IVF of Michigan?

UMichGirl · February 2011

Does anyone have any experience here? I think DH and I are going to get a 2nd opinion from there. One of my friends went here and had success. She saw Dr. Abuzeid and Dr. Ashraf.

Also, does anyone know if one of the doctors here over the others have more experience with high FSH/DOR patients? Obviously I will ask this when I call but figured it was worth a shot to ask.

Any feedback you have would be great! Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share "publicly". Thanks!

MrsGlitteryHooks · February 2011

Not sure if you saw it or not, but I wrote you back in PM.

UMichGirl · February 2011

MrsGlitteryHooks:
Not sure if you saw it or not, but I wrote you back in PM.

Oh, no I hadn't seen it yet...Just read it! Smile Thank you!

KarlsSweetie05 · February 2011

https://sart.org/find_frm.html

You can look up clinic's success rates at the site above.

Sort by your age and diagnosis and procedure type.

Look at the % of Transfers Resulting in Live Births rate to compare clinic to clinic within MI or anywhere in US.

Good luck.

UMichGirl · February 2011

KarlsSweetie05:
https://sart.org/find_frm.html

You can look up clinic's success rates at the site above.

Sort by your age and diagnosis and procedure type.

Look at the % of Transfers Resulting in Live Births rate to compare clinic to clinic within MI or anywhere in US.

Good luck.

Thanks. I was more curious about IVF MI experiences in particular since I do know the published success rates already. I've probably logged HOURS on the SART site over the past month, lol. IVF MI definitely has some of the better success rates with my diagnosis, but even saying that, they're pretty dismal. I've started researching out-of-state options at clinics known nationally for their programs.

Bigyellowdog · February 2011

Just sent you a PM

caden · February 2011

That's where I went for my 2nd & 3rd IVF cycles. My first was with Dr Kowalczyk at MI Center for Fertility in Warren.

I'll just post my thoughts here. I picked my first office based on location and who accepted my insurance. I had never heard of Sart.org. Just before I was about to start my first stims, I found out about Sart and seriously considered switching b/c Dr K's stats are pretty awful. But after I realized I would have to wait a few months to transfer, I decided to stick it out. That cycle was a BFN. Then I switched to IVF Mi (Drs Abuzeid & Ashraf). My first cycle at IVF Mi was a c/p, the next were my twins. Our issue was MFI so I can't really help with high FSH/DOR problems specifically, sorry.

Pros:

- I have not looked at Sart.org lately so I don't know the latest year's stats. But when I looked it was clear to me that IVF MI has arguably the best embryologists in the state. That was and is the #1 most important thing to me after my BFN. I base this opinion on Sart's results, and my own experience. I had almost exactly the same response to stims at Dr K's office and IVF Mi. But with IVF Mi our embryos were a much higher quality, even to my own naked eye looking at pics, much less the grading system.
- They see way more patients at IVF Mi. So they have more experience.
- IVF Mi was cheaper and had a better way to charge. You could pay a lump sum for your b/w & u/s appointments while Dr K charged for each appt.
- I had remarkably fewer office visits with IVF MI than Dr K while stimming and post-transfer. Dr K had an incentive to make me come in daily (and she did) since I paid for each visit, while with IVF Mi I only went every 3 days or so. I also got a discount after my c/p, though Dr K was also willing to give me a discount.
- I think Dr Abuzeid is super nice and is extremely smart. He never pushed me to be reckless. I wanted to transfer 3 embryos on my 3rd cycle and he wanted only 2. We debated while I layed on the transfer table for 15 min and I finally got him to agree.... and then ended up pg with triplets. Indifferent So yeah, he was right. (I lost baby C) Dr. Ashraf is also friendly and competent. My BFF had more experience with him than Abuzeid and had a great cycle. I had more experience with Abuzeid.
- During office visits the nurses were nice and thorough. They picked up on a few mistakes from Dr. K's office. One example is my uterus is tilted a certain way - a different way than was reported in my medical file from Dr K's office.
- After my c/p IVF Mi was very pro-active and thorough in their testing. From what I understand, most people don't get a lot of blood tests after 1 c/p. But with me they had me do a bunch of more b/w and b/c of that I found out I have a clotting disorder and MTHFR (homozygous).
- IVF Mi's equipment is top of the line. Their u/s machines were better than my OB's office. Their operating room is impressive. Their table for ER has this drawer thing you can actually pee into laying down. At Dr K's office she had to do a catheter after the retrieval, which I swear hurt as much as a HSG.

Cons

- Their office staff is not friendly and not helpful. Over the phone even some of their nurses were neither friendly nor helpful. (In person they were fine though.) So I tell people, when you go there do not expect good customer service. The reason I ended up with Dr K in the beginning was that IVF Mi told me they didn't accept my insurance. Except they do. I called Dr Fakih's at IVF Mi, which didn't take HAP. No one there bothered to mention that had I called Dr Ashraf's office they would have accepted me. I found that ridiculous.
- Their office looks like a doctor's office. Dr K's looks like an Asian-themed spa.
- If they're busy, and they usually are, they will make you wait an hour+ for your appointment in the waiting area.
- Another downside of seeing so many patients is that there were always kids in the lobby, when I went. that may or may not bother you, but it always bothered me.
- The communication from the nurses to patients is sub-par. For my first cycle there, they forgot to call me with my fert results. Dr K's nurses called me every day after the retrieval. With IVF Mi I was supposed to get my fert results, then nothing until retrieval day. They also didn't explain what MTHFR or my clotting disorder actually mean. They just told me what drugs I would take to combat it.
- After I got pg with my twins/triplet I had a bleeding scare and went to the ER. The Doctor there said I should get an u/s the next day at IVF Mi to make sure everything was fine. But when I called the nurse didn't want to give me an u/s b/c (I quote) "If you're m/c then we can't stop it." Apparently me knowing if I'm still pg or not was not a legit reason for an u/s. *rolls eyes*. I told her I would just come sit in their lobby until they had a free moment. Wouldn't you know an appointment time magically opened up. This gets back to their bad customer service.

That's all I can think of for the moment. I think the trade off of bad customer service for their awesome docs/embryologists is totally worth it. If someone else's Sart scores are better now, then consider that place. After 3 rounds I can confidently say the most important thing is a track record of results.

GL! (sorry to write a novel!)

UMichGirl · February 2011

Bigyellowdog--YGPM back! Thank you!

caden--Wow, thank you so much for your post! I had heard about the (lack of) professionalism with some of the staff there. That is just crazy to me. We're definitely going for the consult, because I do really want to hear what other doctors have to say.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences there!

IVF of Michigan?

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