CCRM Fertility of San Francisco

I had an appointment scheduled with Dr. Tazuke. Before the appointment, I filled all the questionnaires as required. After this, I was called and said I needed to sign several contracts regarding communication, data protection and also an authorisation to charge my credit card - altogether 11 contracts and 24 pages. Since I am lawyer, I read all the contracts and came to conclusion that there was no legal necessity to sign these contracts before the first conversation with the doctor - when it was not sure if the doctor would accept me as her patient and before I made a decision to be treated with this clinic. I was sent at least five messages and called at least four times by the assistant of the doctor. The tone was not polite. The assistant was not able to explain me why it was necessary to sign all the contracts before I decided to be treated in this clinic. I said I would sign everything after I decided to be treated by dr. Tazuke. She told me either I sign now (during the phone call) or she will cancel the appointment. With a knife on my neck, I chose a cancellation. The behaviour of the assistant was very strange and pushy. I have never experienced this kind of behaviour making a doctor appointment. I started to read reviews of CCRM and got really scared since there are many negative reviews. It has to be said that among all these contracts and information there was no price list, that would probably be one of the most important information. Secondly, while making an appointment I had already shared the number of my credit card for the case of a cancellation shortly before the appointment.

This clinic is very short of resources and mess management. Five stars to the doctors, lab teams, and finance team, who are very nice and professional. But, it is very very difficult to make an appointment or reach out to the nurse team to seek any help. The nurse or customer coordinator is very unprofessional or extremely busy that you should never expect a response in a single shot. I have to keep calling front desk to ask for the response even after 2 days waiting period. Without proactively calling, you will never get any help. Keep in mind that, good doctor means that you are satisfied in the 15 mins meeting with the doctor, though you need to endure long wait period including waiting for nurse to reachout to doctor, then waiting for nurse to tell you the availablilty, then waiting for the nurse to confirm, then wait to meet with the doctor in weeks or month.Other than this rest of the months you will stay frustrated to work with nurse or customer coordinator to process any insurance or bill issue or lab appointment or medical ordering. I have encountered many issues from nurse side, wrong presciption, wrong procedure time, wrong medication, forgetting to tell us what to prepare for the precedure next day and many many other issues.The 5 star part is only 5-10% of the whole process. I only tried this clinic because of my insurance, so I am not sure how good/bad others are. But if you have a chance, reach out to other options before making the decision.

Update: I realized they are a PE owned clinic, everything makes sense now. Update: unbelievable! In my third period day, CCRM’s ultrasound Antral Follicles count was 5. (They said it’s very low it means I need to take medication. I was worried that I might need multiple cycle.) After I was fed up with their care team’s mismanagement, I went to another fertility clinic. They do the ultrasound. My Antral Follicles count is 18 in same cycle just 8 which is absolutely normal, and no medication is needed.) Antral Follicles is the eggs a woman can produce in one cycle. This is the most foundational issue a fertility clinic should know. It’s ridiculous, more than 3 times difference. Strongly advise against CCRM SF. Their nursing and administrative team will make an already stressful IVF journey a complete nightmare!!!! At this clinic, you are forced to act as your own case manager just to catch their constant mistakes. Due to their terrible communication, broken promises to call, and vague medical instructions, my partner and I experienced completely avoidable delays. Their negligence directly resulted in my partner having to redo his sample collection and make an extra trip. Worse, their conflicting instructions forced me to undergo a second, painful, and entirely unnecessary blood draw. Save yourself the headache, the wasted time, and the extra physical pain. Choose a clinic in the Bay Area where the care team actually knows how to communicate and values your time. NO ONE cares about you at here!!!!!!!!

Overall, the doctors at CCRM are very good. The phlebotomy team, ultrasound technicians, and front desk staff are all professional and knowledgeable. The clinic environment is clean and comfortable, and in general, the medical care itself is solid. However, my experience with my assigned nurse, Christine, was extremely disappointing and unprofessional, and it significantly impacted my treatment experience. First, medication coordination was handled very poorly. The clinic sent my medications directly to a self-pay pharmacy instead of confirming a pharmacy that works with my insurance. These medications required prior authorization from the physician. The pharmacy was unable to reach the clinic, so I had to personally contact both the pharmacy and my insurance company multiple times. I repeatedly asked Christine to send the physician’s prior authorization, but her responses were extremely slow—sometimes taking up to 48 hours, or not responding at all. I had to follow up multiple times just to get basic paperwork sent. Instead of helping, she repeatedly stated that “this is not my responsibility,” and even asked me for the phone number of their partner pharmacy, CloudRx—information that is easily found on Google. I had already called the pharmacy many times myself. She never once attempted to call them and did not even know their phone number, nor was she willing to look it up. For comparison, when I did IVF at RSC, I never experienced any medication delays or last-minute emergencies like this. Their nurses were highly professional and proactive—they planned ahead, placed medication orders early, and ensured patients received their medications well in advance. Patients were never left scrambling to make phone calls or manage insurance and pharmacy issues on their own. Treatment plans were updated promptly and clearly, and I never had to chase the clinic at the end of the day to ask what injections I was supposed to take because staff were “about to leave.” Second, during priming injections (day 4), Christine informed me that my husband and I supposedly shared the same genetic mutation and that we might need to stop the cycle. This caused significant anxiety and panic. I believed new genetic testing had been performed without my knowledge. In reality, I had already completed genetic testing and genetic counseling at my previous IVF clinic (RSC), and there were no findings that would cause a dominant genetic condition in offspring. Christine was simply wrong and had not confirmed this information with the physician before alarming me. The gene in question is a pseudogene, which may appear similar but is not an actual pathogenic mutation. Only the next day did she confirm that there was no issue and that we could continue the cycle—yet she still suggested genetic counseling again. When I reminded her that we had already completed genetic counseling, she then said it could be skipped, though she continued to “recommend” it. Most concerning is that genetic screening and counseling should be reviewed before priming and certainly before starting a cycle, as part of the initial intake process for a new patient. Bringing this up only after treatment had already begun reflects poor coordination and oversight. While CCRM has excellent doctors and strong clinical staff, the nursing coordination in my case—specifically with Christine—was dismissive, poorly organized, and caused unnecessary stress during an already emotionally demanding process. I hope CCRM takes this feedback seriously, as fertility patients deserve proactive planning, timely communication, and accountability from their care team.

The IVF process is inherently long and time-consuming, but the professional team at CCRM ensured my experience was smooth and comfortable. Dr Jun is an incredibly knowledgeable, patient, and skilled physician. She consistently made the right decisions regarding my protocols. Her procedures, including hysteroscopy, HSG, trial transfer, and the final transfer were completely painless and didn't cause me any burden or distress. I extremely recommend her. Dr Liu is also highly skilled. She performed my egg retrieval, and the entire procedure went very smoothly, resulting in minimal pain and bleeding. The entire nursing team was supportive, professional, and reliably responsive to messages. My primary nurse, Christine, was exceptional. She provided detailed instructions through a comprehensive calendar for each stage and communicated thoroughly by phone to review every step and necessary precaution. IVF involves many stressful steps, but the CCRM team did their absolute best to minimize the burden on me as a patient. I had a truly great experience with CCRM.