Fertility Clinic 101 - Big or Small?

When we were initially looking at fertility clinic and reproductive endocrinologists or RE's we went to 4 different doctors, two at big clinics and two at small clinics.  I was very thorough, or so I thought, and asked all the same questions to each doctor to compare what they said.  Being new to this, I didn't really know what to look for or what to ask, and we truly chose the RE and clinic on which one doctor we felt most comfortable with and which made us feel most at ease.  That is how we initially chose the doctor we wanted to start our journey with.

We decided to start with a smaller clinic with one doctor and two offices.  I thought that this would be for me, and what I needed, but it wasn't.  I think this could work for some, and while it did have its positives, for me it had too many draw backs.  There was only one nurse at my office.  Now having one nurse can be extremely appealing, however that meant that I had to leave voicemails every time I called, and she had to call me back.  I am not very good at waiting, and I guess I could be described as at little impulsive, unlike Mr. E who likes to ponder things forever.... before taking action.  So for me that wasn't ideal.   It also meant that she was the only one that I ever spoke to, which I didn't prefer, as she was not always in the best mood, and I felt like I annoyed her with my petty, nonstop questions.  We also had to travel to the city (one hour drive there) for all procedures (iui's and high tech ultrasounds), so that wasn't ideal either.  One more issue was that when my doctor would go abroad to teach classes or whatever he was doing, that meant nothing could happen, we literally were going to have to wait a cycle because he was gone for a month and that was just frustrating.

We are now with a larger clinic, with six doctors but only three work out of the location I go to.  I am much more comfortable there.  While it's not perfect, and I don't expect anything to be, for me it's just a much better fit.  I always speak to someone, the hours are better, I know what days the nice nurses work ;), and I've even been able to see the doctor between blood work and "the magic wand!!"

In retrospect, picking a clinic purely on the doctor is not what you want to do.  With that being said, our first clinic did give us a lot of hope, knowledge, and taught me that I really do need to be proactive because I am my best advocate.