Questions About Your First Visit
Your first visit to RPMG is dedicated to an extensive review of your medical history, a personalized treatment plan and in-depth explanations and answers to all your questions.
The physicians here at Reproductive partners take the time to conduct a comprehensive evaluation and examine a broad range of fertility treatment options, so they can develop the personalized fertility treatment plan that fits you best. Your initial consultation will include about an hour of one-on-one time with one of our doctors.
Below we have answered a number of common questions you may have during your first visit. While this is not an exhaustive list, it is a great starting place to better understand what your first visit, and your fertility treatment at RPMG might entail.
What should I do to prepare for the initial consultation?
Please gather any previous relevant records or lab results and bring them with you to your initial consultation.
Does my partner need to be with me for the initial consultation?
We encourage it, but it is not required that your partner be present. Having your partner at the initial consultation gives them an opportunity to ask the doctor any questions they may have.
Will I be able to meet with a financial consultant?
Yes, a financial consultant will go over costs and financial packages associated with treatment.
Do you take insurance?
Yes, we are contracted with many PPO plans. Even if we are not contracted with your insurance, you can get your treatment at Reproductive Partners and send the bills to your insurance company for reimbursement based on your infertility coverage.
What forms do I need to fill out before the consultation?
It is helpful to have all new patient forms filled out prior to your appointment. To download these forms, please visit our New Patient Packet.
How soon can I have my initial consultation?
This varies depending on physician availability. Our physician’s schedules fill up very quickly. Please make your new patient appointment as soon as possible to minimize your wait time.
How long will it take to establish a diagnosis and treatment plan?
The answer to this varies from patient to patient. Please consult directly with your physician for an answer to this question. If you want the opportunity to start your treatment plan sooner, please see our Fast Track program.
How much will my treatment cost and what type of payment options do you offer?
We have an entire Financial Resources section on this website dedicated to information regarding pricing and payment plans. You will also be able to meet with a financial consultant who will go over costs and financial packages associated with treatment and answer all of your questions.
If the problem is related to male factor, can't you just treat my partner since I have no trouble getting pregnant?
The treatment for most serious male fertility problems involves the female partner in the form of intrauterine insemination (IUI) or IVF with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). It's also a good idea to check out the female partner's fertility potential so that valuable time is not wasted treating the male only to have it not result in a successful pregnancy and find out later that there were female issues as well. The exceptions might be if the female partner is very young, under 30, and the urologist feels that the male partner's problem can be treated effectively. An example would be a vasectomy reversal when the female partner is young and the vasectomy was done less than five years ago and has a good prognosis for success.
What tests may be conducted during my first visit?
For a complete list of initial tests that may be performed on your first visit our First Visit Fertility Tests page.
How long will it be from when we are diagnosed to when we can begin treatment?
We can start treatment as soon as we have enough information to make a recommendation. In fact the evaluation itself may result in a pregnancy as a byproduct of trying to time everything perfectly and flushing out the tubes with the tubal dye test. In most cases we can complete the evaluation and start treatment in one cycle, in about a month.
How long should I expect to undergo treatment?
Most of our patients achieve a pregnancy within six months using conventional treatment. The timing depends on your continuing in treatment and moving forward to more advanced treatments when they are necessary.
What are your success rates?
The only meaningful success rates are for IVF because there are just too many variables between patients with other treatments like IUI to have meaningful statistics. For information on our current and historical success rates for IVF, please see our success rates page. Your doctor can give you an estimate of what you can expect from other treatments based on your clinical situation.
How many IVF attempts will you make?
Hopefully you will succeed on the first one. But the general rule is to get the maximum effectiveness of any treatment we recommend three cycles. That's why we have many different financial plans so you can select the one that's right for you-maximizing your chance of success while minimizing your investment.
What is your IVF success rate per embryo transfer? How many embryos do you generally transfer?
The success rate per embryo transferred and the number of embryos transferred varies per age. Please see our latest SART report for this information by age group or our success rates page.
Will you always perform treatment monitoring or is it possible that on occasion another physician or a nurse might monitor?
Even though RPMG is open every day to serve you, your primary physician cannot be there every day so we work as a team to provide you with services when you need them. Only our experienced physicians will perform monitoring with ultrasounds and procedures like IUI and IVF retrieval and transfer.
If you have any additional questions that have not been answered here, please feel free to contact us directly so that we may assist you. If you are ready to schedule your initial consultation you may call or use our online request form.
Last updated: June 28, 2010
"My Wife had several critical points where we thought we'd lost our baby. The Staff was available to see us A.S.A.P and over the weekend when we needed. Although, I thanked them for there hospitality when we came in, they have no idea how much this meant to us. I can honestly say we were not treated as a number or percentage but more like a friend."
