GETTING PREGNANT: LA IVF Success Stories

The other reviews are right on. I have a healthy 18 month old boy, thanks to Dr. Bayrak. I posted a glowing review for him on http://vitals.com, but never knew doctors were rated on Yelp until we moved to the Bay Area.

We are planning to fly down to see Dr. Bayrak for our 2nd, he is that good. In fact, our eggs are frozen with another clinic because he was with them before starting his own practice. We plan to go through the extra cost and trouble of transferring our eggs to his clinic to so we can follow him. It is evident that Dr. Bayrak truly cares for his patients' health and overall well being. He is extemely thorough, conservative, and careful. I especially like that he does not prescribe unnecessary medications or order tests while he maintains these qualities. I found Dr. Bayrak upon the advice of a doctor friend.

I saw two other reproductive endocrinologists first. One made me feel like cattle, and the other made me spend $900 on an unnecessary test. Both prescribed the pill (which I hate being on) to force a period, while Dr. Bayrak goes through the extra trouble of scheduling his treatment around your natural period. This, even though I have an irregular menstruated cycle. The other doctors also seemed more like businessmen concerned with profit (though subtly). Dr. Bayrak seems to practice medicine to truly treat and heal patients. For both a friend I referred and I, Dr. Bayrak offered to refer us to tests that had nothing to do with making a baby, but addressed our health (mine was a bone density test).

No other doctors did this. Lastly, we chose Dr. Bayrak because he was one of the only doctors providing CGH testing at the time, much more accurate than traditional PGD/genetic testing. He warned me before I started with him that this technology was very new, some even considered it experimental, and I was fine with that. Here I am 3 years later and cancer free (long story short: I had a miscarriage beforehand that could have led to cancer because of a chromosomal defect with my egg, which is why my husband wanted genetic testing).

11/29/2012

Christine K.
Santa Clara, CA

I would like to thank Dr. Bayrak, Sheri, and Linda for being there for me for these last several months! I have a mild Endometriosis and my husband has slightly low motility. I went to Dr. Bayrak after trying for a couple of years and now I am 10 weeks pregnant!!!

I am very happy with Dr. Bayrak and his staff. He is extremely professional, knowledgeable and personable. During the process, I never hesitated emailing him or Sheri, since they were both exceptionally helpful and quick in responding to my sometimes crazy questions. I remember a time that, in spite of Sheri's extremely busy schedule, she stayed on the phone with me and the pharmacy to facilitate with the pharmacy's insurance questions. I would definitely recommend Dr. Bayrak for any infertility issue.

Zoey M.

Glendale, CA

...The thing that impressed me first was when the Dr. greeted me to come in to his office, he wasn't looking at his clip board as he greeted me, he even asked me where my partner was using his name. Granted, he got that off the questionnaire I filled out prior to visiting, but it meant a great deal to me that he took the time to look at the chart and remember his name and ask where he was. How many other doctors do that, or even talk TO you (not AT you) when you're one on one with them? Usually they have their heads buried in the clip board while you're talking and ready to rush you out so they can see their next patient...

Tree F.

Glendale, CA

Unexplained infertility can be one of the most difficult challenges a couple can face in their marriage, let alone in their lives. My husband and I struggled with unexplained infertility for almost 3 years. Our decision to begin IVF treatment was not an easy one and finding the right team was essential. The medical expertise and professionalism of Dr. Bayrak and his staff are the gold standard. However, the sensitivity, patience, and support we received from Dr. Bayrak are what will always remain in our hearts.

IVF brings a rollercoaster of emotions and challenges, as well as difficult decisions that require support and guidance. Dr. Bayrak has an outstanding ability to communicate every stage of the medical process in ways we could easily understand and evaluate. Elevating his ability was his commitment, compassion, and confidence, which gave us strength throughout each cycle of our journey. Without his expertise and support we could not have endured and ultimately realized the dream of our own baby. We followed Dr. Bayrak from New York to Los Angeles with no hesitation. We are now blessed with a baby girl.

TMC

Manhattan, NY

About a month after getting married at the age of 36, I had my FSH tested and it came back a 36.4. We had just started trying to get pregnant and I had no reason to believe there was anything wrong, so it was a complete shock to learn that I might not be able to have my own children. My OB recommended a few REs and my husband and I made appointments with two of them. The first was one of the big clinics in Beverly Hills with high success rates, so we felt confident walking in. That confidence was quickly replaced by dread and anxiety because the place felt like a car dealership, not a doctor's office. They called me by the wrong name and we spent 10 minutes with a doctor who said there was no point in retesting my FSH and that my only option was an egg donor before quickly ushering us into the financing office (where, incidentally, they told us none of the packages were available to me because I was past their FSH cutoff). Needless to say, I left in tears.

We then went to see Dr. Bayrak, who was kind and thorough, patiently explaining everything and suggesting that we have more tests before assuming I had no good eggs left. We knew immediately that he was going to be our doctor. He ultimately did retest my FSH, which was in the 12-13 range in subsequent tests – still challenging but not impossible (as a side note, we think the initial test may have been a lab error but will never know). After a few cycles of clomid and IUIs, he suggested we move on to IVF. On the first of what we expected to be many cycles, I had only 5 follicles and Dr. Bayrak successfully harvested all of them, 3 of which fertilized successfully. My husband and I elected to do the genetic testing and, unfortunately, only one of the three embryos tested normal. We knew our chances were slim with only one healthy embryo, but Dr. Bayrak was supportive and said it only takes one good egg. Ten days later, I had a positive pregnancy test followed by an ultrasound that showed not one but TWO heartbeats… our one healthy embryo had split into identical twin boys! From the very beginning, the thing that really struck me about Dr. Bayrak was his willingness to take on challenging cases. Unlike some of the big clinics that have FSH cutoffs and will cancel a cycle if you don't have enough eggs, he is determined to make breakthroughs and actually believes one good egg is enough, despite the cost to his statistics. What I realized going through this process is that everyone immediately looks to the statistics in seeking an IVF clinic, but it's easy to have the highest birthrates when you don't take on the hard cases.

My husband and I are grateful to Dr. Bayrak and his amazing team for their support, encouragement and expertise which enabled us to have the family that we've always wanted.

AVC

We are an Australian couple who had been trying for 10 years to have a baby. During this time I had 3 laparoscopies for ovarian cysts and was also diagnosed with endometriosis after the first surgery. We then tried a naturopath and fell pregnant twice with her but suffered miscarriages at 7 weeks. We then tried IVF on and off for a few years with more disappointment and miscarriages. I was then told my eggs were of inferior quality due to the endometriosis, surgeries and age. We then found an egg donor and fell pregnant first cycle with her but unfortunately another miscarriage occurred at 9 weeks.

As we were about to give up, my husband was told of another Australian couple who had traveled to the United states for IVF treatment and now have a baby. We spoke with Dr. Bayrak by phone and he answered every question we had and forwarded information to read about procedures and paper work to be filled out if we were interested in doing IVF with him. All of Dr. Bayrak's staff was very patient and helpful every time we rang for help or to ask questions. IVF cycle was very different to Australian IVF, but much easier. We proceeded with all tests needed and we then traveled to the United States in July 2008 and met everyone at Dr. Bayrak's office We had our baby in April 2009, and will definitely travel again for another baby.

I would highly recommend Dr. Bayrak and all his staff are helpful, patient and understanding of the disappointment of suffering infertility.

LAP

"It only took us one visit with Dr. Bayrak for us to decide that we wanted him to be our doctor. He always spent plenty of time with us answering all of our concerns and made us feel comfortable. He continually impressed us with his attention to detail and with his intimate knowledge of our medical history. Even months after helping us achieve our dream, he continued to respond to our questions. We are grateful for our experience with Dr. Bayrak and wish all those that have infertility issues the expertise of a Doctor like Dr. Bayrak."

VPE

My husband and I came to see Dr. Bayrak after 3 years of trying to get pregnant. During the first year of our attempts, we tried almost all over-the-counter ovulation kits, basal body temperature charts and ovulation monitors to understand the best time to conceive. They all showed I was properly ovulating around the same time each cycle but they did not help us reach our goal. The second year, we thought it would make sense to have some fertility tests performed by my regular OB/GYN doctor on both of us to know whether something is wrong. Good thing, the test results came out normal, there were no real reasons that we couldn't conceive! We had three IUI trials on which our doctor was very optimistic about the results each time; however in the end none of them turned out to be positive. I totally changed my diet into a fertility-friendly one and started to exercise regularly. When we were ready, we made our appointment with Dr. Bayrak to discuss further solutions as to how to beat our unexplained infertility problem. On our second try we were able to get pregnant and with twins (one boy and one girl)! Thank you so much Dr. Bayrak and the entire team in helping us have our dream come true!

EAT

The journey we have had has been a long one. We began in 2003 with a different fertility clinic. Our cause of infertility was damaged tubes. We had many attempts with IVF, four to be exact. With three of them I had miscarriages. The emotions that come with that are devastating. I kept asking "Isn't there anything else we could do?" Nothing else was offered even with all my pleading. We had given up, decided that we could no longer take the pain.

In June of 2008 we met with Dr. Bayrak who said to us that in his opinion my damaged tubes were the problem. That every time I would get pregnant the fluid that was produced in my tubes each month was going into my uterus and causing me to have a miscarriage. We had never heard of such a thing. From the very first visit with Dr. Bayrak, he knew things and told us things we had never heard. He told us that we could benefit from getting my tubes completely removed, and he told us about CGH. We left that appointment just thinking WOW why didn't the other place know anything we were just told? Dr. Bayrak was so knowledgeable and so informed on so many things that we decided to go ahead and try once again.

In July I had my tubes removed, in September I had egg retrieval and three days later sent our embryos out for CGH testing. We decided to have our transfer in January 2009. So on January 16 we had our transfer, and ten days later we got the results of my first blood test which was positive. Sure we were happy but we had been through this part before and we looked at it like stages we had to keep passing. Than the next test and once again it was positive and my numbers had more than doubled, so that looked good, but still I was not convinced that I was really pregnant or that I would not miscarry. Then we waited for the ultrasound day, another stage we needed to pass. I am telling you the waiting is the longest time ever. Then finally February 20th is here and Dr. Bayrak does the ultrasound and there on the monitor is really a baby. We were amazed and in such awe. He showed us the heartbeat and then we listened to the heartbeat and when I heard the sound of the heart, I cried and cried and just could not believe that this was truly happening. I told Dr. Bayrak that he had no idea what he had given us, all these years of trying and in one time he did it. He gave us what no one else could. We cannot say enough good things about Dr. Bayrak, he took the time to find the problem and solve it and now he has completed our family and we will always be grateful to him for that. His knowledge and expertise and pure genius have allowed our dreams of completing our family come true.

Thank you so MUCH Dr. Bayrak we will not ever forget what you have done for us!!!

BTS

We are a couple from Germany who had 6 failed IVF cycles and were recommended to use donor eggs. Dr. Bayrak reviewed our case in detail and told us things that we never heard before explaining every single detail. He told us that he cannot guarantee the pregnancy, but if he were to find chromosome normal embryos with CGH test, we would have high chance of success. We transferred two CGH normal embryos and had a baby boy after 16 years of trying!!! The hero of our story is Dr. Bayrak and I would highly recommend him to anyone who suffers from infertility because we were blessed to be his patient. My husband tells everyone what he accomplished that no other doctor could. Many thanks to his wonderful staff as well.

CCK

I have done multiple IVF cycles (9 to be exact) and had 4 miscarriages before I met Dr. Bayrak. He told me that in his opinion my uterus was the problem. I did not believe him in the beginning because I had my uterus checked in the past and had all the testing that you can imagine. He said he wants to do a hysteroscopy "to assess my uterus further" and try to identify the problem (I had 2 hysteroscopy before). When I woke up after the procedure, he said my uterus was too small (showed me the pictures) and that I need to use a surrogate. Apparently, I had what they call T shape uterus. I never heard it before, so I googled it. I eventually convinced myself to use a surrogate.

Dr. Bayrak was so thorough with our case that we were quite impressed. We did our final IVF cycle with him using a surrogate and have a baby girl now. If you have infertility whatever the cause is, you should see Dr. Bayrak without hesitation. Thank you for everything, you are the best.

FLC

Infertility is the hardest thing I've ever gone through. Before going to Dr. Bayrak, I spent about a year going through IVF treatments with a large area fertility clinic. I am a complicated case and eventually I hit a point where my previous RE didn't know what to do with me. I decided to meet with several REs for second opinions. Dr. Bayrak was the first meeting my husband and I attended. In that meeting, Dr. Bayrak caught a problem on my HSG x-ray that had gone unnoticed by two previous doctors. He also had ideas for how to correct some odd lining issues I was having. My husband (who is a doctor himself) was as impressed as I was... and we