'Love Makes a Family' at Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago

"Love Makes a Family," the website for the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago states, and for the clinic's providers – including Dr. Tumi Kuyoro, third-party team member Nurse Aminty Arthurs, and Nurse Manager Christine Lord – those words define each and every patient interaction.

AFCC is one of the 90+ clinics comprising The Prelude Network, North America's largest and fastest-growing network of fertility care centers. With LGBTQ+ families increasingly seeking guidance and scientific expertise to help them realize their parenting dreams, inclusive and accepting care is a must, and The Prelude Network's clinics take pride in treating queer families with the respect they deserve.

So successful is the approach that, Dr. Kuyoro notes, "A lot of the LGBTQ patients that I've seen are not just from Chicago, they're from all the other states in the Midwest, and even as far as some of the states in the East.

"I think that's a reflection of the quality of services that we're able to perform here," Dr. Kuyoro adds, before pointing out, "We're privileged in the fact that, in addition to having an amazing third-party team in general, we also, quite uniquely, have our own donor egg bank." That facility gives the team the option to offer queer families third-party contributions of ova that are either newly harvested or that are on hand in cryopreservation.

"That really just puts us in a unique position to be able to offer services that may not be offered elsewhere," Dr. Kuyoro explains, "but also do it well because of the high volume of patients that we see here."

Whether patients are sourcing gametes from known donors (that is, family members or friends), anonymous donors with the help of the clinic's providers, or providing gametes themselves, the essentials of IVF are the same. Skilled fertility experts bring together the trio of ingredients for new life: Sperm, an ova (or egg), and a womb that might belong to a patient or to a gestational surrogate, depending on the needs of the family (or single individual) with whom the team is working.

Helping source donated gametes is the province of Nurse Arthurs, who is quick to point out that her role with the clinic's third-party team is not a matter of merely going though well-rehearsed motions, but rather of understanding the unique goals of each family that comes to AFCC.

"It's different for each patient or each couple, depending on what their needs are, and perhaps what their history is, and what their knowledge base is with third party reproduction," Nurse Arthurs outlines. "I let them drive a lot of the times and fill in where I can, but I give them a pretty in-depth picture from the initial reach-out, which explains, 'Here are your steps.' If we're working with a same-sex male couple, I'll talk about the embryo creation part, and then the subsequent embryo transfer to a surrogate."

The science, while complex, is well-understood: Once a sperm and an egg have been united in controlled conditions, an embryo begins to form. Several days later, the closely monitored embryo is genetically tested, and then can be implanted or cryogenically preserved. Frozen embryos remain viable for decades, giving patients greater agency around their family-building options, such as timing pregnancies, planning birth order, and even preserving their own fertility so that the high-quality gametes of their youth can remain available once other life goals are met and they feel ready for parenthood on their own terms.

Fertility preservation also helps cisgender patients with ova defy the fertility-ravaging effects of certain medical situations, such as some forms of cancer treatment.

"The reason I went into this field was because my roommate from med school was diagnosed with cancer, and she had to go through treatment that would have affected her fertility," Dr. Kuyoro shares. "Her oncologist had given her the option of undergoing fertility preservation, and prior to that point it wasn't even something that I was aware of.

"It's amazing that now we have this technology that we can offer, not just for women who may have their fertility potentially removed at some point, but also, you know, just for a lot of women now are choosing to have kids later," Dr. Kuyoro adds. "It's great that this is one less thing for them to worry about."

Another example of how the science around IVF has expanded the possibilities for family-building: For transgender people, the technology of cryopreservation been an absolute game-changer. "Fertility preservation involves freezing sperm, eggs, or embryos before undergoing gender-affirming therapies or procedures," the website for The Prelude Network notes. "Whatever your needs are, your Prelude team will help, support, and guide you through the various steps you need to take to achieve your family-building goals, all in an inclusive, respectful, and compassionate environment."

Dr. Kuyoro, who was part of the staff at a transgender care center before joining the team at AFCC, recalls that "our patients who were transitioning or were going to undergo testosterone treatment were very happy that they could preserve their fertility prior to undergoing the treatment by freezing their eggs. Many of them weren't even sure they would want kids in the future, but it was great for them that they still had that option, to be able to freeze their eggs for decades just in case, down the line, they decided to become parents."

Unless at least one of them has ova and/or a womb, male couples will need both donated ova and a gestational carrier. One or both members of a couple with wombs and ova might elect to provide the eggs as well as carry the pregnancy. Couples with wombs and ova might even choose the deeply bonding experience of reciprocal IVF, where one partner provides the embryo, and the embryo is transferred into the other partner.

Of course, the option to bring in a third party remains open in any case, and patients might choose to rely on the third-party team, or – even though AFCC maintains its own high-quality egg bank – to source donations from close friends or family members. And while AFCC does not also maintain a sperm bank, the expert clinicians who serve patients there are fully knowledgeable and prepared to help guide prospective parents in need of donated sperm in securing those gametes, as well.

"As with egg donation," The Prelude Network website explains, "you have the option of working with a sperm donor you know personally or using sperm donated anonymously through a sperm bank. There are many things to consider when choosing a sperm donor, and your Prelude clinic will help you fully understand all your options."

The joyful experience of families becoming parents can be so inspiring that some patients pay it forward and become donors in turn. "We've actually had patients that were going through IVF on their own and then wanted to donate any eggs they had frozen, or even embryos they've had frozen to other couples in need," Lord says. "A lot of times, patients will donate extra gametes that they have."

And it's not just gametes – that is, eggs or sperm – that patients might be willing to share with others who are also on a family-building journey. Prospective parents sometimes "adopt" embryos that others have created but do not need to implant.

Families come in many configurations, and each family has an array of options that can be tailored to suit them. That tailoring, though, takes skill, expertise, and compassionate attention.

"This is a very complicated process with a lot of moving parts," Dr. Kuyoro says. "My job as a physician is not to overwhelm them with information in the initial consultation but still prepare them with realistic expectations of what the different steps of this will be. There's a PowerPoint that I like to use to give the explanation to them in digestible bits of information."

Knowledge is power, but guidance is also a powerful part of the journey – and the team that works with each family has the expertise and the confidence to make an intense, thrilling journey toward parenthood as smooth as possible.

"Aminty and the rest of the third-party team will be working very closely with them, guiding them through every step, letting them know, 'Okay, now it's time to do this, and the next step will be this,'" Dr. Kuyoro explains. "It's great, because within a day or two of my having spoken to them, they're plugged in with Aminty and the third-party team, and they can really get going in the process."

And when prospective parents become actual parents with a bundle of joy to dote on and show off?

"That's the best part," Nurse Arthurs says. "It's super rewarding to help patients with their family-building journey – the best."