Dr. James Simon - do you recommend him?

[Anonymous]

After several awful months at Columbia Fertility Associates, where it is impossible to get a nurse on the phone and I have literally cried with frustration over their lack of responsiveness, I am looking for a small, DC-based practice where the doctors and nurses are professional, sympathetic, and responsive. It doesn't matter whether or not they accept insurance. Dr. James Simon, a solo practictioner, was recommended to me by my OB. I would be very grateful for any feedback, pro or con, on him. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

This is a response I posted in response to another poster's question (see 10/10 posting re: Dr. Sacks at Columbia Fertility)



I was treated by Dr. James Simon for over a year and I cannot say enough wonderful things about him and his staff. Most of your interaction will be with the physicians' assistants, Carol and Lucy, and the RN, Ellen, who are absolutely amazing! The personalized attention they give their patients is incredible. They take such a personal interest in their patients and are always available to answer questions, give advice, etc. I conceived successfully with my first IUI cycle and then went back to see them when we tried for number two. Unfortunately, the second time we had three failed IUIs and one failed IVF, but our experience with Dr. Simon's office has been great regardless. I would recommend Dr. Simon to anyone starting fertility treatments without hesitation.

You should know, however, that Dr. Simon does his IVF treatments at Columbia Fertility, so in the event you get to the IVF stage, you will need to have some interaction with that office. Also, if your embryo retrieval falls on a weekend day that Dr. Simon is not available, then I believe Dr. Sacks is his backup (he studied under Dr. Simon). You may want to discuss this with Dr. Simon.

BTW, I had a similar annoying experience with Columbia Fertility when we did our IVF cycle. They were supposed to call my doctor's office to let him know how many viable embryos we had and they didn't return my doc office's calls for 2 days. So we had to wait a while to find out, which added anxiety to an already stressful situation. So I agree that the staff there is not very responsive. On the flip side, we thought the nurses and anesthesiologist were very nice. Good luck to you!

[Anonymous]

You might also want to consider the infertility practice at GW. I am seeing Dr Frankfurter who is great (and was highly recommended by my gyn). There are 3 MDs on staff and the nurses have been very responsive. They do IVF procedures in house (I was told MDs doing the procedures alternate days so you only have a 1 in 3 chance of having your primary MD do a procedure). I'm not starting IVF until next year though, so my opinion is jsut based on initial consults/testing.

[Anonymous]

OP here: thanks so much for the comments. I just started with Dr. Simon, and it has been a great experience so far. His staff is wonderful. What a relief after the nightmare at Columbia.