Fertility clinic recommendations for queer family

Spring Fertility! They are hands down the best and have been growing since they opened a few years ago. 

Spring Fertility hands down. Dr. Minjarez is amazing. We are a queer family, visited 4 other doctors and locations prior to landing on Spring and we are so thankful that we worked with them. We were at Kaiser Oakland and Kaiser San Ramon for a while but eventually we didn't feel like our family needs and values were honored. Spring was the same cost for us (our insurance didn't cover IVF or meds) so we switched. Feel free to contact me directly. Also, we were in a Early Queer Parenting Group with MAIA Midwifery and more than half of us queer couples had gone to Spring. The other couples that went to Kaiser, UCSF, and Pacific had a lot of negative experiences. Spring isn't the cheapest but it's the best. Good luck.

My husband and I (cis straight couple) have been using Spring Fertility in Oakland for IVF. I've had a good experience. Things are reasonably well organized, my appointments have always been on time, and I've felt well supported through a hard process. I tend to ask a lot of questions and have never felt dismissed or rushed. To be fair, my husband hasn't been as happy - they failed to follow up with him on some test results until he called to check, and he doesn't love that all the communication is through this online portal they have.

I'm not sure what other options there are in the East Bay (we went with Spring because my OB suggested it and it was part of our insurance network) but there tend to be a lot of appointments especially leading up to egg retrieval, so driving across the bridge probably isn't ideal. 

HI there! I'm happy to tell you my story. I'm not queer, but have been through IVF locally. Let me know if you want to connect via email.

Best
Laura

Hi there! I couldn't recommend RMA Nor Cal more highly. We looked at 3 different clinics (Spring, UCSF, Alta Bates) and ended up at RMA and it was an incredible experience (which very few people say of the fertility / IVC clinic space). I saw Dr. Morin specifically but Dr. Kaser was my secondary doctor and he is the specialist at RMA for LGBTQ couples/individuals (he is absolutely wonderful!!!). Every time I went in, I always saw a doctor which was quite different from my other experiences where you more often see a rotation of nurses and/or feel like a cog on a conveyer belt. The team is SUPER responsive--they have an app where you can text/call 24/7 and they always got back to me within the hour. The team is super patient and answered all of our questions/concerns. We received super personalized care and are currently pregnant with our first via IVF. I was verrry sad to "graduate" from the clinic because my experience was just so positive with them. Happy to chat further if you want more details. 

My husband and I didn't have a queer experience with IVF, but we loved Dr. Minjarez, Dr. Fisher, and the nurses and staff at Spring Fertility in Oakland. I was too old for our procedure to work (trying for #2 over age 40), and I ended up having complications from the retrieval procedure because despite my age I had a lot of eggs retrieved, which increases your risk. But I felt like we got the best care possible, and that the team really took care of us the whole time. They are expensive and didn't take our insurance (they do take some), but I got what I needed out of trying with them. If money weren't an issue, I would have tried again, despite the complications. Also, they provided support to find an excellent therapist after the failed IVF procedure, something I never found on my own after having complications with our son's birth and our miscarriage trying for #2 naturally. I had met with several perinatal specialists over the years and never found my person until Spring referred me, so I include that in our quality of care and our experience with Spring.    

(My experience is very recent, starting in June of 2020.) I had initial conversations with a private clinic and with USCF, and decided to go with UCSF hands-down. I just felt more comfortable with my dr's experience and the responsiveness of the clinic. My doc was Dr. Martha Noel and she had a whole team: coordinator, financial person, nurses. I could email each department via a portal, which made it easy to direct my questions. I felt really well guided through the whole experience, found it easy to coordinate my care, and the offices in the Dogpatch area are beautiful and modern. While we are not a queer couple, I imagine that the UCSF team's care would be knowledgable and compassionate. (If you'd like to know the name of the private clinic, you can contact me directly. I didn't have enough to do with them to be "against" them; I just chose not to go with them for a few personal reasons.) Best of luck on the journey. 

I went to Laurel fertility care in San Francisco, specifically Dr. Ekpo. She is great. I have 2 children via IVF now thanks to her.
Good luck!

We’ve used Kaiser Oakland for IUI and Kaiser Fremont for IVF. Did not enjoy working with either. 
 

Switched to Reproductive Science Center and have had a great experience. We conceived our daughter there with Dr Willman (retired) and are currently working with Dr Rosenbluth. The entire staff has been very queer friendly. My husband is trans and we use donor sperm. 
 

good luck!

My husband and I worked with UCSF, for our now 18 month old—a 3.5 year journey for us—but totally worth it and would have been much shorter but for a fluke entirely out of anyone’s control. We’re working with UCSF again for our second and we just received other date for first transfer attempt.  Several friends of ours also worked with UCSF, but different doctors, and we’ve all had positive outcomes. Know there will be delays and trials along the way (none of which were the clinic’s fault it’s just the unpredictable nature of ivf/bringing a new human into the world). Feel free to message privately if you want more info or we’re happy to FaceTime or something.

good luck! It’s definitely worth it in the end

Spring! We are also a queer family and did IVF with the clinic. They have 3 locations now. We went to Oakland mostly and SF sometimes. I’m happy to answer any more specific questions you have. 

we are a queer and trans family. only spring fertility as a clinic (2019-era) with nam tran was actually even attempting to be inclusive to us, and ivan huang at kaiser (who i know has left for socal). i couldn’t even make it to intake appointments with several other sf-area clinics before running into some ridiculous stuff, asking me about my husband’s info and using some incredibly terrible terms despite the fact that i repeatedly said that my wife and i were looking into ivf and we are trans. 

spring also got me some amazing results with ivf so we just did the one cycle and one fet and have a very cheerful 1 year old little sibling to our older kid (who was entirely kaiser sf but not from ivf). 

i would also recommend you check out our family coalition’s ttc/fertility peer support group, i think they meet twice a month or so via zoom. 

Queer couple here - we used Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh. She’s the BEST. Extremely dedicated, tenacious, empathetic, hardworking, I could go on and on. She’ll make you feel like you’re her only patient and as if it’s her life’s mission to help you get a baby. She responds to emails in minutes and once even FaceTimed us at 9pm when I was afraid I’d messed up my medication. Happy to discuss more if you’d like. We toured a number of clinics when starting IVF and she was the right fit hands down. Best of luck!