This place was recommended to me by a family friend. She had nothing but good things to say and now I can confirm. They are great at what they do, their care is amazing. Would recommend this place a million times if I could.
Thank you, Dr. Quintero!We were lucky to meet the doctor !
Their team is so professional and well-coordinated!
Thank you, kate!for helping us build confidence。
Thank you,LiIy !she was a very patient and friendly person who guided us to take medicine. Many times it was very late, but she could reply to our information in time and save us.
Everyone at the front desk is so warm and sincere
Thank you to all the staff at care Fertility!
It is your love, care, patience and professional that make our dream of becoming parents come true.
My spouse and I have had the best experience here at CARE. The team has been very helpful with our needs and working with our long commute. All questions about medications and the best care for the best outcome had been answered. The team's response time for getting back to us was always quick and efficient. Dr. Rudy and his team should be proud for the CARE they deliver!
I saw Dr. Thomas in August 2023. I decided to post this in December 2023, after I finished a second cycle with another physician, who provided me with much better care and was able to retrieve 29 eggs. Dr. Thomas only got 3, and blamed me/my body for it.
my original review:
My overall experience w/ Dr. Semara Thomas is that I feel she is unprofessional.
I was originally going to get care with another clinic but found out that Care Fertility was having a promotion, so I decided to go with Dr. Thomas since this price was significantly lower than what the other clinics quoted me. My initial consultation with Dr. Thomas felt very rushed, and in general, all my appts with Dr. Thomas felt very rushed and I felt like she would get annoyed when I would try to ask her questions to try to understand something. The clinic was also sloppy with appointments and follow ups and poor in communication in my opinion.
Throughout the stims, Dr. Thomas mentioned to me at every pelvic ultrasound appt that she was expecting to retrieve around 10 eggs.
Fast forward to my egg retrieval/surgery day: I was in the pre-op room lying in the hospital bed waiting to be taken to the OR. The RN was already tending to me. Dr. Thomas comes in around 7AM and says to the RN - OMG I'm sooo tired I didn't get any sleep last night and then proceeds to complain to the RN about her personal problems with her boyfriend for 20 minutes....while I am lying there waiting for her to take me to the OR! By the way, she knew I was there, because the RN had said a few minutes into the conversation "BTW Jacqueline is already here". Dr. Thomas didn't even acknowledge me. I was REALLY upset to hear the comment about her being tired right before performing a surgery on me and wanted to say something, but I felt stuck because I had already done the trigger injection and the surgery had to be done at that specific time. My biggest regret is not speaking up for myself at this time.
When I woke up from the surgery, Dr. Thomas informed me that she was surprised that she punctured an endometrioma on my left ovary bc it bled and that she will be prescribing me antibiotics to prevent an infection. Apparently, she didn't know it was there in the beginning, even though it was previously noted from other doctors I had seen before her. She was only able to retrieve 3 eggs from my left ovary, and 0 from the right, because the ones on the right hadn't grown enough yet.
I had a follow up visit where I wanted to ask what happened - why did we only get 3 eggs when ~10 were expected. I asked her if she triggered me too early, and I felt she was defensive when she was explaining to me that it wasn't and blamed my prior condition of endometriosis for a poor egg retrieval. (Then why did the second doctor get 29 eggs?) I also told her how I felt it was unprofessional for her to state in front of me before a surgery that she was tired/didn't get enough sleep and complain about her boyfriend and how that conversation made me uncomfortable. Her response to this was literally "OK", no apology or anything. I pointed out that 2 other REs had noticed the endometrioma and also a uterine fibroid and I asked her if she had noticed these things, would the outcome have been different? She said, Jennifer, I don't understand what a growth in your uterus has to do with your egg freezing (my name is Jacqueline btw). Umm, bc I am freezing my eggs to get pregnant some day, so if I have a growth in my uterus that will prevent pregnancy, you need to be aware of it when I come back in the future to use these eggs?? I am in shock an RE made such a statement.
Also, during ~9 days of stims, I had 4 pelvic ultrasound appts and my blood was drawn only 1 of these times. Most clinics in LA draw blood at every ultrasound appt, but this clinic only checked it once. I feel like they cut corners to save money. I recommend to stay away from this place. Embryos/eggs are too fragile to put in bad care in my opinion.
I'm absolutely appalled at how poorly I was treated at CARE. I lost $8,000 to them because of their extremely shady payment and refund policy. I wish I had not trusted them as much as I did when I agreed to pay upfront for everything, not knowing how badly I was going to be treated...I wouldn't wish my experience on anyone else, if you're reading this please heed my warnings...
I never met the doctor who was supposedly treating me (Dr. Thomas) or even spoke to her after my consult call. She didn't show up to scheduled exams and due to her negligence she completely missed an important new diagnosis that puts me at higher risk of complications with IVF. My PCP and gynecologist were appalled by the lack of professionalism to the point of potential malpractice. CARE also misdiagnosed my partner with a deadly disease which was traumatizing for us both.
CARE ghosted me for months after repeated attempts on my part to get updates. After consulting with my gynecologist, I decided to part ways with CARE and get my money back for the services I no longer feel safe going through with. Their response was to deny me a refund and insist that they are "the best in LA", and that that other women with my medical condition still go through with treatment. Their policy means that I have no agency over what risks I am comfortable with (risks they never disclosed with me to begin with, at that) and that they have the final say over what's best for MY body. This is unacceptable.