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The SART data was important to me as was word of mouth. We've known my RE for years. He is top in his field in my area. The word of mouth told me that other patients liked their experiences there. So between the SART data, knowing my RE, and word of mouth I found the perfect clinic for me. Good luck!

@FliegepilzHut: where do you live?

@FliegepilzHut: it's not at all and I don't really know! I think I learned more afterwards. Check out the blogger Jessah at Dreaming of Dimples. She had a post on her research recently and she might have better info. Good luck!

@Mrs Green Grass: @FliegepilzHut: Is it something about a lab that does vitrification and 5 day transfer? That's what I've always heard. Fertility Lab Insider has an amazing blog with great info from an IVF tech's point of view about doing IVF/choosing a protocol and lab. I wish I'd read it before doing IVF!

About the SART data, I found that it can be helpful as long as you remember that you're looking at numbers and there are reasons for why the numbers are a certain way other than simply success. For instance, my first clinic appeared to have a 50% success rate for DOR patients, but if you looked closely and knew from other patients what was going on, no one with DOR was doing IVF there and they only did 2 cycles in a year. Or in general they tended to turn away any difficult cases (since there was a nearby clinic that took those patients), which drove up their numbers. But it's also true that in general I'd be skeptical of a clinic with a low success rate! Although I was much more successful at the clinic with the worse SART data because they were taking on a larger volume of patients with tough situations. So I'd talk to other patients and find out what's going.

@spaniellove: I agree!

SART data should be taken with a grain of salt. Often some of the best clinics have lower success rates because they take on the "harder cases" so they often have lower success rates. On the flip side, some clinics will have amazing success rates, but that is because they may have turned away the harder cases. So that is definitely something to consider!

Our clinic is the closest to home and most "popular" in our area and has great doc's (one is semi-famous), but not the one I saw and we had a great relationship right off the bat with our RE. That is important, too. That you feel comfortable with your RE! Good luck!!

@FliegepilzHut: It is really hard to say without getting to know the specific clinics, which is why I wouldn't rely too much on online data. For instance there in my area there are 4 clinics within 5-10 minutes of each other and one does around 1000 cycles a year while another does just under 500 and the others do a little over 100. The one around 500 cycles is a feeder clinic from all the OBs in the area, whereas the one that does 1000 cycles actually has a huge volume of patients from all over the country doing mini-IVF month after month (and thousands more not doing IVF) so the results are skewed. The other ones kind of get anyone who had a bad experience at either. But there's no way to tell from the numbers.

I'd highly recommend getting a consult at more than one clinic if it's possible, even though the logistics are tough for you. Every RE has a different opinion about your treatment and you'll never know what could have been if you only see one!

I did hear from many women at my clinic doing their monitoring and b/w remotely and only traveling to do their transfer/retrieval. It sounds like you really have to stay on top of the paperwork and make sure whoever is handling all of it on both ends know what they're doing. And definitely make sure you get a copy of each day's numbers from the lab or clinic doing your monitoring because things happen! But it has definitely been done and you can make it work!

Ditto to @Mrs Green Grass on the embryology lab. We were fortunate that Seattle Reproductive Medicine was close and had satellite offices in the nearby suburbs where I could go for monitoring appointments, (egg retrieval and transfer were done in their head office though).
There were a couple of other clinics in our area with lower SART rates, but for us it came down to the lab and the doctors.

But, with all that said, we had very good odds. If we had been too far from Seattle Reproductive Medicine, I probably would have been fine working with a lesser-known clinic and/or doing remote monitoring appointments with a local clinic (if it were an option).
You will make it work! GL!

@FliegepilzHut: I don't think it's crazy at all. It would be a good way to possibly find out useful information. It just depends on how comfortable you are putting yourself out there.