When a patient of mine recently moved to California, she asked me to refer her to a specialist who could continue her care. Drs. Vaughn, Hansard, Burger, and I have each noticed that when we provide our patients with a couple of names, they frequently ask us why we chose those particular specialists over many others in the same area. This made us realize that many couples with infertility in Central Texas may be thinking the same thing about TFC – why should they come see us? WHY TFC? In an attempt to answer this question, we wrote an article that you can find on the home page of our website at www.txfertility.com. I have taken the liberty of breaking this article down into smaller blog entries so that patients can read it at their leisure. In this fourth blog, I will tell you a little about our fertility preservation program, and some of the things that make us different from other doctors who practice infertility.
Fertility Preservation
For nearly three decades, TFC has been providing sperm freezing services to men who have been diagnosed with cancer or other serious medical illness. They contact TFC in order to bank sperm before they are treated with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, as they know that each of these treatments can significantly impair their future fertility. Many of these men have come back to us for fertility treatment after surviving their disease. Fortunately, due to the expertise of our embryologists and andrologists, we have been able to help an overwhelming percentage of these men conceive healthy children. We have also been providing sperm freezing services to many men in the armed forces who want to bank sperm prior to military deployment. Although they are still fertile when they return from active duty and hopefully will never need to use the sperm that we have for them, they still benefit from peace of mind knowing that their partner has access to their sperm should they desire to use it. We were all overwhelmed when we were recently presented with a certificate of appreciation from the United States Department of the Army in recognition of the service that we have provided to our men and women in uniform.
In addition to offering services to men, with the success of our oocyte vitrification program, we are also now able to offer fertility preservation services to women. We can freeze eggs for women who have been diagnosed with cancer or other serious medical illness prior to their treatment with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. Once they are cured, they can return to use their eggs. We also partner with the Komen Foundation for the Cure as well as Fertile Hope through the Livestrong Foundation, in order to provide these services to seriously ill men and women at a significantly reduced cost. Although many fertility programs may tell you that they can “freeze eggs”, TFC is the only program in Texas that has had healthy babies delivered from both patient and donor eggs that we have frozen in our laboratory.
Stay tuned for this weekly series on Why TFC? Or if you prefer to read the article in its entirety, please visit