News

March 10, 2011

New England Fertility Institute reaches 20-year milestone

New England Fertility Institute: Clinic establishes program giving 20% discount to qualified patients; plans in the works to open Westport location.

Andrologist Terry Steed works in the Andrology lab at New England Fertility Institute in Stamford, Conn. on Thursday March 3, 2011. Photo: Dru Nadler / Stamford Advocate Freelance Andrologist Terry Steed works in the Andrology lab at New England...

In celebration of 20 years of service, Stamford-based New England Fertility Institute is giving back to the community with the establishment of a Gift of Hope program giving 20 percent discounts for in vitro fertilization procedures to qualified patients.

"It is designed to help patients of a specific income level, to discount non-insured services," said Dr. Gad Lavy, a former member of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine who founded the business in Stamford in the fall of 1991. "We create families and that is the most rewarding thing anyone can do with their life and career."

Plans are also in the works to hold a series of talks in May for new parents and people seeking fertility treatment to commemorate the anniversary, Lavy said.

Services offered by New England Fertility Institute, which has 35 employees in a 14,000-square-foot office at 1275 Summer St., cost from $10,000 to $20,000, depending on the procedure, said Lavy, a Stamford resident.

Therapies provided by New England Fertility, Connecticut's first non-hospital-based outpatient in vitro fertilization center, include intracytoplasmic sperm injection, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and egg freezing. The business was awarded the 2007 Gold Connecticut Quality Improvement Award for Innovation for being the first infertility treatment center in the state to have a baby born from a cryopreserved egg.

New England Fertility, which in 1996 opened a second 2,824-square-foot office in Hamden with three employees and a third 3,000-square-foot location in Shelton in 2006 with five workers, is one of the largest egg donor/gestational surrogacy programs in the tri-state area, according to Lavy.

Lavy said he plans to open satellite offices in areas where patients be can monitored and then directed to the Stamford office for procedures.

"Right now, we are planning to open a Westport office in the spring," he said.

Lavy has always been at the forefront of fertility therapy, said Jack Condlin, president of the Stamford Chamber of Commerce and former commercial real estate broker who helped him secure his very first office in Stamford at 1250 Summer St.

"He's quite an amazing man."

Michael C. Juliano, Staff Writer Published 09:20 p.m., Monday, March 7, 2011

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