Ilene E. Hatch's Online Review Report Card

Dr. Hatch is without doubt one of the smartest and most respected reproductive endocrinologists in Southern California. She has a wealth of experience, and sound judgment and data guide her decision making. Her bedside manner is excellent and you will feel that she is invested in your success. Unfortunately, this is not enough. IVF is a logistics-driven process and puzzle. Dr. Hatch is perpetually frazzled, late and unable to follow through on the things she promises; and her office lacks the organization and infrastructure to ameliorate this. I am not your typical IVF case. I can naturally conceive very easily, but need IVF because I have a genetic issue that causes pregnancies that are incompatible with life and miscarry. IVF testing can prevent this. I completed three egg retrievals with Dr. Hatch and yielded two genetically typical embryos, which is a miracle for someone with a genetic issue and diminished ovarian reserve. This is where Dr. Hatch really shines - she provides personalized medicine and didn’t put me on the same protocol as every other woman or birthing person that walks into her office. But the process to getting these embryos was fraught. There were unreturned phone calls and emails. There was the time she forgot to relay to me that my retrieval was cancelled because my FSH was too high. The time I took more than triple the amount of estrogen I was supposed to because her office told me one thing and she told me another, with her not paying attention to the dosage of estrogen pills her office prescribed. It’s the following issues that will continue to keep me up at night until I can make peace with them - if I can. My husband and I naturally conceived after my egg retrievals and it was genetically atypical and I had a silent miscarriage. Because I was far enough along, I needed a D&C. Dr. Hatch told me she would give me recommendations of the best people to do it. But she didn’t, and I had to scramble and find someone through my primary insurance, which is Kaiser, when this was already a traumatizing time. This procedure may have in effect ended my fertility. I was left with uterine scar tissue from the trauma. Dr. Hatch eventually resolved the issue as much as it could be resolved, but I will always wonder if I would have suffered through this had she referred me to the best care in the first place. Then there’s my transfers. I had these two miracle embryos. Both my transfers failed. Only after these failed FETs did we do additional testing and find I have chronic endometritis. This may explain the failed FETs, but it also might not. I haven’t gotten any clarity on this issue. I should say that I feel my second transfer was in effect doomed to fail. At the start of my cycle, Dr. Hatch saw that I had a large cyst and said we should test to see whether it’s producing hormones or not. If it was not producing hormones, we could move forward with the transfer. Later that night, Dr. Hatch called me with the results and said we could move forward and she would send me my protocol. I waited 5 days and never heard from her. I texted her, called her - no response. I had to actually make the drive to her office and ask to speak with her. She apologized and said she forgot. This will never explain why she didn’t just return my text or phone call. From here, we had to scramble to get my FET protocol in order. I believe the stress and rushed nature of this transfer made it doomed to fail. My heart aches thinking of what could have been. Had I been with another doctor, would I have my children by now and not be $70,000 out and in a worse place than when I first started IVF two years ago? My heart says yes; my logic says we’ll never know for sure. But I do know I would have suffered less had there been better communication, follow-through, and an organized approach to patient care.

Worst experience. They made mistake after mistake with filing claims with our insurance company and for that we were left with thousands of dollars in rejected insurance claims. My wife and I were left to deal with the doctors office mistakes filing insurance claims all while during the in-vitro process. Our insurance told us they covered nearly everything but the doctors office filed these claims incorrectly. That's not the worst part. After begging repeatedly for them to help fix and resubmit these insurance claims per the insurance companies instructions, they suddenly become non responsive and refused to fix their mistakes. Oh wait, There's More!! Then out of nowhere, years later, they sent us to collections for charges we had never seen or notified about from the doctors office from 2 years back! We didn't move or change our phone numbers. They knew where to find us. Now I'm dealing with a creditor trying to figure out how 2 years later even more insurance claims were denied!! How does that even happen?? How are we supposed to address? We paid the full amount not even caring what was on the bill just to assure we never have to deal with this doctors office again. This is a difficult time for many couples when stress is literally the last thing you want to come into the equation. My suggestion is if you want to avoid stress throughout this process, find a different more capable doctors office. Or give them a shot and wait for the nightmare to begin.

Went to this doctor spent thousands of dollars with zero results.... stop doing IUIs because told no more samples from my husband were left... here we are years later no I'm getting charged for samples that magically appeared... the shades Dr!!.. I would give zero stars if I could

I am so fortunate to have been referred to Dr Hatch. There is no one else I would trust with my journey through infertility. Her compassionate bedside manner, attention to detail and attentiveness have made an extremely difficult process less daunting. She assesses each patient individually and does not apply a "one approach for all" philosophy. She will tailor the medical treatment for each patient and her history. Her staff are kind, courteous and accommodating. I feel they truly care and are on this journey with me, through the highs and lows. I will be forever grateful to Dr Hatch and I highly recommend her.

This office only cares about making money by giving patients irrelevant blood work. Andrea is an absolute disappointment. She always wants to do multiple iui in a cycle even three days after ovulation when she knows the probability of pregnancy is close to 0 percent. Note that Dr Hatch will only see you for the consultation after that it is only Andrea. Trust me you don't want to deal with her especially if you are new to this whole pregnancy thing. When you compare the pricing with other office you realize that this office is cheaper but this office charges you for unnecessary tests and increases your cost so you end up paying more than the other offices. If you think that they are good at what they do then you are wrong. They treat this whole thing as a money making scheme. Please avoid them! I switched doctors after three failed iui at this office. I then went to Dr Lin and got pregnant in the first iui cycle. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Dr. Hatch and her team are wonderful and professional. I have been following her for 3 years trying all kinds of fertility processes. We have gotten 3 embryos finally and expect to put one in next year.

I wish there were more doctors like Dr. Hatch! She is companionate, knowledgeable, kind, excellent at what she does and truly cares. Every time you see her, she puts you in a good mood with her infectious laugh, positive attitude and she never rushes you and always takes the time to answer all questions and concerns. I was with 2 other doctors with no success prior to finding her and once I switched to Dr Hatch she carefully reviewed my entire file and created a customized protocol that worked for me unlike other doctors that put everyone on the same protocol regardless of their age, tests, prior trial results, etc. Dr Hatch is a God sent who made it possible for us to have our previous baby! Her entire staff is also excellent- Andrea is so knowledgeable, friendly and kind, so is Evelyn. The girls at the office are very welcoming and friendly. I wish i could give her 10 stars!

I am so fortunate to have been referred to Dr Hatch. There is no one else I would trust with my journey through infertility. Her compassionate bedside manner, attention to detail and attentiveness have made an extremely difficult process less daunting. She assesses each patient individually and does not apply a "one approach for all" philosophy. She will tailor the medical treatment for each patient and her history. Her staff are kind, courteous and accommodating. I feel they truly care and are on this journey with me, through the highs and lows. I will be forever grateful to Dr Hatch and I highly recommend her.

Have you ever met anyone that was completely brilliant in their specialty, almost like they were born with a gift and when they talked to you, you just knew they were passionate about their field, and yet still so relatable and talked to you as if you were friends for decades? If you have ever met Dr. Hatch then you know exactly what I'm talking about....she is an absolute GEM of the infertility world, and when you are around her you feel her passionate energy and it is so refreshing. And if you haven't met her, seriously just try a consultation and see for yourself. I truthfully have never met a doctor like her, and I'm a nurse and have worked with many!!! Hands down she has the best bedside manner of any doctor, and she is a fierce overprotective "mama bear"/advocate for her patients. If there is a will, there is a way, and Dr H. will get you to your dream of having a baby. Dr. H will give you the confidence, fierce determination, and trust in the process as well. In fact, after having my son, I landed a dream job of being Dr. H's IVF coordinator for a short while before I moved to Nevada, because her energy is so contagious and the gift she gives these families can't even be put into words. I told my husband if we ever move back to OC, I want to volunteer my services at her office every week while the kids are in school, because the environment is that amazing. All the ladies in the office are truly the best and feel like family! And the ability to pay it forward in any way in such a special field is dear to my heart.Our infertility journey began back in 2011 and spanned a decade- so it's hard to even know how to summarize it all when I feel like I could write a novel. And even when it took nearly 5 years to have our sweet boy with Dr. H's help, we had no idea it would be close to another 5 years to get our baby girl, but persistence and the office's dedication and commitment to our dreams paid off. When our infertility journey began after we tried on our own for year to get pregnant, my primary doctor (Dr. Adam Wass of Memorial Care- Costa Mesa, who I also highly recommend if you are looking for a PCP with incredible bedside manner and brilliant patient care) did our initial work-up and referred us to Dr. Hatch. I am forever grateful for this connection as she has without a doubt forever changed our life. My husband and I have been together since 2001 and have never gotten pregnant on our own in the twenty years we have been together. Anyone that has been through the infertility process knows the rollercoaster ride...so we have definitely experienced devastating blows and dealt with some of the deepest sorrow of our lives, but we kept fighting and refused to give up (& trust me that many times I wanted to), and finally achieved our two rainbow babies which made all of the heartache along the way so worth it.In reflecting on my infertility journey, nothing else in my life has taken the wind out of me and dropped me to my knees begging / bargaining with the fertility gods to shine down on me. With Dr. H and her team, I have endured 9 IUI's, 2 egg retrievals, 1 fresh embryo transfer (failure), 3 frozen embryo transfers, 2 ectopic pregnancies, 2 miscarriages (of genetically normal embryos), and 2 successful pregnancies that resulted in live births. I am pretty sure I have done every protocol for IUI and IVF that exists, including the "kitchen sink" as Dr. H refers to it, and even a protocol that I never knew about even when working with her, for people who have failed the "kitchen sink" (which included IVIG therapy to help regulate my immune system and suppress it from trying to terminate my pregnancy). I have taken all the drugs, egg retrieval injections, estrogen patches, progesterone injections, heparin injections, methotrexate injections (for the ectopics), and felt all the crazy hormonal mood swings, side effects, bruises, and emotional pain that came with it. It is a "full-time" job and when your emotions are running high, you definitely need the best medical team in your corner. In some ways, I felt isolated from friends and family during my journey, because as much as my support at home had good intentions, they really don't understand the fertility world. My tribe that rode that roller coaster ride were the ladies at FCSC. Most of them have been on that same journey and can relate, and they truly want nothing more than to help you achieve your dream. Dr. H and her team held my hand, cried with me through the losses, and cheered with me for our victories. Our second victory was even achieved out-of-state and through 2 years of commuting back and forth between LV and OC for protocols (and if you've done a protocol...you already know how demanding, time-consuming, and the little notice of scheduling you have)...but I would travel the globe for Dr. H and her dream team. And I don't know if you've seen some of the babies she has helped create...but she makes the cutest!

Reading this 8 months later, I realize I should have given credit to the other medical professionals in the office as well. To clarify, the first doctor did not miss anything on the first ultrasound - it is just that nothing was visible yet b/c the rupture had just happened. She also knew in her gut that something was not right (despite everything looking normal on the scan) and convinced me not to leave - no easy feat, b/c I'm very headstrong and was eyeing the exits. I am very grateful to her, and to all of the other medical professionals in this office. * * * Dr. Hatch saved my life. Like, really - I was bleeding to death, and she was paying attention and saved my life and my unborn child's life.I was 6 weeks pregnant and thought I was having a miscarriage bc of pain and bleeding. I went in to see her (it was before the handoff to OB). Ultrasound showed nothing concerning - even though I was in pain. This is the point in the story where every other doctor would have assumed I was being dramatic, sent me home, and told me to call if anything changed.Not Hatch. Another doctor in her office did the scan, and called her to consult. Hatch said not to let me leave bc she wanted to examine me herself. Just a gut feeling that something wasn't right. Hatch did the second scan, and it turns out I had a simultaneous second pregnancy, which was ectopic, and had ruptured. Hatch rushed me to emergency surgery, removed the ectopic pregnancy, without disturbing the uterine pregnancy...and, well, I'm sitting here now with my 4 month old child. I can't believe that actually happened and that my uterine pregnancy was able to continue and result in the birth of a healthy child.The noteworthy part is not that she "saved my life." I mean, big deal, but for a doctor...BFD it happens, right?The noteworthy part is that she listened. If you've been pregnant, you know that this is not the norm. Doctors ignore you and treat you like a silly child who is just anxious and overreacting and hysterical.But Hatch listened, even when I wasn't listening to my own body. As it turns out, I was actually understating pain. Just not wanting to deal with it. Shutting down emotionally bc I thought I was having a miscarriage. Hatch advocated for me, when I wasn't advocating for myself - which is the complete opposite of what usually happens when you're pregnant.Oh, and I should mention - I was only pregnant in the first place bc Hatch convinced us to do another IUI. We had been to 2 other doctors, and tried like 7 IUIs with those doctors, and we went to Hatch ready to move on to IVF.Hatch was like - you should do 1 more IUI.We were like - no, really, we are ready to try IVF (which is SO much more expensive than IUI)Hatch was like - no, really, you should try 1 IUI with me.And...we did...and got pregnant with that 1 IUI.