Northwestern Medicine Center for Fertility and Reproductive Medicine

The problems at this clinic started right away. I had a few different nurses but then finally got placed with one for my given doctor. We had many questions like most first time IVF patients would expect to have. I was met with resistance at every turn. The night before my egg retrieval I received a blocked number calling me and it was Olivia P their program manager. I never met her and did not understand why she was calling me or why she was in my locked hippa chart. She would always call me on speaker which felt very unsettling. My first transfer of a 6AA embryo was a failure. During my second transfer I had more medical questions. I received a blocked call from one of the nurses who asked me, "what I wanted?". No one ever wanted to help me. During this second cycle I still had this Olivia P contacting me. The second IVF transfer ended with the death of my baby at 15 weeks. My dead baby's pathology showed the opposite gender of what was implanted and I only had embryos of one gender. So NMH genetics sent samples to whole genome sequencing and sent a sample back to their pgt place, RGI to verify it was ours. I mycharted with Dr. Pavone who told me to make a follow up once I felt well enough. A few days later while I'm bleeding from my D& E procedure Dr. Jungheim, Chief of the Fertility department calls me on speaker phone and told me I cannot get medical care at northwestern. She then sent me a letter with cryptic words that are used to describe an alive baby and she wrote, " our patient relationship is not viable." She also wrote that I didn't trust them. I think any mother whose baby was an opposite gender would be confused. Anyways, seemed like a very harsh use of words to a mother who just spent 4 years trying to conceive and was still bleeding after removal of the dead IVF baby at NMH. I also had a hysteroscopy surgery under Anesthesia and Dr. Pavone chose not to biopsy for endometritis even after my recurrent loss diagnosis. CCRM and NMH OB found recurrent positive biopsies for endometritis. It’s hard to know if this being treated would have led to a live birth but the research is there! It’s so sad how I was treated. We had to spend thousands of dollars to move our embryos out of here. Many months of time have been wasted to re-establish care and so far all of our embryos created here did not make it to a live birth.

While the individuals here are talented, the system as a whole is disgusting. Wait 6 months for appts and have a care team that changes by the hour and constantly messes up. Please do not go here. For the most important procedure of your…...

My husband and I are so grateful for Dr. Jain and the nurses. We had a hunch something was off about my cycles and we felt heard. Dr. Jain suggested cabergoline and progesterone for my specific case and he was correct. We got pregnant that same cycle. We are truly lucky but credit Dr. Jain and the nurses. Our little guy is now 3 months.

Not only did my first cycle with Northwestern end in complete failure, but I was not allowed to switch doctors, and although I was self pay, they keep DOUBLE BILLING my insurance which does not cover fertility and so I have bills and copays…...

I am documenting this experience because, despite interacting with this team for only about a month, I developed serious concerns about communication, procedural fairness, and bias in care. The issue began when I received inaccurate insurance guidance from a specialty pharmacy representative and was directed to obtain documentation that ultimately proved inconsistent with actual policy requirements. This resulted in unnecessary confusion and significant time spent trying to resolve conflicting information. Over the course of a week, I made repeated good-faith efforts to communicate with the pharmacy, the Center, and Patient Relations to clarify the situation. Despite these efforts, I did not receive clear clinical clarification. Instead, I later received written notice from Emily Stevenson (a University of Phoenix graduate by the way) that my behavior had been characterized as “aggressive,” and my care was terminated. The term “aggressive” is not neutral. As a woman of color, being labeled this way after expressing frustration about inaccurate information is deeply concerning. There is substantial research documenting that women of color are disproportionately described as “aggressive” when advocating for themselves in medical and professional settings. That broader context cannot be separated from this experience. There were no prior documented conduct concerns, no warning, and no attempt at mediation before termination. I was not in an active treatment cycle at the time. During my consultation, Dr. Bulun arrived late and primarily deferred to his fellow. At different points during the visit, the fellow and attending appeared to contradict one another, which created confusion and undermined confidence in the clarity of the care plan being presented. While scheduling delays can happen in busy clinics, the overall interaction felt rushed and not particularly patient-centered. Fertility care is emotionally and financially intensive. Patients deserve accurate insurance guidance, coordinated communication between clinics and pharmacies, and thoughtful handling of conflict when concerns arise. In my experience, those standards were not met. Patients, particularly patients of color, should expect equitable treatment, careful communication, and fair process when advocating for themselves.

worse answering service ever they are rude and do not help people at all nurses drag in answering the phones considering on changing doctors

Depending who takes your appointment at the check in desk at FRM "Fertility Reproductive Medicine" you may get treated rudely and talked to as if your incompetent or unintelligent. Usually the ladies sitting at Desk #3 are extremely…...

It’s my first time did IVF here and it’s my only time, I only have one ambryo，they split to twins. I would like to thank the doctors and nurses here，they’re professional and patience.

The service I have received from this office is extremely slow & impersonal. I would not recommend Northwestern Medicine to anyone beginning their family planning journey. Often times I feel like I am just a part of a factory where they…...

Cannot recommend getting your fertility care at Northwestern more highly. I spent over a year and more than $50k working with another clinic with no explanation for why I wasn't getting pregnant and no personalized care. I was able to…...