I used the Annandale office and I was always in and out quickly for monitoring. The few times I had to wait (30 mins) were due to a patient problem or loss in front of me.

Thanks PP!

Widra is very knowledgeable and frank. His bedside manner rubs some the wrong way. But I value capability over camaraderie. I think he's working a little on his delivery (which I've never had an issue with) because he has started using mitigating language like: I don't mean to put this in cold terms and things of that nature.

I think he enjoys challenging/unusual cases. If I'm not mistaken, he's the MD of the overall practice, so he's been in the game a long time and has seen lots of cases.

Hope this helps! GL!

Anonymous wrote:

You shouldn't judge the place by the waiting room. Additionally, not sure what you're expecting from the waiting room experience. Personally, I like to use my time in the waiting room to think about my day, space out, and just relax for 10 minutes. I'm not interested in chatting with other patients - or anyone for that matter.

If it were ONLY 10 minutes! I have hit a lot of the locations because of work demands and K. St is probably the worst on wait. Rockville on the weekends is a nightmare. Sibley is nice, quiet and easy, but I can't stand paying for parking. Fairfax on the weekends is tough, but Fair Oaks during the week is a DREAM! Definitely have gotten annoyed at 1hr+ monitoring. It has probably only happened 5-6 times, but it messes up your day! People also seem to be reluctant to make eye contact for fear of seeing someone you shouldn't see or doesn't want to be seen. I saw a news person in the office and there was that split second of recognition, then averting the eyes, when you realize it's not someone you know personally...

I love Drs. Chang and Greenhouse. Widra is my doc. I don't love him, but I respect the shit out of him and honestly, for my needs, that's more important.

PP- I am planning to go with Dr. Widra. How is your experience with him?

You shouldn't judge the place by the waiting room. Additionally, not sure what you're expecting from the waiting room experience. Personally, I like to use my time in the waiting room to think about my day, space out, and just relax for 10 minutes. I'm not interested in chatting with other patients - or anyone for that matter.

If it were ONLY 10 minutes! I have hit a lot of the locations because of work demands and K. St is probably the worst on wait. Rockville on the weekends is a nightmare. Sibley is nice, quiet and easy, but I can't stand paying for parking. Fairfax on the weekends is tough, but Fair Oaks during the week is a DREAM! Definitely have gotten annoyed at 1hr+ monitoring. It has probably only happened 5-6 times, but it messes up your day! People also seem to be reluctant to make eye contact for fear of seeing someone you shouldn't see or doesn't want to be seen. I saw a news person in the office and there was that split second of recognition, then averting the eyes, when you realize it's not someone you know personally...

I love Drs. Chang and Greenhouse. Widra is my doc. I don't love him, but I respect the shit out of him and honestly, for my needs, that's more important.

It's not easy to "just switch" when SGF is all your insurance will cover. I don't know if they're worse than other places, but we did have to wait a looong time last month for IUI, which was frustrating since the sperm had already been thawed and washed and the hours were ticking by after the trigger shot. They do seem quick to move you along, but you can resist (when we had 3 failed natural cycle IUIs they encouraged oral meds + trigger, but did say we could keep going with natural cycle). I also found them oddly wishy-washy about meds like progesterone and the dosage of Clomid. Like they prescribed it one one sheet and then said I didn't have to take it, or they gave a high dosage of Clomid then said we could start with half that dose if we wanted.

Except for one rude nurse, I had a wonderful experience with SG as a DE patient... the 3 REs I saw (for testing, monitoring, transfer) were outstanding and compassionate. I got pregnant on my first try as a 3:1 shared risk recipient (as the 3rd recipient, 1 good blast).

I have a number of friends who were also SG patients (IUI, IVF, DE) and all had successful and satisfying experiences.

If you folks reading are unhappy with your SG RE, nurse or facility then just switch!

Anonymous wrote: Looks like the OP from the other SG-bashing thread took the advice to bump a 4 year old thread. I get that people need to vent, but it's getting a little old.

I'm actually sensing it is a different poster. Bad grammar, misspelled words during a post to "get an IVF" just sounds like a random disgruntled DCUM'er.

Looks like the OP from the other SG-bashing thread took the advice to bump a 4 year old thread. I get that people need to vent, but it's getting a little old.

This review is not out of anger or frustration-just to share our experience, to say the less and to make this short, we did not use their services, because we notice some of their personal is not compassionate and instead we found rude, arrogant or careless peopleit was more like the overall experience through 3-4 visits trying to get an IVF.

Yes, the doctor and the nurse were great at sale their protocol and I wish they could have a team that eco their service- but, they are just a part of a team, and that team... for lack of better wording is corrupted and with bad management.

I wish they provide a better service to the community, and their team understand their impact in the life of the people that seek help... they do not!

Anonymous wrote:I have good things to say about Shady Grove...agree it is a well-oiled machine....but the nurses were compassionate and I like that they have a holistic/therapeutic component for those who choose to go that route. With their help, I have a 2 year old son. My younger friend who has PCOS (same diagnosis as me) but lives in Texas has been trying for 3 years with no luck and I was appalled when I heard about the medical treatment she was getting...just seemed much less sophisticated than Shady Grove's operation.

My nurse sucked. She was nice when I actually got to talk to her, but that was rare. I usually had to hound her with multiple calls/e-mails to get an answer. It was very frustrating.

Anonymous wrote:I had a wonderful experience at Shady Grove and have two amazing boys thanks to them. I have stage 4 endo, multiple adhesions, a uterine abnormality (that they found & surgically corrected....thank god b/c if they hadn't I would have probably lost my baby in the 2nd tri), high FSH and my husband has male factor.

I don't care about all that other BS...waiting rooms, whether the nurse knows my name, etc. All of that is a distant memory anyways and such a small part of the big picture of my life. My kids are what matter and they made them possible. They are the best at what they do....

How many surgeries did it take to improve your adhesions? I had surgery there and it was very minimal improvement of my very severe scarring. Just curious if other women have undergone a series of surgeries to correct this. My doc told me that another surgery probably wouldn't be successful and recommended IVF, which we do not want to do, because they also said it would come with a high risk of miscarriage even if it did work.

PP I totally agree with you about SG, had a decent experience with first pregnancy 4 years ago, but as soon as my case became more challenging things fell apart. I think SG has just gotten too big and none of the staff that I worked with 4 years ago are still there.

I couldn't care less about the waiting room.

I've seen them make too many blatant errors with friends--missed instructions to the lab which waste a cycle, in one case the doctor didn't get to my friend's retrieval in time and wasted the entire cycle of drugs and prep, as there was nothing left to retrieve, recommending DE for a couple who had male factor (they since had a bio child, OE + his sperm), putting precious young embryos into a damaged uterus that subsequently THREE other clinics said was a uterus that would not allow implantation, and that surrogacy was the option, and nurses failing to respond and properly schedule procedures.

They make their money on volume, not quality. Their fallback is always --it was your eggs. Yeah, when you MISSED the retrieval time? Or put frozen embryos into a uterus that couldn't carry? Or almost transferred the wrong embryo? Or failed to thaw the frozen eggs on the right day so the cycle had to be cancelled?

Shared Risk is a big draw, so I do understand why people will go there, it's why I started there--as far as I know there is not such a generous refund program in the country, particularly for DE. However, if you don't succeed quickly, you could quite likely get a lot less than you paid for.

If there was a place to warn future patients, I would, with specific examples of inexcusable incompetence. I really didn't expect to feel this way, my first experience was fine, I got pregnant, but once I was more than a routine, assembly-line case, it all fell apart. Ditto for friends.

I've had mixed experiences at SG but overall it's been fine. Honestly I would expect the waiting room to look nicer for the amount of money that gets pumped into them...but whatever. I wouldn't want to talk to anyone in the waiting room, it's bad enough that I sometimes see people I know there. I've only been to the Rockville Office and my biggest complaint is the wait times, even for blood work. I have cushion my visit with at least 40 minutes just in case, which can be hard if you are taking off of work mid day.
My doctor has been "meh" but my nurse has been great. With the amount of patients they see I'm always surprised when she immediately knows who I am and my case history when I call. I've been lucky that one of the financial people submitted my paperwork for IUI coverage when the first counselor I met with never suggested it. I was having trouble scheduling IUI appointments but a friend suggested calling in advance (if you know your cycle) versus calling the day you get your surge and that has been helpful - the nurses don't like when you do this but WTF I can't get appointments otherwise that fit within my surge time. So, some of SG is "learning the system" per say. It's so convenient to home and work and my insurance has been covering everything I don't want to rock the boat by changing anything. I'm currently pregnant - but I don't think I would have been if I hadn't taken control of scheduling the IUI's.