We are fortunate to be in a location that has quite a few RE's within a 2 hour drive. The closest is 65 miles away. The hard part is selecting the RE that is right for us.
Option #1: The one we had our first consult with Dr. Know-it-all, is the closest and we have family that reside in the this location. So when I am having daily bw/us I can rely on someone to be with me and a place to crash so I don't have to travel back and forth daily if I would prefer not to make the trip. Problem I he is not my favorite and doe not have super good stats according to the SART report. [2007 report: <35 - 17 cycles - 5 live births]
Option #2: The RE clinic that is 1.5 hours away in the Bay Area. They are a large clinic and have descent stats on the SART report. On the bulletin board I belong to lots of women recommended them. They are expensive, but are offering a 25% discount for IVF. [2007 report: <35 - 62 cycles - 32% live birth]
Option #3: The RE that is 3 hours away. I know no one in this town and am not quite sure how all the logistics would work out. I fell drawn to this clinic for some reason. His clinic is fairly priced and has a very kind staff. I have a close friend that cycled there and ended up with triplets from her first cycle 5 years ago, we both have severe MFI. He has 100% success with MFI diagnosis for 2007. Now he did only do 8 total cycles of <35 age group.
So my fellow bloggers I need your help!! I'm not sure which RE to choose from. I am so confused. What would you do??
The distance is an issue...but the bigger issue is leaving with a baby. How were #3s other stats besides with MFI (since MFI can be used for anything from very mild to severe and therefore doesn't really tell the whole story).
ReplyDelete......hmmmmm. Tough choices.
Hmm...I had a post JUST like this a few months ago! There are so many variables and it's a very tough decision. You're doing IVF, right? I didn't factor SART reports into my decision too much because we aren't doing IVF (at least at this point).
ReplyDeleteBUT based on SART reports Option #3 looks like the best choice! I just used the "all diagnoses" option because I think that will give the best picture of their lab quality, since perhaps the MFI patients they had had some other underlying problem, you know? How you will work out the logistics, I don't know (do your monitoring with a closer RE?)...BUT this is coming from someone who doesn't know a ton about IVF, so you can take it with a grain of salt. :)
I live about an hour and a half south of Pismo in Goleta/ Santa Barbara. My dad is from Fresno so I've been to the central valley a few times :)
makingmemom.blogspot.com
That is indeed a toughie. While the 3 hour away one does sound promising, that is a lot of time. I'll assume when you say 3 hours away, it means that it is three hours TO the clinic and three hours BACK from the clinic? 6 hours roundtrip? If that's the case, I'm not sure how well that would work. I would see if that RE can work it out for you to monitor at a closer clinic and then only go there for the big stuff like baseline, egg retrieval and transfer. When I had my IVF I was going along so quickly I was monitored EVERY MORNING FOR 7 DAYS. No respite. Every morning at like freak-o'clock in the morning. I can't imagine how this is done with a six hour commute (well, actually I can imagine it...it would SUCK). I would probably go with the one in the bay area where you know a few folks. Good luck on making your tough decision. I hope it all works out for the best. :-)
ReplyDelete