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[quote=Anonymous]Hope you don't mind but your formatting made it very hard to read.
[quote=Anonymous]Yes, 4. A bit of background so you can see if this post is relevant to you: I've had 3 IUIs, a cancelled IVF, and 1 IVF to retrieval in June with 4 eggs. 2 normal, 2 abnormal. Of the 2 normal, 1 was mature, 1 immature. the mature one did not fertilize with ICSI. So I've never had an embryo. After the IVF I got the "we can do 1 more IVF but then it's time to move on to DE" speech from RE at SG. In the meantime, he put me on Coq10 and DHEA for 6 weeks- 3 months. Hence, the second opinions. And since I'm totally Type A and have a medical background, I got 4. Yes, that's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. I'm 39, a poor responder, and not sure whether I have DOR. AMH is normal but apparently the eggs I have are crappy and I don't respond well to meds. The last IVF I was on super high, max doses. My RE at SG recommended a low-dose protocol with estrogen priming as a last resort. I have liked my RE and SG, but it's not working and after 1 IVF I don't expect to get the DE speech. I'm also out of pocket now so this next one needs to count. On to second opinion

#1- Cornell (Dr. Davis), phone consult. Really liked him. He was prepared and thorough, which at $650 not covered by insurance, he should have been. He suggested basically the same protocol as SG, with a few minor adjustments.  He wanted me to repeat certain tests, such as thyroid (which has been borderline, prolactin, etc), which I thought was a good idea. He even sent me scripts for them.

#2. SIRM phone consult- they had my records but bc I switched drs after I made my appointment, there was a mixup and the dr I had my consult with didn't have my records, so she was flying blind a bit, which made the consult a bit useless. It was either $250 or $350. She suggested a mid-level approach- not max doses but not low either. She said I only have a 15% chance of a baby, which is about what SG said. Not really a useful consult bc of the lack of records and history.

#3- CCRM, Dr. Schoolcraft, no fee. Really liked him as well, he was prepared and had read my records. He, unlike the others, didn't suggest a specific protocol (probably bc it's free). He did say if they could get more eggs, my chances would go up to 40%, but if not 15-20% was about right. I did ask him if they cherry-picked who they took to get such high SART numbers, and he said "if we did, we wouldn't take you, to be honest." I appreciated his honesty. He said 50% of their patients are AMA and DOR and 70% out of state. He did say something I found interesting- that bc my AMA was normal, that actually corresponds to how many follicles you should have. Like if your AMH is X, then you should have between X-X follicles, something doesn't add up, which to him meant the protocol or person doing the counting on ultrasounds. I had never heard this correlation before!

#4- GW. I wanted one local second opinion at least. I almost cancelled it because I was deciding between CCRM and Cornell at this point. Well, I didn't, and had the consult with Dr. Frankfurter. I really liked him. He was thorough and had read my file. He disagreed with a lot of the things SG had done. He said he thought I was an "early recruiter"- that my follicles got too big too early in the cycle. First I'd heard of that. He also said he thought the abnormal eggs I had from my previous IVF could have been caused from stimming too long. First I heard of that! My dr. at SG said he thought I had "really, concerning" abnormal eggs due to a possible chromosomal issue. I did karyotype testing which came back normal, he then said it was because I'm AMA. Dr. F said staying on IVF drugs too long can cause abnormal eggs!? He ordered the same testing Cornell did, which I thought was astute.

Long story short, I've decided to go with GW because I liked Dr. F, and frankly it would be easier. If the next IVF doesn't work out, I'll probably move on to Cornell or CCRM, but I wanted to give another local RE a try. But mostly they all had something interesting to say and I'm glad I have some other options than SG now. Right now I'm waiting on my irregular, light period to finally start so I can do their day 3 testing and all that and hopefully start IVF again in Sept. Best of luck to you all![/quote][/quote]

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