Help me decide on an RE

I'm in CT so I don't expect that anyone has specific feedback (but if you do, please share), but I need help deciding which RE to work with based on pros/cons. I don't know anyone personally who used either. I'm 37, 38 in July.

1. RMACT: large practice, convenient location (15 mins from my work and home), found great reviews and then some that criticize them for being overly aggressive and money driven, SART stats are not as good as option 2 for age 35-37 but better for 38-40. All procedures and monitoring are done on site. I would not see the same doctor at every visit.

2. Greenwich fertility: smaller practice, affiliated with nyu, found a few good reviews and my ob highly recommended one dr, located upstairs from my ob but located 35-45 mins from home and work, SART stats are better for ages 35-37 but worse for 38-40. all monitoring and IUI is done on site but IVF transfer is not. Would see the same doctor each time (unless scheduling issues).

Thoughts?

Message edited 3/18/2015 8:55:51 AM.

Help me decide on an RE

I'm not sure if this info is available for either practice, but I would look at whether or not you'll be seen by and monitored by a doctor vs. a technician each time.
Also important: do you have to go to a lab for blood work, semen analysis and other procedures like hsg? Or are they on site?
Whatever you choose, best of luck!

Re: Help me decide on an RE

Posted by LIRascal

I'm not sure if this info is available for either practice, but I would look at whether or not you'll be seen by and monitored by a doctor vs. a technician each time.
Also important: do you have to go to a lab for blood work, semen analysis and other procedures like hsg? Or are they on site?
Whatever you choose, best of luck!

Re: Help me decide on an RE

Looking at the SART stats, the number of patients who are being done in the two groups are small (versus the large city practices). The stats are hard to compare with that in mind (one patient one way or other could make a difference). The numbers, to me, look very similar for the big things (percent transfers that result in live births & percent of cycles that result in live births).

I used RMA, but had my IVF in Manhattan. I was happy with them. I do know someone who used the Greenwich group. She was happy with them.

Personal reviews are tough to manage because a LOT of happiness depends on whether it worked for that person.

My OB does not recommend my RE & visa versa (but this is more due to the referral pattern of the doctors & could be due to personality in many cases).

Location is important (but not a sole factor). My RE office was 15 minutes from home, 1 hour from work (at the time I'd be commuting). Still chose them because the place closer to work had much worse stats.

"Money driven" is true of any practice. It's not volunteer work. Actually, when I paid cash for most of my cycle (before insurances covered what they sometimes now do), I think my "service" was better (?better staff maybe?) than now. I always liked my own doctor personally: but that may just be a personality thing & the fact that he explained things very well to me (and like to use email, my preferred method of communication).

So, conclusion, you could chose either group. Personally, I'd chose RMA, but I'm biased in that I had a good experience with them and it worked for me.

Re: Help me decide on an RE

Re: Help me decide on an RE

Posted by jodi714

Posted by nycgirl

Looking at the SART stats, the number of patients who are being done in the two groups are small (versus the large city practices). The stats are hard to compare with that in mind (one patient one way or other could make a difference). The numbers, to me, look very similar for the big things (percent transfers that result in live births & percent of cycles that result in live births).

I used RMA, but had my IVF in Manhattan. I was happy with them. I do know someone who used the Greenwich group. She was happy with them.

Personal reviews are tough to manage because a LOT of happiness depends on whether it worked for that person.

My OB does not recommend my RE & visa versa (but this is more due to the referral pattern of the doctors & could be due to personality in many cases).

Location is important (but not a sole factor). My RE office was 15 minutes from home, 1 hour from work (at the time I'd be commuting). Still chose them because the place closer to work had much worse stats.

"Money driven" is true of any practice. It's not volunteer work. Actually, when I paid cash for most of my cycle (before insurances covered what they sometimes now do), I think my "service" was better (?better staff maybe?) than now. I always liked my own doctor personally: but that may just be a personality thing & the fact that he explained things very well to me (and like to use email, my preferred method of communication).

So, conclusion, you could chose either group. Personally, I'd chose RMA, but I'm biased in that I had a good experience with them and it worked for me.

Thanks for your feedback!! Did you see the same dr at RMA every time? I heard that you see different drs at each appt. What was that like?

I was leaning toward RMA but my husband is leaning toward Greenwich because he knows that feeling taken care of and the personal service is a big thing for me so he feels I would be happier at Greenwich...so now I don't know what to do.

Re: Help me decide on an RE

I just posted this on the person asking about RMA in Garden City. This is just my experience and my opinions:

I just joined based on a friend reco and I am glad I stumbled upon this post...

My personal feelings are that the LI office has awful hours. I know a lot of other monitoring hours start at 7 AM for many places. This one opens at 8AM and I work in the city so that doesnt work for me. They only do IUI on Mon & Friday I believe or something useful like that.

I primarily go in the city. I dont love it at all. I feel like just a number and deal way too much with nurses. I understand the doctor has a lot of patients but there was something that recently just happened and if a doctor was involved instead the nurses the situation wouldve been different.

As this goes on and on you will see that you start to feel like your wasting time waiting each month. I was quickly diagnosed with "unexplained infertility" when a number of things that I've heard other people have checked were not checked by them. Most recently I had to get the nurse to go ask the doctor to give me a sono...

I feel like they dont do everything that they can to help you and they dont care so much about whether the iui's work because they just want to make their money with IVF. So, I wonder for all the people who have gotten pregnant with RMA have had IVF. Someone in my office says they are great. She had her baby with them (IVF of course). Honestly at this point if my last option was IVF I'd rather go someplace where you aren't just a number and can deal with a doctor more than you deal with nurses who just dont seem to really care and take that extra step for you.