HRC Fertility

I really wanted to love this office, especially since they took my insurance, but it was a waste of time and lots of money. First of all they’re not open on the weekends, so if there’s a chance of you ovulating on the weekend you’ll just have to wait until Monday, since their other office won’t do ultrasounds on the weekends.
Both months that we did iui treatments, they missed my ovulation and did the iui anyways saying it couldn’t hurt. Of course it doesn’t hurt them at $ 500+.
But after moving on to the specialists at California fertility, I’ve learned that it could have been harmful since my follicles were over 20 mm. I didn’t know that once they’re overly mature they won’t fertilize and grow correctly. So we were basically paying to fertilize an egg that had no chance of survival, but could have grown and caused me issues inside.
They were also very preoccupied by other things and would often make mistakes in dates and dosing on medications that the pharmacy or myself would catch.
Yes this place is slightly less expensive than other more reputable facilities, but you get what you pay for. And unfortunately that is negligent medicine.

I wanted to take a moment and share the wonderful experience my husband and I had with HRC and Dr. Tourgeman. We live in Las Vegas and after months of research, and a few horrible consultations with local IVF doctors, we decided to go with Dr. T. Yes, the travel was a little intense at times, especially when I had twice weekly office visits, but in the end I would do it all over again. The entire staff at HRC was very accommodating and were aware of our situation. There were a few occasions when we were late to our appointments because of traffic or flight delays, and we were never given a hard time or made to feel bad.
After one round of IVF and two frozen embryo transfers, we just found out I’m pregnant! I was surprised how emotional I felt once I realized I wouldn’t see Vera or Dr. T again or anyone else from the office. I will miss them for sure.
Working with Vera was a joy. She is so warm and patient, I looked forward to seeing her every appointment. I felt comfortable asking any questions I had, no matter how insignificant they seemed. Vera would check up on me after procedures and was very helpful in facilitating getting my medications filled or labs drawn even though we were in a different state.
Dr. T was amazing. He just made me smile and was always so caring and nice. Even from the very beginning, he made me feel comfortable about our situation and was sincere about what he felt the outcome would be. After my failed FET, Dr. T called me for a follow up and was very compassionate and kind. He had ideas as to what we could do for the next transfer to make it successful, and they obviously worked!
IVF is stressful and emotional and I feel truly blessed to have found HRC to help us navigate as smoothly as possible.

So, our only fertility issue is that of being a same-​sex couple. 3 failed IUIs later, we’re now taking a break for a bit before we begin treatment elsewhere. Our experience with HRC has been much like James M.‘s– a lack of attention to detail and a very assembly-​line feel. I’ve honestly gotten more personalized attention at college health centers. When you consider the thousands of $$ you’re spending, this seems unacceptable.
If you’re going to become a patient at this office, it’s essential that you take on the responsibility of educating and advocating for yourself. I’ve learned a lot about my body and fertility during this journey, and almost none of it has been thanks to Dr. Tourgeman or his staff. I’ve rarely had a question that either wasn’t blown off or given a perfunctory answer. Dr. T comes across as sweet, but despite this façade I often felt my concerns were met with condescension. I felt like there was a formula that was being followed and that my questions were a nuisance to the process. I also didn’t feel like Dr. T listened well– I’d often have to repeat myself over the course of very short conversations. He usually seemed distracted and in a rush. Sometimes he’d get details of my history wrong even while looking at my chart.
Some examples of the assembly line feel to this place:
–Early on in treatment, Dr. T performed an ultrasound and suspected I may have some uterine polyps or fibroids. When I was passed on to the clinical coordinator, Vera, to schedule an HSG, she handed me a prescription for birth control. I was confused because I’d just been in with Dr. T and he’d said nothing about taking bc pills. Vera said that this was protocol before HSG tests in order to keep everything «clear.» Why hadn’t Dr. T so much as mentioned this? I’ve never in my life come out of an appointment with a doctor only to be handed a script by someone else for a med we hadn’t even discussed in said appointment!
–At the beginning of almost every appointment, they’d immediately shuffle me off to have my blood drawn, whether or not the doctor actually wanted a blood draw. I always said no until the doctor requested one, which most of the time he didn’t. If you’re just going with the flow, though, you may incur a hefty bill for tests that five minutes later you find out you didn’t even need.
–Despite a history of fast follicle growth right before ovulation, when I went in for my last cycle and had a nearly-​developed follicle, the nurse was going to have me come in a couple days later for a trigger. I pointed out that when we waited last time, we ended up missing the egg because of that last-​minute «growth spurt» I seem to have, thus I thought I should come in the next day for an ultrasound. She said she thought that was overkill but I could if I wanted, and lo and behold, I came in and my follicle was PAST the minimum size needed for the trigger shot, so we triggered. This is what I meant earlier when I said you need to advocate for yourself– while in theory the staff should be looking at YOUR chart to make decisions based on your personal medical history, in reality I find that they more often just go with whatever the formula is that seems to work for most people.
Another issue that made me really feel like we needed to leave this clinic was after having my hysteroscopy with Dr. T to remove some polyps. I’ve never in my life had painful periods. Ever since my hysteroscopy, though, my periods have been painful to the point where I am lying in bed maxed out on pain pills with the heating pad turned up on high and I’m still in pain. When I mentioned this to both Dr. T and the head nurse on different occasions, their only response was «Hmm that’s weird, it’s usually the opposite after having polyps removed.» That’s it. So the fact that I’ve just had a procedure that is supposed to, if anything, IMPROVE menstrual pain, and in reality I am in more pain than ever– this doesn’t concern them in any way?
I’ve NEVER been offered any useful info about meds. When I specifically asked about the side effects of one, I was told by Vera that there were none. Are you kidding me? EVERY med has potential side effects and it is reckless and unethical to suggest otherwise.
Billing: pay close attention and save ALL statements and receipts. I have one right now listing a charge for a med I’ve never taken.
Finally, don’t expect much emotional support. Perhaps this expectation sounds high maintenance, but I do think a certain level of empathy during this emotional roller coaster journey would be nice. When I emailed Vera the results of our last IUI (negative again) she literally replied «Ok sorry.»
The office is nice and it’s easy to schedule appointments and get a hold of staff. Staff is pretty friendly and good about returning phone calls. Mostly, though, this practice has not met our expectations. We have an appointment with a new office next month and are hoping for a better experience than the one we’ve had with HRC.

My husband and I was referred here by our doctor office. The service was horrible we had an appointment, waited 30 minutes in the waiting room and there was no active in the office. A white enter the office 10 mins. After we got there and they call him back. He was sen and left before we was called back. I actually believe the receptionist was racist. I don’t recommend black family’s to attend this doctors office they obviously treat and see the white patient before the black patients! It’s terrible that we still see this this day and time to 2015!

We had an IVF Cycle with this clinic and I wanted to offer simple pros and cons justifying maybe — 3 stars.
It is an in-​depth review and analysis. I can’t help it, I’m an engineer :)
after all — you’re about to put your body through a ton of hormones, $ 17,000, and a lot of hope.
Pros
Good Location
They own their own medical facility in Encino
Statistical reported results are above average: Reports can be found here:
1. Society for Advanced Reproductive Technologies
2. CDC centers for disease control — IVF Results
2 years delayed — PDF for 2012 can be downloaded.
Doctor was reasonably honest with our odds (that is the odds he told we had were close to those on the reports above.
Wait was short for all appointments we went to.
Cons:
No after hours support if we have issues or concerns, or things come up
Big gaps to attention to detail — we were not told of any side effects with drugs and procedures, one involved excess bleeding and They said «sorry we thought we put it on your calendar».
Couple of details in training for injections were omitted, thanks to YouTube we caught them — because there was no after hours support.
Unlike many boutique clinics, there is very little in depth analysis and customized approach to each individual based on results. It’s more like a factory — Result A — do this, result B — do that. Other clinics have more in depth customization with better results. Acacio clinic in OC is one.
We asked explicitly to be told which drugs to buy weekly. instead they gave us a giant list of drugs, explicitly said you need them all and we wasted several hundred dollars in unused drugs. response was — Doctor changes use depending how you respond. — Translation — taking extra 2 minutes each week to tell you what to buy for that week is too much effort. buy everything and if unused, toss it — it’s non refundable. and it’s super expensive.
After the IVF cycle we were suggested another cycle for 17K along with egg donor even though the clinic admitted that doing IVF will not increase the odds of egg donor. Logic? Sounds like a fantastic rationale to make 17K but not so much for us.
The person at front desk hasn’t given us one smile in 1 month of going there. Perhaps she can cheer up a little — it helps us psychologically.
Other clinics allow a woman’s body 1 month to recover from all the hormones before she is given embryos, but this clinic puts them in right away after 3 days for older women. After much much research i came to a conclusion that clinics that wait 1 month and also mature embryos to 5 days are correct. If embryo doesn’t survive 1 month freeze and 5 days it’s as good as gone anyway. However, some clinics including this one prefer to check-​off «we had an embryo transfer» mark more so than final result of pregnancy or birth. This may explain a near 0 reported chance of success at this clinic for women 42+, while it does have a higher embryo transfer ratio.
lastly, after the procedure, we sent emails to the nurse who was assigned to us to ask us how to deal with some post-​IVF side effects, and never got an email back. It was just 1 email with 2 side effects questions. It felt unpleasant that they wouldn’t spend a minute to respond to a simple question after they were done with us.
Also, note — I’ve used Unilocal since 2009 and have over 100 reviews.
I’d be concerned with 5 — star reviews who almost never use Unilocal.
In sum — It wasn’t bad, but during such emotional critical and highly expensive time we expected a little more analysis, attention to detail, and support. HRC is a chain of lots of reproductive and even hair reproductive clinics in LA.
I’d suggest you look for a single boutique clinic instead, and not a chain, with more personalized attention, after-​hours support, and high volume in your age group — reports I mentioned above show you all CA clinics and shows volume by age group as well as success rates. There are MANY in So Cali.
Sure you can go to Chili’s — a good chain — they make great canned soup and some delicious standard tacos. But why not instead research and choose a highly rated homey very popular restaurant that has a track record of serving their clients some fantastic authentic food? after all… the IVF dinner is super expensive and is filled with hormones and drugs… some of us are only wiling to do it or able to afford it once or twice :)
Send me a message if you have any questions or would like to brainstorm the options.

I had an amazing experience with Dr. Tourgeman and his staff. Fertility is a delicate subject and can get very emotional. My husband and I had a rough time but thanks to Dr. T and his team, we were able to get through the process with minimal stress and tons of support. Even now that we are pregnant with our first baby and graduated from the fertility clinic, I still miss seeing everyone at HRC and experiencing that genuine care and support. They raise the bar for health care and I am so fortunate to have had them help me through this challenging time. I am forever indebted to Dr. T for helping us get pregnant and being so warm and patient.

Dr. T and his staff are wonderful!
Let’s be honest, dealing with fertility is emotionally and physically taxing. The staff never made me feel weak or inadequate. I never imagined I could laugh and smile so much during this process. I HIGHLY recommend you go straight to this office if you are having trouble conceiving! You really feel like they want you to get pregnant. I felt very cared for.
Check out Dr. Tourgeman’s Unilocal page as well.

I left a review for Dr. Tourgeman on his Unilocal page (if you have not gone and checked out all the great reviews go look, especially the filtered ones), but I wanted to write something here as well. This is a great facility and the staff here was wonderful. IVF is the largest gamble my husband and I have ever taken and we are SO very glad that we selected Dr. Tourgeman and his staff. He was wonderful and the nurses that I talked to (and pestered with a constant stream of questions via email) were amazing. After our first round of IVF we are currently pregnant with twins and so very happy with our whole experience!