Comparing Clinics

So I have been spending the last several days searching and comparing fertility clinics across the US. My head is swimming with information. I have gone on the SART website and checked the stats on any fertility clinic in any place that either a. has family in that city or b. would be a cool place to visit. I have looked into the top 5 clinics on the list of "best fertility clinics for donor eggs." I have little notes all over the place for each clinic where I have jotted down prices, donor information, etc. It's been crazy!

San Diego- I have continued to be in contact with the nice lady at SDFC. She has been incredibly helpful. We have a phone consult with her on Monday afternoon to discuss more specifics. The problem with SDFC is its location. Out of all of our options, it would be the most difficult for us to get to. It would probably be an expensive place to stay as well. What I do like about them is their large donor database, and obviously the friendly coordinator who has been so accomodating.

Chicago - Looking at the SART website, Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago's numbers really look good. In 2015, they did 45 donor egg transfers with a 91% success rate. 45 isn't a big number of transfers (compared to San Diego's 88), but 91% success rate is hard to look past. The other pluses for this clinic is that it would be fairly easy to get to from here, and we have family in Chicago which means a free place to stay. The other thing about this clinic is they have a fairly large frozen donor egg bank. This would mean a much lower cost (I think the cost quoted on their website is $15,900) and a lot less planning (I wouldn't have to sync up my cycle with a donor). I'll probably post about frozen vs. fresh donor eggs at a later time - I really have to look more into this. I hadn't even thought about it before I saw it on their website. The annoying thing about this clinic is the nurse I have been in contact with hasn't been the most approachable person. Granted, I have only talked to her through email, but she hasn't been very forthcoming with answers to my questions. I have just emailed back a questionnaire she wanted me to fill out, so we'll see if we can get a consult scheduled with them soon.

New Jersey- They are the second on the list of "best fertility clinics for donor eggs" and their stats look good. I have called them and gotten some pricing. Their prices for their cycles are about the same as SDFC. Who wants to go to New Jersey anyway? I'm going to keep them in the back of my mind, but I just don't really see that being worth it.

Dallas- I have emailed and called them. Still no response. I'm a little annoyed by that. Looking closer at their stats, they have an 88% success rate for fresh donor eggs, but only did 40 transfers in that year. I still think those are good statistics, and it sure would be convenient. I just want them to call me back already. The real deciding factor there would be the cost and amount of donors in their database.

So that's what I have for now. I've looked at several other clinics, but these are the top 4 at the moment. It makes me sad to be officially saying goodbye to CCRM, but 7 donors in the database at $40,000 just isn't going to cut it. We have a follow up phone consult with Dr. Surrey next Thursday. I'm debating whether or not to cancel it. It seems silly to pay another $100 to tell him we aren't going to be seeing him again. Although I still have some questions for him regarding my Doppler test on my uterus. We also haven't gotten the whole report on the semen analysis yet. I guess I should decide pretty soon what to do about that!