Sandy Springs clinic expert on egg-freezing technology

Michelle Herring was running out of eggs, and not the kind one can pick up at the grocery store.

Herring and her husband, Mike, were trying to have a second child, but the low dose of fertility drug that had helped with the first child did not appear to be working this time around. So, the Roswell couple decided to seek the opinion of a fertility expert.

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When they wanted to have a second child, Michelle and Mike Herring turned to Reproductive Biology Associates, of Sandy Springs, a practice that has been operating for more than 25 years.

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Looking for the right fertility doctor can take some prospective parents on a nationwide hunt. But the Herrings didn’t have to look far at all. The couple considered a handful of metro area clinics and eventually settled on Reproductive Biology Associates, a practice that has been operating for more than 25 years.

RBA, in Sandy Springs, prides itself on being at the forefront of fertility technology, said Dr. Danny Shapiro, the director of the practice’s egg bank and a former medical director.

“We are a technology driven business,” Shapiro said. “Our job is to educate clients on what could and could not work.”

To stay on the cutting edge “millions of dollars have been spent on developmental research,” Shapiro said, but wouldn’t say exactly how much.

When the clinic opened in 1983, it was heralded as Georgia’s second in-vitro fertilization clinic and the first to operate independently of a hospital or university. One year later the practice was responsible for the state’s first babies born as a result of in-vitro fertilization. In 1997 the clinic reported the first successful U.S. pregnancies using frozen eggs and in 2005 the practice gave an assist to two endangered Sumatran orangutans at Zoo Atlanta who officials hoped could reproduce.

Now the clinic has perfected its egg freezing process and opened an “egg bank,” giving women like Herring another option when their bodies fail them.

Since 1990, women have been able to receive fresh donor eggs, Shapiro said. But the ability to freeze and safely thaw the eggs has not only made the process faster, but it has also lowered the cost, he continued. The fresh egg cycle can cost upwards of $25,000, while the frozen egg option costs $16,500. The difference is, with the fresh cycle one recipient gets all of the donor eggs and with the frozen cycle, the donor eggs can be split among several women, Shapiro said.

The egg freezing technique and the egg bank, which functions much like a sperm bank, are the newest talking points for the practice.

When Herring, now 35, was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure two years ago, technology was not so advanced that freezing her eggs was recommended. But she and her husband are thrilled that the technology has progressed so that they can use a donor egg, and that they could do it so close to home.

“Who would have thought that egg freezing and egg donations would be possible,” Herring asked. “It’s just wonderful, and it has given us a chance to have another child.”

Company Bio Box

Reproductive Biology Associates has four offices, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Lawrenceville and Fayetteville. For information about RBA, visit www.rba-online.com or call 404-257-1900.