IVF - Dr. Frankfurter at GWU or Dr. Udoff at GIVF

[Anonymous]

I am 41 and had a failed cycle at Shady Grove due to embryos arresting on Day 5. I am looking to switch to a doctor/clinics to get a more personalized protocol rather than a factory based approach. We are considering Dr. Frankfurter at GWU or Dr. Udoff at GIVF

Looking at mainly three critical items to decide
1. IVF Medication protocol - one clinic says BCP and the other Estrogen patching;
2. Transfer protocol - Flexibility to do a Day 3 fresh/frozen transfer - Both clinics offer that
3. Supporting staff/nurses and efficiency

Dr. Frankfurter seemed impatient and intimidating while we ask questions while Dr. Udoff was more patient in answering questions. However GIVF looked very empty while we visited.

Please help with your inputs.

[Anonymous]

Good grief neither are worth your time and money.

[Anonymous]

I have only had one meaningful interaction with Dr Frankfurter when he stood in for Dr Humm when she was on vacation. IT was pretty terrible for me; he didn’t seem to be aware of anything that was going on with my treatment and tried to convince me not to go ahead with the plan Dr Humm and I had previously discussed. In retrospect, I was pretty emotional at the time (who isn’t in the middle of fertility treatments?) but I spent several days afterward crying off and on about the interaction. I have seen glowing reviews of him other places so maybe it was because he was busy or we just didn’t communicate well but that was my experience.

[Anonymous]

I don't know Dr. Frankfurter but Dr. Udoff was a waste of 3 IVF cycles, he didn't know what to do with me after realizing I had fibroids that caused the failures.

I ended up at a different clinic on the west coast, got the fibroids removed and immediately had a successful cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have only had one meaningful interaction with Dr Frankfurter when he stood in for Dr Humm when she was on vacation. IT was pretty terrible for me; he didn’t seem to be aware of anything that was going on with my treatment and tried to convince me not to go ahead with the plan Dr Humm and I had previously discussed. In retrospect, I was pretty emotional at the time (who isn’t in the middle of fertility treatments?) but I spent several days afterward crying off and on about the interaction. I have seen glowing reviews of him other places so maybe it was because he was busy or we just didn’t communicate well but that was my experience.

This is so weird, because I had the reverse experience. I am a patient of Dr. Frankfurter and have always found him kind, very attentive, and compassionate. I had one of my egg retrievals with Dr. Humm and she shocked me by announcing just before we started - like literally about to walk into the procedure room and get knocked out - that they were changing the entire plan for me going forward. I was shocked and felt I had no choice but to agree. I was really upset about it for quite some time.

OP, my situation was similar to yours and I didn’t have success with Dr. Frankfurter, but that’s just my bad luck. I think you must have seen him on an off day because he is really a terrific doctor, quite invested in his patients, and willing to spend as much time as they need.

Best of luck to you.

[Anonymous]

I'm also a patient of Dr. Frankfurter (from OE DOR to now donor). If you have any male fertility issues (since the embryos arrested on day 5), you really have to advocate for additional testing for your husband, especially with dna fragmentation testing. Dr. F had dismissed any of my concerns about male fertility issues. And there are other posts on here making similar comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm also a patient of Dr. Frankfurter (from OE DOR to now donor). If you have any male fertility issues (since the embryos arrested on day 5), you really have to advocate for additional testing for your husband, especially with dna fragmentation testing. Dr. F had dismissed any of my concerns about male fertility issues. And there are other posts on here making similar comments.

Pp, I am sure I’m one of the posters you interacted with previously. I have now had 2 failed DE cycles and he still doesn’t think it’s MFI for us.

[Anonymous]

I really like Dr. Frankfurter personally. I found him caring, easy to talk to, attentive, creative, flexible, compassionate, etc. He always answered questions (maybe it was an off day for OP). My husband has severe MFI. IVF worked in my twenties for my first child. He even called when he heard that my child had a slight medical issue with my child after he was born. He is probably one of the most compassionate doctors I ever had. For my second (future) child, I did a lot of IVFs with him over the years. He just told me to do ICSI, but nothing ever grew to blast. He eventually recommended donor everything, even though no one knew whether it was the egg or sperm. SGF and other centers recommended on this site also just recommended doing IVF with ICSI over and over and nothing worked. I wasted many years with him and other centers, because no one (not GW nor other centers) took MFI seriously. Perhaps it was the science at the time. I was finally able to get blasts with TESE. Even though I had this experience, I highly recommend Dr. Frankfurter as a person and a doctor, especially since the other doctors I went to also were not able to figure out the issue at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also a patient of Dr. Frankfurter (from OE DOR to now donor). If you have any male fertility issues (since the embryos arrested on day 5), you really have to advocate for additional testing for your husband, especially with dna fragmentation testing. Dr. F had dismissed any of my concerns about male fertility issues. And there are other posts on here making similar comments.

Pp, I am sure I’m one of the posters you interacted with previously. I have now had 2 failed DE cycles and he still doesn’t think it’s MFI for us.

Yes, that is me. I'm so sorry to hear about the 2nd transfer. It is so maddening that we have to go through all kinds of invasive procedures to test our fertility, but yet MFI is so overlooked.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all for great inputs. My husband did a test for MFI i.e. DNA sperm fragmentation and it came negative i.e. no MFI.

We read up some research papers; when you do ICSI, it helps overcome some male factors as the best of the sperm sample is chosen to do ICSI. That explains why some doctors do not recommend advanced MFI tests if you are doing ICSI. Some other doctors recommend doing sperm DNA fragmentation test just to put your doubts to rest.

We found plenty of research papers fidings that DNA sperm fragmentation was predictive of IUI/ICSI effectiveness; and found plenty of research papers that suggested otherwise as well! We found the diagnostic industry flourishes on such divided opinions and clinics advertise an alphabet soup of DNA tests - SCSA, OSI claiming they are a better test of MFI.

To cut a long story short, please consider MFI as a factor and test it out at a place your doctor recommends. There are plenty of doctors who believe in MFI. That said, it does not seem to be the smoking gun in our case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really like Dr. Frankfurter personally. I found him caring, easy to talk to, attentive, creative, flexible, compassionate, etc. He always answered questions (maybe it was an off day for OP). My husband has severe MFI. IVF worked in my twenties for my first child. He even called when he heard that my child had a slight medical issue with my child after he was born. He is probably one of the most compassionate doctors I ever had. For my second (future) child, I did a lot of IVFs with him over the years. He just told me to do ICSI, but nothing ever grew to blast. He eventually recommended donor everything, even though no one knew whether it was the egg or sperm. SGF and other centers recommended on this site also just recommended doing IVF with ICSI over and over and nothing worked. I wasted many years with him and other centers, because no one (not GW nor other centers) took MFI seriously. Perhaps it was the science at the time. I was finally able to get blasts with TESE. Even though I had this experience, I highly recommend Dr. Frankfurter as a person and a doctor, especially since the other doctors I went to also were not able to figure out the issue at the time.

Where did you have the TESE done? GW is still refusing it for my DH.

[Anonymous]

LOVE Dr. Frankfurter. He is incredibly empathetic and honest. So grateful to him for my family. Give him another chance...maybe he had an “off” day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really like Dr. Frankfurter personally. I found him caring, easy to talk to, attentive, creative, flexible, compassionate, etc. He always answered questions (maybe it was an off day for OP). My husband has severe MFI. IVF worked in my twenties for my first child. He even called when he heard that my child had a slight medical issue with my child after he was born. He is probably one of the most compassionate doctors I ever had. For my second (future) child, I did a lot of IVFs with him over the years. He just told me to do ICSI, but nothing ever grew to blast. He eventually recommended donor everything, even though no one knew whether it was the egg or sperm. SGF and other centers recommended on this site also just recommended doing IVF with ICSI over and over and nothing worked. I wasted many years with him and other centers, because no one (not GW nor other centers) took MFI seriously. Perhaps it was the science at the time. I was finally able to get blasts with TESE. Even though I had this experience, I highly recommend Dr. Frankfurter as a person and a doctor, especially since the other doctors I went to also were not able to figure out the issue at the time.

Where did you have the TESE done? GW is still refusing it for my DH.

I did at CFA. They were the only ones to recommend it out of the five clinics locally and out of state that I went to/consulted at.

[Anonymous]

I did a consult at SG and did several cycles with GW. My main doc was Humm (who I loved), but most of the time you get whoever's on duty. The only think about having Frankfurter (or whoever) is the person you do your consults with and the doc who occassionally calls you.

My nurse Jasmine is AMAZING. Incredibly responsive to emails and calls. Way better than my brief experience with SG's support staff.

[Anonymous]

I was looking at those two doctosr myself. I can't find anything about GVIF. its not in the cdc or anywhere. What does GVIF stand for> I thought Dr.Udoff was at inova?