I started at Columbia Fertility and as much as I LOVED my provider (at the time, I really wanted to do as low tech as possible) - the complete disorganization of the office and being unable to get in touch with anyone made me extremely anxious. Additionally, when doing all the initial blood work - my wife and I both did blood work to see if there were any apparent issues in either of us - they sent out my wife's blood work wrong not once but twice! I couldn't get them to tell me any of the correct insurance information and after literally two months of trying to get cost information, I just gave up. In my head, given how much this is about timing, I didn't feel the trust that they would get it right.

After thinking about it for a couple months, I switched to SGF. I started with Dr. Reh and liked her and LOVED my nurse (who you will interact the most with, honestly). I did 9 IUIs with Dr. Reh and, after moving to Fairfax, switched to Dr. Levens who I absolutely adore. The nursing staff really are top notch - the use of the patient portal is extremely helpful with time-sensitive questions as well as on-call staff who will get back to you literally around the clock. I have never had to worry about timing issues, they communicate effectively with my insurance company, and neither I nor my wife has ever felt like a number. I feel like my Dr. listens to my concerns and has always had supporting data to make recommendations or push back on something I suggest for my treatment. We have been to the DC office, the Arlington office, the Rockville office, the Fair Oaks office, and now we've been going to the Fairfax office for over a year.

To be totally honest, I never thought that I would still be trying to get pregnant but EVERYONE at Shady Grove has always been cheering for me. Literally, after I walked out of my egg retrieval, everyone cheered. With all of the disappointment my wife and I have been through, it has been so helpful to have a team of people to lean on for professional, medical advice and treatment. I truly couldn't recommend them enough.

We tried both SG and CFA. Liked the doctor at SG a lot and they have a nice easy to use web portal and competent front desk. But as others have said, they don’t tailor to your needs... you’re told the protocols and that’s what they’ll follow. Of course you can push back on some things but not all. And you’re rarely speaking directly to your doctor, but rather your nurse.

Moved to CFA and appreciated that the doctors there take a more holistic approach. They can incorporate alternative approaches if that’s your thing (not mine) and talk with you about how natural versus medicated you’re going for. Downside to CFA as many say is the billing and front desk can be a huge pain to work with. I will say that in the past 3-4 months it’s gotten way better, I think they got new staff maybe (Still some room for improvement). Another downside is that sometimes it feels a little too up to me and I’m left feeling that I have to be the one to take the initiative and reach out to figure out next steps or sometimes I ask for a firm opinion and I get an answer like “well it’s really your preference.“

If you are DOR then SGF will just tell you DE and not try anything. We moved to Dominion and have been very happy, they won't cancel your cycle if you only produce 3-4 follicles.

Thank you; I appreciate it. I fear I may be in the 20% (41, diminished ovarian reserve). I just did my first IUI today.

Anonymous wrote:I'm relatively new to all this and going through my first attempted round of IUI. I'm curious why people don't like SGF. They are all I know so not sure if I am missing something.

I’m a happy SGF patient so take this with a grain of salt. SGF is fine for like 80% of cases. They are a factory and a well run one at that. But if you need something more individualized, it can be harder there - not so much because of the doctors IME, but the nurses and other providers are so used to dealing with a high volume of patients who only doing things a limited number of ways. I had good luck with SGF on the first try but I would not hesitate to switch after two cycles if things didn’t work.

I felt like a number at my clinic. Also, if you have any male infertility they really had no answers. I don't want to say which one though.

I'm relatively new to all this and going through my first attempted round of IUI. I'm curious why people don't like SGF. They are all I know so not sure if I am missing something.

Anonymous wrote:PP, what clinic/doctor did you end up switching to? I'm really surprised - mine hasn't asked me about diet or done very many tests. I'm thinking different clinics work for different people and it's a matter of finding the right fit. - OP

Dr. Sharara at Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine. Loved him and the staff- I still text with some of the nurses. Could not recommend the clinic more. He's pretty strict on protocol and following his medical advice (which gets beyond "do IUI or IVF" and into supplements, diet, etc) but that saved us a lot of mental anguish and time/money.

Switched out of SG shared risk after my doctor kept going with the same high-meds protocol. We were getting no embryos to blast. Switched over to Cornell - best decision ever.

I liked my clinic and doctor but felt after two meh rounds that I “should” look around. I didn’t really expect to change, but I learned a lot from the appointments and decided to switch. I recommend at least doing a few consults.

PP, what clinic/doctor did you end up switching to? I'm really surprised - mine hasn't asked me about diet or done very many tests. I'm thinking different clinics work for different people and it's a matter of finding the right fit. - OP

I just had a bad feeling about it. I felt like I was a cookie cutter patient and there wasn’t any nuance to my situation. They also discussed IVF at the first appointment which stressed me out. Best “feeling” I had because I switched clinics to a Dr who did 200% more tests, put me on new medications, supplements, fine-tuned my diet, I had minor surgery, etc. I also just really liked him and had a good feeling about the practice. I got pregnant a few months after switching and didn’t have to do IVF. Trust your gut!

Switched from Dominion to CCRM. Felt Dominion wasn’t tailoring protocols when we were interested in stim
cycles and we wasted time on NCIVF. CCRM was very tailored.

We started at SGF and stuck with them because we didn't know any better, but I hated everything about the place. After reading reviews and support sites we switched to Dominion and it has been a much better experience. SGF RE dismissed any questions and recommended IUI, but my DH has 1% morphology so IVF was the best route from the beginning.
At the very least OP get a more than one opinion.

What made you decide to switch? Obviously if you didn't like your doctor or the staff, or if you had billing headaches it would be worth switching. But if everything else was fine, at what point did you decide to try a new clinic, and how did you decide? We've done several rounds of IVF and are thinking of trying a new clinic, but I don't know if any one clinic is actually better than the others.