Any experiences with Dr. Fady Sharara at Virginia Center For Reproductive Medicine?

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Has anyone been treated by Dr. Fady Sharara at the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine in Reston? I'm a fertility coach and have a client considering going there for a consult/treatment. I'm not familiar with this practice and was wondering if anyone would be willing to share any experiences or insights, good, bad or indifferent.

many thanks in advance for any responses!!

[Anonymous]

I interviewed him during my RE search. I actually liked him. He knew his research! I was going to go with him but I read that the FDA issued a warning to him for improperly labeled HIV-reactive (positive) donor sperm, and I wasn't going to let my embies in his lab.

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2013/ucm369600.htm

I know it was awhile ago, but I wasn't going to take a chance. Also, my best friend is a research scientist and her stance was "use him, just don't use his donor sperm."

[Anonymous]

Lots of posts on Dr. Sharara. Here are a couple threads to get you started:

Anyone use Fady Sharara at VCRM?
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/226768.page

Abassi vs. Sharara
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/415855.page

[Anonymous]

What is a fertility coach?

[Anonymous]

Yes, what is a fertility coach?

[Anonymous]

Hi! OP here -

thank you so much for this information about Dr. Sharara. I really appreciate you including threads for me to go check them out.

A fertility coach is a professional who helps you navigate the fertility journey. I became a coach after my own struggles with infertility and once I successfully got pregnant with my son. I learned so much on my journey about health, wellness, women's health, reproduction and fertility that I was in a great place to help others. I have certifications in fertility counseling and health coaching and this, coupled with my own self study, puts me in a great position to help others.

Basically a coach helps you navigate the journey by helping you make sense of the options available to you for family building, which can be really overwhelming and confusing. A coach helps you develop your blueprint/plan for achieving optimal health and hopefully conception. If you're interested in a more integrative approach, a coach can help you incorporate those options into your health care plan as well. A coach helps you be proactive about your health and fertility through helping you make lifestyle changes, as well as manage stress. A coach provides emotional support for both partners during what is an immensely emotional process.

when I was TTC I didn't even know that fertility coaching existing, much less that I'd ever become a coach myself! I wish I'd known to seek out such an option it might have helped me feel less alone on the journey.

Thanks again for the info on Dr. Sharara - I'll check it out!!

[Anonymous]

Tell your clients to run. Very shady doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell your clients to run. Very shady doctor.

Thank you - can you please tell me more?

-OP

[Anonymous]

For us, he was the best solution. We had originally gone with Shady Grove, but had very poor services from them. Although Dr. Stillman seemed very knowledgable, we were treated like some laboratory case. Despite an extensive interview process where we discussed our choices and goals, he was completely unprepared for us. Either he took no notes of our discussion or he didn't bother to review them. He cam in the morning of our appointment, told us the preparation he had made for our appointment, which included the wrong number of blastocysts to implant, and although we had reviewed which blasts we wanted to attempt, he thawed the wrong ones. He acted as if we had never told him about choices, but we sat in his office at told him explicitly. It was like we were working with a doctor we had never seen before and he made no attempts to apologize. We had two FETs and both experiences were very similar.

Rather than try a third transfer with Shady Grove and the completely horrible support team, we chose to go with Dr. Sharara. He reviewed our case and highlighted several mistakes in our treatment with Shady Grove. He made some pre-transfer recommendations for us that we took and we followed his guidance the entire way. Some of his suggestions were hard to follow, but following his recommendations, we were successful on the first transfer with him and have beautiful twins. We found him much more knowledgable about current research and effective methods to increase the odds of success despite many factors (including health issues) in our way.

Plus, the staff at VCRM treated us significantly better than the staff at SGFC. Shady Grove, no one, not even our primary nurse, knew who we were or seemed to remember us from visit to visit. VCRM, they knew us every visit. From the front desk staff to the support staff (we had the same nurse each visit) to Dr. Sharara. They remembered us and at least reviewed our case file so that they knew what we had discussed the previous visit. We never had to correct them about details already discussed. And, from our experience, they were much more professional in the way they handled our case than Shady Grove, where we found numerous lab, doctor and billing errors.