Questions on choosing a RE

kew243

I am taking steps to start going to a RE.  I feel very fortunate because REs are covered by my insurance and I have two local ones to pick from.  One is more like a private physician and the other works for SHER institute - more like a national company.  The private one seems to be more popular around here and I know one person who has gone to him and likes him.  I really know nothing about the SHER Institute.

Here are my questions:

1.  What are the pros and cons of private vs organizations?

2.  How did you pick your RE if you had a choice?

butterfly843

Mine was recommended by my ob, maybe ask your dr if she knows anything about the RE's you are thinking about going to see.

surfergirlkona

I cannot answer your first question, but I am sure someone can.

Regarding the second question, at first I went to my RE through primary care referral.  It turns out that he is the best RE in my area, so I decided to stick with him.  He is pretty cutting edge and up to date in technology and all that good stuff.  I could have gone anywhere since insurance doesn't cover squat.  Turns out that my boss also sought help from my RE quite some time ago and also gave him high recommendations.

I think it is most important to find someone you are comfortable with and trust.  I am never happy with anyone who doesn't take the time to answer questions or explain situations in detail. 

Check out RESOLVE and I am sure you can find some great insight there.  Wishing you the best of luck. 

rjl07

Most of my friends have already been to the RE so i had a bunch of recs from them.  Then I called my old GYN (my mom used to work for her) for a recommendation.  Her nurse called me back and recommended someone from their practice and said she would go to her if she ever needed to.  That was good enough for me.  I really liked the doctor, but had no luck getting pregnant. 

I saw a post on the IF about a clinical trial in my area and that's how I picked my 2nd RE.  I know several people that went to this practice and were successful.  You should check out www.sart.org to compare the success rates of your two choices. 

As far as the pros and cons, my first practice was part of a university hospital system and while I liked the doctor, I did feel that it was a little by the book in terms of the testing and treatments.  The private practice I am going to now seems a little more personal and possibly more invested in my success...but that could be because of the study I'm going to participate in.

Sorry this got really long, but I hope it helped a little.

GuppyAmy

I have no idea the answer to question 1. Question 2: There were 2 in my insurance plan. I went with the one my OB recommended and was closer to my house meaning easier to get to work after follie checks.

dondraandluis

I can't answer the first question because I have only gone to a private dr.

2. He was recommended by my OB/GYN and a friend, he is one of Dallas' best IF specialists.

kew243

Thanks everyone.  My OB would probably make a recommendation, but they first wanted to see if one was covered over the other.  Thank you also for the websites, I had never heard of either one.

eminbmore

My opinion on private vs organization...

I go to an organization.  It's huge (in fact, I think it might be the biggest in the US).  With that comes massive success rates, on the cutting edge of technology, knowledge of the newest and most effective methods, access to funds so that they can assist you if needed (they have a shared risk, 100% money back guarantee IVF program, and assistance if insurance doesn't cover your IVF), flexibility in hours because they're so big that they're always open, super super fast service. 

I'd say the downsides are the reasons why a private person might be better - I often feel like I'm not getting super personalized attention (sometimes feel like I'm on a conveyor belt just going through the motions that everyone else goes through), I don't see or talk to my actual doctor very often because everything goes through the nurses, and sometimes I feel like they're not paying super close attention to me. 

I think it's a personal decision.  In the end, I'm ok with losing some of the personal attention I'd get with a private practice, because I like all of the benefits of going with a larger organization - although I won't lie and say that I'm not annoyed by the downsides sometimes.  But at the same time, I feel like I'd be annoyed with the downsides of a smaller private practice as well - so I don't know.  At the end of the day, the organization is who my OB recommended, so that's where I went. 

SweetieD21

Mine was recommended by two friends.  Do you have any friends you could ask?  Personal recommendations are always very helpful.  Maybe try posting on your local board too.

ade2be

I'm one step further along in the process than you, but I still have a lot of the same questions.

I ended up setting up an appointment with 2 different REs.  The 1st one was a small practice (1 doctor).  They were really good there, gave me a lot of attention and he is very proactive on doing testing and figuring out what is going on.  I went to my 2nd one yesterday.  This is a very large practice.  I love the doctor....our personalities just "clicked".  He was very much all about just getting me pregnant the easiest way possible.  The 1st seems to be leaning toward IVF. 

I thought that we'd see what the test results from the 1st look like and ultimatly go to the second...however, I got a curveball thrown today.  The 1st will bill insurance for ultrasounds and stuff as diagnostic.  The second will bill it toward infertility...which I have a 5k lifetime max on.  So now I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  There are clear advantages both ways.  The small practice does very few IVFs (I think the '08 statistics showed 20 or something like that), but it was very personalized care.  They took about 2 hours with us on the first visit.  They also seem to be using more cutting edge technology.  The second place, the office was just more "together".  Everything was much more seamless and easy.  I really did like them.  So now I don't know what to do.