Stanford Fertility and Reproductive Health Services – Sunnyvale Reviews

By Google Reviews on 07/23/2024

Review of Stanford Fertility and Reproductive Health Services – Sunnyvale from Lorace Manalo

I’ve been working with Stanford Fertility since 2017 (2017 to 2023) where my now late husband and I were fortunately able to conceive two children under Dr. Nakajima and team’s care.\n\n2017/2018 IVF Journey:\nOur family building journey began in 2017, when my late husband and I were referred to us by our oncologist. We had plans to bank my husband’s sperm before he underwent chemotherapy. Based on both our medical history, tests, sperm analysis, Dr. Nakajima recommended IVF for our situation. At the time, I was 38 years old and worked for a company that had basic medical coverage and minimal fertility coverage.\n\nI met with a financial counselor that reviewed my medical and fertility coverage and advised me on how many IVF cycles I was covered for which was 3 cycles. She didn’t mention the costs for fertility medications and I was only really covered for 1 cycle. Billing was a nightmare and I was constantly getting calls from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital to pay my bills while I was still trying to resolve some billing mishaps.\n\nWe opted for genetic testing to avoid passing on a gene that caused my husband’s cancer. When we met with the genetic counselor a couple months later, she did not know beforehand about what genetic testing we needed which delayed the start of my IVF cycles by approximately 6 months as genetic testing probes needed to be developed to screen the embryos. The delay was frustrating.\n\nAside from the financial and billing issues, Dr. Nakajima’s team did a great job laying out our next steps, what injections I should take and when, monitoring appointments needed before egg retrieval, Day 1 thru 5 embryo development updates. Once we got a euploid embryo, Dr. Nakajima advised what procedures I should do to maximize my chances of a successful embryo transfer and implantation. This resulted in my son who is now 5 years old.\n\n2022/2024Journey:\nMy husband passed away while I was pregnant with my first child. I still had my husband’s sperm stored at Stanford and I decided to try IVF again in 2021 at the age of 41. Due to my advanced age I thought that going to a different clinic (NOVA IVF) would increase my chances. I did two cycles out of pocket that did not yield a good embryo. I gave up.\n\nIn 2022, I joined a company with excellent fertility benefits so I decided to go back to Dr. Nakajima. He put me on a different IVF protocol based on my latest fertility testing results, my age, and history. My billing experience was so much better and the new genetic counselor was a lot friendlier. Same as before, the team informed me of next steps, what meds to order and when to take them. I made sure to prepare myself mentally that my chances were very slim to have a euploid embryo at my age of 43. First cycle did not yield a good embryo. Second cycle, I got a message on a Saturday from the genetics counselor about my results which I thought was odd for a Saturday, but was great because I was anxiously waiting for some news. Success! I got a euploid embryo and I transferred a few months later when I was ready. Napping on me now is my 7 week old daughter.\n\nDr. Nakajima and team has helped me fulfill my family building goals and dreams. I consider myself very lucky. Throughout the whole process I knew my chances were slim considering my advance age, and I already prepared myself to hear bad news at each step since IVF you have limited control of the outcome.\n\nDr. Nakajima, thank you so much and it was great working with you and all the cheerful nurses at my monitoring appointments, egg retrieval procedures.