Brigham and Women's Hospital Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship

Overview

The Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital is a three year, ACGME accredited fellowship. The program consists of 18 months of clinical, 12 months of laboratory/research training, and 6 months of research/ electives for up to two fellows per year. The program trains tomorrow's leaders in reproductive medicine by providing the highest quality reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellowship training program.

Quick Facts:

Program Address: BWH, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115

Program Contact:
Elizabeth Hoberman
Email: ehoberman@mgb.org
Phone: (617) 732-4648
Fax: (617) 566-7752

The fellowship is three years in length and can have up to two fellows per training year.

Training takes place at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, and Newton-Wellesley Hospital (elective).

Requirements

Graduation from an ACGME approved residency in obstetrics and gynecology, experience in clinical and/ or laboratory research, passing scores on board exams, CREOG scores.

Curriculum

Overview

The fellows, with appropriate supervision, gain experience in a wide variety of clinical problems affecting all stages of the human reproductive system. The program has a rich ambulatory, IVF, and surgical volume allowing exposure to the full gamut of clinical problems in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.

Clinical Experience

With faculty guidance and consultation, fellows have responsibilities for the initial evaluation and follow-up care of patients with reproductive endocrine and infertility problems. Fellows see patients in association with the attending physicians in the Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery (CIRS) Practice. Approximately 10,000 patient visits occur annually within the CIRS. The full gamut of patient problems are cared for within the CIRS including infertility and endocrine disorders, such as hyper-prolactinemia, amenorrhea, and hirsutism. Infertility patients are evaluated as couples, if applicable. Male partners may be seen in consultation by a reproductive urologist.

Beginning in the second half of their first year, fellows have their own continuity clinic of two sessions per month in which new reproductive endocrine and infertility patients are seen, and followed, with treatment plans coordinated with a faculty mentor.

Faculty clinics consist of general reproductive endocrinology, infertility, endometriosis (Drs. Hornstein and Laufer), hyperandrogenism (Dr. Barbieri), fertility preservation (Drs. Ginsburg, Ashby, Srouji, Keefe-Smith, and Walker), infertility and assisted reproduction (Drs. Ashby, Fox, Ginsburg, Hornstein, Srouji, Keefe-Smith, Walker and Yanushpolsky), and robotic surgery (Drs. Srouji, Keefe-Smith, Walker). There are also separate rotations in adult endocrinology (Dr. Ole-Petter Hamnvik), pediatric endocrinology (Dr. Ari Wassner), pediatric gynecology (Dr. Marc Laufer), urology (Dr. Martin Kathrins) genetics, ultrasound, and in the IVF and andrology laboratory.

Surgical experience includes operative laparoscopy, operative hysteroscopy, all major infertility and reconstructive procedures, including robotic and microsurgery. The hospital has state-of-the-art operative laparoscopy and hysteroscopy equipment which is heavily utilized. Fellows begin their robotic training in the surgical training center (STRATUS) and are expected to be robot certified by graduation.

In Vitro Fertilization

The Division has a very large Assisted Reproductive Technology program, and specific rotations in ART are dispersed throughout the fellowship. The IVF program performs the full complement of assisted reproductive procedures totaling approximately 2,700 ART cycles annually, making the Brigham and Women’s Hospital IVF Program one of the largest IVF programs in the United States. The program routinely performs intracytoplasmic sperm injections, assisted hatching, preimplantation genetic testing, embryo cryopreservation, donor egg, donor sperm, gestational carrier, and oocyte cryopreservation cycles. The program has an ovarian tissue cryopreservation program. Fellows are expected to understand the techniques and quality control measures of the embryology laboratory, and have a rotation precepted by Charles Bormann, PhD, the IVF Laboratory Director.

Fellows are assigned to IVF on a rotating basis monthly for training and experience in patient screening, treatment planning including donor egg, gestational carrier, PGD, PGS, fertility preservation, ovulation induction, transvaginal ultrasound follicle monitoring, oocyte retrieval, and embryo transfer.

Fellows participate in all aspects of the clinical care of IVF patients, including pre-IVF evaluation, ovulation induction pre-operative care, and oocyte retrievals; unlike many programs, fellows also perform embryo transfers. Fellows participate in the weekly IVF case conference and present patients for discussion.

Specialty Clinics during the IVF blocks

• Pediatric Endocrinology
• Pediatric Gynecology
• Medical Endocrinology
• Genetics
• Ultrasound
• Reproductive Urology

Surgery

Faculty members perform about 900 surgical procedures per year−all of which may be utilized as teaching cases for fellows. The vast majority of these procedures are laparoscopic or hysteroscopic including complex endometriosis surgery, oophorectomies and myomectomies, and correction of uterine septa, hysteroscopic myomectomies, and Asherman’s repairs. In addition, fellows learn to perform laparoscopic tubal ligation reversals. The Division’s surgeons utilize the latest endoscopic techniques, and the BWH is one of only a few centers in the United States using robotic surgery for reproductive problems. In addition, through our affiliation with Boston Children’s Hospital and its Chief of Gynecology (Dr. Marc R. Laufer, who is also a Reproductive Endocrine faculty member), fellows may have an unusually strong experience in the surgical management of developmental abnormalities of the female reproductive tract.

Fellow Teaching and Clinical Responsibility in General Obstetrics and Gynecology

Fellows are given an appointment at Harvard Medical School as Clinical Fellows and are actively involved in teaching medical students and residents, and are active staff physicians at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, requiring the acquisition of an unrestricted license to practice medicine in Massachusetts. The attending physician has ultimate responsibility for providing supervision and teaching of residents and Harvard Medical students assigned to the clinic. On call assignments (home call) for the CIRS practice are on a rotational basis divided equally among the fellows.

Formal Education

The reproductive endocrine program has formal teaching rounds once each week which are attended by all faculty and fellows. In addition, there are research meetings, weekly ob-gyn grand rounds, interhospital endocrine rounds involving all endocrine disciplines and weekly medical and pediatric endocrine rounds.

Research Experience

The research program is designed to give graduating fellows experience in a wide variety of research types-laboratory, clinical, and epidemiologic, supervised by faculty research mentors on each project. Fellows may gain exposure to hormonal assays, tissue culture techniques, receptor assays, molecular biology procedures, chromosomal analysis, and gamete manipulation, as well as case-control, cohort and clinical trial design, statistical analysis, and quality improvement and assurance projects. Fellows may choose projects from the multitude of researchers and laboratories doing reproduction related research at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Resources are available for all modern morphological, biochemical, molecular and physiological research technologies. The embryology laboratory for our ART program is under the direction of Dr. Charles Bormann who also directs an active basic program for in vitro ovum maturation and cryopreservation.

There are opportunities during the fellowship for rotations in the laboratory and to develop a thorough understanding of genetics. Some areas of interest of the research faculty are included below.

Dr. Cynthia Morton has a research program studying the genetics of uterine leiomyomata. Dr. Bradley Quade, an Associate Professor of Pathology, has research interests in gynecologic pathology, pathobiology of uterine smooth muscle tumors, perinatal and obstetrical pathology.

There are multiple clinical research projects available for fellow participation. Our clinical unit hosts several clinical studies that are available to fellows focused on infertility and ART. The position of Director of Research for the fellowship heads the Division’s epidemiology research program and assists with study design and data analysis.

The Boston Center for Endometriosis—a collaborative effort between our Department and Boston Children's Hospital with Director Dr. Marc Laufer—focuses on endometriosis research advancement in teen and adult women, including a biorepository for both intervention and observational studies.

Beyond the clinical research opportunities within our own Division, the OB/GYN Epidemiology Division directed by Dr. Daniel Cramer within our Department, also has several clinical studies available to our fellows including the epidemiology of ovarian cancer. Clinical research opportunities are also available to our fellows through their rotations on the Pediatric Endocrinology and Medical Endocrine clinic services. In addition, research opportunities are also available at the National Center for Infertility Research at Massachusetts General Hospital under the direction of Dr. Stephanie Seminara. Fellows have also led research projects in conjunction with our oncology colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and MIT.

How to Apply

Eligibility

Applicants must complete a four-year ACGME approved residency program in Obstetrics and Gynecology and be eligible to obtain a license to practice medicine in the State of Massachusetts. We require the results of board and CREOG exams.

Foreign medical school graduates must meet the following requirements: a) Obtain a standard J1 or H1B visa; or b) Pass National Board of Medical Examinations Part I and II, or the Visa Qualifying examination in addition to the English language requirements.

Application

Please note: Our fellowship program is not participating in the Match for the 2026 interview season. Details for the 2027 interview season will be posted later this year. Thank you.

If you have questions, please contact:

Elizabeth Hoberman
Email: ehoberman@mgb.org
Phone: (617) 732-4648

Faculty

REI Clinical Faculty

Rachel K. Ashby, MD
Assistant Professor
Medical Director of Third-Party Assisted Reproductive Technologies
Associate Medical Director of the Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery & IVF Program
Interests: Gamete donation and third-party reproduction, fertility preservation for cancer patients, ART for medically complex patients, recurrent pregnancy loss.

Robert L. Barbieri, MD
Kate Macy Ladd Distinguished Professor
Chair Emeritus
Interests: Amenorrhea, PCOS, hyperandrogenism, endometriosis.

Janis H. Fox, MD
Assistant Professor
Interests: Assisted reproduction, IVF, preimplantation genetic testing, elective egg freezing, male factor, egg donation and third-party reproduction, infertility.

Elizabeth S. Ginsburg, MD
Professor
Director of the REI Fellowship Program
Interests: All aspects of reproductive endocrinology, especially infertility, PCO, IVF, fertility treatment in cancer survivors, and fertility preservation.

Mark D. Hornstein, MD
Professor
AMC Division Chief, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals
Thomas Kosasa Family Endowed Chair
Interests: Endometriosis, ART.

Kimberly W. Keefe Smith, MD
Instructor
Assistant Director of the REI Fellowship Program
Director of the REI PGY2 Resident Service Rotation
Interests: Infertility, ART, fertility preservation, robotic and laparoscopic surgery, endocrinology, PCO, premature ovarian insufficiency.

Marc R. Laufer, MD
Professor
Chief of Gynecology, and Co-Director, Center for Young Women’s Health, Boston Children’s Hospital
Interests: Congenital anomalies of the female reproductive tract, abnormal uterine bleeding, operative laparoscopy, endometriosis.

Serene S. Srouji, MD
Assistant Professor
MGB Medical Director, IVF program
Interests: Robotic surgery, operative laparoscopy and hysteroscopy.

Zachary W. Walker, MD
Instructor
Director of the REI Clerkship Program
Adjunct BWH SRS-Surgical Scholars Track Mentor.
Interests: PCOS, reproductive surgery, racial disparities in infertility, ART outcomes, male factor infertility, LGBTQIA+ care.

Brian W. Walsh, MD
Associate Professor
Interests: Minimally invasive surgery, alternatives to abdominal hysterectomy and the management of menopause.

Elena H. Yanushpolsky, MD
Assistant Professor
Director of Reproductive Surgery
Interests: All medical and surgical aspects of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, ART, and minimally invasive laparoscopic and hysteroscopic management of gynecologic disorders.

REI Research Faculty

Charles L. Bormann, PhD
Associate Professor
Director of the IVF Laboratory
Interests: Embryo culture, quality management, artificial intelligence.

Andrea Lanes, MSc, PhD
Assistant Professor
Director of Research in REI
Associate Director of the REI Fellowship Program
Interests: Preimplantation genetic testing, IVF outcomes, and perinatal outcomes.

Werner Neuhausser, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Interests: Human embryology, germ cell development and in vitro gametogenesis, ovarian aging, in vitro maturation, RCTs to improve ART outcomes.

Other Faculty (Non-REI) Involved in Fellowship Training

Mary Frates, MD
Professor of Radiology
Division Chief, Ultrasound
Interests: Reproductive and gynecologic ultrasound.

Yvette Groszmann, MD, MPH
Instructor
Interests: Reproductive and gynecologic ultrasound.

Ole-Petter Hamnvik, MBBCh, BAO, MMSc
Associate Professor of Medicine
Interests: All areas of medical endocrinology.

Martin Kathrins, MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Director of the Men’s Health Center
Interests: All areas of male infertility.

Cynthia Morton, PhD
Professor
Research Area: Cyto- and molecular genetics.

Bradley Quade, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Pathology
Research Area: Andrology, endometrial pathology.

Ari Wassner, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Interests: All areas of molecular endocrinology.

Louise Wilkins-Haug, MD, PhD
Professor
Interests: Reproductive genetics.
Fax: (617) 566-7752