GW IVF clinic - please tell me about your experience.

[Anonymous]

doctor recommendation, success rate, good or bad?

[Anonymous]

We were completely turned off by Dr. Gindoff (Director & Doc) & his arrogance, so we went to Shady Grove & had a wonderful (respectful) experience that resulted in our DD.

[Anonymous]

Ditto what PP said, except my child is a boy. Not only was he arrogant and condescending, he also told us a couple of things that turned out to be wrong. Thank goodness we got second opinions on both. I have heard good things about Dr. Frankfurter at GW, however -- the women I talked to in the ultrasound waiting room when I was there seemed happy with their experiences, but all of them were seeing Dr. Frankfurter and not Dr. Gindoff. FWIW, I saw Dr. Osborn in the DC office of Shady Grove and she was wonderful.

[Anonymous]

I am a patient at GW with Dr Frankfurter. He's wonderful, as is everyone I've come into contact with there. Please realize that just because a few people don't like Gindoff, he or the practice is no good. I happen to like Gindoff and came into contact with him often during monitoring. He also performed my ER.

If you want a doctor who wins a popularity contest, go somewhere else. If want to be told the truth and helped with your best interests in mind, go to GW. These folks are genuinely concerned about their patients, and as sensitive as they are, they are also practical. I much prefer a practice that is willing to work with patients in difficult fertility situations such as mine (43 yrs old/secondary infertility) at the risk of affecting their "success rates".

Besides, I am skeptical about what the other poster said about Gindoff being "wrong". She never mentioned what he was "wrong" about. Just searching online at the philosophies of different practices there is a huge disparity in beliefs. There is so much unproven in this field (in no small part affected by the lack of funding for reasearch from the current administration) that people have exaggerated ideas on what will or won't work. These guys don't. GW docs are all about the facts, but will encourage anything safe that will help the patient, such as taking certain supplements and using holistic medicine.

And an added point....my friends' RE from Cornell Medical Center in NYC when asked which was the best practice in the DC area, he said without a moment's hesitation...GW

[Anonymous]

I'm not the only one! I had an initial consult with Gindoff, who was so condescending, arrogant, and talked to my husband more than me, there was no way I could go back. Infertility is stressful enough. I've found SG on K Street to be much better, not only in bedside manner, but actually answering my questions and professionally acknowledging when there are options or medical differences of opinion instead of just one way.

[Anonymous]

Although I found Dr. Gindoff a bit off-putting at first, I was impressed with the practice overall and we ended up having a daughter after treatment there. I'd echo the comments by 11:46, and also felt good about the fact that Dr. Gindoff and the other doctors stay so current on research and are abreast of developments in this field. (Not saying others aren't, but I found this to be a positive aspect of a practice affiliated with a research university.) GW was also enormously convenient for me while I was working, and I think that has to be A -- though not THE -- factor in choosing a practice, given the time involved in monitoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although I found Dr. Gindoff a bit off-putting at first, I was impressed with the practice overall and we ended up having a daughter after treatment there. I'd echo the comments by 11:46, and also felt good about the fact that Dr. Gindoff and the other doctors stay so current on research and are abreast of developments in this field. (Not saying others aren't, but I found this to be a positive aspect of a practice affiliated with a research university.) GW was also enormously convenient for me while I was working, and I think that has to be A -- though not THE -- factor in choosing a practice, given the time involved in monitoring.

PP, what research and developments have Dr. Gindoff & others GW Doc have made? Most Med Schools have minor research grants from Pharmaceutical Companies. GWU School of Medicine "was put on probation by its academic accrediting organization for being out of compliance on several standards."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/15/AR2008101503120.html

[Anonymous]

Here are some of his recent studies:

http://www.biomedexperts.com/Profile.bme/465459/Paul_R_Gindoff

I should also mention that we chose GW in part b/c of the success rates for ICSI (and the reputation of Dr. Dubey who runs the lab), which we required for male factor issues. If you already have a diagnosis, I recommend spending some time looking at the CDC stats for success rates of local clinics for different procedures, and for different age groups as part of your decision-making process.

Bottom line though, OP, you need to feel comfortable with your medical team in this process. If you're leaning towards GW, you could also meet with Dr. Frankfurter or Dr. Dayal - I had procedures with both of them during our IVF process and liked both of them a lot.

[Anonymous]

I went to Dr Frankfurter at GW and would highly recommend him. Dh has some connections in the medical field and asked around and Dr F has a great rep. he is also a really nice and compasionate RE. The nurses there are great too. The REs there publish frequently (just do a search for any of them on the NIH search engine http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) so they are up on the latest research. It's less user friendly than Shady Grove though -- you have to line up for morning monitoring and the ultrasound tech is pretty rude (plus DH can't come into the room with you during morning monitoring). Also, after doing 3 IUIs at GW, I switched to SG because SG is cheaper for shared risk and I also thought there were advantages to being someplace with a higher-volume lab. But now that I turned out to be a poor-responder, part of me wishes I was back at GW, where they may be more up on the latest research -- but now I couldn't get into a shared risk program since I'm a bad risk. All tht said, I'd recommend meeting with REs at GW and other clinics before making a final decision.

[Anonymous]

Just a follow-up on 11:56's post. I agree with the comment on the u/s tech, but my husband was able to come in the room for the u/s (we only did it after pregnancy was confirmed), by waiting in the hallway, then coming in through the u/s room door (not the dressing room door where patients come through) after I was in the room. It's not the easiest set-up, but if you want DH there with you, it can be done.

[Anonymous]

We only used GW for IUI, not IVF, but Dr. Gindoff was our dr. IUI didn't work and he told us that IVF was our only option. We had already told him several times that IVF was not in the cards for us and we felt like he really tried to talk us into it. They seemed very dismayed when we stopped treatment and adopted, like we were bringing down their success rates. Anyway, 2 years later (after adopting our daughter), I'm pregnant without even trying.

[Anonymous]

I went to Dr. Dayal. I would highly reccomend her. We didn't have a particularly complicated case, but she explained all of our options very clearly, was very personable but professional, and was very patient with all of our many questions. The nurses are great too. I think the practice is small and the space is cramped, but on the flip side I felt like I got a lot of personal attention and the people there really knew me and actually cared about whether I got pregnant. I didn't find the U/S tech rude so much as not friendly. But she's definitely not freindly.

Also, I second what the PP poster said...your husband can come in. He just has to wait in the hall and then they call him in (or you can) when it's your turn.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for your input on GW - - I did not ask the original quesiton about it, but am thinking about leaving Shady Grove and am looking for another center in the DC area. Could I ask 11:46 if you had success at GW? I ask because I am also older (42) and I am looking for a place that has exeperience dealing with my age group. On the CDC site, GW's 2007 stats for women in the 41/42 range are low (8% live birth rate for IVF), but I don't have a lot of experience interpreting stats so wonder if there is other information about GW that I should consider in evaluating them. Many thanks for any thoughts you might have on this.

[Anonymous]

I;m not PP 11:46, but I did meet with Dr Dayal at the recent Resolve Conference. She said they have started using a new protocol on poor responders (they are in the process of publishing follow-up clinical trial). Here's a link to an article about the protocol: Mid follicular GnRH antagonist suppression: A novel means of improving follicular recruitment in the poor responder http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0015028204016164

[Anonymous]

12:14, did dr. dayal give any details about how this Mid follicular GnRH antagonist suppression protocol is different from the commonly used antagonist protocol?
thanks!