New Direction Fertility Centers — Local services in Gilbert

Infertility is one of the toughest challenges one will face and I pray that no one will have to travel that road. It took us 3 years before we found NDFC and Dr. Amols, and it truly was a prayer answered.

A little history: We have struggled with conceiving for 2 years before going to see a fertility specialist. At the time we thought we found the "best" doctor. We went to the doctor in Scottsdale even though he was not in-network and we had to fork out 30K the 6 months that we went to see him. That was 14K more than what was projected during our "financial consultation". We were not given any other option but IVF. We never saw the doctor much except on "pay-days" as everything was being handled by the RN. When we do see the doctor, he was always late (we can wind up waiting for almost 2 hours!) and can be very condescending. On top of all that, we were subjected to every test imaginable, along with long drives, long appointment wait times and sugar-coated assurances, all of which fell through after our transfer of "excellent" PGD tested and rated embryos did not take. The doctor's explanation was - there's no explanation.

We almost lost hope as we went to one consultation after another looking for another doctor and trying to get to the root cause of the problem.

That was when we were referred to Dr. Amols. He had not moved into his new office on Val Vista/Pecos when we scheduled our appointment. We finally got to meet him in January of 2014. He took the time to listen to our struggles and reviewed our records. From the initial consult he was compassionate, patient and understanding. He could really relate to how we felt and understood not only the mental struggles but all the financial stress that we faced. Although there were road bumps, Dr. Amols always had a plan for us on how we were going to improve our chances of starting our dream family. On top of that, he was present at every procedure and ultrasound and even took the time to call us on weekends if we had blood work results. He always made time to answer our questions, never rushed us despite his very tight schedule and never made us feel like idiots.

Not only is Dr. Amols awesome, he is also very human and he isn't out to make a profit- he genuinely wants to help. The cost is also very reasonable. The office staff also worked with our insurance and got most of the procedures covered. If it were not for Dr. Amols and his staff, we could not have afforded another round of IVF.

We are now expecting our first baby and have another embryo frozen. Despite being pregnant for more than 8 weeks, Dr. Amols still continues to see us as he understood our anxiety given our history. Yes, additional bonuses are the office is beautiful and the staff is wonderful, but at the end of the day, it was Dr. Amols who made all the difference in the world as he worked tirelessly to help so many patients have the family that they dreamed of. Thank you for not treating us like money pit specimens with cookie cutter treatment plans. Thank you for all your diligence, kindness and hard work, Dr. Amols. We will be forever grateful.

P.S. While it has no relation to Dr. Amols or his practice, I will state that we used Aetna insurance for 1 year and it was a nightmare. Dr. Amols himself had to intervene at one...

My wife and I engaged New Directions fertility clinic in our desire to conceive a child. The assigned fertility physician was attentive as well as a conversationalist in our new patient consultation to pull my wife in as a new patient. Then after that, he was incommunicado, a ghost, relying 100% on IVF medical assistants, the medical assistants were enabled to direct treatment progression of hormone medication with no dedicated care provider that lacked sustained communication. My wife only saw the assigned fertility physician twice, for egg retrieval and embryo transfer, otherwise, not actively involved in her progressive care.

And as a consequence of a non-dedicated medical assistant, poor communication was enabled, they provided wrong medications and doses on 2 separate occasions during my wife’s treatment that we had to bring to their attention to correct. Medical Assistants also recommended we thaw/cycle freeze a lower grade embryo to genetically PGS retest, a huge conceptual error that even a 5th grade biology student would understand that embryonic damage is certain even to a high grade embryo. Wow, and these are the individuals empowered to provide custodial ownership to make decisions on your embryo handling from fertilization to embryo transfer, scary?

During the treatment, the office required a $3200 payment for genetic PGS embryo testing, up to 8, $400 each and if not paid in full, they threatened to cancel my wife’s ultrasound appointment thus holding us hostage on a critical need appointment to meet treatment plan timeline milestones. Then the assigned physician called out the need for a uterus polyp removal procedure that was a $640 cost to be prepaid and not paid by our insurance, we went to my wife’s private gynecologist the next week that stated she did not observe any polyp formation that would interfere with a successful pregnancy post embryo transfer. She reported no findings to New Directions and New Directions stated nothing as a function of an independent polyp diagnosis and proceeded with embryo transfer. In our post mortem conversion with assigned physician based on failed IVF treatment, he admitted he did’t even review the polyp diagnosis, when we called him out on the misstep, he stated, “I can’t review every test, I depend on my assistants to provide”.

It appears that New Directions fertility’s charter is not to create life but to generate wealth for the 2 fertility partners. The clinic is a money mill that condones and enables mediocrity as well as deceit to collect the $20k they were paid for my wife’s treatment. The bottom line, stay away here unless you wish to pay $20k+ for deception, be subjected to idle threat tactics, and substandard care of your embryo.

My wife and I subsequently went with a Scottsdale fertility clinic, each visit she was seen by the assigned physician, given confidence updates, with a dedicated medical assistant to navigate her successful treatment plan, a 100% enhanced treatment experience, we are currently expecting a daughter in October on our 1st pass attempt with the...

Out-of-State Patient w/Endo. Two FETs resulting in 3 children so far.

2018 Review:

Pros. Less expensive IVF packages (with and w/out PGS). Rates visible on website. Staff are friendly, knowledgeable, incredibly hardworking, and responsive. Doctor is attentive to IVF schedules/appointments to maximize success of IVF cycles. IVF cycle appointments on weekends/holidays as needed to monitor progress. Clinic location is easily accessible via 202. The offices are clean as well as comfortable. Minimal if any in-office wait time. I'm almost always called back within 10 minutes. The specialty pharmacy (Integrity Rx) they work with is inexpensive, friendly, and local. Higher than national average success rates. Work with local and out-of-state patients as their schedule allows (we're out-of-state). Free parking garage (I've lived in cities where you must valet/pay for parking everywhere). Word-of-mouth praise from friends who were patients plus positive reviews on various sites.

Cons. New patient appointments may be scheduled out months in advance due to how busy the clinic is so call ASAP. Busyness results from good business. Expect scheduling complications if you're out-of-state. Things happen and it impacts you more because you have to schedule your trips and find out-of-area doctors to perform services.

2020 Update:

Just finished my 2nd FET and am now pregnant with our 2nd & 3rd child. I wanted to address comments I've heard from potential patients who've spoken with more recent patients.

Dr. Amols isn't as accessible anymore: It's true Dr. Amols hired help (check FB for an explanation) but that doesn't mean he isn't the one guiding your fertility journey. Having someone do ultrasounds means he sees more patients keeping costs down. The priority is that you get pregnant. It doesn't matter if additional people help you accomplish that.

Dr. Amols may not recognize you or remember your name: Many people struggle to remember faces/names and Dr. Amols sees a ridiculous number of people. If this offends you, evaluate your perspective. You want a doctor who's in, out and don't have to see until you want that next baby. If he knew me well, that means he's seeing me often and I'm not getting pregnant which would be bad news for me.

Communication isn't very responsive: I've heard this regarding becoming a new patient and it's because they want to hit the ground running even though it takes time. Get your paperwork done, set your appointment, etc. it all goes by MUCH quicker than you think it will and why would you rush something so important?

*When frustrated in the process I remind myself that I'm on lots of hormonal drugs and in the end I get results which is all that matters. I chose Dr. Amols due to his low cost, high success rates, and because I'm originally from AZ so I can stay with family when...