Wednesday, October 7, 2009

.reproductive care center vs. SIRM.

hey ladies.

i need to know if any of you have done ivf cycles with dr. blaur or heiner at reproductive care center.? and what your experience was like.

and, has anyone looked into SIRM in Las Vegas.. i've heard such good things about them and they have money back guarantees with all ivf cycles (even if you're just doing one).



thanks

ash

9 comments:

Unknown said...

My husband and I worked with dr. heiner when we first found out about our infertility. However, we found out through tests that we were not a candidate for IVF. We were thouroghly unimpressed with dr. heiner. If we had continued to work with that office, we would have changed doctors. Everytime we went in for an appointment, he would misplace our file and we would have to wait for him to go look for it or retell him everything that had gone on in our previous appointments. My husband had a surgical procedure done, and he almost had to cancel because he couldn't find out file. Then he found it last minute. Needless to say, that was not very comforting. He even took a call from his wife during one of our appointments. I didn't think he was very professional, and I didn't care for his bedside manner either.

We got a call about 6 months after we found out that there wasn't anything we could do (iui or ivf). It was a woman saying we had never paid for our consultation visit. I explained to her that we had had that appointment as part of a promotion they were running for a free first visit. She said that was impossible because they had stopped running that promotion. I insisted. Finally, after several argumentative phone calls, she admitted that she'd found the paperwork that said we had in fact had that appointment under the free promotion.

Yeah, I'm not impressed with them. Unfortunately, they really are the only office around here who does this sort of thing, which I think is a real shame. I met someone who drives down all the way from Idaho to go there.... Anyway, good luck. If you go there, I would suggest meeting with a different doctor besides heiner.

Jared,Tamara +Kylie Morgan said...

We've spent a lot of time looking into different clinics and have decided that when we need it we will be going to SIRM in Las Vegas. After doing a ton of research I feel pretty confident that this clinic is one of the top in the nation. Many of their patients who go to them haven’t found success at other clinics, and they seem to specialize in helping those that aren’t “easy” cases. I do have a lot of respect for the local clinics in Utah, but I think typically they are used to the more easy cases and aren’t as aggressive as needed with some people if they aren’t responding to meds properly. So with the history of your last cycle I’d think it would be worth your time to set up a free phone consult with Dr. Fisch or Sher. I did a lot of asking around on different message boards regarding the various clinics and hands down pretty much everyone told me to not waste time and just go strait to SIRM.

I can’t say a lot about Dr. Fisch’s bedside manner as I’ve only spoke with him once. But I did like that they are super fast to answer questions via email or through the SIRM website. He definitely didn’t come across as a touchy-feely kind of guy but the kind that’s like “we are going to get your pregnant and this is what we need to do”. Of course that’s easy for him to say when he’s not the one going through it and paying for it!!!

We also looked into Dr. Richards partner in Cali but ultimately decided that the travel expenses to Vegas were much more do-able than California (we could drive to vegas, no rental car, hotels are inexpensive, etc). We also decided that if we had anything left over to freeze at SIRM that we could just have them transferred up to Dr. Richards office.

My really only "con" is that they are pricy and really the way to go there is with a cycle plan of some sort. But if you go somewhere where there isn't a money back guarantee and it fails your just back to square one anyway with another $10K down the toilet. So to have some guarantee of either a live baby, or some of your money back is pretty convincing. You'll want to talk to their office lady about how their plans work because some of their plans define success as a live baby and others are just a positive pregnancy past 12 weeks. And your history can affect how much of a refund you’d get. Let me if you want me to send you the financial forms/details they sent me a few months ago.

It’s mind boggling how many options are out there! I also got a lot of information by going to www.ivfconnections.com, registering and under “bulletin boards” there is a forumn under IVF by location (Nevada) that has many threads by people who have gone there. It helped out a lot. Don't give up!

{owens} said...

thanks ladies.

greta, i agree with you. i was seeing dr. blaur in sandy and DID NOT like the way he treated us, he NEVER reviewed the chart before we'd come in and i'd always have to tell him what we were there for. so ridiculous.

tamara- i have heard wonderful things about SIRM too.. but dr. richards talked me into going to CALI for our ICSI in dec. he said the price would be $8800 w/o meds. so not too bad, since he said with icsi we'll most likely have really good chances of getting lots of embies and then we can freeze them and send them here. i asked dr richards where we could stay for reasonable and if you stay in the apartments behind the LA temple its only $45 per night and we're just going to drive there so we don't have to rent a car. the temple apts are only 3 miles from dr marrs office. so i think we'll try cali and i like that dr. marrs knows my case and how i did with ivf #1. i did also find out that SIRM drs are not board certified REs...just specialized ob/gyns. so that's something to think about.

thanks again.

ash

Jared,Tamara +Kylie Morgan said...

You'll be in great hands with Dr. Marrs! That's awesome you could find an affordable place to stay. I've only been to Cali once and the cheapest hotel we could find was over $100 so that's good to hear. Will they be doing anything different with the meds to try to get more eggies next time? It's such a tricky thing to balance I'm sure. I've heard amazing things with Dr. Marrs so that's great to hear.

Beck said...

Okay, so did any of you try the U? I had Dr. Gibson and LOVED him! Prompt, always had my chart and was willing to let me control how fast I wanted to proceed on everything. He told me (and I told Hillary) about a plan he is trying to start that would be similar to the clinic in Vegas, but I don't know what their definition of "success" (live baby vs. positive pregnancy test) will be if he can get the clinic to even start this program. Just a thought.
And I've heard wonderful things about the other doctors up there, too. Whatever you decide, good luck!

Beck said...

Oh, and just so you know, because the U is a research-based entity, the reproductive clinic up there is considered the best in the state. Didn't know if you all knew that or not.

gabeandstef said...

K so I have to agree that dr.heiner and dr.blauer did not impress me either. i went there and at the time all the wanted to do was push ivf which i wanted other options first. so i wouldnt waste my time going there again, but thanks beck for the advice on the U might have to go there and see what they have to say. okay and not to stand to dumb but what is SIRM that in being done in vegas?

Todd & Chelsea said...

Hi. I just randomly came across your blog and had to comment. We did an IUI cycle with dr Hiener and I can honestly say he was the worst dr we've dealt with yet. I know IVF is much different but my concern would just be that he basically lacks morals. He did an IUI cycle for us-offering nothing like ovulation inducation, simpluation or verification using an u/s. BAsically, he later stated he knew it wouldn't work and was just placating us until we gave up and came to him for IVF. Just FYI. WE later went to a great dr. (in southern UT) who did all of the above and did get pregnant with IUI. Heiner was also quite rude about our weight and other things and just failed to really genuinely care-which is pertinent in infertility tx. I would think very seriously before going with him. I'd consider an RE like at the U. Good luck

Melissa said...

I visited Dr. Blauer several times and wasn't impressed at all. I wouldn't recommend the RCC to anyone.