Thank you all so much for your words of support and ideas regarding trying to get this darn consult set up with an RE. It’s just incredibly frustrating to be 300 miles from the nearest one. No offense, but I have to laugh when I see people complaining about 20 minute drives to their RE. I wish!
At any rate, I kept calling the OB’s office until they got things taken care of. They referred me to the University of Colorado. In the meantime, I emailed the Colorado Center of Reproductive Medicine (who I’ve heard amazing things about) and they got back to me within 24 hours and set up an appointment with me. Now I’m trying to figure out who to go with…here’s the basic stats I know so far (keep in mine this is all OOP b/c my insurance covers nothing for IF – not even diagnostic work)… and I’m trying to decide who to keep the appointment with.
University of Colorado
How did you choose your RE’s office?
My vote is CCRM…lower deposit, higher success rate and you've heard great things. Too bad you can't meet and get a feel for their personalities first. Good luck and safe travels.
I agree with pp. Good luck! How exciting to finally get something on the books – and having to choose between two appointments is a great problem to have!
We don't have many in my area and I knew I wanted a woman. That narrowed down the choices to two and I picked the one closest to me. Sounds like CCRM has a lot more patients than the other – which could be a good and bad thing. Pick one, and if you don't love the staff, then try the other. Yay!! Good luck!!
I have no idea how to decide = no help sorry. But I can offer up a bed should you need a place to stay in Denver and I can offer some amazing company. 🙂
I narrowed it down to two and then went to consultations at both (I could do that b/c they're both in my city). The stats were comparable at each and I went with the doctor whose approach felt most comfortable to me. I actually chose the one that was farther away. Oh, and they both were on my insurance plan.
That's such a tough decision! The stats seem powerful, but you can never really trust statistics. Argh. I feel for you. Enjoy the drive, and maybe inspiration will strike on the road!
I would definitely go with CCRM, mainly because this sounds like the one you want to go to and the deposit is cheaper. How did I choose my RE? My first RE was a referral from my OBGYN and I also knew a few people who had good things to say about them. My second RE was from hearing about them online (here).Keep us posted!
Okay…you don't know me, but I stumbled on your blog today and had to comment! My husband and I just completed our very first IVF cycle and found out last week that we are expecting a baby in August of 2011. We had been TTC since 8/09, and I also have probable PCOS, so your story reminds me very much of my own! I just wanted to encourage you by saying that whichever RE you choose, you are going to walk away from your appointment absolutely amazed. At our first consult, I broke down and cried because I just knew these people were going to be able to help us. And how did I find my RE? I just googled "fertility clinics in Portland, Oregon" and called the first one I saw. I know, not research based….but God provided nonetheless.I also wanted to say to take clinical pregnancy rates with a grain of salt. Some clinics won't accept patients over certain ages because it brings down their success rate, and others don't allow women with low FSH levels to use their own eggs (they use donor eggs instead, which increases pregnancy rates, but can be misleading to those who are just looking at the numbers….) My husband and I used sart.org to find statistics for the clinic we went to–this website gives statistics for all the fertility clinics around the country and allows you to compare them on a deeper level. It might be worth checking out!Lastly, I wanted to say that if you ever have questions about the IVF process (and I don't even know if you're considering IVF), I blogged about the whole thing as we went through it–week by week. I'm so passionate about what this God-given science has done for my life, and I'd love to share my experiences if it might help.My prayer for you is that God will bless this entire process, and that in a few months, you'll be celebrating a pregnancy of your own! DON'T lose hope–God's timing is perfect and 2011 is a great year to have a baby!!!
Honestly, I would go to both appointments. See which doctor you like, and see who you feel most comfortable with. Will you be doing ICSI with the IVF? If so, ask both clinics for their fert rates as well for their embryologists. Once you meet with both clinics, then sit down and weigh out all of the information.That's my opinion. 🙂 Good luck making your decision!
I am so glad you have an appointment! One suggestion I have is to make a detailed list of all the questions you want to ask them. You get so flustered and emotional sometimes when you're talking to them that it's impossible to keep it all in your head.I also suggest taking lots and lots of notes. You think you'll remember stuff later, but it's all so confusing and my husband and I always come away thinking we heard something different that each other. E-mail me this weekend if you need to. I suspect you may be getting one from me. 🙂
Just by looking at the stats, I'd go with CCRM. Lower cost, and higher percentage rate plus more cycles done at their clinic. Leads me to believe they're more experienced.
I agree choose CCRM. Where I live there are two RE offices. One had multiple REs and the other only had one RE. My DH and I did extensive research on both offices and went with the better one. The one with one RE. Also, my insurance covers nothing to do with IF. But, my RE's office got it where they worded the requests right and my insurance covered u/s, office visit cost, hsg, and bloodwork. Maybe one of the offices can work a miracle for you too. Good luck!!
CCRM is supposedly the best (and most expensive!). That is great but keep in mind that you are not doing IVF, yet, and hopefully never. I have started off with a smaller clinic (1 dr, who I always see and who does all of the procedures himself at a lower cost than many clinics) and have been very happy there. I will probably move on to a larger facility for IVF, if it comes to that. Just a thought. CreatingAFamily.org has a podcast on how to choose a fertility specialist that you might be interested in: http://www.creatingafamily.org/radioshow.htmlBest Wishes Josey!
Oh Josey you've got a toughie here. if you can afford it meet with both and go with your gut feeling. if you can't meet with both go with your gut feeling. good luck lady and merry christmas.
I initially went with the Re recommended by my OBGYN. After visiting 2 other RE's after that. We ending up with #1 because his pregnancy stats were almost 10% higher then #2. #2 would not allow us to work with known donor sperm and #3 was amazing but way too far for all of the monitoring required for IVF.I don't love my doctor. But I love the protocol changes he has made as we go through this process. He's kind of a dick..but seems to really know his stuff.I would meet with both if you can.Hope this helps some!
I chose my RE mostly based on the fact that I knew I didn't want a lot of interventions automatically (no automatic progesterone during 2ww, no pressing IVF HARD from the get-go). Not sure if you have similar concerns, J, but believe it or not, that narrowed the field A LOT. I asked around on local message boards, hit up ratemydoctor.com, and began searching all of the doctors from the two clinics I was torn between.
[…] 2010: We debated on which clinic to go with. My OB had finally referred me to their default RE clinic after 17 months TTC, and everyone in the […]