CCRM?

[Anonymous]

Which office/set of doctors are the best to contact for an out of town phone consult -- Denver, Lone Tree, or Louisville? Also, how does cycling there, when out of town, work/how onerous is it? thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

I think the Lone Tree office is the only one that deals with out-of-town cyclers - that is their headquarters. The one-day workup was easy - I left my office at 4:30 to grab an evening flight, stayed at a nearby hotel, was at CCRM from 8:30-12:30, and flew home that afternoon. So essentially I only missed a day of work. It was a pain to find a place will to draw my Day 3 blood to ship it out, but the lab at my former GP's office was willing to do it, and my DH's GP did his.

Cycling was harder because my period came 3 days early, so I had to change my tickets and plans at almost the last minute to get out there by day 7. (I used my old clinic for my day 3 and day 6 blood tests and ultrasounds.) I'd bought fully refundable tickets from Frontier, but ended up paying close to $1200 for my airfare - ouch. My DH and DC flew out several days later, on the day we had been scheduled to go. I ended up doing a fresh transfer because I only had one embryo (had planned to do the genetic testing study, which involves a frozen transfer), so I extended my stay by a few days. I flew out on a Friday evening and came home on a Tuesday 10 days later. If I'd done a frozen transfer, I would have returned home on a Saturday and flown out again in a few months for 3-4 days. I told my employer that I needed time off for a medical procedure, so I didn't really do work, but I know that others are more open and arrange to work remotely while there. Overall, it was stressful to arrange everything and get out there (especially since I wasn't telling my employer what was going on), but once I was there it was fine.

[Anonymous]

Overall, it was stressful to arrange everything and get out there (especially since I wasn't telling my employer what was going on), but once I was there it was fine.

Thank you for sharing your CCRM experience. Do you mind if I ask if you had a successful IVF cycle there? My husband and I had a phone consult with Dr. Schoolcraft a couple of weeks ago and are trying to decide whether or not do a cycle there. I am 42 and have failed one IVF cycle at Shady Grove. CCRM has the best stats in the country for my age group. The only issue is the expense for a cycle -- about $28,000 total (with ICSI and CGH). It seems like a real gamble to spend that much money when our chances overall are not that high.

Thanks again-
JB

[Anonymous]

No, it wasn't successful, but we had to do it to say we tried everything.

Are you sure about the cost? I think it would have been around $17-18K (not including meds) if we'd done the genetic testing (ICSI was included in the cost).

[Anonymous]

Have you ever considered going to Cornell instead? After being told by a big clinic here that I would never get pregnant, I saw Dr. Owen Davis (whom I highly recommend) at Cornell and had a sucessful cycle. It might be easier to commute to NYC rather than Colorado.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for your insights and for sharing your experiences.

I did not consider Cornell because their success rates for women my age (42) are not much better than Shady Grove. But maybe I should reconsider. I checked the cost at CCRM again, and I was off with the $28,000. Actually it comes to about $23,000 for a cycle (not including hotel and air fare from DC). So, it's less than I had originally thought but still pretty costly. I suppose Cornell will be fairly expensive as well. I am considering going to CCRM for their one day of tests so that I can meet with a doctor there at the end of the day to get their recommended protocol. Then I could bring that information back to Shady Grove and ask that they follow what CCRM has recommended. THe only problem is that Shady Grove is not offerring the 23 chromosome genetic testing.

JB