Testimonials

October 12, 2004
To: Dr. El-Roeiy & his Staff
Words can not begin to describe how you have affected our life. We had always wanted to have children; the joy that came with just the idea of having a child, was thrilling for my husband and I. However, that joy that should have come easy (at least we thought so at that time) was just not happening for us. It was a long stretch of disappointments, surgeries, test after test, cycle after cycle, consult after consult; almost 4 ½ years of struggle. We started right off doing IVF due to the fact that my tubes were not viable and that I had already had a tubal pregnancy. It was emotional torture for us. Just at the point when we were trying to decide whether or not the only way for us to have our own child was to have a surrogate carry it for us, we decided to get a second opinion. And based on a conference my mother-in-law saw in the paper, we met Dr. El-Roeiy and decided to set up an appointment for a second opinion. Needless to say, Dr. El-Roeiy reassured us that I was a “good candidate for IVF” and not to lose hope.

Well 8 months later we were blessed with the best news of our life; those long awaited words, “you are pregnant” just melted inside and filled us with a joy that we could never describe. Now we knew we were not out of the woods yet, but just to get to that point, was indescribable. The next 12 weeks were filled with watching our child grow stronger and stronger – how exciting. After those 12 weeks were done, we were almost afraid to move on but we knew it was time. And at present we have a beautiful and healthy daughter who is 11 months old.

Dr. El-Roeiy and his wonderful staff helped my husband Brian and I have the family we always dreamed of! Matthew and Grace were born on June 6, 2003.

Janet

Our Miracles
It’s so rare in medicine, to find two doctors, who are both clinical experts in their fields, and have a tremendous amount of gentleness and compassion with their patients. I have never met two physicians like Dr. El-Roeiy and Dr. Alouf. Their skill levels and empathy exceed most others. Dr. El-Roeiy, Dr. Alouf, and the entire Reproductive Endocrinology team have been a vital part of our success, with conceiving and maintaining our pregnancies.

After a long, trying, and very emotional journey, that was guided by Dr. El-Roeiy and his team, we have been blessed with one beautiful, two and a half-year-old son, and are currently expecting twins in November. Dr. El-Roeiy has never let us give up hope throughout our stressful experience. We owe so much of our joy and happiness to this amazing team. We are so very grateful for their expertise and devotion in the field of Reproductive Endocrinology.

What a difference a year can make! The July 4th 2003 holiday weekend was a chance to get away from work and spend time at the Jersey shore with some friends. It was however, not a break from fertility treatment. The first disappointment came when I got my period and the disappointing realization that we were not pregnant. It also meant that we would need to move on and continue with another cycle of injectable medication. Since that involves a baseline ultrasound before starting therapy, it also meant that we had to “sneak” away from the shore on a Sunday morning, get the ultrasound and back to the beach to rejoin our friends and family. Our Independence Day disappointment only continued when the ultrasound showed I was over-stimulated and could not continue. No baby; no treatment – we were on hold and it was time to hurry up and wait.

My diagnosis was Stage III endometriosis but it seemed like Stage III disappointment. As Labor Day ended summer, it was clear that Fall meant it was time for IVF. During the last week of October, I had 17 eggs retrieved and 16 fertilized. The transfer on Halloween was both an exciting and stressful experience that meant it was time again to hurry up and wait.

Jay and I never realized that we would have so much trouble trying to conceive a child. After 1-½ years of trying we were told that we should start seeking help from an infertility specialist. During our research process, Dr. El-Roeiy was highly recommended to us. The minute that we met him, we knew that he was exactly the kind of Doctor that we were looking for. So many of them lack in bedside manner and many aren’t even directly involved with the patient until the procedures actually take place.

I was told that there are many good physicians, but if I wanted someone personal, caring and would “hold my hand” if needed then Dr. El-Roeiy was the best choice for me. We also loved him for his honesty. We needed someone that told us exactly what we were facing. We needed to be told what our options were and what the chances were of success. After a couple of unsuccessful in-vitro procedures, we were ready to give up. Although he does have his guidelines and limits of procedures, he felt that we should try one more time. Kate Lauren was born on October 20th 2003. Dr. El-Roeiy and his entire staff helped all of our dreams come true!!

Constantly I wondered, “Why is this happening to me?” The strangest thing about wanting to have a baby is that it was turning into an ordeal. I thought you were supposed to marry and then, when you were ready, you decided to have a baby? Who could ever imagine that having a baby wasn’t a right? Each month when conception didn’t occur, became a disappointment. Failure, month after month, produced sadness and much doubt. For me, someone who has had it easy, getting what she wanted from a supportive, indulging family and hard work, it wasn’t easy to remain positive when you feel depressed. I needed a plan. Admittedly, I thought adoption was the only avenue, but I just wasn’t in to it. Adoption felt iffy. I’d had some experience with it. A dog Kevin and I had adopted, Bert, required a behavioral specialist to train. Bert came to us abused and during his first days nearly bit the hand of a tollbooth worker and made an attack on our neighbor. Was I ruling out child adoption because a dog adoption had gone awry?

At Crozer, Kev and I found just the group to dispel our doubts, a group who could assist us in finding the reason for our infertility. It wasn’t easy, so I urge you to stay with the plan. It is a long, hard, and arduous adventure. But, if you want the truth from an experienced practice, come here. Do not seek out second and third opinions. You can trust this practice to support your decisions all the way. It may take a long time, 12-24 months, before Crozer can give you results, but you will learn whether you can conceive. Isn’t that why you are reading this blurb? Never did Crozer waiver in their belief that we could become parents. NEVER. It took us 15 months, and now we have two and a half-year-old twins, Phoebe and Ty Brinker. It felt like there was a higher being assisting us, but in actuality it was a real being: Dr. Albert El-Roeiy. I could write on about having twins and how to care for boy-girl twins but I’ll save those details for another newsletter. I am shaking my head as I complete this, remembering how odd it was that I did not believe Dr. El-Roeiy’s words when he said to me, “Yes, I will get you pregnant.” Yes, in fact, he did.

Our Story: One of the many things that my husband and I have in common is the love of children. After our marriage in 2000 we hoped that it wouldn’t be long until parenting would become part of our lives. With each month that passed I would excitedly anticipate how I would tell my husband the big news. There always seemed to be an occasion each month that seemed like the perfect time to tell him!! New Year!! Valentines Day!! St. Patricks Day!! Easter!! Fathers Day!! Our wedding anniversary!! Our birthday!! Christmas!!...soon time had rolled into another new year. And still no baby had arrived. We both remained optimistic we were young, healthy and we hoped that “our time would eventually arrive.” However as the invitations for the baby showers seemed to arrive in abundance..It seemed that it was everyone’s time but ours!! When my ob/gyn referred us to Dr. El-Roeiy the strong words of recommendation echoed in my head “he’s a specialist ...one of the best ...If anyone can help you guys it’s him”. As we waited in the reception area these words continued to resound in my ears as we looked at the baby photos, the testimonial letters, and the success stories for the first time in months we were apprehensively beginning to feel optimistic again.

When we entered the office we had so many fears, so many questions. Questions that had kept us awake at night ...fears that haunted our every thought. Within minutes of meeting Dr. El-Roeiy our questions were answered, our fears decreased, it actually felt like we didn’t have any questions to ask. We didn’t have to ask them!!! Dr. El-Roeiy seemed to know exactly what had been going on in our heads. His experience of these situations became so apparent. He obviously had come across many cases like ours before, he had undoubtedly asked these questions thousands of times before, yet we really felt like he wanted to know our story. Soon he began to give us different possible scenarios of the direction that our story could go... The ultimate ending would have us holding a baby. Just like the majority of good stories he prepared us for unexpected twists and turns that we could encounter along the way. He was very optimistic yet realistic. We would concentrate on one chapter at a time, trying not to use our energy on anticipating what the next chapter would bring.

The roller coaster began on a Friday morning when I awoke to bleeding. I called my husband at work tears choking my every word. A call to the office was followed by an immediate visit. As we looked at the ultra sound the dark cysts mockingly looked back at us. There seemed to be so many tauntingly showing us that we had failed. Pregnancy tests taken at the office confirmed this. The nurse immediately began to talk about next time. As the following weeks passed a lot of tears were shed, and I didn’t know if I was ready to pick up the book and move towards the next chapter. I knew I wasn’t ready to put it down forever but maybe I should leave it for a while.

We do try to anticipate how it will end – will the delivery be o.k. – will we have a boy or a girl? We could’ve found out but it seemed more fitting to our story to have the surprise. As we tell our story we talk of how amazing Dr. El-Roeiy and his staff have been. Their kindness, expertise their sensitivity is second to none. As we await the arrival of our baby we feel very blessed to have become one of their success stories. We refer Dr. El-Roeiy to our friends in the way that he was referred to us “he’s a specialist.... one of the best... if anyone can help you guys it’s him.” We are very happy to share our story and know that we will return to Dr. El-Roeiy when it is time for Our Sequel.

To The Makers of Keys: People love to talk about their kids and they will tell you that having kids will change your life. Some of those changes were soon evident for my husband and me when we started hauling diaper bags, strollers, car seats, and play pens. We recognized America’s obsession with the mini-van, and our traditionally styled town-home had been redecorated by Geoffrey the Toys-R-Us giraffe. We also realized that our carefree, last minute planned-weekend away, vacations had come to a sudden stop. But, neither of us complained. We both knew that our dream of a family outweighed any stylish vehicle, house decor, or travel plans. We were blessed with our long awaited dream of an 8 lb 7 oz baby girl on May 23, 2003.

The road to this pregnancy was not easy. After trying on our own to have a baby, (the way every one else has babies), we realized that nature had locked the door on us for conceiving in any traditional way. Desperate, I found a “specialist” that helped infertile couples. He came with no recommendation – just an advertisement, but I didn’t know where else to turn. The desire for having a child was growing intensely as the likelihood for having our own child was gloomy. Depression, anger, and bitterness towards every young mother and her child that I saw in public became consuming. After frequent morning temperatures, painful procedures, pseudo-spontaneous calendar orchestrated sex, and even surgery we realized that IVF was the only option for having our own child. So with a blind will, we persevered. Then, after all the visits and all the money spent at this “advertised specialists” office, I became convinced the man couldn’t smile nor did he remember my name, and his lack of compassion became tormenting. But, I also convinced myself that he had all the “tools” to fix my problem. He had an IVF lab so I could put up with "being a number'’ if he could gibe us a child.

It wasn’t too long after my surgery when the plan moved to IVF. This path is no “dinner and movie foreplay” for fertile couples. It required re-thinking everything we know about the birds and the bees. After all, my husband and I weren’t even in the same room. He was in a small room with magazines, and I was asleep on an OR table. In fact, I’m not sure we were even in the building when Dr. Alouf was sorting and preparing and mixing our genetic material. This process was weeks long and included mood altering hormones injected with long and short needles at least twice a day. Metallic tasting, nauseating, constipating vitamins. Choreographed blood draws and ultrasounds at the worst appo8intment times during rush hour traffic up Route 95. Awake and at the office before the rooster crows for retrievals. Then the worst time of all. Waiting! Dr. El-Roeiy left us in the “post-transfer” room saying, “we’ve done our part, now just say your prayers.”

Dear Dr. El-Roeiy and Staff,
This holiday will be extra special because we will be sharing it with our two new additions. There was a time when endometriosis stood in the way of us conceiving, but thanks to you and your staff, we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. IVF successfully brought us a beautiful girl and boy. I can’t explain the amount of joy that our twins have brought into our lives. Our fertility problems now seem like a distant memory and, as a result, we appreciate our children even more than if they were conceived naturally. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts!

Sincerely,
Greg, Brandy,
Grace and Liam