Yale Medicine Fertility Center

Dealing with medical facilities are always a pain, but this place has been the worst.Im shocked at the incompetence going on after the bad reputation they got from the documentary. It seems they havent gotten any better.Paperwork is consistently filed improperly with insurance and we have to continuely push them to get items submitted. What should only take weeks takes months due to thier inability to keep organized.If possible, avoid this place to all costs.

I started my fertility journey at this center in 2021. They were very throughout and helped every step of the way. The doctors were honest about our chances and the communication was great. You see the medical assistants a lot because of blood draws and they were always nice and caring, the fellows and attendings doing the ultrasounds were also very gentle and helpful and explained the images in detail to us every time. I was able to get pregnant with their help after surgical and hormonal treatments last year and we have a thriving two month old by now. I’m thankful to the team involved and specially to Dr. Arici who managed my treatment plan.

Shocked at the lack of compassion, customer service, or care from basically anyone at this practice. There is no attempt at service recovery when something goes wrong. Everything is incredibly disorganized and nobody seems to care or even notice. I have never felt less cared for in a medical setting before. Regret setting up care here. Would not recommend to anyone.

If you go here, ask lots of questions, and do your due diligence. I found there to be lots of unnecessary stress due to the way things were handled/coordinated etc. Highly recommend looking at other fertility clinics in the area.

My 4 stars are solely only for the APRNs Ive seen because they were super nice and informative, otherwise the receptionist in the front is not friendly at all. I checked in on MyChart and once I arrived I just made sure I was checked in at the front and she states you already did on your phone have a seat 10 min go by the nurse comes out to ask if I stopped in the front to check in I stated yes she told me I was okay, the receptionist tells the nurse oh Im getting to it I was talking....like seriously super unprofessional get someone who is going to pay attention to checking in the patients.

The whole team is phenomenal, from our doctor Dr. Pal, to all the incredibly lovely nurses weve received guidance from, to the kind office staff. Everyone has been so compassionate, super responsive and helpful. Were at the start of our fertility journey and feel very lucky to be working with this wonderful team.

Happy that i am now expecting but came with a lot of headaches. Communication is terrible. I think i spoke to my doctor a combined total of under an hour from beginning of my journey to the end. And I always came away feeling stupid for asking questions. The staff, nurses, aprns, in person were great, but the only way you can communicate if not during an appt is through MyChart. It’s terrible. If you called to speak to your doctor or doctor staff, they tell you that they will send a message to them and have them call you; you have no direct number to your doctor’s office or staff. We end up playing phone tag and it can take days for simple questions or important, time dependent questions. Very unorganized.

Do NOT use this clinic! They allowed patients to undergo excruciating egg retrieval procedures and then took no accountability as an institution. Despicable. I highly encourage anyone considering this clinic to the listen to the podcast “The Retrievals.”

Pompous, arrogant dismissal of patients pain. All those patients you pierced with long needles with zero anesthesia- time after time without rubbing your two brain cells together to say - what’s up here? No harm? 🤣. You should try it and let us know if you still feel the same way. Any doctor or nurse who repeatedly performed or assisted in those procedures and watched those women suffer many of them without questioning it should not have a license. And for sure, they should not be sleeping at night.

Many of the office/managerial and other non-clinician staff here are extremely inconsiderate and incompetent, no matter how much you try as a patient to be conscientious and kind.I thought at first it was just a stressful day or time for the office. However, Ive been in on several occasions at different times and often witness these same staff speak to each other as coworkers and in these personal conversations, the vibes are consistently relaxed and friendly. Then they turn around and snap at a patient for asking a question.Do better, Yale!

I had my Sonohysterogram today with Jessica D.It’s a painful procedure, but Jessica and her assistant were super nice and kind. Every single step was talked through and explained. Highly recommended!

I honestly dont believe that this practice even deserves one star. I cannot think of one area of fertility that they have been helpful with. I dont usually go out of my way to leave bad reviews but I feel compelled to warn anyone who is considering going to this practice. Communication is awful, we were basically forgotten about and never received a call in regards to abnormal results. Even after becoming an established patient you will wait months for a follow up appointment. They will push IVF on you and will never bother evaluate your health to ensure all goes well when you are ready for IVF. They dont care if you fail because that is more money for them. There is zero compassion from anyone in this practice.

DO NOT USE THEM! If you havent listened to The Retrievals (which you should), heres our brief story. Our insurance plan does not cover IUI or IVF but DOES cover fertility/infertility consults and diagnostic testing. However, Yale coded all services (including basic STI bloodwork) as IUI/IVF and EVERYTHING was denied by insurance. We have thousands of dollars of bills still pending review at Yale. I know they did it wrong because we went to the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services/UConn Fertility and all of this got APPROVED because UConn coded it correctly. Also Yale gave us no indication of the potential out-of-pocket costs we might face or options if insurance denied our claim.

Yale should strip this clinic of their name. My experience at Yale New Haven Hospital (Smilow Cancer Center, etc) compared to this clinic could not have more more polar opposite. I sought out fertility preservation here as recommended by my Yale medical oncologist after a breast cancer diagnosis (33 y.o. With no kids yet). My husband and I were also in the middle of moving from the west coast and didn’t have our housing lined up yet…we rushed into the $15K uninsured IVF treatment in an extremely vulnerable state as we were still processing my diagnosis and how I was going to start my new teaching job in CT while undergoing treatment.On my first morning visit for blood work and the vaginal ultrasound I was yelled at for not knowing about their (de-humanizing) number system and treated rudely overall. As this vibe continued and I got in the gown and stirrups, I broke down in tears and finally one of the nurses showed some compassion. I dreaded my morning appointments and expected to be treated unkindly/like a number - which I typically was. I did receive decent communication about which shots to give myself and the timing of my egg retrieval. My egg retrieval itself was fine, I apparently DID receive an analgesic unlike the hundreds of women who suffered so traumatically at the hands of nurse Donna and the clinic’s violation of the Controlled Substances Act.I only did one round of IVF here because the fertility preservation was delaying the rest of my cancer treatment. We managed to get 3 embryos frozen and if we use them in the years to come, I will most certainly not be pursuing an embryo transfer here.

This clinic refused to listen to multiple women who were in serious pain during egg extraction procedures. It was then found out that a nurse had switched out the fentanyl meant for these women to saline solution. Yale should be ashamed, and this clinic should be shut down.

I am very disappointed in the care that I received here. Do better Yale!

If I could rate it a Zero, I would. Do not go here. They are after your money.I am a Yale employee and my own patient experience at Yale makes me sick to my stomach.My first appointment with Dr. Kodaman left me hopeful. However, that was VERY short lived.After my consultation where she advised me of my treatment plan there was NO GUIDANCE OR DIRECTION from anyone!!!! I was my own doctor pretty much trying to fend for myself. All communication was basically through MyChart, good luck getting anyone on the phone. One time it took 4 weeks for a nurse to get back to me about my next steps in treatment.Lack of communication and no consistency with who I saw. I was just a number and when I had an appointment with a provider I had to remind them of what my situation/diagnosis was. They couldn’t even read my chart, didn’t even have the time to do that.So…after upping my dose of medication three times along with numerous failed attempts at conceiving. My provider told me, at the age of 27, that my ONLY other treatment option at this point was IVF. That night I literally had a panic attack and the next day I decided I needed a break… and never set foot back in that office under Yales care. I wasted 2 years of my life with them.Fast forward to now, I got a second opinion from a NON YALE provider and after three short months of treatment I was pregnant. And my second opinion provider told me that with my diagnosis IVF wouldn’t have worked for me and it would be totally unnecessary.YALE IS OUT FOR YOUR MONEY, YOU ARE JUST A NUMBER! Never would recommend to anyone. Avoid at all costs (no pun intended)

Ive always had a great experience with Yale so I had high hopes when I was referred here. Well those didnt last too long. You are treated like a number as someone else mentioned. Theres zero communication or compassion from any of the nurses or doctors. If it wasnt for Google and me staying on top of everything I would have missed whole cycles because no one tells you anything. I was told I wasnt really pregnant when I had my chemical pregnancies by the doctor. I was ignored when I brought up more testing or medications. The final straw was when they forgot I was there while I was waiting for my IUI. I waited for over an hour and finally said something, the nurse came out 10 minutes later. I know they forgot about me because I heard them whispering about it. This place is horrible. Infertility is hard enough, you dont need to have any added stress. You would think that the staff would be sympathetic since theyre dealing with struggling couples everyday but thats not the case. I wasted 6 months here. I transferred to another center and they were fantastic. I always saw the same Dr., the entire staff were warm and friendly, the nurse always returned my phone calls and never made me feel stupid for asking questions. The first thing the Dr did was order more tests to figure out the reason for my losses and changed my medication. I was treated with kindness and respect.

Extremely high storage costs with no long-term payment option (i.e. 5 years, 10 years). They will then increase your yearly storage rate (in my case this went from $600/yr to $800/yr). Do the research and find a facility that will allow you to pay upfront for long-term storage. Be warned that Yale will make you pay a $400 transfer fee and you are still responsible for shipping.

I was a patient with Yale Fertility from December 2019 to May 2021, through their move to the new facility in Orange and the pandemic. My own experience with the clinic and my physician, Dr. Seifer, was very positive, and the treatment outcome, happily, successful.Dr. Seifer is an amazing specialist that I would highly recommend. The reception staff and nurses at the clinic were helpful and professional. I didnt have any trouble reaching the nurses or doctors when needed, whether by phone or through MyChart messages. All the procedures were explained well, and the appointments were made in a timely manner and easy to check and confirm on MyChart, in addition to getting a phone call a few days before for additional confirmation. Similarly, any test results were quickly available in MyChart and confirmed by a phone call from the center, so I felt very well-informed about every step.As some people mentioned, there is a patient queue numbering system. This is not at all the case for appointments with your physician, or for individual procedures - it is specifically for the early-morning (7-8am), routine, quick blood draw and check-up appointments that sometimes have to happen every other day or even daily in the course of treatment. Personally, I appreciated the efficiency of being able to come in, get this done in a quick and organized manner, get to work on time, and have my results before noon the same day.The only con for me was communication with the insurance company, which was sometimes difficult - involving me speaking to the insurance, then passing on their requests to Yale Fertility, to straighten out some issues. However, while this was stressful and I wish it didnt have to involve the patient mediating between the insurance provider and Yale, Yale Fertility always responded quickly and provided whatever the instance company needed to proceed, once I made them aware of the problem.Overall, I am sure that I got top-of-the-line testing and care, and would absolutely return if another treatment was needed.

My husband and I went to Yale Fertility Center after not being able to conceive for a year. We chose the clinic because....well because its Yale and we expected the best. My husband was frustrated with the lack of communication and individual care for a patient from the start. Essentially you are treated very much in a you are a number manner. While you are being monitored you show up early in the morning at the clinic, are given a number and then processed very much in a cattle line drive fashion. Additionally, its a teaching school, so chances are you see a different person every time and often have painfully inexperienced residents performing the procedures. After being told I was going to miscarry after trying for 2 years at the clinic, I received a message from the nurse that told me my labs were falling and that my situation was not good. The doctor did call and show some compassion but I received little sympathy or compassion from the nurses. After that incident my husband demanded we go somewhere else, and Im so glad we did b/c I never would have known this process could be so caring and personal. At my new clinic you are given a nurse that you will always see and that looks out for you, you are given your own insurance representative and patient advocate that helps with any questions or scheduling you may need. You see a senior physician at every monitoring visit. My doctor just called this week to ask how I was feeling and how the process was working for me. THIS is how this process/treatment should go. It makes all the difference in our attitude and outlook. I believe the physicians at Yale have the best intentions, its just the way in which the clinic is run and the lack of a personal touch.

Ignored patients complaints about pain for at least 5 months. Ignored a fellow doctor telling her physician directly that she received saline not fentanyl.

I wish it were possible to give negative stars. This place is the WORST establishment I have ever encountered. If you are able to go elsewhere for fertility treatment, PLEASE do so. I am begging you. I have experienced nothing but disappointment and misery during the past 6+ months of trying to get started with IVF treatments.The first doctor I had (Dr. Seifer - AVOID AT ALL COSTS!) was incredibly rude to my wife and I on our consultation visit. He told me I needed to lose weight, and after explaining to him that Ive tried many different diets that havent been even mildly successful, he said that maybe Id try harder this time. And then suggested that my wife, who has several medical issues that prevent her from becoming pregnant at this time (which he would have known had he bothered to even glance at her chart, which was available to him), should be the one to carry with zero regard to anything we were saying to him.At a later appointment, he spent over 20 minutes trying to unsuccessfully insert a speculum for an exam and instead of offering any actual help, he told my wife to calm me down. He also disclosed very incorrect medical information during this visit, which was the most unprofessional thing I have ever experienced.Once we switched to a new doctor, (who is amazing and the only redeeming quality this practice has), we thought things might get better. How wrong we were. There has been nothing but waiting and miscommunications amongst internal staff and to us. This place is wholly unprofessional and has caused more stress during this stressful time in our lives than we ever could have predicted.It took over a week for them to even put our claim through to insurance, which meant we had to wait almost a full month to get verification. Anytime you try to contact them, they dont answer and call back at random times or send you a MyChart message at 5pm, which is completely useless. Its always too late to do anything about the issue or contact anyone if we have issues. There is also extremely unclear information regarding cost and insurance. We have been met with so many surprise costs, its ridiculous.Speaking of miscommunication, they have never once given us the same or clear instructions. We were told to stop birth control and call once I had started my heavy bleed. I called on the first day with a light bleed looking for clarification and was told to wait. I called back on my first full bleed day and was told to come in the following morning. I did so and that night I found out I didnt have all of my medications. When I called to speak with someone (the on call person and of course nobody from my actual team), they questioned why I went in that day for my baseline. Um... because I was told to? I didnt just show up at the clinic demanding to be seen. How absurd. I was then told that incorrect info had been entered into the system. What a surprise.Once we FINALLY got our medicine and were told to start, we are missing pieces! Not to mention that we never had the supposedly mandatory training that they were supposed to schedule with us. Anytime we bring up all of our issues, we are met with a cursory apology that does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. PLEASE GO ELSEWHERE IF YOU CAN.

Wasted an entire year of trying to conceive here. Thankfully I’ve never experienced rude staff, everyone was always kind to me. My doctor was very sweet and encouraging but unfortunately there was ZERO effort to get me pregnant. Appointments were rushed and I felt like I wasn’t being listened to. I had no fertility treatments or testing offered to me in the year I was there. I eventually asked for a procedure and they ended up scheduling the wrong one and charged me $2,300. After finding a new clinic I’ve been trying to transfer my medical records from Yale and it’s seemingly impossible to get anyone to do their job. Icing on the cake was reading a news article about one of their nurses stealing fentanyl from patients and replacing it with saline as pain control for fertility procedures. Do yourself a favor and call RMA of CT instead.

RUN AWAY....If you thought trying to get pregnant was stressful, this office makes it ten times worse. You are nothing but a number from the minute you walk in the door. (Literally they give you a number) The front staff is clueless, the insurance rep Jon is rude and incompetent , and dont even bother with Dr. Kodaman. Youll see her once and if she catches wind youre not happy, shell leave you a message saying I hear youre having issues and then never call you back. They dont tell you anything up front, dont answer emails/calls in a timely manner, would make you wait 1-2 months between cycles while they requalify your benefits every single time. As if your insurance changed in two weeks.....Currently, I am still fighting with my insurance because I had to pay out of pocket for something that should have been covered but because they didnt tell me to order it ahead of time and I had to pick it up from a pharmacy and pay full price.This place is a joke. Icing on the cake was the news about a nurse at this office who was arrested for stealing Fentanyl. Sounds about right for the staff they employee.The sad truth is doctors have nothing to do with getting you pregnant. Your body is either gonna respond to the drugs, hormones, and procedures they give you or it is not. However, if you are looking for a doctor to assist you, offer support, and has compassion, seek anyone/anywhere else but Yale Fertility.

We were SO lucky to find Dr. Tal and his staff. I had some unusual circumstances that had stumped previous doctors. Dr. Tal quickly figured it out and provided a quick and easy treatment plan. We were pregnant a month later! Him and his staff were very attentive, friendly, and caring. He has a place in our hearts for fixing a long, ridiculous situation so quickly and effectively. Thanks to him and his team...they are wonderful!

Dr Winifred Mak stiffed my friend. We called to find out the cost of an initial appointment without insurance. the receptionist said about $200; but up to $700 if any tests were done. we got there, Dr Mak was in a hurry and quite visibly annoyed because we were 15 mins late. She spent less than 10 mins with my friend telling her about IVF options and costs and then left. No tests or even physical. The receptionist now gives us a bill for $400! The moment we tried contesting it, she got rude, says we should know that Yale is not a cheap hospital, we asked to speak to the dr, she says she cant call her. We paid to avoid embarrassment and my friend left in tears, hasnt even seen any other doctor since then because she is so upset at the experience. We never even got a follow-up call from Yale or from the Doctor. I guess Yale only cares about money now.

December 2021- my doctor was rude, crass, pompous and unsympathetic. I left both visits with him crying. My partner got into argument with him. He kept referring to my age ( I’m old ), well that is why we are going to a specialist. Then while reviewing results, he said, “ I don’t know how to explain this so you will understand.” I have a masters degree!!!!!!!! Then he said to google it or call the geneticist. The billing department took forever and it’s also hard to get ahold of anyone especially the same person. DONT COME HERE!

I have to agree with most other reviewers. I had a 1-hour consultation with Dr. Kodaman and after that, it was impossible to get in touch with anyone in the office regarding next steps. Billing department was clueless as to how much the procedure would cost. To make matters worse, I was slapped with the highest medical bill Ive ever had...all for a 1-hour consultation with a doctor I wouldnt recommend to anyone. Avoid this fertility center at all costs.

Part one of our review: Worst experience I’ve ever had with a medical institution. You are a number. You see a different “fellow” every time, and your “doctor” one or two times. In my opinion we would have been pregnant long before if anyone in this place communicated with one another. I’m sure you could and then will chalk this up to being in a painful emotion. But that’s minimizing what actually happened here. How many irresponsible things happening with our time, our money, and our hearts.From not knowing our correct protocol, and if I wasn’t on top of it we would have started taking incorrect medicine. To the fact that the offices terrible communication led to a decision about frozen or fresh transfer to be made immediately while I was seeing clients back to back. The woman called back and asked my wife (I’m a woman we are gay) if she wanted to talk to her husband. We have been patients of yours for over a year, you’re handling the future of our baby and our joy here, and you don’t know who we are?Then let’s get into the back and forth over frozen or fresh transfer. It’s appearing now that we should have done frozen and we think someone set it up because that was best, but another person said it was borderline. In the end the morning of it took a long time for everyone to get on the same page. We never spoke to our actual doctor at all about this, again a melange of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year fellows.I am not a doctor and I was concerned about the high thyroid levels that spiked with the fertility medications, the ones that we tried so hard to get down prior too. Our thyroid checks were not stayed on top of throughout, because no one speaks to each other.We get a report in the beginning of mono diamniotic twin pregnancy, we are cautious as it’s early. And nervous because it’s higher risk and we know that. We go back in and it appears there is one sac and a hematoma on the other side of the membrane, we are possibly a twin down and we went in for heavy bleeding. At this time we see a tiny heartbeat and are given hope, sent home with a picture of our baby. No one said what I was thinking the whole time. If one twin goes because of a chromosome abnormality and they are identical the other is going. Was it too early to know these things. Sure. Should we have been fully spoken to by our doctor, a full experienced doctor about the risks. The heartbeat was 110, the bottom of the scale, it was on its way out too and yet we went home excited and the staff encouraged that. No one said be cautious and specifics about the mono di. twin situation.

My wife and I used to see Dr. Kummer, who is no longer with the practice. Our experience was WORLDS better than RMACT (which employs some rather argumentative doctors and a scheduling secretary that miss-scheduled an appoint to a time when lab techs had gone home - and I live over an hour away!). I highly recommend Yale because of the service we received and the understanding they displayed.

I have been seeking treatment at this site for around a year. In that time, despite actively seeking treatment, I struggled to get phone calls returned, tests scheduled, or even appointments with the doctor. When I could get someone on the phone, they would be pleasant but could give me no answers on what was going wrong. I would certainly not advise people to use this office.

Well now we have a bit of an idea about this clinic eh? Check out The Retrievals in the New York Times describing the horrifying abuse clients experienced here, in a pattern that surgeons knew about and didnt care.

Patients are the least of this place’s concerns.Should be closed down to save woman from the abuse and absolutely horrific treatment it delivers.

They ignored the patients cries in pain and didn’t investigate the issues until a nurse got caught stealing the pain meds…. Do not go here!

Before you go here, listen to “The Retrievals”. I wouldn’t let anyone from this clinic touch me w a ten foot pole.

Very sad the fentanyl scandal that they had and how many of the patients pain was ignored.

How dare this clinic remain open. It obviously has no patient safe guards and should be closed.

Listen to the podcast The Retrievals.... terrible patient care, callous response to system failures, ignoring patients needs....

Hope you all experience excrutiating pain and have your pain ignored for what you made these women go through and for disregarding their experience as hysterical woman!

The worst service i have ever had!!!! He didn’t even have the decency to tell me to reschedule got there and then her told me after driving all the way there then had his secretary relay the message. Never again will i even attempt to go to this place!

Do NOT recommend! Stay clear, go somewhere else

No communication with this practice. It’s taken me 4+ months to begin treatment and I’m still waiting.

Don’t go here.

Excellent service.