Sherbahn Richard, MD

I went to two other clinics/​practices before choosing to proceed my IVF with Dr. Sherbahn, and I am very glad that I did.
IVF is a high stake process. And a first timer like me gets lost easily. So a well-​run practice makes all the difference — regardless of the end results.
At the first clinic, we started with various fertility tests and during one of the visits to review my results, the doctor greeted me with something about me being pregnant — he probably simply confused me with his other cases. I’m not an attention seeker, but the incidence made me feel like not enough attention was paid to my case. I mean, if my appointment is on a doctor’s schedule, shouldn’t the doctor at least know what the visit is about before entering the room? On top of that, I felt I wasn’t guided and certain decisions about next steps weren’t clearly explained or discussed. All these led me to turn to another clinic.
The doctor at the second clinic left a good first impression. Yet, as many IVFers know, after the first consultation, chances are we will be working/​interacting almost exclusively with the nurse/​coordinator, not the doctor himself/​herself. This is totally understandable and fine with me, as long as the nurse/​coordinator can answer my questions (e.g., the IVF schedule, what to expect, etc.) and call me back. Alas, I would expect this to be the basic standard but the staff at the second clinic wasn’t able to do. They pushed me to start taking birth control pills to prep for a cycle even though we were still waiting for some test results. Everything seemed rushed without providing me with a clear plan or even giving me the financial information. When I asked questions, the attitude was basically: just do what we tell you to do and you’ll know the next step when we tell you. I left the clinic even though I already started the birth control pills per their instruction. It would be too stressful for me to proceed with them.
Dr. Sherbahn is indeed not the warm and hugging type. His attitude is also more of a scientist and not a businessman (i.e., in his mind, patients/“customers” are NOT always right). However, I found him caring, compassionate, and totally professional. I was looking for a doctor to help me conceive. In other words, I was looking for professional medical care and not necessarily a hand to hold on or a shoulder to cry on. In that sense, both me and my husband considered him a great match for us.
I did my monitoring at their Chicago office. The staff could not be more responsive and organized. I got a clear schedule and the financial information needed before we decided to proceed. After experiencing the first two clinics, I would say that my experience with Dr. Sherbahn and his Chicago office was top-​notch. It was such a relief to feel that I can get answers when I have questions, and know that someone is closely monitoring my progress and tweaking my treatment plan. I always got calls with instructions in the afternoon as they promised, and if I missed a call, they would try multiple times, so they can be sure that we talked and the instructions were clearly understood.
Ultimately, thanks to Dr. Sherbahn and his nurses, I was fortunate to get pregnant with my first attempt at age 37. Yet, even if the first try didn’t work, I would have no doubt to proceed my second round with them.
If you are in the process of trying to find a clinic, it’s worth giving Dr. Sherbahn’s AFCC a try.
PS: Despite all the good things I said about this practice, based on their stats, I do believe they take more cases that they consider to have a higher chance to succeed. e.g., the percentage of younger patients is much higher at AFCC than at many other clinics. So they may not be a good fit for everyone. Yet, as I said, my experience was top-​notch, so it’s certainly worth considering and giving them a try.

Without Dr. Sherbahn we would not have our twins. He gave us direct and honest advice at every turn. His staff was friendly and professional.

We had a great experience with Dr. Sherbahn and Advanced Fertility. My ivf monitoring, egg pull and transfer went very smooth. We did the shared risk and when he went to do my fresh transfer he said he would be taking my money and it would be twins. Well, he was right. They monitor your medicine every week and it constantly changes. They know what they are doing and I couldn’t be more pleased. My husband called the nurses probably a thousand times with questions and they always answered or responded quickly and were comforting. I am very very very pleased with them.

Awful Staff. Not attentive, nurses talk down to patients if they know nothing. They change their story, they will tell you something one wk and will get a call next wk with something completely different.

Terrible experience. I’m so sad.
Short story: We left in tears. They are rude and insensitive. Please note– This review has nothing to do with results it has to do with the treatment we received from both Dr. Sherbahn & his staff.
Long story: We have had several fertility issues and we have seen both Dr. Schoolcraft & Dr. Kaplan and we recently told that IVF would not be an option. As a result we scheduled an appointment with Dr. Sherbahn to discuss the option of using an egg donor. Shockingly, last week we received a positive pregnancy test. Both of our fertility doctors were floored with the positive result but cautioned us that there was a 1% chance that we would have a healthy pregnancy if we made it full term. Armed with this information we decided to keep our appointment with Dr. Sherbahn.
We were in Dr. Sherbahn’s office for no more than 10 minutes (after driving 1.15 and filling out 16 pages of information prior to our appointment & having all of our medical records sent to them) before we were asked to leave ‘because you are pregnant and he didn’t do it’. We tried to explain our situation and the very rude nurse said it didn’t matter, that he refused to see us.
They didn’t need to treat us that way. He could have talked to us for 5 – 10 minutes and they didn’t need to be so rude.
I’m in tears. They were so insensitive. I am in disbelief that they would treat us so poorly.

It is not true that AFC turns tough cases away. I am a tough case with 2 disaster ivf rounds in the past year. Dr. S did not try to push donor egg on me (Dr Klipstein at InVia did). He said he wasn’t sure what was the cause of the failures, but he’d give it a try.
The monitoring I experienced here was so close. The protocol was original and specialized. I did not have to over suppress on birth control pills waiting for their cycle to start; they worked around my cycle. There is great attention to detail. Lab quality is top-​notch.
My ivf cycle with Dr. S was a success (currently 3 months pregnant). Even if we did not get BFP, I would still speak highly of this doctor and practice. After dealing with unexplained failures, it was obvious to me this place was my very best chance, and that I was doing as much as I could for my cause by going there.

Check your insurance coverage and also Dr. Sherbahn’s website before you go b/​c I paid $ 440 for Dr. Sherbahn to basically regurgitate the statistics and charts on his website. I went there b/​c I was told he gives a more personable approach to fertility, but my experience was any but personable. He spent almost the entire time looking at his laptop screen and talking about statistics and charts and not offering me more than the tiniest bit of hope and ignoring the devastating emotional impact it was having on me.
In addition to the $ 440 consultation fee (including ultrasound), I had to pay another $ 20 to get my files.