Kindbody — Портленд, США

Do not go here. I am not surprised this clinic is temporarily closed. The communication, or lack of it, is a complete joke. Several times, I was asked to sign consent forms only an hour before a procedure with no advance warning. I received no instruction on how to inject my medication and actually had to Google how to do it. Whenever I called to report the first day of my cycle or ask a question, I either reached voicemail or the call center, where they always said, “I will send a message to [insert random person here], and they will get back to you.” Of course, no one ever did. Just now, I waited on hold with the call center for more than 30 minutes simply to learn whether there was a balance on my account. They seemed content to leave me waiting with no interest in returning to the call. I have never been treated so poorly by a clinic, especially one intended to help families grow. Do better and be kind. I hate that I wasted my hard-earned money here.

I started with this clinic when Dr. Adams was at Vios Fertility. Dr. Adams and Vios were wonderful, but everything went downhill when it became Kindbody. They are closing this location, yet charged me for a consultation about another transfer of embryos currently stored with them—a service I can no longer receive because they chose to close. The only option they offered for a free embryo transfer was Denver, Colorado. I reluctantly paid a third-party company $1,200 to move my embryos to a clinic in a more convenient location, then Kindbody charged another $250 for the time and effort involved in releasing them. They gave me less than 30 days’ notice to arrange all this, which was a major undertaking in itself! I do not recommend KINDBODY clinics.

Considering a law suit under hipaa for a delay in releasing my wife's information to her, to initiate the transfer of our embryos, and lack of transparency in light of their closure. Very unprofessional, and a potentially huge loss for them!

Update: Dr. Adams was wonderful, but now that she is gone, they brought in Dr. Westphal to fill the gap, and she is simply...well, terrible! Honestly, after my first negative review, the clinic staff improved considerably. They genuinely made an effort to turn things around, and I was very grateful. Now, back to Dr. Westphal—she should not treat patients. I am sure she is a great scientist, but she was disengaged and refused to follow the treatment plan established by Dr. Adams and the team. It largely felt as though she did not want to treat patients because she lives in California. For full transparency, my BMI is high. To become a patient, it needed to be under 45; mine was 43, and I was ready to begin. Dr. Westphal initially told me it needed to be 40, which I thought I could achieve. She then told my nurse that I needed to reach 30%. When my nurse, who was incredible, had to deliver this news, she was upset and said she knew this was not Kindbody's policy and did not understand it. She has since left Kindbody too. Perhaps I fell for good marketing, but I desperately wanted a #Kindbaby and truly wanted it to work. I wasted thousands of dollars trying, and I am heartbroken. I may try visiting a nearby Kindbody location in California or Denver for retrieval and transfer, but Dr. Westphal is an absolute no for me. There may even be a racial issue: according to a Black IVF group on FB, at least 3 patients requested a different doctor because Dr. Westphal treated them poorly. Fortunately, they had success with Dr. Ekpo in San Francisco/Walnut Creek, reportedly 2/3 women, and Dr. Bendison, reportedly 1/3 women. Another woman stopped altogether because her experience with Dr. Westphal was too painful. Alternatives: ORM was not a great experience for me. I found their online system difficult to manage. They also recorded all my vital signs incorrectly without any explanation. A friend also transferred from Kindbody to Spring Fertility after a poor experience with Dr. Westphal. They need to remove her. She is damaging Kindbody's clinic and reputation. I assume this is because she works in California and, while they search for a new resident doctor, she simply does not want to travel to treat patients. That was the impression she gave me. Once again, I am heartbroken and disappointed by my Kindbody experience. I know Portland is not a large market, but we deserve better treatment than Dr. Westphal provided. Please, someone fix this! ___________________________________________________________ As a Black woman, I truly wanted to make this work with Dr. Adams! But the errors have already been alarming, and we have not even started the major procedures. Dr. Adams was excellent during the initial virtual appointment, but communicating with the staff was difficult. Scheduling follow-up appointments was terrible; no one answered or returned calls. I recently had blood drawn for genetic testing and was told the wrong test had been performed. Now, because of the clinic's mistake, I must pay for another test and blood draw. Their nurse also treated me like a pincushion and had to stick me more than seven times to draw blood, so that aspect of the experience almost seems minor. I truly wanted to give Dr. Adams a chance, but this organization is seriously lacking in care. I feel that going through the process here would be more painful than simply switching clinics. I also forgot to mention that I was forced to stand outside in the dark and cold because I was told to arrive 15 minutes before my appointment, but the people inside neither answered the phone nor opened the door. Because of the lack of service and communication, I feel it would be difficult to trust or have confidence in this clinic as treatment progresses. New patients, beware.

If you don't care about being treated as an individual with unique needs, this might be a great place for you. I say that without sarcasm. We, on the other hand, had a pretty terrible experience here. The facilities seemed great, from my limited experience, but Kindbody really lacked in patient care (ironic!). The staff do not have the patience to treat you as an individual. We needed quite a bit more: Explanation of the process and costs (we still don't know!), empathy, communication (it was a very frustrating experience to try to get ahold of someone). Infertility and treatment is a very difficult journey to begin with, one that should be met with empathy and consideration, and having a medical team that doesn't show up in this way makes it 100 times worse. I felt like I was seen as a problem patient, just because I was trying to get answers about next steps or an explanation as to what was happening. (My partner says, "They act like you're crazy just for asking questions.") There isn't a local doctor at this clinic. They fly one in once a month to do procedures. This may give you some indication of their availability, or lack thereof. The phlebotomist we saw was great. And one RN, who we only knew virtually because she lived elsewhere, was compassionate, but pretty unavailable. We've been assured by a naturopath specializing in fertility, that we would receive far better patient care at another local fertility clinic, so that is our next step. Fingers crossed.

Update: I completed my final IUI with them in February 2024. The pregnancy ended during a routine visit at their clinic in April 2024. I just received a message from them saying, “Our records indicate that you were pregnant at the time and were to follow up with your OB. We are checking to see how things are going and whether you have any updates for us!” How incompetent and insensitive can these people be?! If they bothered to scroll through my entire chart, they would find the answer without retraumatizing me. These people cannot read patients' medical records and have terrible bedside manner, especially considering the extremely sensitive nature of fertility challenges. Please take your business elsewhere! I wish I could give them 0 stars. I agree with everything mentioned in the other reviews. Communication and customer service are terrible. I had to contact them repeatedly just to reach someone and schedule an appointment. Their current phlebotomist shamed me after several attempts to draw blood. They are insensitive toward LGBT patients: I was repeatedly offended when providers recommended timed intercourse during my cycle, and I had to keep reminding them that my partner does not produce sperm. I also noticed that charges on my account had increased. This clinic operates more like a bad business that puts customers/patients last and focuses on profiting from people's fertility difficulties. Unfortunately, there are no other options in Vancouver.

Terrible mismanagement and a complete lack of communication. From the beginning, we were given a list of tasks to complete. We left the time-sensitive items until last so we could begin the IVF process without problems. Just before we were ready, we were told we first had to complete a consultation—one that was not time-sensitive at all. We called to ask whether it could be waived or postponed while we began IVF but received no response. We called again a few days later and then twice a week, but no one ever called back. Next, we tried the online portal and were promised that someone would follow up, but no one did. I messaged them and received the same empty promise. My wife finally drove to their location. When she managed to speak with someone, their response was, “Oh, sorry, we are actually closing.” What a waste of time. The lack of follow-up is completely disrespectful. If you cannot serve people, do not keep them waiting for weeks with empty promises!

Following up again—Kindbody is a mess. For weeks I have been trying to get them to complete the paperwork needed to transfer my embryos, but I have received no response. Instead, I received an email saying that if I do not move my embryos soon, they will transfer them to Colorado! This is gross mismanagement. Public reviews seem to be the only thing they respond to. I am leaving my old review below, but I want to say: do not go to Kindbody for egg retrieval. They currently have no RE, as Dr. Adams is leaving at the end of August. When I tried to transfer my embryos to a new clinic, I discovered that Kindbody either failed to complete the necessary laboratory work or lost my records! Now I cannot get another clinic to accept my embryos! If anyone else is experiencing this, you are not alone. The next step may be legal action—I am furious.