If you are struggling to get pregnant and are looking for expert, patient-centered care, I recommend looking elsewhere. Perhaps it depends on your doctor, but based on my experience, Spring fails to take a patient-centered, customized approach to fertility care.
I was referred to Spring Fertility in Oct and saw Doctor Fisher and then Doctor Reddy (after Fisher moved to Portland). I visited the Danville & Oakland locations. My initial consult was positive and the staff were attentive. I was impressed by the modern office and easy patient onboarding process. I thought it was great that I could message my care team via the portal/app.
Warning: you will never be able to communicate directly with your doctor in the portal, you'll be randomly paired with a "patient navigator" or multiple patient navigators to answer all questions, discuss treatment plans, etc. To me that was frustrating.
After various tests, I was told I fit into the category of unexplained infertility.
If you are reading this and have been given this diagnosis, please don't accept it. My new REI put it simply: this is a lazy diagnosis; there is no such thing as unexplained infertility, it just hasn't been explained to YOU. Spring did nothing to further assess possible reasons for my infertility.
They recommended 3 IUIs and if that didn't work, moving on to IVF based on my family goals. I went on to do 3 IUIs ($2700+ each), all unsuccessful. The IUIs were performed by a nurse in their Oakland office, not by my doctor. I have nothing against age, but the nurse appeared quite young and had an enormous amount of difficulty finding my cervix due to my severe retroverted (tilted) uterus. She could have called in the doctor for assistance, but instead I laid there for over 20 minutes while she tried pushing the catheter through multiple times and causing me discomfort. In hindsight I wish I said something or asked for the doctor.
I have a retroverted uterus which they told me occurred in roughly 25% of women and does not impact fertility. Ok, no big deal. What they didn't tell me? It was SEVERE. It was not only severely retroverted but also retroflexed and folded onto itself. This is not normal (keep reading).
After 6 months of spinning my wheels and before being pushed into starting IVF, I trusted my gut and decided to seek another opinion. During a VIDEO consult, my new REI almost immediately suspected I had endometriosis, and when I was evaluated in office, she easily detected signs of deep infiltrating stage 4 endometriosis on ultrasound and confirmed I would need surgery. IUI would not have worked. The endometriosis was also what was pulling my uterus backward. Spring also failed to discover (or tell me?) that BOTH of my ovaries were adhered to my uterus from the endo tissue. This was also clear as day on ultrasound. My new Dr said some fertility clinics use outdated ultrasound imaging technology that is less sensitive, or the doctors do not know what to look for. Disappointing.
Here's the kicker... According to Dr Reddy's bio on Spring's website, she AUTHORED multiple publications on endometriosis. Not only did she miss the obvious signs(severe retroverted uterus, frozen pelvis, ovaries adhered to uterus, painful vaginal ultrasounds, difficulty finding cervix), she also NEVER ONCE brought it up as even a possibility / reason for my infertility.
This feels like medical malpractice to me. Not to mention emotionally distressing for a patient already going through a lot.
On a side note, I was charged $1204 (!) for a routine saline sonogram (SIS). This was required before starting IVF which at the time I thought I would do. First off, no other clinic charges these fees. My insurance covers this exact type of test under diagnostic infertility testing, but because Spring classifies it as fertility treatment (which is absolutely ridiculous), they could not cover the test. I spoke with Spring's financial counselor and not only was the girl I spoke with unempathetic, she basically told me that's their policy and I wasn't going to have any luck talking to my insurance. I was very turned off.
The test was painful and i left in tears. Reddy also provided virtually no info.. I may have a polyp but they really don't know what it is.. I needed a hysteroscopy. What did I just pay for then??
Spring is privately funded, as other reviewers have pointed out, which makes me question the quality of medical care and their end goal for their patients (hint: starts with I and ends with F).
It could have been worse. I could have blindly moved forward with IVF for my cycles to fail. But I wasted time, money, and my sanity. I trusted Spring to help me find answers. I believed what they claim on their website: treating every patient like an individual to help you achieve your goals. The experience I had was the opposite.
My advice to you? Be your own advocate. Talk to more than one clinic/doctor. Trust your gut. And don't settle for an unexplained diagnosis. read more