Anonymous
12/08/2020 22:53
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I have had many parallels to your experience at Dominion with DiMattina. I am wondering, did you switch clinics before doing a FET? Have you found success at GW and were you able to transfer your oocytes or embryos to GW?
I'm the 10:26 poster, sorry it took a while to reply. I did not have transfer at Dominion. Both embryos were PGS abnormal. That's actually another thing I'm pissed at Dominion about. I wanted to keep my PGS "abnormal" embryos as backup as there are a ton of literature on healthy live births after so-call "abnormal" PGS results. I was assured by Holi and Dr. DiMattina they would store these embryos which is the only reason I consented to PGS in the first place. However, Dominion destroyed these embryos without my permission. I've been considering legal action.
I ended up having almost as bad of an experience at GW. Frankfurter seemed very thoughtful. However, it turns out GW does not do weekend monitoring. I had a monitoring appointment after 6 days of stims on a Friday. I was told to trigger on Sunday without any additional monitoring. If you've done IVF before, you know that most places are doing daily monitoring because the day of the trigger is so important. It was objectively my worse cycle, just one day 3 embryo frozen due to recent submucosal fibroid removal (missed by Dominion despite many ultrasounds). Frankfurter was PISSED that I dared question the cycle timing at the WTF appointment.
I'm now with Dr Davis at Cornell. My cycle at Cornell was not successful, but had the most potential. I'm taking a holiday break from IVF, but will probably cycle at Cornell again even though it's tedious.
I think the clinics in this area just suck and you really have to go out of town if you're a poor responder. Best of luck to you.
Just curious - are you on a low dose protocol with Dr. Davis? I'm at SGF now but have a consult with Dr. Davis tomorrow.
Anonymous
11/30/2020 19:33
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
Thanks for your reply-so glad you saw my post. That is really good to know about GW and echos others’ experiences with them (that have posted on dcurbanmom). I am deciding whether to do another round, but if I do, I will want to find another clinic. I do recall signing a waiver at Dominion for PGS that said abnormals would be destroyed. I don’t know why clinics require abnormals be destroyed if someone wants to pay for their storage! I’m sorry you had such a bad experience too. I hope it does go better at Cornell.
Anonymous
11/30/2020 13:30
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I have had many parallels to your experience at Dominion with DiMattina. I am wondering, did you switch clinics before doing a FET? Have you found success at GW and were you able to transfer your oocytes or embryos to GW?
I'm the 10:26 poster, sorry it took a while to reply. I did not have transfer at Dominion. Both embryos were PGS abnormal. That's actually another thing I'm pissed at Dominion about. I wanted to keep my PGS "abnormal" embryos as backup as there are a ton of literature on healthy live births after so-call "abnormal" PGS results. I was assured by Holi and Dr. DiMattina they would store these embryos which is the only reason I consented to PGS in the first place. However, Dominion destroyed these embryos without my permission. I've been considering legal action.
I ended up having almost as bad of an experience at GW. Frankfurter seemed very thoughtful. However, it turns out GW does not do weekend monitoring. I had a monitoring appointment after 6 days of stims on a Friday. I was told to trigger on Sunday without any additional monitoring. If you've done IVF before, you know that most places are doing daily monitoring because the day of the trigger is so important. It was objectively my worse cycle, just one day 3 embryo frozen due to recent submucosal fibroid removal (missed by Dominion despite many ultrasounds). Frankfurter was PISSED that I dared question the cycle timing at the WTF appointment.
I'm now with Dr Davis at Cornell. My cycle at Cornell was not successful, but had the most potential. I'm taking a holiday break from IVF, but will probably cycle at Cornell again even though it's tedious.
I think the clinics in this area just suck and you really have to go out of town if you're a poor responder. Best of luck to you.
Anonymous
11/22/2020 23:00
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
Anonymous wrote:I switched to GW after multiple horrible experiences at Dominion.
I had a poor response to my IVF at Dominion using the Lupron Stop Protocol. My AFC is usually 10-12, yet only 5 oocytes were retrieved. Dr. DiMattina said do the same protocol again because I did well for someone with an endometrioma. The problem is I have never been diagnosed with an endometrioma or endometriosis for that matter! I understand they have no way of knowing how someone will respond initially but I expect things to be changed that were suboptimal and certainly should not be basing a response on medical conditions I do not have. Dr. Frankfurter said I likely had oversuppression from Lupron and this is not a good protocol for me. He was diplomatic and said the protocol Dominion used has a number of atypical elements.
Dr. Frankfurter noted several inconsistencies and discrepancies on the embryology sheet from Dominion he reviewed during our consult. As everyone knows, this should absolutely not occur.
Additionally, I just had a submucosal fibroid removed last week by hysteroscopy that Dominion failed to see on at least 15 ultrasounds performed over 6 months. My new clinic noticed it within 5 seconds of the first ultrasound they performed. I’ll never know how much of a contributing factor this has been to our difficulty in conceiving, and if I wasted money on initial IUIs at Dominion.
There were more issues at Dominion than I care to write at the moment. I initially went with Dominion not realizing I would be going down the IVF route. I developed bad feelings about them when I started researching IVF more. I stayed with them because of the perceived hassle of switching clinics and that was a several month and $20,000 mistake. I’ve learned to choose clinics that individualize fresh versus frozen transfers, culturing to day 3 versus day 5, and not automatically adding the expensive add-ons such as ICSI, PGS, etc for every patient. These should be thoughtful decisions made based on individual patient factors and not automatic for everyone.
I have had many parallels to your experience at Dominion with DiMattina. I am wondering, did you switch clinics before doing a FET? Have you found success at GW and were you able to transfer your oocytes or embryos to GW?
Anonymous
08/05/2020 10:26
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
I switched to GW after multiple horrible experiences at Dominion.
I had a poor response to my IVF at Dominion using the Lupron Stop Protocol. My AFC is usually 10-12, yet only 5 oocytes were retrieved. Dr. DiMattina said do the same protocol again because I did well for someone with an endometrioma. The problem is I have never been diagnosed with an endometrioma or endometriosis for that matter! I understand they have no way of knowing how someone will respond initially but I expect things to be changed that were suboptimal and certainly should not be basing a response on medical conditions I do not have. Dr. Frankfurter said I likely had oversuppression from Lupron and this is not a good protocol for me. He was diplomatic and said the protocol Dominion used has a number of atypical elements.
Dr. Frankfurter noted several inconsistencies and discrepancies on the embryology sheet from Dominion he reviewed during our consult. As everyone knows, this should absolutely not occur.
Additionally, I just had a submucosal fibroid removed last week by hysteroscopy that Dominion failed to see on at least 15 ultrasounds performed over 6 months. My new clinic noticed it within 5 seconds of the first ultrasound they performed. I’ll never know how much of a contributing factor this has been to our difficulty in conceiving, and if I wasted money on initial IUIs at Dominion.
There were more issues at Dominion than I care to write at the moment. I initially went with Dominion not realizing I would be going down the IVF route. I developed bad feelings about them when I started researching IVF more. I stayed with them because of the perceived hassle of switching clinics and that was a several month and $20,000 mistake. I’ve learned to choose clinics that individualize fresh versus frozen transfers, culturing to day 3 versus day 5, and not automatically adding the expensive add-ons such as ICSI, PGS, etc for every patient. These should be thoughtful decisions made based on individual patient factors and not automatic for everyone.
I had a poor response to my IVF at Dominion using the Lupron Stop Protocol. My AFC is usually 10-12, yet only 5 oocytes were retrieved. Dr. DiMattina said do the same protocol again because I did well for someone with an endometrioma. The problem is I have never been diagnosed with an endometrioma or endometriosis for that matter! I understand they have no way of knowing how someone will respond initially but I expect things to be changed that were suboptimal and certainly should not be basing a response on medical conditions I do not have. Dr. Frankfurter said I likely had oversuppression from Lupron and this is not a good protocol for me. He was diplomatic and said the protocol Dominion used has a number of atypical elements.
Dr. Frankfurter noted several inconsistencies and discrepancies on the embryology sheet from Dominion he reviewed during our consult. As everyone knows, this should absolutely not occur.
Additionally, I just had a submucosal fibroid removed last week by hysteroscopy that Dominion failed to see on at least 15 ultrasounds performed over 6 months. My new clinic noticed it within 5 seconds of the first ultrasound they performed. I’ll never know how much of a contributing factor this has been to our difficulty in conceiving, and if I wasted money on initial IUIs at Dominion.
There were more issues at Dominion than I care to write at the moment. I initially went with Dominion not realizing I would be going down the IVF route. I developed bad feelings about them when I started researching IVF more. I stayed with them because of the perceived hassle of switching clinics and that was a several month and $20,000 mistake. I’ve learned to choose clinics that individualize fresh versus frozen transfers, culturing to day 3 versus day 5, and not automatically adding the expensive add-ons such as ICSI, PGS, etc for every patient. These should be thoughtful decisions made based on individual patient factors and not automatic for everyone.
Anonymous
08/04/2020 21:29
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
Anonymous wrote: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.
I'm in this same boat. I like my doctor at CFA, seems fine and competent (although a little old school, nothing is electronic!). But the office is really disorganized, I cannot get anyone to call me back, or even answer the phone sometimes, one time I let it ring 20 xs and no one picked up! I've been put on hold twice and disconnected... no one has ever responded to my emails. I've been trying to get test results and schedule a new treatment (that I was told was time sensitive and had to start on x day) but no one has called me back and it's been a week and I've called multiple times. It's crazy (also considering I was told that they would call me last week to update me and discuss options, so I shouldn't have to be leaving messages everyday a week later). I've basically lost a full cycle now. I'm incredibly frustrated and definitely not going to go any further with care there. It sounds like none of these places are super organized, but like PP said, I just can't handle the anxiety, and I should not have to spend so much time doing everything by phone like this in 2020.
Anonymous
07/18/2020 12:48
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
Anonymous wrote: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.
How are you doing, PP?
Anonymous
07/18/2020 00:14
Subject: What made you decide to switch clinics?
SGF (1 cycle) -> Columbia (2 cycles) -> SGF (diff dr and location, 2 cycles) -> clinic abroad.
Anonymous
06/12/2020 11:54
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
Johns Hopkins is not a good place for fertility, they don't even have dedicated staff for IVF or weekend hours? They are leaders in other areas but not IVF.
We took out a loan through ARCFertility and are doing a hail Mary cycle at Dominion, last chance before we close this chapter and move on.
We took out a loan through ARCFertility and are doing a hail Mary cycle at Dominion, last chance before we close this chapter and move on.
Anonymous
06/10/2020 21:07
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
PP, we had a similar experience with CCRM, they billed routine stuff toward our infertility max benefit and most of what was billed had already been done at SGF. I've had several friends recommend Dominion but they are out of network with UHC. Once we exhaust our benefits we will consult with them and pay out of pocket, but it will be a huge leap given I'm out of work!
Anonymous
06/10/2020 10:41
Subject: Re:What made you decide to switch clinics?
We worked with CFA after doing much of the initial workup/tests at CCRM. (Turns out CCRM wouldn't do IVF for me until I'd lost 50 pounds, and I didn't want to wait to do the egg retrieval.) We loved our doctor, but agree that the back office situation at CFA could be better. It was very difficult to schedule appointments or talk to a nurse - and their lack of a patient portal is really annoying. We ended up just getting our doctor's email address and corresponding with him. This seems super inefficient for him, but worked great for us - and he seemed to recognize it was really the best way to get things done.
Despite the annoying administrative issues, I will say that the billing/insurance folks at CFA were heads above those at CCRM. CCRM had managed to bill all of my initial testing/appointments as being part of an IVF cycle - which meant that it was all billed against our $20,000 treatment maximum when it would have just been considered regular healthcare otherwise (and not counted against our treatment max). They had to submit a bunch of paperwork to retract and then resubmit. It was a mess at a time when I didn't need a mess. With CFA, our pre-approvals for IVF sailed through quickly and easily - it was a breeze. This was true for the egg retrieval pre-approval, and the embryo transfer pre-approval six months later.
I'll note that we were a textbook case. Completely unexplained, but not unexplained in the "there's something seriously wrong, but we just don't know about it yet." My reaction to the meds and our retrieval results were textbook and very successful. If this isn't you, I'd check out CCRM or Johns Hopkins instead.
Despite the annoying administrative issues, I will say that the billing/insurance folks at CFA were heads above those at CCRM. CCRM had managed to bill all of my initial testing/appointments as being part of an IVF cycle - which meant that it was all billed against our $20,000 treatment maximum when it would have just been considered regular healthcare otherwise (and not counted against our treatment max). They had to submit a bunch of paperwork to retract and then resubmit. It was a mess at a time when I didn't need a mess. With CFA, our pre-approvals for IVF sailed through quickly and easily - it was a breeze. This was true for the egg retrieval pre-approval, and the embryo transfer pre-approval six months later.
I'll note that we were a textbook case. Completely unexplained, but not unexplained in the "there's something seriously wrong, but we just don't know about it yet." My reaction to the meds and our retrieval results were textbook and very successful. If this isn't you, I'd check out CCRM or Johns Hopkins instead.