Laurel Fertility Care

I write this on the behalf of my wife and I must say it was a great experience. The doctor, nurses, and staff treated us like family. They gave us great advice and coordinated seamlessly with my wife’s other doctors to make sure we were successful. Now we have a happy and healthy baby thanks to their great work. Really is a miracle and glad they participated and truly feel they are part of the family. We highly recommend Dr. Smikle and his amazing team.

Dr. Smikle and his staff are caring and compassionate. They helped us make our family a reality and I would recommend them to anyone that is ready to start a family!

If you are reading this review then my heart goes out to you for what you going through. Fertility issues are a very emotional and sensitive subject — it’s not an easy process. With that being said, I am so grateful that I chose Laurel Fertility Clinic.
I went for consultations at other fertility clinics in SF and was basically told that my chances to get pregnant were less than 5% even with IVF. The other clinic recommended that I should do IVF just so «I didn’t regret not doing it.» It was heartbreaking and insensitive. On the other hand, my consultation with Dr. Smikle was informative, reassuring, and honest. He gave me hope throughout the entire process, but with realistic expectations. He took his time during every appointment to go over what was happening so that I felt comfortable with the process and the decisions being made.
I completed 2 rounds of IVF (both that produced viable embryos). This was beyond my expectations. Throughout the entire process Dr. Smikle was calm, caring, and sympathetic to my emotions and fears. I found him to be a great physician that was able to produce an outcome that other fertility doctors in SF told me wasn’t possible.
The office is more of a «mom and pop» style, but with that you get staff that knows who you and cares about you– you aren’t just another patient. I had a lot of questions along the way (again the process is daunting and scary), but I found the staff to be receptive and helpful. Don’t kid yourself — you need to stay on top of your treatment. You will need to do this no matter which clinic you chose.
Overall, my husband and I had a great experience with Laurel Fertility Clinic. I can’t say enough good things about Dr. Smikle. He is an amazing doctor, but also a quality, caring person. His expertise has changed my life. I felt a deep connection to his staff and truly believed that they were fully invested in the success of my treatment. I would definitely recommend Laurel Fertility Clinic to my friends and family.

This clinic is SUPER INCOMPETENT and FRAUDULENT. I would never trust them with something so important as fertility health and pregnancy.
The first time I went to see Dr. Smikle, after checking in at the front desk, I waited 45 min for them to tell me that their computer system had deleted my appointment and they no longer had me on the calendar so we would have to reschedule. Annoying.
The second time I went in (the rescheduled appointment), I got as far as the consultation room and then a different doctor walks in and says that Dr. Smikle is on a trip to Israel and so he’s filling in for him. And, by the way, he’s not actually a fertility doctor. At that point, I said that I didn’t need to see a random general doctor; I had made the appointment specifically with Dr. Smikle and needed to see a fertility specialist. Super Annoying.
But, at the very least the substitute doctor said he understood and they wouldn’t charge me for the visit. OF COURSE NOT! I didn’t actually ever see the doctor and they’d really just wasted a few hours of my time for nothing, but, okay, at least we could all wash our hands of this and I found myself a different and much more competent clinic.
BUT, those idiots have been sending me bills for 6 months! They are trying to bill me for a consultation and an ultrasound when I never even actually ever saw the doctor at all. They also billed my insurance company and my insurance company paid. So I talked to my health insurance company and they investigated with me, together we talked to the clinic and they apologized and said they would reimburse my insurance and stop sending me bills. That was 6 weeks ago.
I just got another bill from them in the mail today. This is, at best, extremely incompetent. At this point, though, I think they probably run scams like this all the time and hope that people give up from the frustration.

When I was searching for a clinic I did not choose this clinic originally because of all of the negative reviews. After having a terrible experience with another clinic I decided to give them a chance. I know infertility is a sensitive subject and what works well for one patient may not work well for another. My experience with them has been very positive.
Here is the breakdown
The staff was very friendly and I didn’t feel like just another number.
The office was very kid friendly. I had to bring my 2 year old son to some of my ultrasound appointments and I never felt uncomfortable.
I never had to wait more than 10 min for a scheduled appointment which was important since my wife was attending some appointments with me on her lunch break.
Dr Smikle was open and honest about my treatment and listened and addressed all of my concerns. He was also very present. He performed several of my ultrasounds and IUI’s and he adjusted my protocol as needed.
Francesca (the nurse practitioner) was awesome I never waited more than a few hours for a response to my many many questions
The clinic and its procedures were very LGBT friendly and that has not been my experience at other clinics in San
Francisco.
I never felt any pressure to move on to IVF in fact I was the one who brought up the possibility of moving on to IVF after 3 cycles.
Most importantly I am 8 weeks pregnant after 3 IUI’s
The only negative I had was an annoying billing issue. I am very grateful to Dr Smikle and his staff.

I have had an amazing experience with egg freezing at Laurel Fertility. The nurses and staff are caring and kind, and they take the time to get to know you. Because the clinic is small, there is a feeling that they really care about each patient. Nurse Donna is sweet, helpful and responsive. She took extra care showing me how to do my injections and giving over the calendar with me. The medical assistant Mirleni is friendly and sweet, as is the office assistant Graciela.
I was thrilled with the level of care and communication from Dr. Ekpo! She is clearly smart and competent, and she explained things to me well and straightforwardly. These processes are organic and there is only so much you can predict. She gave me good information and her «bedside manner» is a great combination of competent and caring.
Results from fertility treatments are never certain. No one knows what the results will truly be. My body responded well to the process, and I am certainly thrilled with what I was able to bank in order to start a family someday. That being said, even if my results were less stellar, I would be writing this same review. The level of care, concern, and professional expertise is all that the clinic can PROMISE. And they fulfilled that promise very well.
I will do another round of egg retrieval and freezing in a few months, and I’m very glad I chose Laurel and prepaid for a second round. Best of luck in your hopes for a family!

I must say I am surprised at the negative reviews and can only share my experience.
After many failed attempts at getting pregnant we were referred to dr. Smikle. At Laurel Fertility we were always treated with kindness and respect, they listened to all our concerns and treatments were advised based on our family’s approach, after being given a LOT of information regarding our choices (starting with less aggressive treatments and going up when we felt comfortable and we’re ready for the next step)
Not only they helped us get and maintain a very high risk pregnancy with my son, but they did the same with my daughter 6 years later. In between the kids, we had a couple of miscarriages because we thought after being successful with our son we would be fine, but when pregnant again with my daughter, thinking this could be our last chance, we went back to dr. Smikle and he helped us again carry the pregnancy to term. It is because of him our kids are here and we will always be thankful.

Do NOT go to this doctor!!! I know you have to take these reviews with a grain of salt since infertility is such a sensitive subject, but please read on!
I do not need a doctor too hold my hand. I want a doctor who looks at the whole patient and the problem at hand. Because of this, I looked past his poor bedside manner. I quickly discover his true intentions of practicing medicine… MONEY! I went to him for unexplained infertility. Instead of running a multitude of tests to determine the problem, he pushed for the most invasive and costly IVF. When asked what I would do if I had triplets, I looked at my husband and said «I guess we would deal!» Because I was not willing to abort one of the fetus, and because I was «too small» to carry triplets, he was not comfortable doing IUI (a far less invasive and affordable option). My later research showed there was only a 3% chance of triplets with IUI… not a statistic he shared with us. I don’t know his % of successful IVF, but if you want IVF and no other options he may be your guy. Just expect to be treated as a paycheck instead of a whole person.

All the reviews were right. This place is awful.
1. Had my last name completely wrong on my chart.
2. After my first visit I received an email saying I would be a candidate for IVF with ICSI, along with the fee schedule, as this was the recommendation of the Dr. I responded asking how could this be as myself nor my husband had any kind of labs done to determine anything. They responded telling me that my husband could come in M, T, Th, or Friday for his labs. No acknowledgement of the error.
3. Husband called the office with a medical question, was assured he’d be called back. No call back.
4. I had labs as requested and waited for the office to call me to schedule an appointment to go over the labs. No call back.
5. We called the office yet again and spoke with Grace who apologized for not calling back and scheduled a phone consultation with Dr. Smikle. Day of phone consultation came and went without a call from the office.
6. Called the office again. Grace apologized again for not calling and rescheduled a phone consult which did occur. During phone consult an appointment was made for my husband to come in for labs, and myself for testing as well.
7. Arranged childcare as children are not allowed in the office, drove over an hour to get to the Fresno office, only to be told I don’t have an appointment there. Rudely, I am told that they have no idea why I’m there. It’s not their fault because they didn’t schedule me. Then I get a call on my cell phone asking if I’m going to show up to the appointment in San Francisco. All my visits have been in Fresno. Never, ever was it discussed that any services would need to be done in San Francisco. San Francisco is 5 hours away. We were told Dr Smikle’s colleague would see me in Fresno. This was not the case. As for my husband’s labs, we were told by email and over the phone that they could be done in Fresno. He shows up to the Fresno office, they tell him they can’t be done in their office. Then they tell him to go two doors down from their office for his labs. He goes two doors down and that office says they can’t help him. He comes back only to be told they don’t know where he should go. He asked, so you’re a fertility specialist and you don’t know where to refer patients to for labs your doctor ordered? They said no. The office staff was very rude. The patients in the waiting room were laughing. Very embarrassing.

We are 4 months pregnant on our first try and we would just like to thank Dr. Smikle and the staff at Laurel for such a wonderful, amazing experience. Prior to this, we had already gone through another specialist (albeit in another country) who dawdled for a year with fertility drugs and vaginal ultrasound observations. With Laurel Fertility, we got the results that we wanted in just a few months. The staff were also especially kind and responsive to our needs and concerns, my husband kept calling and emailing them so much with his questions.
We are very, very thankful and wish the clinic all the best in helping more families.

This place will talk to you and schedule appointments and do anything to get you to book a service but after you’ve paid and they have your money good luck! These crooks prey on those going through a very sensitive time and take advantage. I’ve left messages, emails, calls. I was put on hold for 45 minutes. I had to call back and was put on hold again and then when they couldn’t answer my questions they hung up on me. I called back instantly and they turned their phones off because they closed. They will do anything to get out on time and their assistants who answer the phone are entirely incompetent. Do not waste your money here. It is not worth the heartache. You may think they have a great deal but all you have to do is Google the countless lawsuits against them. I should have done that but instead I only read reviews here and at the time they weren’t as bad as they are now. You can see they have gone completely downhill. Pay the extra money, save up do whatever you can and go to a fertility specialist and clinic that really cares about you and your needs and not somewhere just trying to make money off the misfortunes of desperate parents-​to-​be.

Dr. Smikle and his staff provided us with a wonderful experience in helping us grow our family. After being told by another fertility specialist that we had less than a 1 percent chance of becoming pregnant through IVF and even less of a chance naturally, we were devastated beyond words. Then we decided to seek a second opinion with Dr. Smikle, and he immediately negated those statistics. He is a calm and serious doctor who will get the results a patient is seeking. A man of few words but tremendous actions is how I would describe this fabulous doctor! I am ecstatic to say we are 8 weeks pregnant with twins! If you give Dr. Smikle a chance to help you through this sensitive time, you will not regret it!

I did a lot of research in choosing a fertility clinic. Laurel Fertility was the best choice for us and we are sure glad we did. This place has been nothing but great to us. They really make it comfortable and personal. If I ever had any questions they were quickly answered. We worked with Dr. Smikle. He has such a great knowledge, and dedication to his work. He and the rest of the staff know u by name and are always helpful and friendly. We are in the waiting period of our IVF treatment. We had 3 healthy embryos transferred 4 days ago. This is the hardest part is the wait till blood test but still the clinic is so comforting and supportive through it all.

Dr. Smiikle Is A Crook!
I can not believe the level of unprofessionalism displayed by the staff at this clinic. They will call you for your phone consultation, refuse to answer any medical questions you have. Telling you instead to talk to your doctor or urologist about the results, and will rush to get you off the phone saying repeating themselves and bumbling in their nonsensical rambling that fail acknowledge that there is even a different question being asked of them.
You can email your questions, they won’t reply. Try setting an appointment for a phone call, & they don’t call you as promised. Wait on hold for 45 minutes and they’ll hang up on you. There is almost no one here with any semblance of professional courtesy. Camille is nice, but I’m not even sure she passed my email along to the doctor or talked to him, because he never wrote me back.
Their office manager is a jerk. The other staff serve only to tell you that you’ll get a call back that’s never coming. I can’t fathom any business where this level of ridiculous incompetence and rudeness is even present. It’s like an episode of the twilight zone. They all seem normal until you have medical questions and then they do everything that they can to avoid answering any of them.
This place is a joke. If you get any tests done here be prepared to take the results elsewhere for answers because these folks are clowns who pretend to be medical professionals. If you can afford the extra $ 100 to go elsewhere, do it! I can not tell you enough how terrible the response is from these people. They’re simply inept and it’s taken me weeks of trying to get absolutely nothing from them. To say that they are incompetent or lacking professionalism is an understatement.
Go Elsewhere And Save Yourself The Headache Of Dealing With These Jerks!
CHAD

Years ago I had a Modesto appointment with Dr. Smikle. When you’re starting on your path tackling infertility you are sensitive and hesitant. I will never forget how offhand he was about everything, like a part of him didn’t really want to be there, and how tactless and invasive his physical exam was. To this day I feel uncomfortable remembering it. He also threw out the fact that I had a fibroid — I didn’t understand anything about this at the time and he didn’t enlighten me. Later when I became pregnant (nothing to do with his clinic) of course I learned how much focus there needed to be on this. After I had my tests and I talked to him on the phone about them, he was equally offhand. An insensitive person really shouldn’t go into an emotionally-​charged profession like fertility doctor. I also sensed that this clinic was money-​grabbing when I later needed copies of my own paperwork and they wouldn’t release them without charging me. I would recommend finding someplace and someone else if you want to have GOOD memories of getting pregnant or trying to get pregnant.

I am highly disappointed in this company there are so many mistakes made I almost feel like it is a scam I am looking into starting a lawsuit i want my money back I’m also going to contact the Better Business Bureau for further investigation I have been going through this process for one year and over 20,000 dollars later I have no baby and they have done NOTHING to accommodate my feelings .To my understanding I paid for 3 cycles and yesterday they told me I only had one and they have the audacity to ask for more $$ to try again I can’t see myself spending anymore money to be disappointed and go through pain and suffering any longer All I want is my money back I hope and pray that nobody else ever has to go through anything that I went through

I called about egg freezing. I’m in my early 40’s which they knew from my first call. When the scheduled phone «consult» with Dr Smikle took place the doctor got on and said, «you are interested in egg freezing? For what purpose?» He then continued, «to get pregnant and to have a baby?» I’m like really? Isn’t that what it’s for? He continued to ask stupid questions and then proceeded to give me a lot of non-​information. He also didn’t explain some pretty essential things, like first steps to evaluate ovarian reserve. I was interested in minimal stimulation and he didn’t seem up to date on the newest findings there either. I’ve found a few other places that are. Like the other reviews, I feel that people in this sensitive process deserve better.

Laurel Fertility Care is a wonderful place! My husband and I spent about 5 months in fertility treatment there. We loved the small practice for several reasons. First, we never had trouble getting an appointment. Second, we always saw the same doctor and nurses so they were very familiar with our issues and progress. Third, the entire staff got to know us and seemed genuinely interested in our success.
Dr. Smikle is fabulous. Beyond the outstanding credentials and experience, he has an excellent bedside manner — calm and reassuring. He is always willing to answer questions — in person, by email, or over the phone (even on weekends). Alyssa O’Brien, the nurse practitioner, is also exceptional. In additional to being knowledgeable and good at patient education, Alyssa’s friendly, positive personality always brightened my day.
I did IVF and had a difficult time with the hormones in my first cycle. During that time, Dr. Smikle did an excellent job of making sure I was comfortable and reassuring us that one failed cycle did not mean I would not get pregnant eventually. For the second cycle, Dr. Smikle monitored me very closely and made several adjustments over the course of the cycle, which was a success! I am 6 months pregnant and look forward to introducing our son to Dr. Smikle and the staff after he is born.

UPDATE:
Still disappointed in the services we were provided at Laurel Fertility but at least within 12 hours of posting my review I was contact by someone at Laurel Fertility who listened to our experience, sincerely apologized, and said she would have a check in the mail to us that afternoon.
Ten days later, after following up, we received the check yesterday on 2÷24÷2014. We certainly appreciate it however I do wish we were not pushed to go to such extremes as posting the details of the situation here and planning court action in order for them to talk to us on the phone and take the ethical path.

My wife went here and received a referral for me to get a Semen Analysis. We went to LabCorp in Daly City, Ca and the result said I was sterile. Then, Dr. Smikle wanted me to do very expensive blood test, including to see if I had cystic fibrosis causing my ‘sterility’. I’m in my 40’s! Even I know you don’t live to your 40’s with CF.
Anyway, I knew this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, so I went to Dr. Turek. I ‘performed’ the SA in his office, boom, normal.
We found out later we could have done the SA test at Dr Smikle’s. We asked why didn’t you have us do it their. Their reply was, «Oh, it’s too expensive for you.»