Gago Center for Fertility

My husband and I have just started the process of determining our cause of infertility and what our options will be. I was shocked to find out that their cash pay amount for the semen analysis is $250. They claim you owe $65 upfront because insurance doesn't ever cover that portion (my understanding was it is basically a surcharge for using their lab). Then they bill your health insurance $185. After we found out our health insurance doesn't cover the analysis, I inquired about the cash pay rate for the next analysis needed. They said it is $250. There was no cash pay discount. I explained if insurance covered the analysis, they wouldn't pay the $185 in full. It would be substantially less and based on my research less than $50. Hence, why most providers offer a cash pay discount. The billing office was unable to justify their actions (not that they technically needed to) and lacked all signs of empathy or understanding. I feel they take advantage of people who have no other options.

My husband took a day off work to do an analysis and drop off the sample at the local office 20 minutes away. That morning they called and said he had to switch to their main office, which is over an hour away, due to lack of staffing at the local office. I would think the local office would have a backup plan for their office if an employee was a no show as they indicated that was the reason. Evidently, their backup plan is to travel to a different office. I find that to be a poor business plan resulting in a poor customer experience.

During our initial appointment they requested I call on day one of my next cycle so they could schedule me for multiple time sensitive tests. However, it took four months for there to be an opening that would work with my timing. They had the audacity to advise they would need to put me on birth control so they could decide when my cycle starts. I inquired if my OBGYN could perform the procedures as they did some of them previously and the person voiced hesitation and frustration at my inquiry. I advised I would not be going on birth control due my history with it. If a provider tells you to call so the next month they can get you scheduled but they end up having no openings for four months, that is a poor customer experience. I also feel they decide to do every test imaginable when they might not all be needed based on prior testing done or the results of the semen analysis. It felt like it was a cookie cutter appointment and treatment plan.

Our end goal is to have a baby. Hopefully that will happen and the poor customer experience will be a distant memory. However, we have a long way to go and it is very disheartening and frustrating. I don't know if this is standard across the infertility industry, but I would recommend trying a different clinic if you are just starting out.

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1st appt- online consultation that Dr Weinman was an hour late. At this appointment, I specifically said that I could not afford IVf, and wanted to try fertility drugs.

Dr Weinman recommended a hysterscopy. Involving water and cameras to check uterus/tubes. Scheduled for late Dec 2022. I was supposed to get bloodwork done on a specific cycle day, but that day fell on Christmas Eve. Christmas day was Sunday, lab wasn't open. Told doctor's office that I would get the labs that next month/ASAP, and what had happened with the holiday conflict. Hysterscopy was done. During the whole painful procedure, a seemingly new staff (to that procedure), kept staring at the TV screen (camera) enthustically saying how excited she was (to see the peocedure?). It's already a rough procedure and an emotional process, and a staff member is giddy with happiness while watching it performed.. Smh.

Brief consult after, about 3 min, where IVF was pushed again (I had repeatedly said that I couldn't afford that and was interested in trying a fertility supplement. My whole purpose for going). I was told that it was,"hard to see one side, but sometimes that happens" and then commented back to the bloodwork. I again explained that it was a holiday and I'd get it done ASAP.

I left the appointment, got the bloodwork, and waited. No response. Tried calling a few times, but their phone hours conflict with my normal work hours, so that was a challenge.

Called again, got through, and was told that I needed a Hysterscopy. I explained that I had JUST had this done in Dec 2022. Receptionist told me that the notes said it needed to be done. I explained, again, that I had just had it done in December, completed the labs after, and was interested in fertility supplements. That i hadn't heard anything after labs were done. They said they'd call me back.

Got a call back to schedule another consultation. During the conversation, Dr. Weinman told me that I had tubal blockage and needed a surgerical procedure to correct it. What??? That she told me this, her notes say so. That I also had polyps. All of this is new to me, to the point that I wondered if she was actually looking at MY chart. Asked when I could schedule the procedure for these things to be done. By this time, 6 months had passed since my Hysterscopy!!! I've been tracking cycles and everything, totally clueless to the fact that I supposedly had blockage. Having a "hard time seeing one side, but sometimes that happens. We will know more when we get the bloodwork back" is NOT the same thing as saying, "Your tubes are blocked and you need a surgical procedure to correct it".

I had the procedure done, duplicate of Dec procedure, under sedation. Only to be told, 5 minutes beforehand, that they weren't going to do anything about the supposed blockage (??!!!!l). My WHOLE purpose for going! They removed one polyp, duplicated a procedure that they had just done 6 months prior, skipped the entire procedure that I went to have done, and again tried to push IVF. I've wasted about 8 months of time with this "clinic". I'm disgusted.

Zero stars, 5 regrets!

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My husband and I met virtually with Dr. Weinman for a consultation in December. Dr. Weinman was kind and compassionate, so it felt promising.

On January 18th, I went to Gago for blood work as their recommended first step in the fertility process. I arrived 10 minutes early and didn't get called back until an hour after my scheduled appointment time. I'm sure they are busy, but communication from the team about delays would have been nice.

On January 20th, I called the office to see when I could expect to receive blood work results back. In my experiences elsewhere, blood work takes a few days at most. They said the doctors already had my results, were reviewing them, and would return them on the following Monday or Tuesday (January 24th at the latest).

There has been radio silence on their end, so I called three times last week to try to get through to the nurses and get my results posted to my portal.

On January 31st, I called again and finally got through to a woman named Mary. She told me the doctor was still reviewing my blood work results and wouldn't be able to send them until she was done. She also went on to tell me, "You're showing that you may have PCOS and some thyroid problems, but remember, I can't diagnose so this isn't a diagnosis."

I was completely distraught by the time I hung up with Mary. I would suggest that the doctors tell employees not to guess as to what patients may have or tell them that they "might have PCOS" if they aren't able to diagnose such an issue with complete confidence.

Today is February 3rd. I called again and had one result in my portal. The result was for a thyroid hormone. It said high, but the note from the doctor said that all levels are within normal range and they look forward to seeing me at my next appointment. As someone who isn't a medical professional, I didn't understand how a high result meant all levels were normal.

I was asking why I couldn't review all the results or have them explained by a doctor. Mary noted that the results were in my portal, I just didn't have full access, and the doctor would explain them at my next appointment. She sent me to the front desk who also didn't know why my results weren't showing up. They said I had full access.

At this point, I feel defeated and will be moving on elsewhere. If you go to Gago, you'll be tossed around from person to person, and never allowed to reach a doctor for straight answers. Your results will take weeks to get back, if not longer.

Dealing with fertility issues is already very difficult. This experience has been completely unprofessional and disheartening.

I will not be returning to Gago and I urge others to think twice before going here.

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If you are looking at these reviews then you too are going through infertility. When you are, you want a facility that has compassion, actively cares for its patients, and will go out of its way to make this process as stress-free as possible. If that's what you're looking for, this is not the place for you.

To begin, the front desk staff is so incredibly rude and does not want to work there. You're never greeted with a smile or "Welcome" - you're greeted with a frown and unprofessionalism.

My first procedure was filled with stress and anxiety, Dr. Weinman did not do anything to aid in those feelings but give us a prescription and send us on our way saying "good luck." When we didn't get pregnant that month, I reached out to the clinic and asked what my next steps are. I was called by a nurse telling me my next steps that were never discussed with us. Over the duration of this phone call, the nurse read my chart to me, and not one part of Weinman's notes matched up with what she told my husband and I. Such as, for the last two months I was supposed to be on REI supplements since my reserves were so low, but she never told me that. Dr. Weinman truly did not care about communicating to us regarding our fertility journey. The nurse once found out that we were told nothing of our steps and brushed it off by saying "She was probably having a bad day" - considering I'm going through infertility, don't you think I'm having a bad day, too?

After this incident I requested to be moved to Dr. Gago - they pushed me off 3 months to meet with her. I finally convinced them to give me a virtual appointment with her. She was an hour late to our appointment, and clearly was inconvenienced by our request to meet with her. We expressed our issues with Dr. Weinman which she also just brushed off.

Fast forward two months, we end up conceiving. They schedule blood tests but won't tell me what they're for. I never once heard a "Congratulations" or told what next steps were.

After you get a positive test, their "policy" is that you have to see their doctors. When scheduling my appointment they put me with Dr. Weinman - apparently they don't update charts here because I have told 3 nurses and Dr. Gago I refuse to see her. After the third time I refused an appointment with Dr. Weinman, the receptionist became irate.

The moral of story is that I cannot express how happy I am to be finished with this facility. I hope this review help others get the care they need and require by not going to this clinic.

Update:
After three phone calls two weeks ago trying to schedule an ultrasound with Dr. Gago (who doesn't have availability for the next month) they are continuing to call me to schedule an appointment with Weinman. Communication within this office is not their strong suit.

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On October 11th, 2022, I had an appointment with Dr Weinman at 4:00. It was my first time seeing her and it was supposed to be a "next step" appointment for an IUI. The receptionist told me that since they already have my records and testing previously, I would not have to do any more testing. I went into the appointment thinking we were going to talk about scheduling the IUI and what it looks like.

I was disappointed in finding out we have to do more testing. I had a tough time before with the HSG, due to it being painful. I started crying in the office because I was sad about not being able to do the IUI as quickly as I thought. Dr. Weinman said "I'm trying to explain but you're sitting here crying." I explained to her that I had a therapy appointment about my infertility 30 minutes prior to this appointment so I was sensitive about the subject. My husband told her that we feel like it's another roadblock and we've been trying for almost 5 years.

After a few minutes of her explaining that we have to do more testing, she said "I don't appreciate the eye roll." I had to ask her what she had said because I was taken aback. I asked her when I rolled my eyes and she said "I saw an eye flicker there." I didn't once roll my eyes at her. We were all wearing masks and you couldn't see my expression. I felt attacked and I felt completely invalidated. I felt like it was completely out of line and unprofessional behavior. We got up and walked out. I went to my car and had a panic attack due to the invalidation I received from her. After about 5 minutes, my husband tried to go back in to ask for records and they were already closed.

In a career where you help people start their families, the doctors need to have better bedside manner. Infertility is the HARDEST thing I have ever dealt with in my life. I feel like I have to start over and find a new fertility clinic. I am extremely disappointed with my experience with Dr. Weinman. She could have easily said "I see you're frustrated, I'm so sorry you're dealing with this." But instead, she got defensive right away. I am so disgusted with her behavior. I'm not sure if she's just desensitized to infertility, but I can tell you that if she keeps treating people like this, they will find somewhere else to go.

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Just over all a terrible experience trying to get help with what was already a terrible experience for my wife and I. Out of the dozens of what seem to be constantly changing staff members, only 3 of them treated us with any form of dignity (the receptionist and sonographer at the Lansing office and Dr. Weinman). After an initially decent experience for our first few appointments, our doctor was suddenly switched to someone whom I did not meet until we were firing them. The care was cold, there was no relationship from a majority of the staff to the patients. Our doctor was changed and we weren't told for almost 3 months. We never received any follow up information from anyone, much less our doctor (Stentz) whom, as said before, we did not get to see until we were going to switch services and wanted to notify her of how awful it was. She took the call in an open hallway across from the patient care rooms (usually whose doors are open with patients in them because of the nurses filtering in and our of the room and leaving them open while women are changing) with several staff walking around behind her and an apparent scribe that she did not inform us was listening to our conversation. The nurses were inexplicably rude to us, never told us their credentials or what they were doing or why. I never had a single staff member even use my name or make eye contact with me in the months we went. When I was providing a sample for one of our IUI's, there was a group of nurses standing outside the door gossiping and speaking negatively about other patients while I was trying to provide a sample! The front desk was outright mean, viewing us as an obstacle to getting to spend more time playing on their phones or gossiping and would do whatever it took to not have to listen to or deal with any questions of any kind. It was often a chore to get their attention to even check in for appointments that, again, we did not entirely know what they were for as none of this was being explained to us. They would prescribe us medications without saying why or what for and never offered information sheets for anything, only responding with more condescension when we asked why or what we were doing. We were even ridiculed for not wanting to participate in giving them our genetic information so they could judge the genetics of our children in order to "make sure we didn't get a child with anything undesirable."

TLDR: Money mill that wants to treat you like trash, bill you for doing it, and then kick you out when they tire of your questions.

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At first, everything seemed great. Once it came down to timing when things were supposed to happen, everything went haywire. Communication was terrible. The office manager never even apologized after the mistakes they made. I'm still waiting for a response from the doctor or someone at the clinic in regards to us moving our embryos to a new clinic. After I shared my disgust with the clinic openly, I've had several people reach out and tell me their horror stories.

It appears a physician retired and dr Gago and staff had to absorb everything he took care of and are still accepting new clients. They're over their heads. Don't risk your embryos or babies at this clinic. Don't waste your money. And that's the only thing that they are on top of! Getting in touch about money when it's due.

Wouldn't give even 1 star.

Would highly avoid this clinic

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