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 fifth blog, I will tell you a little about our approach to surgery and our clinical staff, and some of the things that make us different from other doctors who practice infertility.

Surgery

 For those women who need surgical correction of their infertility, such as treatment of uterine fibroids, endometriosis, intrauterine or pelvic adhesions, or genetic abnormalities, each TFC physician is qualified to use any advanced technique required to optimally correct the problem.  We all prefer to use surgical lasers through the laparoscope rather than older methodologies, such as electrosurgery or cautery, in order to lessen the risk of causing pelvic adhesion (scar tissue) formation.  We also remove fibroids microsurgicaly, whether through the laparoscope, the da Vinci Robot, or through a small lower abdominal incision, in order to minimize the development of scar tissue, shorten your post-operative recovery, and get you back to full function as fast as possible.  We have privileges at all of the main hospitals and surgery centers in the greater Austin area, from Cedar Park to South Austin, and we have contracts with all of Central Texas’ major insurance plans, in order to minimize the financial toll that fertility treatment can take on our patients.

 Clinical Staff 

As noted above, however, there are many reasons other than our technical expertise that will hopefully lead you to choose TFC.  Every patient is assigned to a specific office nurse who, working seamlessly with your physician, is well versed about the many factors involved in your particular clinical situation.  Patients who need treatment with either IVF or donor eggs have an additional nurse assigned to their case to specifically answer all of their questions about these more complex treatments.  Our billing team benefits from the presence and expertise of several staff who used to work for insurance companies.  Their experience often proves invaluable in helping our patients optimize their insurance benefits.  Our team of outstanding embryologists and andrologists is lead by Tom Turner, who has been our Laboratory Director since 1993.  Tom performed the world’s first GIFT procedures in the 1980’s, and is recognized world-wide as a true pioneer, thought leader, and problem solver in the IVF field.  We strongly believe that our clinical staff is one of our true strengths, and helps make us one of the leading fertility practices in the country.

Stay tuned for this weekly series on Why TFC? Or if you prefer to read the article in its entirety, please visit

http://www.txfertility.com/why-texas-fertility-center.php