GW - Egg Retrieval experience and Follow up

[Anonymous]

I would like to know more about others experience with GW. I had a horrible experience with GW. I worked and only saw Dr. Frankfurter, but on the day of my retrieval was I given a new doctor which I've never met before, nor had any meetings with nor was I notified. Is this normal for GW. The kicker is Dr. Frankfurter met with me 1 hour after the procedure. They only retrieved 2 eggs as I was over stimulated.

I will don't want to deal with GW ever again, but I'm wondering if they schedule follow ups to make sure everything is back to normal.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like they didn’t manage your expectations well. It’s normal for a doctor other than your main doctor to perform your retrieval at GW and anywhere else. The schedules are set with certain doctors doing all the retrievals on certain days. Even if your doctor is working that day they have appointments etc. That is what happened when I was at GW and also at shady grove as well. I actually think it was nice and unexpected he came to meet with you. You can expect a call from your nurse and possibly your doctor to go over your results and perhaps a bit of what happened. If you want an in depth discussion, you will need to schedule an appointment.

I’m sorry your cycle didn’t go as planned, but what you experienced is standard for GW and any other IVF clinic, unless your clinic just has one doctor or something.

[Anonymous]

Dr. F is a wonderful person. Meeting with you for an hour afterwards is not standard for any re (and ive been to many). But he such a nice person I almost expect it of him.

Egg retrieval is usually the on call doctor. Sometimes, in some practices, you can get yours, but what happened to you is pretty standard

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP s. Doctor on call does retrieval, not necessarily "your" Dr.

Dr F exceeded expectations in his standard of care in my experience, I'm sorry you did not have the same experience.


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[Anonymous]

Love dr F and GW, but I do think you should calmly bring all this up with them because they probably don't realize they're not communicating clearly enough for all their patients.

[Anonymous]

Also a Dr. F patient. Luckily he did my ER, but the new doctor did my transfer of the only blastocyst to make it (from 9 mature eggs). He was nice and the transfer went smoothly, but it did not take. I had a difficult time communicating with him during the transfer, but after the appointment I told my nurse I had questions and Dr. F called me back right away.

I think GW does know about their communication problems, though. I know I’ve discussed it with my nurse and mentioned it to other nurses I’ve seen. I think Dr. F is just crazy busy.

[Anonymous]

I’m a GW patient and agree with the all of the above. I was there pre-Covid when the practice had a few more doctors, but really was impressed with how involved both my own primary and all the doctors, including Dr. F (who was not my primary at the time but who I did see) were in general. The doctor on-call always did the retrieval - I only think I had my “own” doctor for a retrieval twice (I had multiple cycles) but I was content with all of them. What impressed me most was the doctors are the ones that will do the monitoring, they actually were the on-calls after-hours, and Dr. F in particular seemed to go above and beyond in communicating cycle news and checking up. I had a friend at another of the popular practices in the area and hearing her relation of her experience, I hate to say it, made me glad I chose GW. It seemed as if most of their communication was through techs and nurses and she hardly heard from “her” doctor except second hand through the nurse (and similar it was the on-call doctor that did retrieval). I’m in process of actually planning to come back to GW to possibly try for a #2 after initial success from my first experience - and I know there’s been turnover at GW that may have left Dr. F busier than ever - but I’m still left with a positive impression of their practice overall - and am giving the newest doctor a chance to make a good impression as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a GW patient and agree with the all of the above. I was there pre-Covid when the practice had a few more doctors, but really was impressed with how involved both my own primary and all the doctors, including Dr. F (who was not my primary at the time but who I did see) were in general. The doctor on-call always did the retrieval - I only think I had my “own” doctor for a retrieval twice (I had multiple cycles) but I was content with all of them. What impressed me most was the doctors are the ones that will do the monitoring, they actually were the on-calls after-hours, and Dr. F in particular seemed to go above and beyond in communicating cycle news and checking up. I had a friend at another of the popular practices in the area and hearing her relation of her experience, I hate to say it, made me glad I chose GW. It seemed as if most of their communication was through techs and nurses and she hardly heard from “her” doctor except second hand through the nurse (and similar it was the on-call doctor that did retrieval). I’m in process of actually planning to come back to GW to possibly try for a #2 after initial success from my first experience - and I know there’s been turnover at GW that may have left Dr. F busier than ever - but I’m still left with a positive impression of their practice overall - and am giving the newest doctor a chance to make a good impression as well.

FWIW I'm a new GW patient (only during the pandemic). I chose it for the same reasons, and a friend had had a great experience with Dr. F. so it seemed like the best option for me. I've had a mixed experience (but still think I chose the best practice for me!)

On the one hand, the nurses and staff (esp. Connie their financial guru!) have all been fantastic. However, there seems to be a slight disconnect between the information provided by the nurse and what the new doc tells me, so due to miscommunication with the doctor some things have taken longer than I'd hoped. Also, I'm newer to this and have some questions but feel rushed when I've met with the new doctor. He's no Dr. F. (from what I've heard) in terms of bedside manner, but clearly knows what he's doing. At the end of the day, I had hoped to love my doc and the experience as much as my friend, but I really just need to get the information I need to make these big medical/financial decisions. YMMV; I still think it's a great clinic - just not super warm and fuzzy.