Amazing doctor! She really knows her stuff and is incredibly effective at finding the root cause of…read moreyour problems. She's literally changed my life - I can't thank her enough.

From the owner: Dr. Hillary Dinning is a naturopathic doctor at the Marda Loop Naturopathic and Wellness Clinic…read more Her practise focuses in the areas of paediatrics (ADHD, autism, oppositional behaviours, digestive issues, well child checks) as well as fertility, hormones, and pre-natal and post partum care. Dr. Hillary takes the time to assess all aspects of health in order to get down to the root cause of the issue. The clinic is a warm inviting area, welcome to all family members both big and small!

If you or your spouse has fertility issues this is where you'll probably end up being referred…read more I'll start by saying that there's a huge range of things that can happen with infertility so this review is just my experience and may not be the same for you. Before you even meet with a doctor you have to attend an information session. It's 2.5-3 hours in a theatre at the Foothills. They cover everything you can expect to go through during the fertility treatment process including the risks, costs, various drugs they use, range of treatment options (not just IVF), and counseling available. If you decide to proceed with fertility treatment after the info session you'll meet with one of their doctors to get into things in more detail than the info session. The doctor will give you and your spouse a bunch of requisitions to get some testing done on your baby making bits. For the guys this is pretty straight forward, just doing a blood test and giving a sample of your swimmers. Ladies, it's more intense having to do things like an HSG and other internal testing. We were lucky that before we went to meet with the fertility doctor my wife's OBGYN gave us the requisitions for both of us to get some of the tests done to help move things along while we waited for the referral to the fertility clinic to go through. Then when we met with the fertility doctor he just filled in the blanks as needed. We were assigned to Dr. Min but the program does have several doctors. From the very first meeting with Dr. Min he was excellent. We had lots of questions and he had all the answers. It was a world of difference talking to someone who specializes in infertility compared to talking to a GP or OBGYN. During our trip through the fertility program, Dr. Min became the president of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, so he really does know his stuff. After Dr. Min reviewed all of our results it was decided that IVF was our best course of treatment. Other options would have been a waste of money. The initial growing of eggs is what is going to cost you the big bucks. They'll give you the ranges of costs in the info session, but it all comes down to what drugs you have to take and how many. For us, it was around $14,000 to grow some eggs. This is also the hardest part to go through. There can be some serious side effects, you have to do self injections, etc. Of course I'm talking about the lady's side of things. Guys, you get to be there for moral support. In addition to the physical side effects and the empty empty wallet you might feel through this first stage, there is also an emotional impact. When you get close to the end of the growing stage they do ultrasounds every couple of days to see how the follicles are doing. For my wife, at one point they said that it looked like there wouldn't be any eggs to be harvested and gave her the option to stop. She decided to keep going and good thing she did. They ended up getting 7 eggs, 5 of which were viable. Holy emotional roller-coaster. Gentlemen, on harvest day you get to participate. That's when you have to "produce" your sample. While your lady has her legs up you'll be elsewhere in the building doing your part. Then, again, you're done, other than further emotional support for the rest of the process. They fertilize the eggs and then you go back 5 days later for implantation. It could be only 3 days if your eggs aren't as strong as they'd like. The doctors will put one or two blastocyst in (depending on your situation) and then you wait two weeks to see if you're pregnant. If you're not pregnant then you have to wait a few months before they try again. I believe it was that two menstrual cycles have to happen before they start another cycle. The good news is that the drugs aren't nearly anything like the growing of the eggs. The downside is that progesterone is a suppository multiple times a day. Additional rounds are about $2,000 each. I mentioned before that this can be a huge emotional roller-coaster. The good news is that there is free counseling while you are in the program. Use it. There can be a lot of stress and you and your spouse may have trouble dealing with it on your own. You're probably already frustrated that you've been trying to get pregnant naturally for however long. Now throw a financial burden, hormone injections, other drugs, and more waiting into the mix. It's hard. Through the process don't expect to always be seeing "your" doctor. They schedule the procedures when they need to be done, but all of the doctors rotate through so you may have someone else performing the procedures. When you have a follow-up or test results, etc. you will meet with your assigned doctor though. There's a ton more that could be added, but Yelp is cutting me off. I'll just leave this at, if you do decide to go through with fertility treatments, know you're in good hands here at the RFP.

This clinic is beyond frustrating. They operate with a voicemail system so it's not possible to…read moreever just call and talk to a nurse. You leave a message and they call you back. This is really inconvenient for me as I'm not able to have my phone on me at work. The "take a number" system for appointments is ridiculous. They told me it's because they need to get everyone's bloodwork done in the morning. This doesn't make sense, and my friends who have had IVF in Vancouver confirmed this is not how it's done there...they just book an appointment time as one would expect. I went all the way to the transfer phase and literally the only person at the clinic who asked me how I was doing was a very kind lab person who took my blood. No nurse or doctor asked me how I was doing the whole time, they just provided the number for a psychologist if needed. I don't need a psychologist at this point but a "how are you doing?" would be nice. I also question their technology and methods. They claim they use "tried and true" procedures but I think they really are just behind with the science. Unfortunately this is our only real option in Calgary but if you have the means I'd do your research and find a clinic elsewhere with better statistics and better client care.

When you need your swimmers checked out in Calgary, this is probably the place you have to go…read more This medical building is all related to pregnancy, reproductive issues, and similar medical concerns so everyone is there for many of the same reasons which makes things a little less awkward in the elevator. I showed up for my appointment about 15 minutes early and was greeted right away. I was given a cup and a laminated number and pointed to a door. On the other side of the door is a small hallway with a few numbered rooms. The room I was issued was about 4' x 8'. It had a chair and a sink and an empty magazine rack asking you to put the materials back when finished. I'm guessing with today's technology they don't need to supply the materials anymore. On the back of the door is a coat hook and some basic instructions on what to do. Things like "wash your hands" and "wipe everything down when you're done". You know, instructions that you think would be common sense, but I guess in a clinic like this you can't take any chances. When finished, you take the sample out to reception and put it in a basket and fill out a little piece of paper. A tech from the back was right on it and came out almost immediately to help me when I came out with my cup. Overall a quick and painless, though mildly awkward situation that was done with professionalism and ease.

From the owner: The Regional Fertility Program provides complete services for the diagnosis of male fertility…read moredisorders. The investigation of male fertility always begins with a complete semen analysis. Specialized testing for abnormalities of the sperm parameters is ordered when indicated including genetic testing for abnormal male karyotypes and Y chromosome microdeletions.