My heart is so full. I truly cannot say enough wonderful things about Dr. Barsky and her team at CARS. We began our fertility journey in November 2025, and throughout every step of the process, Dr. Barsky has been incredibly supportive, compassionate, and reassuring. We started with one round of IUI before moving forward with IVF, and today, May 2026 we are pregnant with two healthy twins. IVF is an emotionally and physically demanding journey, which makes it so important to trust and feel confident in the team caring for you. Every single person at the clinic made us feel supported and cared for -- from the kind women at the front desk, to the phlebotomists, the nurses who assisted during egg retrieval, the embryologist and every single doctor that was involved, and of course Dr. Barsky and her entire team. Beyond being an exceptionally qualified doctor, Dr. Barsky is also a genuinely wonderful person. She listens patiently to every concern and always takes the time to address questions thoughtfully and thoroughly. Although everyone we worked with was amazing, I especially want to thank Nurse Diana and Elizabeth. Diana made every blood draw unbelievably smooth, and Elizabeth was always so responsive, helpful, and reassuring whenever we had questions or needed guidance. I am beyond grateful for the care we received and so pleased with our experience. These women made such a meaningful impact on our lives, and I truly cannot wait to introduce our babies to them one day. read more

There's too much to say that's negative. No therapist on staff that's paneled, lab orders not sent multiple times, made me jump through so many hoops to do IVF, front desk staff talking badly about the providers and work flow.... read more

Are these 5 star reviews paid advertisement? My wife and I haven't had a single good experience with this facility. Call backs? Non existent, any sort of comfort? Non existent. Going to appointments at 730am on a Friday, taking a day off from work, just to not get a follow up until the afternoon via app, no phone call, just to tell you come back Monday. Unprofessional along with your staff. When you walk out of an appointment, never ever should you hear your staff talking bad about the next patient while laughing about their situation. Its an absolute embarrassment and disgrace to people who are having a difficult time in these situations. HIPAA violations all across the board. read more

I would highly recommend The Center to anyone struggling with any type of infertility. They are incredibly thorough, are available at almost all hours to provide support and answer questions, and every single staff member I came into contact with was amazing. They make you feel comfortable and do all they can to support you in any way you need. Despite having to go though something so difficult, it was a truly great experience. read more

Such a wonderful clinic. All the nurses, doctors, and MAs/ phlebotomists are amazing. I had a very enjoyable experience here.

I would highly recommend the Center in making the dream of starting a family come true for you and yours. We have our miracle baby because of the tremendous doctors at CARR and for that we will always be grateful. read more

Awful. They have absolutely no business being in the fertility medical field when they show tremendous contempt for different kinds of people going through infertility. It is poorly run and they have ZERO compassion. A nurse actually asked, "Why did you wait so long to get pregnant?" If I could give negative stars, I would. Go anywhere but here. read more

Maybe 2 stars because I think CARS might be okay for cookie-cutter, young, married, conventional heterosexual couples. As a late 30s 40ish queer single woman (using known donor sperm) I did not feel the doctors were aggressive in seeking the causes of my multiple miscarriages. They missed an easy diagnosis of chronic and acute endometritis, which was certainly a major factor if not the decisive one in my miscarriages. The insurance specialist was confused and perplexed about how to work with my very good CT state employee insurance and told me IVF would cost me thousands of dollars (she was wrong). A lot of people in the office seemed uncomfortable with my age, sexual orientation, etc. Though they appear to be nice polite folks, they did not uphold a basic standard of care, frankly lied to my face, and misled me about regulations and insurance coverage regarding sperm donors and assisting single women. Working with this office was basically just a hopeless exercise in running the clock when I didn't have time to waste. It was very very emotionally painful and makes me sick thinking about it even now. Now I'm working with Kofinas in NYC, a wildly different experience from the start. They diagnosed me immediately with adeno and endometritis and we are working with that diagnosis. The insurance specialist immediately confirmed I'm 100% covered - for everything. Nurses and doctors are New Yorkers, meaning they're not easily freaked out. It's such a relief to be taken seriously. Update: since CARS submitted a note I'll be more specific. No one in the office could or would work with insurance or provide assisted fertility techniques for a single woman/LGBTQ patient. They told me my insurance would not regard IVF as a covered medical necessity for me because I'm not partnered with a cis man (I know now this was a false statement). My jaw dropped, I asked "what do lesbian couples do?" They replied with a sad face "pay out of pocket" and said I had some "hard decisions" to make. No I didn't, it turns out, I just needed to get out of there! At one point someone advised me to move to Vermont, where I might have better coverage. No one mentioned "internal sperm bank" to me once, they suggested I look at California Cryobank. It's disturbing that a glowing review by a reviewer with 1 review to her name was submitted on 9/17, the same day as the CARS note was posted. Again, I strongly advise non-cookie cutter people to just suck it up and make the trips to NYC or maybe Boston. Queer and single people, if straight married people are covered by your insurance, YOU'RE COVERED TOO AND YOU DESERVE EQUAL CARE. I explained my situation to a local phlebotomist recently and she said I should have gone to NYC from the start. I wish I had, it might have saved me from a LOT of unnecessary legwork and three very painful m/cs, and two wasted years. I can't even go into it here. read more

I just wanted to reach out and offer my sincere gratitude to Dr. Engmann and the team (Reeva, Becky, Sharon, Andrea, Christine, Charlene, and Stephanie) who performed a laparoscopy and hysteroscopy on me at the UConn surgery center on Tuesday, 9/11. I was nervous about the procedure, but the staff who were involved with me could not have been kinder, more understanding, or more in tune with my feelings from beginning to end. Dr. Engmann even sat with me to offer comfort and reassurance while I was undergoing the anesthesia. I'm thrilled that the surgery was successful, but if possible I am even more grateful that I had a team of medical professionals so committed to my care and comfort. Thank you, sincerely, for all that you did. read more

Unfortunately have not had a good experience with this clinic for several reasons. One, it is near impossible to get a hold of anyone, you must leave a message every time you want to talk to your nurse or provider. Two, we did our fertility treatments for genetic reasons, IVF with PGD... because we didn't have "fertility issues" per se i definitely felt as though we were put on the back burner. We only got 1 successful embryos from our treatment, and they say "we will do a more aggressive treatment plan next time" to obtain more embryos. My head is spinning wondering why they didn't do that the first time?!? stastically speaking of the embryos we were making, only 1/3 would be viable for us. Meanwhile... if we do the process again I will be lining their pockets with thousands of dollars. Three, partners are not allowed to come in for any procedures. For my egg retrieval I essentially was dropped at the door and had to wait in the pre-op area alone. This was after covid restrictions have gotten better also. I work in healthcare! at this time was the most liberal visitation policy my hospital had! meanwhile, it's like I have to do this process alone. Four, they give a general treatment plan but are super vague about timing. I had to call out, rearrange my schedule and drop everything to get ultrasounds, bloodwork etc without any other choice. Overall a terrible experience for a person/family that is already insanely stressed out. maybe if they treated me more like a patient than a number/paycheck, I wouldn't be writing this review and I could not harp on these things individually. Ladies, families... do your research before just saying yes to this clinic. Too late for me... read more

I cannot even begin to say enough wonderful things about this amazing center. It truly was a Godsend for us. After an absolutely horrible, nightmarish experience of infertility testing and treatment on the west coast, including a very painful and failed round of IVF with terrible complications, we were about ready to give up on our dream of having a family. I had heard about the UConn Fertility website, and thus The Center, from my Mom, and decided to look into it. I filled out a quick form online, was contacted right away by someone at the Center, and set up with an appointment promptly. We were blessed to work with Dr. Schmidt, who is one of the kindest, most wonderful human beings I've ever met. Not only did he restore our hope, but he came up with a wonderful new protocol for me that made my IVF experience here a completely opposite experience of what I had gone through out of state. There were zero complications, I felt great, and I was thoroughly impressed every step of the way. We also worked with Dr. Engmann for my retrieval and Dr. Benadiva for my transfer, and they were wonderful as well. CARS has a very, very special team. And I can't even tell you how amazing the nurses are here. Marsha was so wonderful at providing all of the information I needed, answering my questions, and calming my nerves. All of the staff were pleasant, friendly, and compassionate - they truly understand what a difficult and emotional journey infertility can be, and they are professionals in every sense of the word. Laura was the most amazing nurse to have there on my transfer day - she was so sweet and gave me a little good luck totem to hold, but I believe SHE was my good luck charm! And Veronica, the financial counselor I worked with, says she was just doing her job, but I feel she went above and beyond to help me out to work with my insurance on my behalf, to get my meds approved in time, etc. Together, they helped to eliminate my stress so I could focus on my treatment. EVERY aspect of our experience at The Center was a positive one. CARS is a well-oiled machine, working so seamlessly together to make miracles happen every day. Not only are they excellent at what they do with impressive success rates, but they have such kindness and top-notch bedside manner to really care for the patient as a person and not just a number. They also offer yoga and acupuncture. After the horrendous experience I had elsewhere, I feel like I can truly appreciate THE BEST care when I find it, and CARS is truly THE BEST. Anyone who is a patient here is in the very greatest of hands and I hope they realize how lucky they are to be working with such an incredibly talented, special group of people. We are now 17 weeks pregnant with our miracle baby, and we will never be able to thank CARS enough for this incredible, priceless gift. We plan to work with them again for Baby #2 when we are ready! The Center and everyone who is part of it, will forever have a special place in my heart. Never give up hope! read more

If you don't work, have unlimited sick days, have flexible work hours, or can leave work whenever you want, this place is for you. I don't have any of those. I would use all my sick time to make their hours work, leaving me with no sick days to use for my maternity leave if I were to get pregnant. I also tried their Branford office, but the doctor is only there until noon, twice a week. The hours for various tests and procedures are given on an as needed basis, and when you tell them you can't make that timing work, they get mad. read more

I recently went to CARS for egg freezing... and overall the experience seemed very unorganized. They do this on a daily basis but somehow my bloodwork would get double ordered, it didn't seem like they would check my chart because they would talk about embryo's and transfers but I was just doing egg freezing, they didn't send the informational packet until I was halfway through the process, they schedule you for appointments without checking with you first, etc. It takes multiple emails and phone calls to get a response (mostly from the financial people, the nurses are good, except the one nurse I was working with went on maternity leave and her voicemail or email didn't mention it so for a few days I thought I was being ignored until I called the main number) Overall I wasn't that impressed with the process and people who they promise are your main points of contact. But... hopefully my eggs are safe! read more

Just graduated a day ago from cars.I don't know where to start from. I'm so grateful for my obgyn to refer me to cars for infertility treatments. We struggled with infertility since our marriage 7 years ago,never been pregnant. Chose Ivf as our last resort. The team at cars was so wonderful. I saw dr.benadiva for my treatment, chris helped so much with our insurance coverage & medications coverage, getting all pre auth ahead of time, she took over all the financial stress for us, we are very grateful for her services. My nurse Helen was very kind and passionate, she answered all my questions,always called me back and checked up on me throughout the whole process. Deborah aprn was the most gentle person I've ever met,she took her time to explain me the procedure of shg & made sure I was comfortable. Several nurses called me multiple times the day before retrieval to just check up on how I was doing since I had developed mild ohss. Dr Andrea did my retrieval, such a wonderful dr! Laura went above and beyond to make sure I was comfortable before both retrieval and transfer. My transfer was done by dr.benadiva, flawless & quick procedure yet it was made so much fun that we were giggling in the procedure room. And yesterday we graduated from clinic being 9weeks pregnant! I can not begin to thank this whole team at cars enough for making this whole Ivf process so easy for us. I'm definitely going to miss this office and team because their standard of care is exceptional. Amazing bed side manners, loved my Ivf team, front desk was always very kind and patient. Nurses was so polite, phlebotomists were so sweet. The whole team at cars is just extraordinary. Can't wait to be back in a few years for another round of transfer for baby#2! I highly recommend this center! read more

TLDR: While we ended up pregnant, the process was unforgivable. If we choose to pursue a 2nd child we will go ANYWHERE else before going back to the center. Problem 1: From the start The center was very female focused, the staff was cold and harsh regarding my (soon to be) lack of involvement in the process moving forward with exception to my insurance and financial responsibilities. The mental aspects of treatment were ignored for the male side, this was especially difficult as I wanted to be part of the process as our issue was male factor infertility. Problem 2: The health care provider in my experience has always been the one responsible for making sure procedures are covered, checking coverage limitations, and guiding the patient to an acceptable path forward given these constraints. Almost every single visit to the center resulted in what seemed like endless insurance snafus or misguidance that resulted in hours (sometimes days) of me chasing down the answers from my insurance company. The Center made countless mistakes with our billing regarding storage fees and pre-authorizations for procedures. These mistakes only intensified the stresses of getting pregnant and going through treatment, and I'm not entirely convinced they did not affect the treatment. On numerous occasions they failed to do the pre-auth in a timely manner and forced me to pay fees in advance to continue our treatment schedule just incase insurance didn't respond quick enough. These were large holds on my credit card, we couldn't help but to feel trapped in their grasps. Our financial rep was so horrible the office manager ended up managing our account until she left the practice. I am certain we financially suffered and overpaid for services. Problem 3: The center's nursing staff overstepped personal boundaries with us regarding our choice to use a known donor for treatment going forward. We understand that the decisions we made would last a lifetime and were very serious. However the nurse who was supposed to be making sure we understood this and guiding us to make a decision instead used this time to make parallel comparisons of her personal decisions in life and the shortcomings of them. This was completely unprofessional and made myself, my wife, and our known donor feel very uncomfortable, my wife ended up reporting this to management. Problem 4: The center's lab staff made numerous mistakes during treatment. They initially gave me false information on the status of samples frozen/used, and at one point they were not clear on what had been done with my tissue samples or if there were any left. When you are dealing with DNA, Tissue samples, Sperm/Eggs etc It is vitally important for the lab to have clear and concise records! They additionally almost held up our treatment for IUI with a donor when their lab used an expired test kit. They did not tell us until the final hour that there was a mistake on their part, and they tried to cover it up. This resulted in our donor having to travel again to get more lab work done, and further stresses during our treatment. Problem 5: We read everything we could on fertility treatment. The wife, by all tests done etc, should have been a straight forward case of treatment once we made some decisions as our issue was male factor. Unfortunately the center did not provide much guidance in how to move forward short of our doctor wanting us to do pursue IVF in lieu of IUI treatment. IVF is considerably more expensive and invasive. At the end of the day we felt that the wife was not ovulating predictably, even with blood work. This thought was based on numerous articles and treatment stories of other individuals who essentially had false positives for ovulation with blood level spikes. We were exhausted, the doctor wanted to move to IVF. We asked for the 3rd time that she be triggered for ovulation instead of waiting for blood work, the dr agreed this time. This patient request for treatment proved to be the final piece of the puzzle to get pregnant. Im not sure we would have ended up pregnant if we hadn't pushed the dr to try something different with each cycle going forward. Problem 6: The management staff, whoever they are at any given time, were far from polite or understanding. Based on many factors, some which I am sure could have been easily avoided if the center had provided correct input, treatment took a few years to resolve. The centers management belittled our complaints regarding all the billing, personnel, lab, and treatment concerns. They were rude, cold, always making excuses, and tried to cover up their mistakes. The management staff was cycled multiple times during our treatment and they did not have a clear office manager for some of this time. We ended up being on a first name basis with the practice manager because of the amount of problems we experienced. She was not pleasant to deal with, and downright rude and nasty at times. read more

I had 1 successful and 1 failed attempt at the center. I first visited them in 2011 for an IVF cycle and dr.engmann couldn't quite explain why my embryos didn't implant. We gave it a break for a while and it totally slipped our minds till late 2017. I went back there again even after a failed attempt because Dr.engmann is very nerdy, experienced and had very good bedside manner. When we visited them, they ran all the tests and made us ready to start the treatment early 2018. Dr.engmann said they now have cutting edge technology to make our procedure a success. Retrieved 15 eggs with the help of hcg shots, fertilized 8, froze 7, implanted 2 and froze the remaining 5 till we asked them to discard it. We now have 2 beautiful 7 month old girls born full term and with perfect health. Couldn't have asked for anything more. There will always be ups and downs and those hormone treatments don't make it any better. I feel sad for those it didn't work out. Having positive thoightsand energy usually helps with positive results. read more

Kathy Varkal is the best nurse ever. She gives you her personal cell phone, calls you, emails you and just about makes you feel like you are her only patient when you know from going here there is a line out the door everyday. We worked with Kathy and Dr. Schmidt and they were both so kind and caring I would recommend them to anyone who needs to visit this place. It is very convenient in the new location, separate from the crazy Uconn parking lot where it used to be. read more