We did both. I did not have good experience at GW. The doctor was too pushy and nursing staff on monitoring duty were incompetent and rude! Also, it was tough driving into DC for monitoring at 7am everyday. Hands down, I recommend Shady Grove. They have more offices in Va and Md and I like their doctors and nurses.

I agree SGF should be more upfront with their age restrictions for IVF or DE IVF, I did find them very willing to work with me at first but once they had my FSH 16/AMH 1.9 they weren't willing to let me try IVF with my own eggs. I was 40.5 at the time and very happy to say I moved on to another local clinic and was successful with first IVF. Now I'm 43 and still hoping for lightening to strike twice, but we are considering DE.

PP here. Apparently SG has an age cut-off. Which they do not advertise - at all! My point is if they have a policy, with an age cut-off, they should tell you up front, put it on their website, etc. I think it is 51, but since they haven't put it out there, I don't know for sure. Therefore, if you are 39 and your friend is 41 neither you nor your friend would have run into it. Best of luck to you!

Anonymous wrote:I've heard good things about GW. I had an initial appointment with Shady Grove, and I was treated like crap. They told me I was too old and showed me the door. However, they knew my age when I set up the appointment. So it was a total waste of time (and we waited for months for the appointment) to be told in 2 seconds, very rudely, that we were "too old." We then were referred to Columbia Fertility. What a difference! We now have twins. So I would stay far, far away from Shady Grove.

Hi PP,

Can you elaborate? I've read similar accounts about Shady Grove on this forum - that women are told their "too old" and shown the door. My experience has been different in that I'm 39 and age has never been brought up as an issue - not once. I have a friend who is 41 who is pregnant now with twins and she too never encountered any issue with her age. Just wonder if it's a particular doctor or office, since this has come up frequently on DCUM and yet I know several women over 39 who've had success there. I'm just curious - not in any way challenging your experience.

Anonymous wrote:I went to Shady Grove because of the Shared Risk program and have no regrets. I think the experience is very different from GW in that at SG you rarely speak to or see your RE. I talked to mine once during my IVF cycle but it was fine with me. I had a wonderful nurse and things went smoothly so I didn't feel a need to talk to my RE. If I had a more difficult case and didn't qualify for Shared Risk I definitely would have considered GW. One thing I will say about SG- if you don't like your nurse ask to switch. This can make or break your experience.

Agree with this. You rarely speak to your RE, though if I want to speak to my doc it's been fairly easy to reach him and he's very responsive and attentive. And it's critical that you have a nurse that you like. I guess that's the case anywhere, but since at SGFC a nurse is the primary point of contact it's really essential. I didn't like my nurse during by first round of IVF and was switched to another who was fantastic. So definitely speak up.

I went to Shady Grove because of the Shared Risk program and have no regrets. I think the experience is very different from GW in that at SG you rarely speak to or see your RE. I talked to mine once during my IVF cycle but it was fine with me. I had a wonderful nurse and things went smoothly so I didn't feel a need to talk to my RE. If I had a more difficult case and didn't qualify for Shared Risk I definitely would have considered GW. One thing I will say about SG- if you don't like your nurse ask to switch. This can make or break your experience.

Although financing palys a major role in deciding clinics,
one of the big issue for me between SG and GW was:

GW - Will freeze non-blastocyst embryo (like, 2-Day, 3-Day, etc.)

SG - They do not freeze non-blastocyst embryo.
Even if you have a high quality 2-Day, 3-Day embryo, they toss them out.

Something to consider... I think.

I've heard good things about GW. I had an initial appointment with Shady Grove, and I was treated like crap. They told me I was too old and showed me the door. However, they knew my age when I set up the appointment. So it was a total waste of time (and we waited for months for the appointment) to be told in 2 seconds, very rudely, that we were "too old." We then were referred to Columbia Fertility. What a difference! We now have twins. So I would stay far, far away from Shady Grove.

Hi, I don't know, but only because we had insurance. We paid 50% on day one, then have 6 months to pay it back. Seeing as how Shady Grove is a much bigger organization, I would gather the have more financing options? However, Brian at GW will be very up front with you and get you the best cost possible. He is exceptionally responsive. I have heard that if you are paying OOP they will price match. Also, they will work with you to find well price drugs (based on my experience with insurance denying stuff early on). Sorry I can't be of more help.

jindc - one question. You mentioned a little bit about the financing - you only get six months to pay? Our insurance covers nothing in terms of treatment - only diagnostics. One thing I know Shady Grove does have is a financing partner where you can get a loan. does GW offer something similar?

Thank you, ladies. I confess I'm having a bit of a hard time following everything you're saying b/c I don't know the lingo yet, but this is helpful. Anyone else out there have an opinion?

We were never SG patients but my husband did have a sperm analysis done there, and it was frustrating to him...they never called with th results and wouldn't provide them to him, only if he went back to the urologist who wanted to charge him $80 for a follow up. So he never got them. We went right to GW because of the convenience.

I am in my 2WW for my first (and hopefully last) cycle and based on my experience, I would recommend it regardless of my result. Felt my nurse was always happy to help me, their financial department was amazing (why can't every doctor have financial people this good?!?), and I felt well taken care of. I think they were overly cautious with me during stims to avoid OHSS since we are mfi, and they admitted it might be the case, but they couldn't risk it. I still got 4 fertilized eggs and transferred two embryos on day 5- Dr Frankfruter called me every day with a status update and explained everything well during the transfer.
If we don't get a bfp this cycle, I still consider it a success because I was happy with the outcome (would have been happier if the others made it to freeze, but we won't know until tomorrow...doesn't look like it tho). Of course, if I get pregnant, I'll love them forever....but based on my experience until now, I have been satisfied.
Our whole cycle with insurance was $5500 (ICSI is extra there, which is a bit a annoying) and we have 6 months to pay it (unless we need another cycle, we have to be paid up before starting).
I hope that helps set a picture for a recent experience there.

I struggled with that decision and don't know for sure if I have made the right decision but I figure I could switch later on if need be. So I was a GWU patient for most of last year and recently switched to Shady Grove now that we are at the IVF stage. Why the switch - in truth it was mainly because of the fact that Shady Grove has much higher success rates on SART for IVF. Also, my co-pay with my insurance is about $1500 cheaper at Shady Grove compared to GWU - go figure. But all in all I really had a good experience at GWU. I did 6 monitored cycles at GWU including four IVFs.

Advantages of GWU -
Smaller practice so people really know you.
Nurses for the most part were great (so far that has beeen that same at Shady Grove as well)
Monitoring appts. go much quicker at GWU compared to Shady Grove. GWU has an assembly line approach that truthfully is much more efficient than Shady Grove
IVF is done at the GWU location whereas for Shady Grove in DC - you have to go to Rockville for the IVF. Also, saturday monitoring in Rockville sucks! It is crazy busy!
Likely to be more flexible with their protocols for your individual situation
Fantastic free IVF class/seminar that lasts about 3 hours

Advantages of Shady Grove
Higher success rates
Nice nurses
During monitoring - they have dual screens so you can see your follicles

I'd love to see what others post. I've written more about GWU then Shady Grove because I have only done one cycle at Shady Grove so far compared to 6 at GWU.

I'm curi

I would schedule a consult with both places. A lot of selecting a clinic is just about fit. I know some love SG. I did not have a good consult experience there but suspect I simply didn't jibe with the RE. I have been frustrated by CFA plenty of times (they are less organized and information seems to come at odd times) but I work better with a flexible system where you have to fight a bit harder but there aren't so many hard fast rules. And I like/trust my RE.

All that to say, on paper, they probably aren't all that different but go in and see where you feel better.

Both are very close to my office and both accept my insurance for initial consultation and diagnostic testing. Recommendations? I go to the GW-MFA for OB/GYN and had my first child at GW. Love my doc there and trust her advice/recommendation of her colleagues, but I see Shady Grove come up often on here. Costs for treatment are not covered, so that is a factor. Help!