that is a reflection of the "character" of the practice. I loved my team at GIVF and we were ultimately successful.

Our backup option was Frankfurter at GW. However, another factor to consider, when determining which one is "best" -- how close/convenient they are to your house and work. There will be A LOT of appointments for all kinds of things and distance can make a big difference. That's why we ultimately went with GIVF over GW. (Plus, I really liked my doc there

CCRM also has a good reputation, especially for the strength of their embryology lab and willingness to be innovative/think outside the box, but they're new and I don't know much about them specifically. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You may not have liked Shady Grove for whatever reason, but you are not qualified to state they "steer patients away" from IVF and that is the reason for their success rates. It's ridiculous that you insist on making that bald assertion as if it were a fact.

We can all read this board and see that they treat people with high BMI, PCOS, AMA, and a whole range of other issues. They treat more women in the 41+ category than any clinic in the area. They obviously do not tell them regularly to go to donor egg immediately. Good grief.

I don't want to derail this thread but all the issues you mention are very different than severe DOR or POF. Which is why I specifically mentioned those two diagnoses. I have POF and was diagnosed at 30, that's a hard diagnosis and I was very much told that my options at Shady Grove would be donor eggs. Even though I knew my chances were not great both GW and CCRM were willing to let me cycle with my own eggs. And I did end up cycling at CCRM 3 times. I used to lead a support group for infertility in this area and heard similar stories from women with POF and DOR about their experiences with Shady Grove. So just sharing my own experience with that particular diagnosis.

were you successful with CCRM/GW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not what you're asking exactly, but we left the area and went to Cornell. Worked with Shady Grove, and though they help a lot of people, we weren't happy there. Their cookie cutter approach didn't work for us, and they were unwilling to change the protocol that obviously wasn't working.

Many women like Columbia Fertility because Dr. Abassi believes in immune issues and tests for them, though she's not an RI like Dr. Braverman (in NY) or Dr. Kwak Kim (in Chicago).

Had the CCRM location been open a few years ago when we switched from SG to Cornell, we probably would've gone there instead.

Pretty much the same case as above, I do believe that Cornell and CCRM are better equipped to handle truly challenging cases, Shady Grove is okay for simpler, routine cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was very old (43-3) and had success at Shady Grove. I asked lots of questions, had repeated consults with the dr., got tests elsewhere when I needed to, asked for modifications which my dr agreed to do (Widra), and they did a lot to advance my chances (3 day transfer, high # transferred etc.) It's a numbers game.

Which location?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:23:31 to answer your question, yes I do have one child. We accepted my diagnosis might mean more cycles and even with a low chance still wanted to try. CCRM was open with us about our chances, and that donor eggs would have a much much higher success rate. We agreed to do up to 4 cycles. So 1st cycle resulted in no viable embryos to transfer, 2nd cycle resulted in an early loss, and 3rd cycle resulted in one child. Donor eggs weren't an option for us.

Why weren't donor eggs an option? So you used your own eggs?

[Anonymous]

Not Shady Grove!

[Anonymous]

4:20 to answer your questions yes it was own eggs IVF. No donor eggs because we were lucky to have some coverage for IVF and meds, plus a few friends that had donated their leftover medications to me. But I am Japanese and our coverage didn't apply to donor eggs, and Asian donor eggs can be complicated to find/much more costly. We didn't have any family members willing to donate either. I am not against donor eggs in any way, I think it's a great option, just wasn't financially workable for us.