Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I too wanted to say I'm sorry to read what you're dealing with at GW. Though I didn't do IVF, I was a patient at the GW clinic and had concerns of my own about their monitoring process once pregnant. I became pregnant twice while with them, both losses. The second time they only had me in to check betas every 3-5 days, depending on the day of the week (never weekends) despite the fact my numbers weren't rising as expected. I'm a hyper-anxious person, so being told on a Thursday afternoon that something might be wrong, but that I didn't need to come back in until next Tuesday to check again was just downright awful.
That pregnancy did keep progressing until I was further along than I'd ever been, so I finally got to do my first OB sono. At that time (early 2018, not sure if they have changed things) OB sonos took place during regular morning monitoring, which is again is absolutely a terrible environment for the patient if you get bad news at the sono (patient has no time to process because there's a literal line of women waiting for blood draws that the upset patient now has to walk past). My sono didn't look right, it was probably clearly evident to my RE (who was coincidentally doing monitoring that day) that I was headed for a loss, yet my nurse later emailed with my beta from that day (also clearly not where it should have been) telling me that all was well and come back in a week! That was a Tuesday. I had to push my RE to let me come back in for another beta on Friday morning; my RE called back Friday afternoon to tell me that the beta dropped so I was going to miscarry.

When I switched to Dominion, I was even monitored daily for unmedicated IUI. One morning they told me to come back in 2 days based on my sono, but called me a few hours later to say that my blood work was showing I should come back for monitoring the next day and it was based on that second day that they decided the timing of my trigger shot. Once pregnant, they had me routinely coming in every 2 days regardless of the day of the week for betas, and eventually my OB ultrasounds were like a regular appointment.

I'm glad some other women have had good experiences with the GW clinic, but I found the way they practice to be terrible. I had additional problems with how my RE handled - moreso, failed to handle - my losses beyond the bad monitoring experience and poor communication with two nurses.

Good luck OP. I really hope you get a good outcome.

I am so so sorry. How horrid all around. I am a patient of Dr. F and when I got pregnant (later miscarried) my first ultrasound was scheduled in the afternoon, so I do think they have changed that. Sending me for the RPL panel downstairs in the lab where I sat with pregnant ladies doing their glucose test was a terrible postscript, though.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I too wanted to say I'm sorry to read what you're dealing with at GW. Though I didn't do IVF, I was a patient at the GW clinic and had concerns of my own about their monitoring process once pregnant. I became pregnant twice while with them, both losses. The second time they only had me in to check betas every 3-5 days, depending on the day of the week (never weekends) despite the fact my numbers weren't rising as expected. I'm a hyper-anxious person, so being told on a Thursday afternoon that something might be wrong, but that I didn't need to come back in until next Tuesday to check again was just downright awful.
That pregnancy did keep progressing until I was further along than I'd ever been, so I finally got to do my first OB sono. At that time (early 2018, not sure if they have changed things) OB sonos took place during regular morning monitoring, which is again is absolutely a terrible environment for the patient if you get bad news at the sono (patient has no time to process because there's a literal line of women waiting for blood draws that the upset patient now has to walk past). My sono didn't look right, it was probably clearly evident to my RE (who was coincidentally doing monitoring that day) that I was headed for a loss, yet my nurse later emailed with my beta from that day (also clearly not where it should have been) telling me that all was well and come back in a week! That was a Tuesday. I had to push my RE to let me come back in for another beta on Friday morning; my RE called back Friday afternoon to tell me that the beta dropped so I was going to miscarry.

When I switched to Dominion, I was even monitored daily for unmedicated IUI. One morning they told me to come back in 2 days based on my sono, but called me a few hours later to say that my blood work was showing I should come back for monitoring the next day and it was based on that second day that they decided the timing of my trigger shot. Once pregnant, they had me routinely coming in every 2 days regardless of the day of the week for betas, and eventually my OB ultrasounds were like a regular appointment.

I'm glad some other women have had good experiences with the GW clinic, but I found the way they practice to be terrible. I had additional problems with how my RE handled - moreso, failed to handle - my losses beyond the bad monitoring experience and poor communication with two nurses.

Good luck OP. I really hope you get a good outcome.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, I'm sorry you're dealing with this. I would definitely have concerns about it! My wife did an egg retrieval with GW last year where they did the exact same thing -- no monitoring the morning of the trigger shot or the day before that -- and the cycle went badly. We had way fewer mature eggs than we expected based on her AMH/AFC. When we got a second opinion from a CCRM doctor later, they were horrified she hadn't been monitored daily leading up to the trigger shot.

I also did an egg retrieval more recently. We went with Shady Grove because my wife's egg retrieval made us lose faith in GW. They definitely monitored me every single day including the day of trigger, and the info they got on those days was important in figuring out the best day for trigger. I had a vastly better result.

I hope everything goes well for you, whatever approach you take!

Anonymous wrote:I went for monitoring visits at baseline, and after 4 and 6 days of stims. The day 7 visit (6 days of stims) was this Friday. I get an email Friday that I should take my trigger shot Sunday night for egg retrieval on Tuesday. No monitoring visit at all between Friday and the procedure. I was doing daily monitoring before the deciding the trigger date at other clinics.

I’m a poor responder so I really need this right. This is my worst cycle ever, only four follicles (have done better elsewhere). I’ve been thinking of just not going through with the retrieval. It’s just too emotionally difficult to handle this going badly. I don’t know what to do.

Has any other clinic not monitored anyone for several days before retrieval and had it come out okay?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and that wasn't my experience at GW as a poor responder either. I think their office practices have changed since COVID, but I would 100% push back on that and call the RE on call today. Who is your RE and nurse?

OP here. My RE is Dr. Frankfurter and the nurse is Joelle. I wonder if they just didn't want to monitor on the weekend, which I've seen people complain about on this board, but it could be COVID.

I think it was Dr Humm making these decisions. She did call Dr F when I questioned if I should go to retrieval versus IUI, and got instructions to add an extra dose of Ganirelix and proceed with retrieval after she called him. It's probably too late to do anything at this point, not sure why I even posted really. I've just been thinking of not going through with it with this worse response and the lack of monitoring. I guess all I can do is raise hell if I get immature eggs, if I can get myself to go tomorrow. Just really tired of having to fight for everything in this process and depressed.

Anonymous wrote:No, and that wasn't my experience at GW as a poor responder either. I think their office practices have changed since COVID, but I would 100% push back on that and call the RE on call today. Who is your RE and nurse?