Dr. Natalie Minis Crawford, MD

This is long, but there's a lot to say about why you should NOT trust Dr. Crawford as your RE. If I could give 0 stars I would, but to be fair, the staff at Aspire were always very nice & accommodating. I don't really know where to begin with why you should avoid this place like the plague (specifically Dr. Natalie Crawford). I was referred here by my OBGYN after some slightly low test results, & during the very first visit (a consultation) I was immediately told by Dr. Crawford that it would be in my best interest to move forward with IVF. Mind you, I was 27 years old, with low AMH & slightly high FSH. My husband & I had been trying to conceive for less than a year. However, due to the fear those test results caused me, knowing nothing about infertility & the other options I had, as well as trusting my doctor's opinion, I truly believed that IVF would be the only thing that would get me what I wanted, to be a mom. So I went ahead & paid out of pocket for 1 round of IVF. Also, no… more tests were run before I paid full price for this. We went solely based on the bloodwork I had received from my OBGYN. By no fault of the doctors (as far as I know), none of my embryos (4) made it to blastocysts. Of course this was devastating, & my husband was very upset after doing more research, as he felt that Dr. Crawford talked me into something & used my vulnerability & desire for a child to persuade me into this huge (& expensive) step before trying anything else. He voiced this to her during our follow-up appointment, to which Dr. Crawford responded that he was "verbally aggressive" & interrupted him with "no, it's my turn to talk, stop talking". As soon as any questions that challenged her suggestions were asked, all bets were off. She was rude to my husband as well as myself, answering my questions with 1 or 2 words when I was already in a very fragile & confused state. She told me I likely had an egg quality issue, & would probably never become pregnant on my own without more IVF. I ended up making an appointment with another RE for a second opinion, & she used to work at Aspire. She told me that she would ask Dr. Skillern if I could transfer to her so that I could maintain some sort of normalcy & familiarity through my second round without having to see the same doctor. I was later told by this RE that I could not transfer to Dr. Skillern because "Dr. Crawford had told Dr. Skillern that my husband asked to leave the practice"; which never happened in any discussion that we had, a blatant lie. I was floored. So there went another option for me (or so it felt like). To make things even worse, I requested my records from Aspire, & while going through them, noticed so many false statements I couldn't believe it, despite everything that had happened. Dr. Crawford reported in these notes that during our first consultation, she went over all options of fertility treatment with me, & that "it may take several IVF rounds to have a successful outcome". NONE OF THAT WAS EVER EVEN BROUGHT UP TO ME IN THE SLIGHTEST! To the contrary, I asked one of the nurses after my appointment with Dr. Crawford was over if Dr. Crawford felt that I may need more than 1 round & she responded with "no, Dr. Crawford will tell us if she believes there's a high chance of that, & she didn't say that so that means she feels that this will truly get you what you want". She also wrote that risks of my egg retrieval were reviewed with me, such as needing a blood transfusion in severe situations. Again, never even mentioned in the slightest. Let me just clarify, I do not blame Dr. Crawford or Aspire for my failed cycle. I know that nature does it's own thing, & no doctor can be sure what the outcome will be when it comes to fertility. I blame her for being rude, for taking advantage of my vulnerability & fragile mental state at the time, for straight-out lying in my medical notes (which I believe is very illegal). I blame her for not doing follow-up bloodwork, or an HSG, or any tests for that matter before I paid $30,000 out of pocket for IVF. I am still very much scarred by this whole experience & I am truly hoping that any woman reading this review will highly reconsider before agreeing to treatment with Dr. Crawford. Fast forward to 2 months after my failed cycle, & by the grace of God, I became pregnant completely naturally. I am now 15 weeks pregnant with a little girl. I find it very hard to enjoy many of the moments of this pregnancy because of how scared & hurt & betrayed & confused I felt from this whole experience. You're supposed to be able to trust these people. As someone who has 2 children by IVF herself, & dedicates her life on social media, podcasts etc. to "empowering women", you would think Dr. Crawford would have more compassion & conduct herself with more honesty & true care for her patients. That was not the experience I had. I'm still recovering from this, & I hope to save even 1 person from having to endure the same experience.

Dr. Crawford allowed us to pursue an aggressive treatment plan, which I credit with ultimately getting us pregnant after only 2 IUIs. She was well-informed, confident, gave good guidance and answered all of my questions with ease and without seeming annoyed that I had so many. I'm very thankful for what she and everyone at UNC Fertility did for us.