S. and K.'s Story

In our late 30s my husband and I decided to have a child. I conceived in the first month of "trying" and had a healthy, effortless pregnancy. Three years later, we decided to have a second child, but this time we weren't so lucky. A simple FSH blood test revealed that my egg quality was poor and it was unlikely I'd become pregnant even with medical intervention. I was devastated but immediately invested my energy in researching Bay Area clinics that did IVF with donor eggs.

I attended seminars given by clinics' medical directors, took advantage of free consultations and researched donor egg agencies, since most clinics here have few or no donors. I quickly realized how commercialized the infertility industry had become. Clinics distorted success rates by reporting "clinical pregnancies" rather than live births, sidestepped issues like the risks of multiple births and refused to provide a ballpark of how much an IVF cycle would cost until a "financial consultation" took place.

Donor-egg agencies routinely charged $5,000 and compensation for donors went up to $10,000, depending, in some cases, on a donor's reproductive history, her looks and her IQ. The whole experience smacked of genetic engineering. After all my husband had such undesirable traits as dropping out of college, and having close family members who were obese and struggled with alcoholism, yet I had never considered switching his DNA with that of a sperm donor, so why would I be so selective about an egg donor?

Dr. Chetkowski's approach was different. There were no glossy brochures, no seminars or free consultations but from the get-go we trusted his honest no-frills approach. The clinic's donor pool had already been screened and would receive a set fee regardless of their looks or IQ. Split cycles in which two couples share the eggs of a proven egg donor provided an attractive alternative to couples like us who were not covered by our insurance plan. Patients who failed to become pregnant had the option of being considered for the clinic's embryo donation program.

For less than the cost we would have paid an agency and donor alone, we underwent a split cycle. Both myself and the other recipient couple became pregnant. Dr. Chetkowski and his staff made themselves available to me throughout my pregnancy long after I had graduated to the care of an ob/gyn.

Our precious second child was born a few weeks ago. I realize that no reproductive endocrinologist has a 100 percent success rate and that I could well have not become pregnant. But even if this were the case we would still wholeheartedly recommend Dr. Chetkowski and his staff.

Sincerely,

S. & K.