Poma Fertility's Online Review Report Card

The communication was sometimes great; sometimes it was really frustrating.

I’ll start out by saying, we ended up not going with this fertility clinic so I won’t speak to the success rate or the level of care.We did look at this clinic and they sent us all the information to register. Their website is a bit antiquated and not inclusive. It is Eurocentric and Christian centric. They ask about ancestry and heritage but with very limited options. The clinic seems to be antiquated in their process. They refused to accept automated electronic medical records and insisted they be sent via fax or snail mail. This is more of a suggestion to the clinic versus an attempt to dissuade anyone from using their services. Fertility journeys are exhausting and stressful, if you can take the time to make the process just a little more streamlined and simple for your patients, I have no doubt it would make their lives easier and give them one less thing to worry about.

My husband and I had a great experience with Poma. I felt the doctors made the fertility treatments less scary and intimidating. Dr. Opsahl and Dr. Beesley both recommended that my husband and I do IVF with a fresh transfer, and it worked! We got pregnant with our first embryo transfer in April of 2021, and we welcomed our little boy into the world at the end of December 2021, happy and healthy. We will definitely return to Poma if or when we want to have another child as they were able to successfully get us 5 healthy embryos!

I was very happy with the experience from beginning to end.  There was a hiccup once with getting back to me on time, but it all worked out.  It was beneficial to have the portal for communication, especially with any directions I had to take.  Best of all, first round of IVF was a success and I am now 6 months pregnant.  You can imagine the process makes you nervous but they were helpful throughout the entire journey.

Overall I would give the experience a solid B. The nurses and doctors are very kind, the portal system is very effective as far as scheduling goes and you get your questions answered within 24 hours. You have so many damn appointments that kindness goes a long way to make the experience more pleasant. The paperwork is a huge pain in the butt as they give you a ton of written information and you have to make important decisions (like how many embryos to transfer and when) without any doctor input. So expect to get a 14 page document and then have to make huge decisions based on the info. The price is deceptive- they say it's $14400 but that doesn't include testing, labs, medications or much of anything. It's actually $25-28k per cycle. They have a discount "PomaCare" program and they say 90% of people qualify for their discount BUT if you are over 39 then you probably won't. I was rejected because I'm 40 and my AMH is .56. So one low number and you don't quality. Now all that being said, they DID help me get pregnant in 2.5 months. It took 2 cycles. I'm 11w1d today and I feel like they've followed my care a lot further than I even expected. They even did the 9 week genetic testing when my OBGYN said she couldn't do it until week 11. All the IVF centers have issues- but after listening to women at other clinics I have to say I'm glad I picked Poma and I'd pick them again. Also, make sure you ASK for Cooper Genetics to do your genetic testing on the embryos. They give detailed reporting on mosaics and the default lab Poma uses does not. This was upsetting to me as I wanted more information than "your embryos are all abnormal". I paid to have them retested at Cooper when I learned that was an option. If I wanted to have another baby, I would use them again.

After not having a good line of communication with my previous clinic on First Hill, we took a break from fertility treatments. When we decided to start again, we trasnferred our records over to Poma and really appreciated the process. The online portal system worked well for us and the nurses are super quick to respond.All of the staff that we worked with, from front desk, blood draws, exams, retrieval, and transfers, were all very professional and patient with my questions. Sometimes the doctors were quick during a scan, but I always felt the nurses were available for clarification on questions. I appreciated that they are open everyday of the week, because they know that your cycle isn't going to align with a work week. Paying out of pocket seemed to be the only frustrating thing, as sometimes you get a bill for something that happened months ago. The online portal to pay is easy though, so no issues.Also, keep in mind that medications are always extra. Add about $5k to the amount they quote, but definitely use the online pharmacy and rebate programs they recommend. Ending with a pregnancy is a success in my book.

POMA and its staff are amazing!!  Long story short, my wife and I are pregnant with a healthy baby boy!!That being said, so much work went into getting us where we are today. From handling all aspects of insurance coverage, to scheduling and promptly holding appointments, the administrative staff were amazing!!Drs Beasley and Opsahl were both very professional and helped us throughout the process. They were also gracious with their time and scheduled a couple virtual appointments so we could be best prepared. Lastly, Nurse Linda Alexander was absolutely our guardian angel!  Her knowledge and experience proved incredibly valuable, and in my opinion, we would have never persevered through the ups and downs without her sage advice and caring heart.  On more than one occasion, she managed to ensure the facilities were available to us as we had some very time sensitive issues to deal with; during the time of a pandemic, mind you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you Poma. We still have a ways to go before bringing our baby to term, but it's nothing short of a miracle to be this far along!

The Drs are well experienced and professional. However, staff could use some more enlightenment and customer service upgrades.

If you are looking to feel anxious, confused and generally upset during your IVF process, I would definitely recommend Poma Fertility.The extra star is because IVF worked for us! The thing I am most excited about, second to being pregnant, is not having to do IVF with Poma Fertility ever again. Please do your research and compare Poma to how others communicate and set expectations through this process. This is something I failed to do.Communication: After we paid Poma, I felt we became a number in their extremely full bucket of clients. ALL communication is restricted to an extremely clunky patient messaging portal, which is a terrible, out of date experience. Many of the messages I sent them early on would not get answered at all. Sometimes multiple people would answer them, with varying responses.. super confusing. They would say they'd call and never did. More than once they sent me instructions to take a medication starting the next morning but when I went to the pharmacy to get it would find out they never called it in.On desperate occasions I'd call the front desk begging to speak to a nurse, they would get annoyed and tell me to send a portal message. I actually wasn't going to write a review at all, but the final straw was when we asked them to keep the gender a secret from us but they sent us an unmarked card announcing it was a boy..Education & expectation setting: IVF is a scary and unknown process and Poma keeps the process very vague. I understand a lot can change at the last minute within the process, but they should tell clients that from the start. There is no advanced education about how to give yourself the shots, which added stress to the process. I had 5 different medications with different needles sitting on my counter and no idea on how to use them and had never given myself a shot. I don't think I am an uptight person but that feeling is pretty overwhelming. I spent a lot of time googling things Poma should have educated me on. I used YouTube videos I found by myself on how to administer the shots in my abdomen. On one occasion, a very kind nurse showed me how to do the shots when I brought the medication into Poma and I realized I had been doing it wrong..Costs: The last issue is the lack of transparency with costs. Poma comes off like they make this clear but they really don't. My husband and I ended up paying double than what their website states. Their various options sound straightforward, but be warned they are not. Many times at the last minute I would realize I needed to order more medication (the cost is 5K each time).To say something positive, the doctors there are wonderful. Megan was a joy to be with each time and was helpful. I think they really need more focused staff to communicate.I hope this review helps someone avoid the emotional turmoil I experienced

We had a wonderful baby girl. Poma was very thoughtful and thorough.