Columbia Reproductive Center for IVF???
Hi, I have actually been going to Columbia since Aug 2008 and have just decided to leave. It was a difficult decision for my husband and I to make mainly because of how much we liked our Dr ( Dr. Park actually) but I found that I just started to lack confidence in them. Here is a rundown of what we experienced there:
I was supposed to start my first cycle in November but that was canceled because the genetic testing facility was not ready for us to start. I can't blame Columbia for that but what I do hold against them is not returning my multiple phone calls asking if I could start my cycle that month and being told no only after I had arrived for the morning monitoring.
The second start to my first cycle was canceled after I developed a cyst on one of my ovaries from the Lupron injections. Again I don't blame that on Columbia because that was just my bad luck with how I reacted to the drug. What I do hold against them is when I had another new cycle canceled at the start because of another cyst that formed on the same ovary (I was on the non-Lupron protocol after the first time). This last one just happened three weeks ago and the manner in which I was told was the last straw for me ("oh look at that you have a cyst, well looks like it's another rest month for you. I'll tell the lab to throw out your blood sample. Have a good rest of your day.") I have yet to hear back from them on different approaches that we can take so that this does not happen again. (Columbia does not include BCPs as part of their protocol so there is really no way for their protocol to prevent this from happening to us again)
Other things that put me off about them was the manner in which I was treated on the day of my egg retrieval. Our scheduled date fell on a Sunday so the facility was not fully staffed. I was left sitting by myself in a hallway while my husband was left sitting by himself in the waiting room without even turning the lights on for him! The room in which the procedure took place was just weird – it seemed more like a storage room then anything else. There are no recovery rooms – they actually wheel you back out into the same hallway that you sit in while you are waiting to go in and they use privacy curtains to separate you from the rest of the people milling about. Maybe this is normal – I don’t really know because my husband and I have only gone through Columbia up until now (and we only had 1 complete cycle with them). But at the end of the process we both were just turned off from them.
For my husband and myself we are having to do IVF because of a balanced translocation I carry which requires us to have to use PGD testing to determine the viability of our embryos. Other than this issue my husband and I are completely fine. I mention this because Columbia has a very structured way in which they approach the protocols they assign to patients. From their success rates it seems to work for a large portion of their patients without problems but if you fall outside of their boundaries then it is not the place for you. For our one cycle that we completed they were only able to retrieve 10 eggs which was devastating for us because less than 20% of our embryos are expected to be viable (we ended the cycle with 0 being viable for transfer). Their solution was to keep me on the same exact protocol with a small increase in the Gonal-f dosage at the beginning to try to see if we can get a few more eggs.
After all of the things my husband and I have experienced we have realized that we fall outside of their boundaries and that it would be better for us to find a different facility to take on our case. We have meet with a few other doctors and the reaction so far has been the same – that the protocol that they had me on was not the one for me and that for us to have any success that much more aggressive approach needs to be taken.
It is possible that we have had a very different experience then most other people have there. One thing that I can say is that we had to be very proactive with our care. They have so many patients that they do not have the capacity to hold your hand through the process – you have to take control and do all of our own scheduling and planning. I know other facilities will have set schedules that they give their patients – Columbia does not do that so you are really on your own and having to plan around when you will be cycling.
Sorry for such a long post but I just wanted to be able to provide as fair of a picture as possible of what our experiences with them were. My husband and I used them because they also accepted our insurance and they were recommended to us by my obgyn after our second miscarriage so we did not even bother looking any place else. Now that we are switching we have gone through the list of REs that accept our insurance from our insurance co. and have had consultations with all of them to find the place that we think would best help us. If you have that option I would recommend doing that just to see who else is out there that you might not be aware of. You might find that Columbia will be the place for you or you might find that there is another place that you like better. Hopefully this info gives you more information to work with. Good luck with everything – I know how difficult this process is to go through and feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.
I was supposed to start my first cycle in November but that was canceled because the genetic testing facility was not ready for us to start. I can't blame Columbia for that but what I do hold against them is not returning my multiple phone calls asking if I could start my cycle that month and being told no only after I had arrived for the morning monitoring.
The second start to my first cycle was canceled after I developed a cyst on one of my ovaries from the Lupron injections. Again I don't blame that on Columbia because that was just my bad luck with how I reacted to the drug. What I do hold against them is when I had another new cycle canceled at the start because of another cyst that formed on the same ovary (I was on the non-Lupron protocol after the first time). This last one just happened three weeks ago and the manner in which I was told was the last straw for me ("oh look at that you have a cyst, well looks like it's another rest month for you. I'll tell the lab to throw out your blood sample. Have a good rest of your day.") I have yet to hear back from them on different approaches that we can take so that this does not happen again. (Columbia does not include BCPs as part of their protocol so there is really no way for their protocol to prevent this from happening to us again)
Other things that put me off about them was the manner in which I was treated on the day of my egg retrieval. Our scheduled date fell on a Sunday so the facility was not fully staffed. I was left sitting by myself in a hallway while my husband was left sitting by himself in the waiting room without even turning the lights on for him! The room in which the procedure took place was just weird – it seemed more like a storage room then anything else. There are no recovery rooms – they actually wheel you back out into the same hallway that you sit in while you are waiting to go in and they use privacy curtains to separate you from the rest of the people milling about. Maybe this is normal – I don’t really know because my husband and I have only gone through Columbia up until now (and we only had 1 complete cycle with them). But at the end of the process we both were just turned off from them.
For my husband and myself we are having to do IVF because of a balanced translocation I carry which requires us to have to use PGD testing to determine the viability of our embryos. Other than this issue my husband and I are completely fine. I mention this because Columbia has a very structured way in which they approach the protocols they assign to patients. From their success rates it seems to work for a large portion of their patients without problems but if you fall outside of their boundaries then it is not the place for you. For our one cycle that we completed they were only able to retrieve 10 eggs which was devastating for us because less than 20% of our embryos are expected to be viable (we ended the cycle with 0 being viable for transfer). Their solution was to keep me on the same exact protocol with a small increase in the Gonal-f dosage at the beginning to try to see if we can get a few more eggs.
After all of the things my husband and I have experienced we have realized that we fall outside of their boundaries and that it would be better for us to find a different facility to take on our case. We have meet with a few other doctors and the reaction so far has been the same – that the protocol that they had me on was not the one for me and that for us to have any success that much more aggressive approach needs to be taken.
It is possible that we have had a very different experience then most other people have there. One thing that I can say is that we had to be very proactive with our care. They have so many patients that they do not have the capacity to hold your hand through the process – you have to take control and do all of our own scheduling and planning. I know other facilities will have set schedules that they give their patients – Columbia does not do that so you are really on your own and having to plan around when you will be cycling.
Sorry for such a long post but I just wanted to be able to provide as fair of a picture as possible of what our experiences with them were. My husband and I used them because they also accepted our insurance and they were recommended to us by my obgyn after our second miscarriage so we did not even bother looking any place else. Now that we are switching we have gone through the list of REs that accept our insurance from our insurance co. and have had consultations with all of them to find the place that we think would best help us. If you have that option I would recommend doing that just to see who else is out there that you might not be aware of. You might find that Columbia will be the place for you or you might find that there is another place that you like better. Hopefully this info gives you more information to work with. Good luck with everything – I know how difficult this process is to go through and feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.
-
estrellita
- Regular
- Posts: 169
- Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:31 pm
- Location: New York
jjurney, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience at Columbia 
I'm currently going there but so far I think everything's been good. I'm hoping to have a succesfull cycle but if not, I think I'll get other opinions and like you said visit different clinics.
Hope you have better luck now.
I'm currently going there but so far I think everything's been good. I'm hoping to have a succesfull cycle but if not, I think I'll get other opinions and like you said visit different clinics.
Hope you have better luck now.
Me: 28, DH: 31
1st IVF 04/09 = BFN
3 frozen embies
08/09 = BFP (Natural)
1st IVF 04/09 = BFN
3 frozen embies
08/09 = BFP (Natural)
JJUrney... Sorry to hear about your experience. I am contemplating a cycle #7 and I am looking into possible clinics. While I haven't been to Columbia, I went to the 2 in RI, and pretty much didn't have a good experience at either as well. It wasn't necessarily due to the doctor and the re's knowledge, but due to similar experiences as you w/ them messing up the "little" things--not returning phone calls, faxing meds to the wrong pharmacy, getting 2 different calls from 2 different nurses--one saying to start bcp and the other one saying not too, not getting a call about the egg transfer that I was supposed to have (that didn't materialize) and then having to page someone, etc.--I could go on about all the little things that went wrong and that I didn't like. So needless to say, I am trying to do more research about clinics, their success rates, their overall care, etc. I think every aspect of the process is an important one and I just want everything to go smoothly. Going through the process is kind of stressful enough w/o dealing w/ a clinic that can't make things go smoothly as possible w/o a hitch....
Good luck to you.
Good luck to you.
ME--42 DH 41
Jjurney-I had a VERY similar problem with Columbia and it was very hard for me and my husband to leave, partly because you've invested so much and hope that maybe this next time will be the winner. A nd every time I feel like we should go back there for another cycle I try to remember how much I struggled to try and get in touch with my Dr. and a straight answer. Excellent point about if you fall outside the boundaries, because if that is the case I don't find it to be a good place either-which happened to us, they assumed because I was young it woulld be fine, not considering the rest of my medical history (2x cancer survivor). We recently had a consult with SIRM and I couldn't get over how much more thorough they were in explaining everything and different things that they are going to look at that was never even mentioned at Columbia. At Columbia they were ready for me to jump right into another cycle, same protocol and everything. Also at SIRM you have the same Dr. for everything! I don't know where you live but you shuold check them out. We have started a cycle yet, just preliminary stuff but I have heard good things from others on this board.
Good luck!!!!
Good luck!!!!
Thank you everyone for sharing your stories and thoughts.
We have been at Columbia for 7 months now. Unfortunately thus far our RE can't figure out what is wrong, all test so far have been normal. We have tried everything from Clomid, Letrozal to IUI with injectables however nothing has worked. We decided, for now, to stay with Columbia for our first round of IVF. The one thing that concerns me is the amount of people of patients that report of canceled cycles. Only women in our situation can understand how precious time is and each canceled cycle is devastating.
Again, thank you so much for sharing your stories. It's nice to know that there are others that understand the emotional and physical struggles of dealing with this.
Good luck!
We have been at Columbia for 7 months now. Unfortunately thus far our RE can't figure out what is wrong, all test so far have been normal. We have tried everything from Clomid, Letrozal to IUI with injectables however nothing has worked. We decided, for now, to stay with Columbia for our first round of IVF. The one thing that concerns me is the amount of people of patients that report of canceled cycles. Only women in our situation can understand how precious time is and each canceled cycle is devastating.
Again, thank you so much for sharing your stories. It's nice to know that there are others that understand the emotional and physical struggles of dealing with this.
Good luck!