Which fertility clinic is the most LGBT friendly?
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Anonymous
| I tried Shady Grove and wasn’t impressed. They kept referring to my wife as “partner” no matter how many times I correct them and say wife. Something tells me they’re not referring to straight women’s husbands as partner. |
Anonymous
| Just for reference, they referred to my husband as "partner". All res that I have been to have done so. I have no idea how LGBT friendly they are otherwise. |
Anonymous
| I agree with PP. I'm at another clinic and they also refer to my husband as partner. I never actually gave it much thought since I assume they deal with so many different relationship dynamic that they probably view that as the "safe" word. |
Anonymous
| Dr. Rafat Abbasi at Columbia Fertility is incredibly LGBT friendly. For what it's worth, my wife and I are a same sex couple and we started at Shady Grove. It's probably less of a discriminatory reference and more of a "let's just use this blanket term because it's easier" reference. They are a huge operation, and our issue with SG was that they wouldn't divert from their cookie cutter, high stim protocol even though my wife had miserable results for a few back to back retrieval cycles. |
Anonymous
| My wife and I are seeing Dr Kay Waud at Dominion and she and the whole staff have been great. We are doing reciprocal IVF so it's bit more complicated then just doing IUI. |
Anonymous
| To be honest, if that’s your most glaring gripe you are in for a long road. There are so many frustrations from billing to scheduling and so much more eBay I wouldn’t focus on that. |
Anonymous
| I am straight and my clinic refers to my husband as my partner too, even immediately after I tell them my husband is in the waiting room and to bring him back. |
Anonymous
This. Shady Grove is very LGBT-friendly. There have literally been thousands of couples to receive outstanding treatment there. I would focus more on the medical care (and success) than what may be perceived as a slight. I honestly don't think it was intended to be. I personally know four LGBT couples who had successful treatment there. |
Anonymous
Lesbian mom of an 18 and 14 year old here: please take it down a notch. I promise there have literally been hundreds, if not thousands, of queer moms/moms to be that have walked through the halls of Shady Grove. You’re not a novelty or some new phenomenon. Everyone is referred to as a partner. |
Anonymous
| Straight Watson here. I’ve been at three different clinics, but not Shady Grove. I think they always called my husband partner. It’s a catch-all word and there are a lot of different relationships they deal with. |
Anonymous
Ha. Straight woman. |
Anonymous
I think you may be reading too much into it. Shady Grove is great. They helped us and many of our gay friends to become parents. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| Shady Grove is a factory and I moved on because my doc was MIA and my nurse was an idiot, but I did not find them homophobic....They want to make money from everyone!!! |
Anonymous
Shady Grove is not homophobic, of course. But they also do not cater specifically to LGBT in any way (part of the “factory” issue — they do not personalize care at all for anyone) Columbia is much better. They have medical providers who identify as LGBT. They can recommend LGBT counselor/therapists (meeting with a counselor is a requirement to using donor egg or sperm). They are way more willing to work with different set ups like if you want to use a donor known to you, rely on natural remedies, work with midwives, etc. If you are trans they also seem knowledgeable about the hormone issue and their forms ask for pronouns. |
Anonymous
| We’re a lesbian couple who’s had treatment at Shady Grove, GW, and CFA. We also did a consult with CCRM. We didn’t experience homophobia anywhere. That said, we felt that our queer identities were most understood and appreciated at CFA (with CCRM as second best). |