Maggie McKay (Host): Welcome to Time to Talk Fertility Beyond
the Lab Coat, a podcast from Fertility Centers of Illinois.
I'm your host, Maggie McKay.
Join us as we go behind the scenes with Dr.
Christopher Sipe reproductive endocrinologist to discover what
inspires his work, how he connects with patients, and what drives his
passion for helping families grow real stories, real purpose, real care.
Thank for being here, Dr.
Sip, would you please share your full name and credentials
Dr Chris Sipe: Yeah.
Thanks for having me, Maggie.
My name is Dr.
Christopher Sipe.
I'm a board certified reproductive endocrinologist at Fertility
Centers of Illinois, as well as a board certified OB GYN.
I'm also the president of Fertility Centers of Illinois, and one of the,
US, uh, fertility board members.
Maggie McKay (Host): Wow, your plate is full.
What inspired you to pursue medicine, specifically reproductive endocrinology?
Dr Chris Sipe: Yeah, so I actually had no one in medicine, in the family.
and so when I went to college, I started majoring in business, and then
discovered I didn't like business.
and so, you know, I wanted to find ways that I could help
people give back to community and really challenge myself, and.
That's where I found my love of medicine.
and so although it took me a few, years to, pivot and change majors in careers,
I've never looked back and I, I've loved doing, infertility When I was a,
resident at Northwestern University, No one really talked much about fertility.
IVF was sort of a newer technology at the time and it's been fantastic, being
a re protective endocrinologist, as our field has grown and developed and
new techniques and new, technologies have come to help our patients.
Maggie McKay (Host): What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Dr Chris Sipe: I think just the opportunity to help people.
obviously when you help someone have a baby and get pregnant,
that's the most rewarding part.
But getting to know patients, getting to know, you know, what drives them,
what you need to help them through in addition to their fertility journey.
I'm not a person who, Enjoy doing something.
I want get to know the person.
I wanna get to know the process.
I understand more and share that knowledge with my,
, Maggie McKay (Host): Is there a particular moment that reaffirmed
why you chose this field?
Dr Chris Sipe: I think One of the more serious things is we can't help everybody.
we know that.
I think patients deep down under sort of know that too, that there's
gonna be, times that we just can't overcome whatever medical ailment is
preventing them from getting pregnant.
So, one of the more rewarding things is when you know you've tried
your best, when you've done all sorts of different techniques and
protocols and medicines for a couple.
It's unsuccessful.
I've had a bunch of patients who send me thank you letters for the
efforts, for trying for always keeping them informed and up to date
with new ideas and new technologies.
and so even though they didn't have the success that any of us wanted, just the
fact that they were so thankful that we tried for them and tried everything
we could and went outside the normal standard of care boxes, that's one of
the most rewarding things for me to hear.
Maggie McKay (Host): how do you hope to make a difference in your patient's lives?
Dr Chris Sipe: so I have four young children.
actually, I guess they're not young anymore.
and my wife was one of four.
my mom was one of four, so we've always had big family around us, so family
has always been really important to me.
and with, modern times now with people not having kids till later, It's a
lot harder for them to have kids.
And so I know how important family is to me, and I really wanna give them
that gift to have a family of their own.
So that's really what drives me every day.
Maggie McKay (Host): That is the best gift you could give anybody if you ask me.
what drives your passion for helping individuals and families
on their journey to parenthood?
Dr Chris Sipe: To parenthood, not easy.
20.
Patients are always going to be their best advocates.
Sometimes they're their worst advocates because they go overboard, but they're
usually trying to do everything they can in their power to achieve
their goal of becoming parents.
and so one of the things I have found is to.
Empower them, give them information, tell them to do some research on their own.
help them understand the labs and the tests that we're ordering, why we're
ordering them, what it means, how all the labs come together, how the different
causes of infertility come together.
And then.
I think a key part of it is managing their expectations.
everyone walks in expecting a hundred percent pregnancy rate,
and the reality is we can't give them that as much as we'd like to.
So, one of the most important things to say, Hey, here is your problem.
here's a couple of solutions we have to that problem and here's the
expected pregnancy rate associated with those different treatments, and
here's what we expect the cost to be.
So really helping them know.
And understand their problem and then understand the treatment and
probabilities I think is a really important thing for couples and for,
for people trying to have families.
Maggie McKay (Host): Right.
And you touched on this already, but is there anything else you'd like to add Dr.
S Sipe, about how you would describe your approach to patient care?
Dr Chris Sipe: it's a very personable approach.
patient care.
None of us are the same.
We're all different.
It becomes very important that you try to tailor your treatment
to the couple in front of you.
Everyone's gonna come in with a different problem for fertility,
some will have multiple problems, so you really need to be able to.
Give them a very patient specific treatment plan.
In addition, you deal with a lot of different personalities.
Some people are really chill, some people are highly anxious,
some people are engineers and wanna know every little detail.
So you have to really tailor your conversation and even your language to the
couple and, the patient in front of you,
Maggie McKay (Host): So you tailor it to the person and that's why
it's important to get to know them.
Right.
what's most important to you when you're guiding a patient through treatment?
Dr Chris Sipe: I want them to understand a bit about what the problem is,
and then I want them to understand that there's multiple solutions.
Some are better than others, but there's always options.
And then I want them to understand if.
protocol one doesn't work.
There's protocol two.
If treatment one doesn't work, there's treatment two, there's treatment
three, there's treatment four.
So that each time we do some type of a treatment or protocol with
them, we learn things about them.
They learn things about themselves, and so we react to that and can change the
protocols moving forward to try and tailor it even more to their individuality.
Maggie McKay (Host): How do you help patients feel supported and
empowered throughout their journey?
Because it's gotta be a long emotional journey I would imagine.
Dr Chris Sipe: Yeah, so helping patients in their journey, which
is definitely emotional, critical.
if a patient's going through this blind, they're not gonna know
what they're supposed to be doing.
They're not gonna understand why they're doing it.
They're not gonna understand the importance of this
medication over that medication.
and so really.
Informing them as much as you can.
You know, the internet has a ton of information on it.
Unfortunately, depending upon, which Google search you do or
which AI bot you're working with, it can lead you down some rabbit
holes that may not apply to you.
And so it's really important to.
Show them what their issue is, how you can help them, moving forward
with these different things.
It's always good when they've done their own research.
'cause you can go over, Hey, you know, that is something that we
do for this circumstance, but that's not your circumstance.
Maggie McKay (Host): Dr.
Sipe, how do you balance science, technology and empathy in your work?
Dr Chris Sipe: Yeah, it's very important, that we balance
science, technology and empathy.
I think any good doctor should show empathy, should feel
empathy for their patients.
every doctor should have access to science and technology.
and so, The balance.
I don't consider it a balance.
It's really, they're two separate issues and you do them at the same time.
one of the things at Fertility San of Illinois that we are very key on is
trying new technologies, trying new protocols, trying new medications,
doing research into various different forms of treatment to see which one
is better for this patient population versus that patient population.
and all during that, as long as you are.
Getting to know your patient, you know, watching their emotions, trying to help
identify when they're more anxious than others, or when they're more depressed,
or when they're more frustrated.
I think that's a key element of just being a good person and a good listener.
Maggie McKay (Host): what are your special areas of clinical
interest and what draws you to them?
Dr Chris Sipe: So some of the areas that I think that I specialize
in is polycystic ovary syndrome.
that's a condition characterized by women who have irregular menstrual cycles.
They tend to have excess follicles on ovaries, and they tend to be, medically
a little bit more fragile patients.
So you have to really be able to balance.
Getting their bodies to respond in a good way, but not over respond.
one of the others areas, is male factor infertility.
So very frequently most couples come in and they just assume
it's the woman's problem.
Right.
In fact, I think most women blame themselves if they don't get pregnant.
and that's not the case.
And at least a third to half of the patients that we take care of.
So really male factor infertility becomes an important part of the journey.
I will tell you, talking to thousands of husbands is a lot of times they don't.
Feel empowered to do anything.
their wives are doing all the medications, they're doing the shots, they're doing
the ultrasounds, they're having the procedures, and the guys are just sort
of sitting off to the side getting ready to produce a sperm sample on demand.
so it's really important to.
Get them involved in the process.
I always ask both the, husband and wife or both parties of the, uh, couple to
be present so that, they can be working together, they can support each other.
And I always tell the husbands like, really one of your main jobs is the
emotional support and to be a good sounding board for your partner.
Maggie McKay (Host): That is so true and so wise.
Oh my gosh.
Well, I know you talked a little bit about where you went to school, but where
did you complete your medical education, your residency, your fellowship training?
Dr Chris Sipe: For my medical training, I was, blessed to be able to go to
Vanderbilt University Medical, center.
that gave me a fantastic foundation in medicine.
I did my OB GYN residency at Northwestern here in Chicago.
and then I did my infertility fellowship at the University of Iowa,
which was a fantastic, Fellowship program with excellent role models.
and then when I left Fellowship, I joined Illinois
part core curriculum, education.
We definitely learn things every day that we're doing.
Maggie McKay (Host): Was there something you learned along the way that
continues to shape your approach today?
Dr Chris Sipe: One of the things that I learned during my training, especially at
the University of Iowa, was communicating with patients what all of their options
are empowering patients to make decisions.
That requires that you give them the knowledge to be able
to make an informed decision.
So that goes back to the communication point, sort of brought up in the
earlier part of our conversation.
I found that patients really appreciate that empowerment and
they really appreciate being involved in decision making process.
Maggie McKay (Host): We talked a little bit earlier about how far
reproductive medicine has come.
What excites you most about the future?
Dr Chris Sipe: The field of reproductive medicine has come really far over the
20 plus years I've been doing this.
when I first started, we didn't have half of the medications that we do now.
in fact, some of them have changed, to a different formulation.
The technologies are very different.
We were not doing genetic testing of embryos.
back in the early two thousands.
if you did, it was under more of an experimental, program.
and the fact that now we're able to have.
People get pregnant with healthier embryos that lead to less miscarriage, less
pregnancy loss, less lack of pregnancy, is really helping patients have some,
comfort going forward knowing, Hey, the pregnancy rates are gonna be really
good since we've done it this way, as opposed to the old fashioned way.
Maggie McKay (Host): What accomplishment in your practice or
your career are you most proud of?
Dr Chris Sipe: The accomplishment in my career that I'm most proud
of is the sheer number of people that I've been able to help.
December is one of my favorite times of year because a lot of my patients, will
send me their family holiday cards, and there are people that I'm getting cards
from that I, you know, took care of 20 years ago that now have kids in college.
There are people they've taken care of who have like.
Five kids in the last 15 years.
and it's wonderful to see these families grow.
'cause that, as I said earlier, that is my goal is to help these people have their
families and to be able to be sharing with their family as they grow and experience
things and see what their kids are doing and what their kids are studying and
seeing how they look like their parents.
that is one of the most rewarding things that I can think of.
I mean, it's, great to get those, letters.
Maggie McKay (Host): Do you speak any additional languages?
Dr Chris Sipe: yes.
I grew up having some, family in Mexico, so I would go down to
Mexico on almost a yearly basis for one to four weeks every year.
So I am pretty fluent in Spanish.
Maggie McKay (Host): Can you share a simple grading or a phrase in Spanish?
Dr Chris Sipe: yes, I can share a simple greeting in Spanish.
Maggie McKay (Host): Impressive.
What did you say?
Dr Chris Sipe: hi, my name is Dr.
Christopher Sipe.
I am excited to help you, with starting your family.
Maggie McKay (Host): Dr.
Sip, what do your patients often say they appreciate most about working with you?
Dr Chris Sipe: I think my patients would universally agree, that
one of the things that I do is, and I'm, very straightforward.
I break things down to their very basic core and I literally will
tell them if this is gonna be hard or this is gonna be easy.
I don't think sugarcoating things is helpful for patients.
So I'm very direct and a very honest, straight shooter.
Maggie McKay (Host): What advice do you often share with patients who
are feeling anxious or discouraged?
Because that's gotta be a big part of it.
Dr Chris Sipe: So the advice that I give patients who are anxious
and discouraged is to try to relax.
Now you tell someone who's stressed that they need to relax.
They get more stressed trying to relax.
So that doesn't work very well.
But what I find is there's usually a lot of strain in the relationship.
The woman's ovulating, she's like, I need to have sex right now.
Like the whole concept of sex is now gone 'cause it's not the fun
sex that you used to think of.
Now it's reproductive sex, which is just get it done.
No foreplay, everything's.
not fun.
No one's having a good time.
And that stresses the relationship out.
And so when patients come in, I tell them, stop peeing on a stick.
Stop trying to identify the exact day that you're ovulating cave men were having
babies before we were peeing on sticks.
Okay?
And so I tell them, go back to have fun sex again.
Try to have sex a couple times a week.
Normally, if it's around ovulation.
Try to average sexual intercourse every two days.
If you're not in the mood, when you guys come home from work, 'cause you're
really stressed, don't force it, just think about doing it the next day.
So I, find that that really helps couples and in fact, when I looked a
couple years ago, about two to 3% of my patients would end up getting pregnant
before we do any testing or treatment.
and I think it was just empowering them to stop hyper-focusing on
every little aspect of, their fertility journey and their bodies.
Maggie McKay (Host): What message of encouragement would you
share with those who are still hoping to build their family?
Dr Chris Sipe: Yeah.
So the message I think that's most important for people trying to
build a family is don't give up.
There's gonna be times this is gonna seem hopeless.
Your doctor should tell you what your chances are.
Your doctor should tell you, Hey, we've done X, Y, Z.
It's not gonna work.
But most of the time your doctor is trying to find other ways to
get your body to do something, to arrive at that goal of having kids.
So where people get really tired and frustrated.
I have told multiple patients, go take a vacation.
Go out and have a couple glasses of wine.
Go out and get drunk.
If you want to, start exercising for a month, give yourself time away from this.
It goes back to that.
Relax, relax, relax.
Work off the anxiety, because what we do is not easy.
The patients are in our offices.
We're poking and prodding them every day.
It stresses them out.
It stresses their workout because they're missing work.
so.
anyway.
They're not allowed to go outta town for a lot of these things.
Are they missing work meetings, missing family things?
So really, trying to take some of those stressful things away is, key.
Maggie McKay (Host): And what's one lesson your patients have taught you?
Dr Chris Sipe: one of the many things my patients have taught
me is that listening is key.
There are many times when we see a patient, we hear a story and we start
thinking, oh, I know this story.
I've seen this before.
But you have to remember that everybody in front of you is different.
So you have to make sure that their story may be similar to someone else's, but
recognize what parts of it are different so that you can change their treatment, to
accommodate what their special needs are.
Maggie McKay (Host): And outside of medicine, what brings you balance?
Dr Chris Sipe: So I have a bit of a creative side.
It's more in the kitchen.
and so, I figured if we've got good recipes to make babies,
I should be able to have some good recipes to feed my family.
and so, I love cooking.
I love creating, I love experimenting with recipes.
I love trying new things.
my kids, I think I've experimented them quite a lot.
I'd like to think that their breadth of food they've had over their lives
is, wider than some of their friends.
But I think they've learned pretty quickly what they like and don't like.
'cause I've given them all sorts of different foods and different
flavors, prepped in different ways.
Maggie McKay (Host): what's something people might be surprised to learn
about you that most people don't know?
Dr Chris Sipe: so most people don't know me as a family man I
always seem like I'm working a lot.
cause I am at the office a lot, especially with the different hats I wear for FCI.
and so they don't know me as much as a family man.
As I said earlier, that's the goal for me is to help these people have a, you
know, a family as wonderful as mine.
so just the family is the key thing.
And then it always throws people when they say, oh, what are you doing this week?
And I say, I'm gonna go fishing or I'm gonna go gardening.
I'm a very.
Outdoorsy person.
I grew up with a family who liked to go camping, who liked to go on
adventures in Canada, who liked to go out west to, go hiking and skiing, and
a variety of other outdoor activities.
And so I'm blessed to have a brother who is a fly fishing guide out
of, Idaho and Jackson Hole area.
So whenever I get the opportunity to try and go hang out with him and
go fishing and get back to nature.
I find it really relaxing, to do that.
my patients aren't happy when I disappear for four or five days, but it's important
for my mental health and, I will help them better when I am mentally relaxed.
Maggie McKay (Host): Absolutely.
what three words best describe you?
Dr Chris Sipe: The three words that best describe me, One of my doctors
in med school used the word ebullient, which is sort of like happily energetic.
I think that's appropriate.
I think another word that would describe me, well.
I'm very friendly and open so that people feel comfortable telling me things.
we get into a lot of really sensitive conversations during our, talks.
and I'm always feel good when people are willing to tell me
these things because it means that they feel comfortable around me.
I think another characteristic that defines me is I'm very.
I want know as much as I can, I wanna make sure that we're not just
treating, you know, the, or the sperm that we're treating the person.
We're not just treating like the lack of ovulation, but we're treating the woman
who's gonna be carrying the pregnancy so that she is as healthy as she can be.
So, a lot of my patients will know that I spend a lot of time going over their
health and trying to explain to them, Hey, I want you to do this for the
next month before we start a treatment, because that's gonna give you a better
chance of making it to term with a less complications in your pregnancy.
Maggie McKay (Host): So what show is your guilty pleasure?
The one you can watch over and over and over.
Dr Chris Sipe: I had have to say probably Yellowstone.
obviously it got into that during the pandemic, when, you know, my wife and
kids and I were sort of stuck at home and, I was doing telemedicine, and just.
The concept of Yellowstone, to me is about a family, and it's not
just a family right then and there.
It's a family of generations of having land and taking care of the land
and, working and fighting against the people around who are trying to disrupt
their family and disrupt their land.
so Yellowstone is probably one of my favorite shows of all time.
there Were two other ones.
I think one was 1923 and one was like 8 18 88 or something.
those were great 'cause it gave such wonderful background story
and, it, it helped you carry that whole family of generations.
Uh, I mean that.
was really good.
and about the same time my other favorite, TV show was Ted Lasso.
He's a goofy guy.
Ironically, when my wife was in nursing school, she worked at a store with Jason
Sidiki, I think it was a Banana Republic.
So they worked together for, you know, a good six months when he was,
I think in Chicago when looking at Second City or starting his career.
and Ted Lasso, I found it so.
Enlightening how positive he always was.
When people were sad, he had a positive way to bring them back.
He really helped people in the show, and I really think people who watch the show see
things in a very different perspective.
It's one of the most positive shows out there in a world where
there's a lot of negativity.
I found Ted Lasso to be an uplifting show that almost every time I
watched it made me feel good.
Maggie McKay (Host): Well, you've totally sold me 'cause I only watched
one or two and then I kind of forgot to go back to it, but now I will.
what was your first job?
Dr Chris Sipe: so my first job.
I guess if we're not talking summer jobs, was a waiter because I made the
decision to go from business to medical school and I had to do all the pre-reqs.
but I didn't wanna spend, you know, an extra two years in college.
So I was taking classes after college and I needed a job to supplement me.
So I was a waiter at a restaurant in Nashville called Houstons.
I it was a great place, and, and it taught me a lot.
being a waiter, a bartender, doing, things like that where
you're, doing service for somebody.
I really think helped me, make me a better doctor because I learned how to interact
with all these different personalities, with older couples, younger couples,
business dinners, kid dinners, lunches so I really learned how to interact
with a variety of different people.
and so I really think that helped me sort of moving forward and, really
helps me, to this day in my career.
' I was a waiter part-time for almost two years.
Maggie McKay (Host): I think it is so important no matter what your career ends
up being, that at some point in your life you have at least one job that deals with
the public because of what you're saying.
You have to learn how to get along with all different kinds of people.
So I think you're totally right.
what's on your perfect slice of pizza?
I.
Dr Chris Sipe: So, as I said earlier, I like to cook and so,
we actually have a pizza oven at our house before pizza ovens.
Became, readily available.
We've had one for about 10 years.
I make all sorts of different pizzas.
a lot of it depends upon what mood I'm in.
my kids all want a pepperoni pizza or my son wants a bacon pizza.
I like some meat pizzas.
and so I will put, Meatballs, homemade meatballs.
I'll put some spicy Italian sausage, some pepperoni on there, as well as some
thick, sliced bacon that's been precooked.
so you get a really, good meaty, bite.
but I also make dessert pizzas where I will use, chocolate
chips, little mini marshmallows.
and then I crumble graham crackers on top and I bake that.
And then I fold it over, sort of like a calzone.
And the kids love that.
it's like
a.
Maggie McKay (Host): I bet their friends love coming to eat at your house.
Dr Chris Sipe: They do because of the pizza oven.
It's not uncommon for us to just tell the kids, invite your friends over and
I'll make 10 pizzas that night and just, keep putting them out on the countertop.
Kids will eat it and then next time you all make another pizza.
And it's a very happy household.
You know, kids are happy
Maggie McKay (Host): yeah.
Yep.
It's the truth.
how do you take your coffee?
Dr Chris Sipe: So I'm not a coffee drinker.
I have enough energy that I probably don't need much caffeine.
but at some point I did get into tea.
I found tea to be a relaxing sort of a hobby.
And so, I generally will try and have either a green jasmine tea
or a, vanilla coconut black tea.
usually I like it.
in a warm cup, and I ideally like to sit outside, but if it's snowing
and things will try, I might go outside and let the dogs out, but
then very quickly come back in.
Maggie McKay (Host): so what does National Infertility Awareness Week mean to you?
Dr Chris Sipe: When I first started, people didn't really acknowledge
that fertility was an issue, and so National infertility week.
I won't say it's a newer thing, but it really is, it's an
acknowledgement by society that there's a problem and that there are
solutions and people can get help.
And so what I love about National Infertility Awareness
Week is that it really.
Helps get the word out there that there are treatments, that there
are options for people, that they're not alone, that they're not
the only ones going through this.
I think that's really important because in the old days, no one talked about it.
Maggie McKay (Host): So why is it important to talk
openly about infertility?
Dr Chris Sipe: I think it's always good to understand.
What the problem is, so you can't acknowledge a problem
until you talk about it.
And so really it's very important to have an open conversation about your
fertility and your fertility journey.
If you don't, no one's gonna know what you're going through.
No one's gonna be able to offer you help.
and no one's gonna understand what you may need that may be
different from other people.
So really being open about it, I think is great.
Going online, it's spouting forth every medicine you're on.
I don't know that those are details that people necessarily need to share.
if it makes them feel better, I think that's great.
I like small group, discussions more than, announcing things to the world.
'cause you know, the world's a little different now and people have lots
of strong opinions on social media.
Maggie McKay (Host): What are some words of encouragement that you'd share
with patients navigating infertility?
Dr Chris Sipe: some key terms to help patients navigate their
fertility journey, is endure.
You're gonna be going through a lot.
It's gonna not be easy.
It's not gonna be anything you're used to, not anything you studied
for or trained for, you can read up on it, but until you're in it.
You're not gonna know, so you just have to endure.
keep an open mind is another, you know, phrase.
I think that's important because sometimes there's things we gotta do that are
just, not what you consider normal.
You were raised one way, this is doing something differently.
or just the whole concept of what we're doing, may seem unnatural.
And just keeping an open mind to be willing to try other things.
Maggie McKay (Host): How can awareness and education help break the
stigma around fertility challenges?
Because like you said, years back, no one even talked about it.
Dr Chris Sipe: Yeah, I think awareness and discussion about fertility is critical.
We always like government not involved in our medical care,
but more and more government gets involved in our medical care.
and I was really encouraged, by the federal proclamation
that IVF should be covered.
it's really.
Some of the first times that I've heard IVF acknowledged by any administration.
and I think that's really encouraging for patients having access in the
future because one of the hardest things about fertility is to get access.
It's not that they're not fertility clinics around, it's
the cost of the treatments.
And so if insurances are gonna start covering it, that now makes it accessible
financially for these patients.
Maggie McKay (Host): What should patients look for when they're
choosing a fertility clinic?
Dr Chris Sipe: So when patients are looking to pick a fertility clinic, I
think one of the most important things that they should do is talk to their
friends, see what kind of experience they had, if they've gone to fertility.
Unfortunately, because the average age of a fertility patient is now 37,
38, a lot of your friends will have.
Gone or met with a fertility clinic at some point.
for people who are in a small town where there's only one fertility
clinic in, you know, a hundred mile range, you don't get much of an option.
But for places like in Chicago, you want to go to a place that's
got a good reputation for good outcomes, it's sometimes a little
hard to figure out what those are.
In general, most of the OBGYNs who you know, you may be working with.
they have a pretty good feel about who's doing well and who's not doing well.
there are some published data about pregnancy rates, but, the way that the
SART database is now, it's very, hard to navigate through there and it's
very hard to compare clinic to clinic.
you want to make sure that the doctor you're working
with, you're comfortable with.
and so it's okay if you meet with a doctor and you don't feel comfortable with that
person to go pick a different doctor.
It could be at the same clinic, it could be a different clinic.
You're not always gonna blend with the person that you're wanna work with.
And then there's some doctors, you know, that are good, tacticians and
good, surgically, but may not have the world's greatest personality.
You just have to decide what's important for you.
Maggie McKay (Host): in closing, what sets Fertility Centers of Illinois
apart from other fertility clinics?
Dr Chris Sipe: A couple of things that sets FCI apart
from other fertility clinics.
Is our breadth of experience.
we had the very first doctor that did IVF successfully in the state
of Illinois back in the eighties As one of our founding partners.
we've had multiple labs that we've worked with, so we've gained lots of
experience from different laboratories.
We have people internationally that are with us, training internationally,
bringing different experiences from both the Americas and Europe.
we have a.
Fantastic collaboration effort between our doctors, urologists, geneticists,
psychologists, financial folks.
FCI is a big believer in doing research.
we do publish a fair amount, but we do a lot more internal
research to know which protocols work better for which populations.
and when you're a larger practice, you can do those research practice because
when you're doing three to 4,000 IBF cycles a year, when you do something.
You can see a difference there.
If you're doing two to 300 IVF cycles a year, it's gonna take a while for
you to be able to detect a difference in those pregnancy rates and you may
not be able to break it into subgroups to determine what helps other people.
Maggie McKay (Host): Well, thank you so much for being here today.
It's been a pleasure getting to know you.
Dr Chris Sipe: Thank you very much, Maggie.
I've really appreciated the opportunity and, all that you're doing to
help raise awareness for fertility and getting everything out there.
Maggie McKay (Host): Absolutely.
Again, that's Dr.
Christopher Sipe.
If you'd like to find Dr.
Sipe, please visit fci online.com/doctors.
I'm Maggie McKay.
Thanks for listening to Time to Talk Fertility Beyond the Lab Coat, a podcast
from Fertility Centers of Illinois.