Dr. Valerie Shavell, United States

The staff at the Fertility Center of Kalamazoo are amazing! Erika stayed by my side through laughter and tears throughout the journey. That connection meant more to me than words can express. Amanda greeted me with a smile at every visit and made me feel welcome. Ashley and Laurel were always warm and attentive and helped ease my anxiety at every examination. I am deeply grateful to the entire staff, especially Shana and Dr. Bjorkman, who truly made a tremendous difference for our family. Thank you all—you made me incredibly happy!

Amazing staff!

My husband and I are extremely grateful to this fertility center for helping us become parents. The care we received was exceptional. The doctors, nurses, and technicians were highly professional, compassionate, and excellent communicators. We always knew what to expect at appointments, and honestly, we were very sad when we transferred to our local OB-GYN practice at 8 weeks pregnant. We would have stayed at the fertility center if we could, which speaks volumes about the care we received. 10/10.

I am very pleased with the excellent communication at this fertility center! I highly recommend Shana Broxup, who accompanied us on our journey to parenthood and blessed us in so many ways. She is helpful, kind, and compassionate toward people experiencing infertility and difficulty conceiving. The clinic is clean and comfortable. The staff were very supportive and kind. Thank you for being with us and supporting us :) God bless!

We are beyond grateful to The Fertility Center for helping us welcome our IVF baby on April 3. After what felt like a long and emotional journey with secondary infertility/recurring pregnancy loss, holding our child in our arms has made everything worthwhile. The care, compassion, and expertise we received from the entire team made a difficult process feel manageable and full of hope. Every step of the way, we felt supported and truly cared for not just as patients, but as people. Dr. Shavell and the team of nurses, techs, office staff were always attentive, responsive, and reassuring, which made such a difference during an often overwhelming experience. Today, our family feels complete, and we couldn’t be happier. Our only regret is that we didn’t find TFC sooner. We are forever thankful to TFC for helping make our dream of growing our family a reality.

The staff here are very professional, and I really appreciated this appointment. Their attention to detail was impressive, and every question we asked was answered well. Honestly, it was one of the best appointments my husband and I have ever had. Highly recommended! 🫶🏽

I am one of the earliest “products” of the fertility industry. In 1976, I was conceived using sperm from Dr. R. Eward, one of the first doctors in West Michigan to use donor sperm. (Look him up.) Before choosing this center and donor sperm, I strongly encourage you to speak with the actual “products”—people conceived through sperm donation. There are millions of us worldwide, and this clinic has created thousands in West Michigan since 1991. Many of us wish we had not been donor-conceived.

They were wonderful, understanding, and helpful.

To clarify, this review is less about the Fertility Center itself and more about dealing with its Ovation laboratory. I gave two stars because our experience with the Fertility Center itself was decent. Communication was not always smooth, but overall we had a good experience and had our miracle baby through them. We began working with them around the time they sold the lab to Ovation, so we have experience with both. Since Ovation took over, dealing with them has been a nightmare. Every fee has increased. There is almost no communication about billing. They send bills whenever they want, do not explain what they are for, and demand immediate payment. I unexpectedly received a year-old bill that was due the following week. When I called about it, I was told there was another unresolved bill from a year ago. Together, these unexplained bills appeared a year later and totaled thousands of dollars. Ovation has no compassion and offers no help; they simply send unexplained bills and leave you with no recourse. Selling the lab to them was a huge mistake, and unfortunately Ovation has damaged the Fertility Center's reputation too. Read the Google reviews for Ovation Fertility and you will find many people with similar experiences. I feel terrible for the Fertility Center.

I have had a great experience at the Kalamazoo office throughout this year. I have always received prompt responses to calls and portal messages and each staff member I’ve worked with has been caring and empathetic, from reception and scheduling to the RNs to my PA and everyone helping in between. I especially appreciated my RN, Amy, on my last, more difficult appointment. She was very sweet and calming. Even the staff member preparing my ultrasound room checked in with me to make sure I was ok and it was very appreciated in that moment. The counselor on staff and donor coordinator were also extremely helpful. My plan has been clear each step of the way and has moved at a pace that I have been comfortable with. I have also appreciated all the resources provided that I think go above and beyond.

The staff are wonderful, and I like my doctor, but the process needs to be streamlined and simplified. I should not have to manage calls, emails, and bills from 4 or more entities. Everything should be centralized for patients' convenience. We are already under significant stress while paying boutique-care prices. Frankly, there should be more guidance throughout. Whenever I hear from their partner Ovation Fertility, they threaten a late fee unless I pay within 3 days after my procedure. I do not even know when my procedure will be; last time it was not confirmed until 3 days beforehand. This is ridiculous. A separate pharmacy makes sense, but everything else needs a complete overhaul. At $20,000 per cycle, the process should be easy and stress-free for patients. Options are limited in western Michigan, so I must accept this flawed process unless I want to travel 2 hours to metropolitan Detroit for treatment.

They were excellent at staying in touch and answered all my questions. It was a wonderful experience. Dr. Sarah Bjorkman made the entire process enjoyable; she is amazing! Lilly was very patient and kindly helped prepare my medication. I am extremely grateful for everything they did.

What I experienced here was more than an error—it was medically dangerous and emotionally traumatic. A major prescription error went uncorrected for weeks, causing severe physical side effects and ultimately affecting my IUI cycle. Worse, some staff dismissed and gaslighted me while showing no accountability. Here is what happened: I was referred by St. Joseph Lakeland and received a $250 voucher at my first appointment. The front desk was cold and dismissive, and I was billed despite presenting the voucher. When I called for clarification, I was spoken to condescendingly, setting the tone for what followed. While taking letrozole, I was told I could not continue treatment because of a uterine septum. Nurse Annie abruptly delivered this news without compassion. Fortunately, I was later transferred to Grand Rapids for surgery, and thankfully that part of my care was handled well. Then came the most serious problem. I was prescribed cabergoline 0.5 mg—30 tablets to be taken daily—and followed the instructions exactly. I had even messaged through MyChart earlier to confirm, and Annie verified the dose. What I did not know was that the prescription was seven times the correct dose; it should have been taken once weekly. Over the next several weeks, I experienced hallucinations, migraines, abdominal pain, and emotional distress. Despite this, no one corrected the error or advised me to stop. At my post-IUI follow-up, I was finally told the dose was wrong. My prolactin had fallen to an extremely low 0.3. The cycle was complete, and the damage was done. Dr. Bjorkman eventually acknowledged the error and apologized, saying it was system-generated. The clinic director called and offered a $400 credit, but this felt inadequate given the emotional, physical, and financial harm. The final straw was an aggressive call from clinic manager Dawn, who was unprofessional, condescending, and dismissive despite the clinic already admitting the error. Before I hung up, she accused me of misunderstanding the instructions and misrepresented my words. Worse, I received a letter from a doctor I had never met claiming I had not followed instructions, completely ignoring everything that occurred. It felt like blatant gaslighting. To be clear: I was prescribed a dangerously high medication dose. I confirmed the dose with the clinic. The error went uncorrected for weeks. I suffered physical side effects and emotional trauma. My IUI was compromised. The clinic acknowledged the error but accepted no real responsibility. I was later mistreated for speaking up. Please be very cautious before trusting this clinic. Errors happen, but how they are handled matters. What happened to me was not merely a clerical error; it was a breakdown in care, professionalism, and basic human empathy. I would not wish this experience on anyone.

This fertility center is amazing! Thanks to them, I have a son who is nearly two, and we are praying to welcome another baby soon. They are wonderful people: always friendly and cooperative, intelligent, hardworking, and thorough. I gladly recommend them to anyone seeking answers on their fertility journey. These doctors were a blessing to me.

The fertility center helped me realize my dream, and I now have a wonderful daughter. Throughout the process, they were professional, kind, and encouraging, and always took time to listen and answer my questions. I highly recommend them to anyone struggling with fertility issues.

My experience at this fertility center was absolutely terrible. The entire process was emotionally and physically exhausting, and the attitude of the administrative and billing staff made it even worse. The billing department was completely disorganized—they sent my account to collections after I had already paid. When I tried to resolve the issue, they were rude, interrupted me, and would not listen. Management and front-desk staff were cold and indifferent, lacking any compassion or professionalism. It was shocking to see such a sensitive and personal experience handled so carelessly. The medical team itself was acceptable, but unfortunately any positives were completely overshadowed by the negativity and disorganization of the front-desk and management teams. They clearly do not know how to support or communicate with patients going through the difficult process of fertility treatment. If you value kindness, honesty, and professionalism, go elsewhere. This place turned what should have been a hopeful experience into one of the most stressful and frustrating experiences of my life.

I felt completely comfortable as soon as I walked into this clinic! I never felt that way with previous OB-GYNs or fertility centers. Shana and her team are amazing!! Thank you for everything you have done and will continue to do for my husband and me! Special thanks also to the financial team. Zayde helped me so much!! I highly recommend them!

We have recently been receiving care at this clinic. We have undergone many tests, and I feel very reassured. They listened carefully to my and my husband's concerns and have been extremely helpful. We are very grateful and look forward to continuing our fertility journey here.

Many thanks to this fertility center!! This is our third time here, and we feel wonderful! Their communication is excellent, and they offered many options for our TTC journey. All the doctors and staff are attentive and knowledgeable. Did I mention that they have multiple locations?! Extremely convenient!

I am currently undergoing treatment. The staff are always kind and understanding. This is a rare experience in infertility care.

I spent two years working with them, achieved no results, and spent a great deal of money.

They gave me twins. What more can I say?

After trying to conceive for years, I became pregnant on my first treatment attempt with this team.