Reproductive Health Specialist?

RobsPrincess13

Hi,

Has anyone used Reproductive Health Specialists, specifically Dr. Erb?  I have an appointment and am incredibly nervous.  We have been TTC for 3 1/2 years and need a new treatment besides Clomid.

Thanks!

mareski

We were patients at Reproductive Health Specialists for 1.5 years and never got anywhere (clomid and IUI). We decided to go elsewhere. First cycle with Magee, we got pregnant, however we lost the pregnancy. We definitely noticed a big difference in the care and expertise.

sillygirl08

I've been TTC for 3+ years too and am just starting at RHS.  I saw Dr Wakim at Magee for a long time and was just about to do IVF with him, but then saw his success rates compared to RHS and decided to switch.  Which was unfortunate because I LOVED Dr Wakim.  I saw Dr Albert at RHS initially and then saw Dr Kubik for a pre-IVF test and was really put off by her.  She thought i was coming to them to do IUI, apparently there was some confusion about that and she was just short and bitchy about it.  Odd, considering someone's willing to throw $11K their way.  I've never heard of Dr Erb?  Is he/she new to the practice?  I thought there were only two women there (Albert & Kubik).  I did like the facility though...i think it's new.  I haven't done anything with them yet beyond having the saline ultrasound, so i can't comment on the procedures.

Erin090807

Are you referring to Dr. Erb at Magee?

gsd

Have you tried Dr. Anthony Wakim.  His office is at Magee Women's Hospital.  I have been through this twice and each time it worked...2 boys! Within 17 months.

 Good Luck!

diva7633

I went to RHS for about 11 months in 2009. There was only Albert and Kubik when I was there. I did not like Albert but 95% of my procedures were with Kubik. I did all pre screening, Clomid, Clomid/IUI cycles, and Folistim cycles there. I loved them and I now have a 6 month old daughter

suni785

Funny I found this thread because I was just about to post asking which one is better RhS or Dr. Wakim at Magee... I have seen both w/i the last month and let me tell u I love Dr Wakim! hes so sweet and really listens and takes the time out to hear your questions...

 

So Dr. Erb I just saw 2 wks ago at Rhs because I also saw the success rates were higher at Rhs and shes really sweet and seems smart...but heres the kicker she was Dr. Wakims student for fellowship for 7 yrs! soo I was really confused as well cuz I honestly liked them both but I think Im going to stick w/ Dr. Wakim just because of his experience and friendliness ..I feel I can trust him not to say anything bad about Dr. Erb she seems to know her stuff so give her a try!

 

Also, I asked Dr. Wakim why does Rhs have better success rates than he does and he told me that they send their complicated patients who they can't treat to him and not to mention he sees way more patients than they do..

 

sillygirl08- so are you going to do the IVF at RhS?! I was thinking of doing one IUI w/ clomid n then str8 to IVF so let me know how it goes there..I hope it works for u! 

 

 

Temp638675937502020

My husband and I went to RHS for about a year after trying for 2 years to conceive.  My husband and I both went through all the testing and they couldn't find any reason we couldn't have a baby.  They labeled it unexplained infertility due to the fact we were over 30.  Per their recommendation we did 2 rounds of Clomid only which produced no results,  2 rounds of IUI with Clomid.  The first round resulted in a miscarriage (or phantom pregnancy) as they like to call it at 5 weeks.  I stopped going to them for the last year.  We had pretty much given hope and on a whim picked up the fertilty predictor kits.  I am now 13 1/2 weeks pregnant at 35 and everything is fine.  Please don't give up hope.  There is no rhyme or reason as to why after 4 years i got pregnant, i did nothing different, it just happened.  Back to RHS - we dealt with Dr. Albert who i did not feel comfortable with at all.  Maybe because my gynecologist (Dr. Rosado at Magee) is so warm and fuzzy or maybe because this is such a sensitive subject, i felt the doctors at RH should be more sensitive.  Dr. Albert was all business, couldn't seem to speak in terms that we could understand.  All our dealings with the place were very rushed and we often walked out of there wondering, what did they just say?

jmorristbs@yahoo.com

I went to RHS in January and we started our 1st IVF cycle in February.  Back in September, when we were on our 6th month with Dr. Tippett from Wexford for IUI, I had a consultation with Dr. Kubik.  She said that she would be the Dr. that would work with us and we were very happy with that (only because we heard Dr. Albert was very serious and didn't really show any empathy towards her patients.)  In February, we had a surprise because prior to IVF, they do a "trial transfer" to see if everything is "clear" and Dr. Erb was doing the trial transfer.  She was not listed on the website, on any of the forms that I had filled out, no clue she even existed.  The trial transfer was very very painful and my tolerance is pretty high considering for 6 months I had to give myself injections daily and go for bloodwork and ultrasounds nearly every other day it seemed.  I was NOT happy with her at all, and although this seemed biased, I'm 35, and she looked, well, in her 20's.  Very youthful appearance.  When I got home that evening, I tried to google her and only found that she was a resident and there was nothing else really on her internet wise.  I was very upset because as most patients do, we had to pay for this IVF procedure out of pocket, which basically meant wiping out our complete savings and then taking out a loan to pay for the "package deal" RHS offered.  Dr. Kubik seemed to be on vacation the entire month and it was either waiting till April (March was their off-month to prepare more media for the lab) or continue and have Dr. Erb and Dr. Albert.  Well, you know how impatient you become after a few years of trying and unsuccessful IUI months, so we took a chance.  Thankfully, Dr. Erb didn't see me anymore and Dr. Albert did the real IVF transfer as well as egg retrieval.  She, although very objective, does a great job and is very, very skilled.  Bottom line, with RHS, you never, ever, talk to the Dr.'s, only the assistants (Annette) was fantastic.  You are rushed through the process and it does cost a ton of money.  But, thank God, after 1 IVF procedure, my husband and I had a successful pregnancy and we were just released from their care last week.  We are 9.4 days pregnant and we just saw and heard the heartbeat this week (169 BPM) so we are so so happy!  Did I regret signing up for the package deal, YES!!  It cost us an additional 12,000 that we didn't have to pay, but we would have kicked ourself if we only paid for 1 cycle and we didn't get pregnant and we had to pay for another cycle.  Oh, and when they retrieved the eggs, and put them in the lab, conveniently, no eggs met the criteria to be frozen, which, if we want a 2nd child, we can't do a frozen embryo transfer, we would have to go through the entire process all over again.  But.....I'm not going to let that affect me right now, I'm still on Cloud 9!

celainem

I can share my entire experience at RHS:  We have been through six IUI cycles there, all unsuccessful (3 with clomid, 3 without). After starting out our pre-treatment testing at Magee (and waiting 2.5 hours to spend 5 minutes with a physician), we decided to switch to RHS because we initially felt they were more attentive.  We had an appointment with Dr. Albert and she spent 45 minutes with us, patiently explaining and answering all our questions.  I never found her to be unpleasant; just matter of fact and straightforward.   However, after our initial appointment, I only saw her two other times.  Once for a follow-up consultation and once to go through IUI.  Dr. Kubik did another IUI on me, Dr. Erb did two, and nurses did the rest.  I actually found Dr Kubik to be the most brisk.  After she finished the IUI, I tried to speak with her about starting clomid and she very quickly took her gloves off and got up to leave the room, while telling me to make an appointment with Dr. Albert.  No time to answer and patient questions that day, I guess??  Regarding Dr. Erb...she told me she was at Magee for years for her fellowship.  She was very sweet, very willing to talk to me and answer questions, BUT she is the ONLY person who caused me pain during my six IUI's.  Both times she performed the procedure, she had great difficulty getting the catheter around my cervix, and it hurt very much...to the point that my eyes teared up.  Given that I had 4 other IUI's at RHS, which took just a couple minutes versus the 5-10 minutes it took Dr. Erb, and the fact that NONE of them hurt like that, I wonder why she had so much trouble.  I'm not saying she's a bad physician...her bedside manner seemed great.  I just don't know what she was doing wrong; only that she clearly was doing SOMETHING different than Albert, Kubik, and the nurses who performed the procedure trouble-free.

bunny0714

I have been doing IVF for about a year and a half and have gone through three cycles of ICSI which is the most inclusive of the IVF cycles. The first one was sucsessful but only lasted for two weeks then I miscarried. The second cycle didnt take at all, but the last cycle which was my third was successful up untill the eight week mark were I miscarried, and just had to have a D&C because the baby wouldnt come out by itslef after carrying it for two weeks after the heartbeat stopped. I am a patient at Magee and my Dr is Dr. Wakim. Dr. Sanfilippo was the doctor that did the first two transfers, and Dr. Wakim did the third. I am so terribly young for all the things that have gone on in this last year and a half and am having some difficulties coping. I dont think that these things only happen to me, but when you dont have anyone to dicuss it with, its hard to know that. My husband has been such a strong support system through this entire process, my mother in law says that she doesnt want me to become one of those women that are over the top obsessed with becoming a mother, but its too late. I think of all of the undeserving people I know that have more than one child and doesnt even want them, it sickens me. On a lighter note: I love Dr.Wakim and hid dtaff to pieces! The nurses are the best and Dr. Wakim and Dr.Sanfilippo are two of the best Dr's that I have ever met. For those of you who have never met Dr. Wakim before he looks like he is in his late 70's early 80's so I doubt that he still has to work with the amount of money that doctors make, it seems to me that he loves his job and thats why he is still doing it.

SammieMC00

HI there..my DH and I have been trying to concieve now for almost 3 years. After 1 yr unsuccessful on our own i approached the PA at the OB/GYN office (westmoreland ob/gyn). She would not do any testing on me until it was shown that my DH was ok.  It turned out he had a low sperm count and what was there was not very mobile.  He willingly underwent a surgery to remove vericose veins in his testicles.  ( I never pushed the issue he made the appointment on his own).  His surgery was in June of 2009.  It was 6 months until the sperm cycle would show if it worked...In January when he went in for a follow up it showed he had increased both the count and motility.  He was at a level that was bad to and OK level.  At this time, the OB/GYN was beginning to do tests with me.  They did a bloodwork panel and a ultrasound.  The bloodwork showed that my thyroid levels were elevated....they then referred me back to my family dr to get those levels stable. My dr did a slight increase in my levo, and a month later more bloodwork.  My family dr said my levels were ok now.  Another appointment set with my ob/gyn could not get in until June 2010...went to appoinment the PA did my visit only to tell me she could not prescribe clomid only the dr herself could.  So another appointment set, after a round of tears in my car on the way home.  Next appt was in November 2010.  Finally she agreeed to start clomid after doing bloodowork to see if i was ovulating.  Did not show that i was. Started at 50, I did home ovulation kit, did not show i ovulated, next month again at 50.  this time they did bloodwork on day 21, no ovulation.  Increase to 75, did not ovulate, increase to 100, did not ovulate...increase to 150 did not ovulate.  They now will not see me and have referred me to RHS.  I have not called them yet to make an appointment, because I do not think I want to work with them.  A coworker dealt with them for 2 years and said they were rude, uncaring and had no success...they did not want to listen to their concerns.  I am now doing alot of research on my own and I am considering changing my family dr to one who pays more attention to my concerns.  I have discovered that I do not think my thyroid levels are low enough yet with my medication to have me ovulate.  My last level was 3.08.  The dr's office says normal is 0.4 to 4.5, but I have read alot that many people with hypothyroidism need to be as close to 1 to ovulate.  So now i'm going to approach my ob/gyn and see if they will work  with a different dr who will get my levels to where they are and try the clomid again.  I  would rather try the clomid again at just at around $20/month before I start taking out loans for treatments at RHS.