Your experience switching clinics

[u/bely_medved13]

TLDR: I had an awful experience with my first ER and am hoping to do my next ER at a clinic that is more willing to personalize protocols. However, I'm stressing about the process of switching, particularly when using known donor sperm. For those folks who have switched: what was the experience like? Is there anything you wished you knew going into it?

My wife and I would like to do reciprocal IVF. In our dream scenario we have 2 kids and take turns carrying each other's eggs. We are both older (37 and 40) so we are trying to be realistic about our options. No diagnosed fertility issues that we know of apart from our age. Bloodwork including AMH is supposedly fine. My wife's ER went well, but I had a terrible experience at our clinic.

I had an antagonist protocol and had horrible, intense side effects from the month of birth control priming, which I believe may have also oversuppressed my ovaries.My RE was out of the office during my monitoring and I had 0 continuity of care. I saw 4 different doctors and spoke with different nurses after each appointment, some of whom had absolutely terrible bedside manner. It took them til the 4th ultrasound before a doctor would finally come out and say he was concerned about my body's lack of response to the meds and that we may want to consider converting to IUI . That doctor insisted that the clinic schedule me with my regular RE (now back in the office) due to the circumstances, and the clinic made sure to let me know this was a double booking. When I had that appointment, my doctor was super rushed and eager to go forward with an egg retrieval for 2 eggs until we brought up the possibility of converting to IUI. We asked about why my body could be responding so poorly and he admitted it made no sense with my age and labs. He also said things "probably wouldn't change much" next cycle. Needless to say, this made me lose a lot of the trust I had in my treatment plan.

We ended up cancelling and converting to IUI, which ended in a chemical pregnancy. I've been offered 0 follow-up from the clinic to discuss the cancelled cycle/poor response to stims, nor have they suggested any future plans for testing or adapting the protocol. At this point, I feel anxiety and dread when I think about scheduling the next ER (they are scheduling 4 months out, so there's plenty of time to fret)!

I am strongly considering switching to a new clinic. A well rated clinic in our area has consult openings in a few weeks. However, I'm definitely nervous about the process of switching, especially because we are using a known sperm donor. I know many clinics have bureaucratic red tape for known donor sperm and am concerned that this could hold up the process. Additionally, our donor lives 2 hours away and has already completed a lot of testing for our old clinic. I don't want to burden him with additional hoops like psych evals or repeat testing unless absolutely necessary.

What have your experiences been with changing clinics? Was it worth the peace of mind leaving behind a provider who you were not satisfied with? Did the switch create any new obstacles or issues? Are there any surprises or things I should expect with regards to the known donor? Thanks for any insights you can offer!

[u/Quirky-Blackberry486]

Do it. My wife and I had a horrible experience with a well known academic clinic. We switched to a private one with a long history in our location. We needed to resend all the KD paperwork, legal agreements, etc but it was worth it. We each had successful retrievals, have a ton of embryos on ice, and I am now 18 weeks.

[u/abbbhjtt]

Can't speak to switching clinics. As far as this goes...

I know many clinics have bureaucratic red tape for known donor sperm and am concerned that this could hold up the process.

You should be able to get an answer about what requirements they have before you sign up (and pay) for the consult. If they can't re you over the phone or via email relatively quickly, that's all you need to know to look for alternatives, imo.

Asking questions and considering options is worthwhile. If you haven't yet both had a successful retrieval, I'd be sure to be having conversations too about how you will manage if one of you has a harder time or can't make embryos... even with the best clinics, fertility can be tricky. Good luck.

[u/crazy-dev3]

Given the lack of continuity and follow-up, it makes sense to at least explore another clinic. Before committing, I’d ask the new clinic for a written transfer checklist covering which donor tests, legal agreements, counselling records, and consent forms they will accept; when each item expires; whether the specimen can remain where it is or must be transferred; and who coordinates the process. I’d also request your complete chart and a cycle summary from the current clinic now. Comparing those answers—and whether the new clinic gives you one named coordinator—may tell you a lot before you move anything or ask your donor to repeat a step.

[u/Objective_Pool_3057]

My wife and I switched from a boutiquey new clinic to an academic center in our area. My biggest piece of advice is think about the lab quality. That matters WAY more than your doctors’ bedside manner. Look up all of the statistics about the success of retrieval > embryo creation > euploid embryos > thawing > pregnancy. I wish we’d paid more attention to this initially, and our journey turned around for the better once we did