The Clinic

Pic from here

I am forever grateful to God for our miracle & the assistance of the staff at CNY Infertility.-Albany. It was such a spa like experience.

My advice to anyone on this journey please "Do Not" base choosing  a clinic for IVF or any fertility treatment on just popularity. Please do your research & if they offer free consultations then go for it.Find out about their pregnancy rates & if they do patient batching, etc. Another important factor for me was finding groups of women that were presently cycling or had experience at the clinic I wanted to cycle with. My journey has been private for the most part so I was lucky enough to find a few on Facebook that had private & secret groups.

CNY is a great clinic & an affordable choice at $3,900 per cycle which includes ( ICSI & Assisted Hatching). Well this was the price I paid spring of 2017, it may have changed. They also offer in house financing with No Credit Check. I didn't use it but I think that alone is a great selling point for lots of women.

• ICSI is Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection is a specialized form of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) that is used for the treatment of severe cases of male-factor infertility. ICSI involves the injection of a single sperm directly into a mature egg.
• Assisted hatching is a newer lab technique that was developed when fertility experts observed that embryos with a thin zona pellucida had a higher rate of implantation during IVF. With assisted hatching, an embryologist uses micromanipulation under a microscope to create a small hole in the zona pellucida.

They offer top of the line service, labs  & while it has low outdated SART scores, they actually have high pregnancy rates. I know this because of the Facebook group of women that cycle there and just about daily we have several pregnancy announcements. Anywhere from the 20 something to the late 40 something. Luckily I found out through these women that the scores are low because they do not turn anyone away but it would not have deterred my mind anyway, I was ready to try again. 

Ultimately no matter your issue, or age ( OK not sure of the cut off but 50 yr olds are cycling) if you are willing to try they are willing to help and give you realistic expectations. I called CNY when I was just a month shy of my  at 37th b-day and was told my chances were 30%. I rolled the dices and I am glad that I did since we were successful on only 1 shot with 4 embryos frozen and waiting if we decide to try again.

If you look back at my posts from 2011-2012 I did mini IVF with a highly ranked clinic, I was younger and while I did get pregnant, I had no embryos to try again. I think it was due to the medicine I was taking but who knows. The second clinic I cycled I had plenty eggs and lots of blasts but told they were not of good quality to freeze and that cycle I did not even get pregnant. I am sure my hormones were too high for transfer but they did anyway. They retrieved 29 eggs & I couldn't believe ( I still do not) that there were none to freeze. It was a free cycle that I won there and I honestly think they discarded them but I digress.

I understand the desperation with wanting to try IVF to have just 1 shot of conceiving, I know this all too well. Thinking that a higher ranked SART clinic has got to the be the better choice but it is often not so at all.

My IVF journey started in 2011 and here we are 7 years later with a 12 week old. So much time has gone by, it makes me sad to think of the what if's. But it also make me think of the women that are still waiting and have waited much longer. I hope everyone is successful.

Just another note- High score based clinics such as the big name in Colorado ( you know the one) have very strict guidelines for IVF, they do not accept difficult cases which would explain the high ranking. Also, they are over priced and I have seen many bad review so again do not choose a clinic based on popularity. I just wanted to give someone hope with this choppy blog post. I hope it was at least somewhat insightful for the reader that may have to undergo IVF, the reader that needs treatment and think they cannot afford it, and perhaps the reader that is just about to start the journey.