Seeking reproductive endocrinologist recs

[Anonymous]

Coming up in a year of TTC with no success so I am looking for RE recs. Preferably female and someone who will at least look at my charts. Please share your recommendations. I have a strong aversion to Pap smears, stirrups, surgery, giving blood and all things medical so someone with bedside manner would be great. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Not a female, but I loved Dr. Widra at SG. He absolutely looked at all of my charts, had great bedside manner and was all around great. I saw him after a year TTC. I was pregnant within 2 months after my first consult appointment so I was;t with him for a long time, but really liked him.

[Anonymous]

I recommend Dr. Abbasi (female) at Columbia Fertility.

[Anonymous]

Just a note on the female thing - you're going to be seeing a lot of doctors as you get going on this process, and many of them will be male. If you want a woman as your main RE, that's great - but (based on my experience, at least) know that you will likely have monitoring appointments (and potentially tests done) with several/all of the doctors at a practice and some/many of them may be male. And, depending on your OB practice, when/if you do get pregnant, you'll rotate through many doctors there as well. Not trying to discourage you, but I had always gone to a female OBGYN because I thought I'd be more comfortable with a woman - but after a year or so of doing the RE/infertility thing, I've gotten used to (and totally comfortable) with the guys as well because there was really no choice, it's just how it works.

Also, you're going to be going there a lot for appointments and monitoring, so pick a place that is physically convenient for you to get to. If you have certain conditions or circumstances that call for a particular type or specialization of RE, that's another thing, but if you're unexplained or just getting started, find a place where it would not be overly inconvenient for you to get to for 3-5 consecutive mornings and a couple of other appointments per treatment month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a note on the female thing - you're going to be seeing a lot of doctors as you get going on this process, and many of them will be male. If you want a woman as your main RE, that's great - but (based on my experience, at least) know that you will likely have monitoring appointments (and potentially tests done) with several/all of the doctors at a practice and some/many of them may be male. And, depending on your OB practice, when/if you do get pregnant, you'll rotate through many doctors there as well. Not trying to discourage you, but I had always gone to a female OBGYN because I thought I'd be more comfortable with a woman - but after a year or so of doing the RE/infertility thing, I've gotten used to (and totally comfortable) with the guys as well because there was really no choice, it's just how it works.

Also, you're going to be going there a lot for appointments and monitoring, so pick a place that is physically convenient for you to get to. If you have certain conditions or circumstances that call for a particular type or specialization of RE, that's another thing, but if you're unexplained or just getting started, find a place where it would not be overly inconvenient for you to get to for 3-5 consecutive mornings and a couple of other appointments per treatment month.

I think this was very gently put, nicely done. I would say the frequent appointments continue through pregnancy too and that sometimes the best/most convenient doctors will be men. In my high risk pregnancy, I've been alternating between OB and MFM, and for the first 20 weeks, I've been seeing them once a week...if I refused to see male doctors it would be way more complicated.

[Anonymous]

IF you have a strong aversion or stirrups and pap smears, then maybe an RE isn't for you. If you decide to be treated, you will have to go through a barrage of tests. One of them involves shooting dye into your tubes and another is taking many tubes of blood.
They will draw your blood practically daily and use a wand up your vagina to look at your ovaries. This will be done by either a nurse or whatever Dr happens to be there at the time.

[Anonymous]

I know you said you wanted a woman, but I'd recommend Dr. Preston Sacks with Columbia Fertility. I think he has great bedside manner and he never makes me feel bad/silly for asking questions. In fact, he's very responsive by e-mail which helps me to ask questions that come up along the way.

I would also like to echo the advice of previous posters though - you WILL definitely see most, if not all, of the doctors at a particular practice just because of the nature of this process. And the importance of a convenient location for the office cannot be emphasized enough. If you have to do anything extensive, you will have to make frequent visits (sometimes daily). Having something close to my work has made a huge difference in my ability to manage everything without taking too much leave or distrupting my schedule otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IF you have a strong aversion or stirrups and pap smears, then maybe an RE isn't for you. If you decide to be treated, you will have to go through a barrage of tests. One of them involves shooting dye into your tubes and another is taking many tubes of blood.
They will draw your blood practically daily and use a wand up your vagina to look at your ovaries. This will be done by either a nurse or whatever Dr happens to be there at the time.

This hundred times over. They can look at your charts. But they cannot do anything with you without a battery of blood tests and without having you in stirrups. That's what REs do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF you have a strong aversion or stirrups and pap smears, then maybe an RE isn't for you. If you decide to be treated, you will have to go through a barrage of tests. One of them involves shooting dye into your tubes and another is taking many tubes of blood.
They will draw your blood practically daily and use a wand up your vagina to look at your ovaries. This will be done by either a nurse or whatever Dr happens to be there at the time.

This hundred times over. They can look at your charts. But they cannot do anything with you without a battery of blood tests and without having you in stirrups. That's what REs do.

Not to pile on but I had an HSG (the dye), transvaginal ultrasounds, etc just to confirm a uterine anomaly. I then had surgery to have a septum removed and later a hysteroscopy to make sure that everything looked ok in there...plus multiple times of lots of blood draws...I've never seen an RE (just lots of doctors due to multiple losses)...

[Anonymous]

Dr. Malik at shady grove. I think her home office is one of the SG locations in Virginia, but I saw her twice in Rockville. A "warm and fuzzy" doc, if that's what you're looking for.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Malik is very nice, but she is one of the newest and youngest RE's at SG. If OP has a complicated case someone more experienced may be more suited.

[Anonymous]

I'm not from your area but I have seen an RE for quite some time due to multiple losses. I don't know how it works in your area but the RE herself didn't ever take blood or do my ultrasounds herself. These were done by others in the clinic. So even if you find a good female RE you will have to deal with others who may or may not have her bedside manners. She did my sonohysterogram and uterine biopsy but that's about it in terms of hands on work. I gave a lot of blood, had lots of transvaginal ultrasounds, a couple of sonohysterograms and two biopsies. If you're squeamish and don't do well with these things you may have to work on that somehow. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know you said you wanted a woman, but I'd recommend Dr. Preston Sacks with Columbia Fertility. I think he has great bedside manner and he never makes me feel bad/silly for asking questions. In fact, he's very responsive by e-mail which helps me to ask questions that come up along the way.

I would also like to echo the advice of previous posters though - you WILL definitely see most, if not all, of the doctors at a particular practice just because of the nature of this process. And the importance of a convenient location for the office cannot be emphasized enough. If you have to do anything extensive, you will have to make frequent visits (sometimes daily). Having something close to my work has made a huge difference in my ability to manage everything without taking too much leave or distrupting my schedule otherwise.

+1 on Dr. Sacks. He was always very kind to me and very responsive to emails. He had me come in whenever he thought I needed a pep talk. Very compassionate.

Also +1 on all the PPs saying you might need to reevaluate your expectations. IF treatment is basically a permanent seat in the stirrups with one arm out for your blood draw. Its painful, invasive and exhausting, you need to prepare yourself for that and build up a little mental fortitude against at LEAST the physical inconveniences. The emotional toll is heavy enough on its own. I have to say though, you get used to it. I had a terrible fear of needles that was almost completely dealt with in IF treatments. By the time the 50th blood draw rolls around its just hard to maintain that level of emotion about it. This might not be the nicest way to say it but seriously, it sucks, you need to prepare.

[Anonymous]

While the OP won't be able to avoid the blood draws and ultrasounds, she can avoid males. I've been through 3 IUIs and 1 IVF. All my ultrasounds and bloodwork were done by women. There could be a male physician on the weekend, but they even don't come in the room unless you are having a major procedure done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recommend Dr. Abbasi (female) at Columbia Fertility.

+1
She's not warm and fuzzy but an excellent doctor, honest and very professional. You'll have to get used to having frequent exams & blood draws though, no way around it.