need suggestions for IVF near Santa Clara

[curiousme]

Ladies,
I have tried several Clomid-IUI with negative result (in New Jersey). In between there was one natural preg, but had a miscrg at 6 weeks

We have recently moved to Santa Clara and I want to try IVF. I am totally new to IVF. Our insurance covers some doctors from these clinics:
Stanford, RSC and FPNC

Can you please suggest the best clinic and the best doctor? Your suggestions will be of great help in deciding our next step.
Thanks in advance.

[bebehope]

Hi Curious, I do not live in your area, but I wanted to direct you to the SART website if you do not know about it. It will help you locate clinics in your area and you can click on each clinic for info- the ART Report will have the "report card" on how the clinic is doing. This link should help you locate a clinic. The stats will obviously not tell you about personal experiences, so I hope you get some locals' responses! Good luck!
http://www.sart.org/find_frm.html

[marnieblue]

I have heard great things about Stanford and FPNC but I have only cycled at RSC. Their main office is in San Ramon where you would have your retrieval and transfer but all other appointments can be done in San Jose. I highly recommend them! They do work as a team and while you will have one main RE you may have another for one of your procedures if your main RE is absent. They do this so they can stay open daily. My RE is Dr. Weckstein and I love him! I have met all the other RE’s there and they are all very good. My preference is Dr. Weckstein or Dr. Hinckley. They both have a great bedside manner too!

[curiousme]

Hi Curious, I do not live in your area, but I wanted to direct you to the SART website if you do not know about it. It will help you locate clinics in your area and you can click on each clinic for info- the ART Report will have the "report card" on how the clinic is doing. This link should help you locate a clinic. The stats will obviously not tell you about personal experiences, so I hope you get some locals' responses! Good luck!
http://www.sart.org/find_frm.html

bebehope,
Thanks for providing link for SART, it does have statistics for all clinics. Yes I am hoping to get to know personal experiences. That tells a lot about how the doctors are.

[curiousme]

I have heard great things about Stanford and FPNC but I have only cycled at RSC. Their main office is in San Ramon where you would have your retrieval and transfer but all other appointments can be done in San Jose. I highly recommend them! They do work as a team and while you will have one main RE you may have another for one of your procedures if your main RE is absent. They do this so they can stay open daily. My RE is Dr. Weckstein and I love him! I have met all the other RE’s there and they are all very good. My preference is Dr. Weckstein or Dr. Hinckley. They both have a great bedside manner too!

marnieblue,
Thanks for the information. Barring some exceptions I have also seen good online reviews for all three clinics.
From RSC only Dr. Carmelo Sgarlata is covered under my insurance, so if I go there only he can my main RE. Have you heard how he is?

[marnieblue]

marnieblue,
Thanks for the information. Barring some exceptions I have also seen good online reviews for all three clinics.
From RSC only Dr. Carmelo Sgarlata is covered under my insurance, so if I go there only he can my main RE. Have you heard how he is?

I met with him only once for a pre-op. I liked him very much! Even though your insurance only covers Dr. Sgarlata I am sure you may meet some other RE's through your cycle and they will just bill your insurance with him as your main RE.

[PradasMom]

Hi Curious!

I did an IUI at Stanford, an IVF at FPNC, and an IVF at Nova. Nova was our successful cycle. I have + things to say about all:

Stanford- the latest & greatest research is done here, and they have many residents who will see you, discuss your case amongst themselves, and make group decisions.

FPNC- Dr. Adamson who heads it up wrote many textbooks for MDs on IVF, surgery, etc, and he's pretty much G-d to the others in the field. They are very good and expedient with their cycles, and see hundreds of patients a month.

NOVA- only 2 RE's, 2 nurses, and it's held close to the heart with them on your cycle. They see very few patients, and give you their cell numbers to call when you're in-cycle with ANY issues at all. I had success here (we did DE, that is VERY important to know also in our outcome) but I had the best of luck getting appointments, personal attention, and the nurses there will do the IM style shots for you if you & DH don't want to do them at home. Their success rate is amongst the highest in the Bay Area, and their prices are about half of FPNC. They are "out of network" with all insurance carriers, but give you itemized bills every visit that you can submit and get the out of network coverage for w/ your carrier (mine was United, covered 50% of that cycle after deductible).

You can PM me for more if you like, glad to share!

Christine

[poppan]

Does your insurance also cover UCSF, they are in San Francisco with good success rates. Dr. Fujimoto is the one that many people recommend. I went through there early on, the care and technology is good, but I felt like I fell through the cracks because I was on the young side (age 30 at the time) and not doing IVF.

After UCSF I switched to FPNC with Dr Kim there, I definitely got a lot more personal attention but it also felt like they were trying to bill as much as they could. I had to go into their office for every.single.thing and each time was charged for it whether I saw the doc or just the nurse. They would make me go in person to "discuss" my blood test results. I mean, come on. Every other RE I ended up working with would do that on the phone and not charge for it. I am grateful to them for one thing -- they uncovered a test that was not done (we thought it had been done) -- and that test ended up being the key to finding out why we could not conceive. I do not know what their success rates are now, but at the time (3 years ago) they had crap success rates for IVF, so we moved on.

I hear mixed reviews for Stanford, but have no personal experience.

Finally there is Dr Zouves in Foster City, he does not take insurance. But he's very good, and (IMHO) that's why he can afford not to take insurance. He takes the hard cases -- the ones who are still not pg after multiple IVFs -- so when you look at stats, factor that in. That's the problem with stats, I don't think they tell the whole story.

[2LinesIn09]

I LOVE FPNC. Dr Abusief and Dr Kim are amazing! Unfortunately my first IVF ended in miscarriage at 10 weeks, but I am getting ready to cycle with them again. I love how they work as a team and discuss all their patients with each other daily. You get the benefit of many intelligent doctors there. And because there are so many of them in the practice it is easy to schedule appointments and they return calls immediately. The patient coodinator at the Palo Alto office (Shawnda) is fantastic. Good luck with whatever you decide!

*** I just saw the post below. FYI I nevr had to go in for an appointment to discuss blood test results. It was always done over the phone at no charge.

[PradasMom]

I LOVE FPNC. Dr Abusief and Dr Kim are amazing! Unfortunately my first IVF ended in miscarriage at 10 weeks, but I am getting ready to cycle with them again. I love how they work as a team and discuss all their patients with each other daily. You get the benefit of many intelligent doctors there. And because there are so many of them in the practice it is easy to schedule appointments and they return calls immediately. The patient coodinator at the Palo Alto office (Shawnda) is fantastic. Good luck with whatever you decide!

I had Dr. Abusief (she was pg and went on mat leave during my cycle) also, and Shawnda as our nurse too! LOVED them, the Palo Alto clinic was so personable and greeted me like family for those monitoring appointments! The San Jose office was very assembly-line, cookie-cutter compared to the PA office, but they know their stuff and they are very precise and technical in their approach.