Finding re or Ivf clinic

New-mama?

How did you ladies go about finding your RE or an IVF clinic. The closest one to me will probably be 3-5 hr drive each way depending where I go. I could go to Washington Oregon or Idaho. I mainly see them in Seattle, Spokane, Boise, and Portland. This is probably a silly question but Is an endocrinologist able to do the same thing? That would only be 1.5 hr drive. Has anyone seen someone in these areas? Feel free to private message me if you prefer not to post which clinic you use.

allie8573

Hi there!

Endocrinology is internal medicine so a reproductive endocrinologist is a specialist within the field. Short answer, no. The doctors do two very different things.
Have you talked to your OB about possibly doing a medicated iui with them? Could they prescribe fermera or chlomid?

RedHeather

I just contacted the two closest clinics after looking at their websites. I asked if they worked with single women, what the base cost for an IUI would be, and whether they accept NW Cryobank. One was slightly cheaper but strongly encouraged clients to use California Cryobank (in which case the extra cost of sperm negated any savings), whereas the other was willing to accept any FDA-compliant sperm bank, so I went with the latter and had a good experience.

You may want to check with your insurance to see if there are any in-network RE practices. Even if you don't have fertility coverage, there's a chance that some of the initial diagnostics could be covered.

JandRVA

I asked my OB/GYN for a referral. Her recommendation was a smaller fertility practice for our area but I really liked that they were very patient-centered and my treatment plan was individualized. An endocrinologist is definitely not the type of doctor you want to see for this.

And I would definitely take RedHeather's advice. I was surprised that while my IUIs were not covered, my insurance covered the initial diagnostics including the HSG.

tinydancer

I googled and asked on a city board via facebook for recommendations.
the RE under my INS is horrible and I wont go back. lost my baby at 11ish weeks cause he was a idiot and didnt get me on higher thyroid meds. laughed at me actually for my symptoms, which were related to thyroid getting worse.
my point is, ask around! dont just go to someone cause ther are near or far or anything in between.

kelleymel

We live in a large metro city, so there are a million fertility clinics. We asked around & read their SART stats. The first RE we used (in hindsight) was way behind in technology. We only know this because the new RE clinic we are using is cutting edge. There is a price difference for the disparity in technology. Our IVF cycle with he old RE clinic was $8900 whereas the new clinic charges $12,000. My advice is to schedule an initial consultation with the clinic. Meet the Dr and the team. Have them do a full workup on you and find out what approach they want to take and how much that will cost.