Fertility and Reproductive Surgery, Southeastern Center

Welcome to the Southeastern Fertility Center's Home Page

The Southeastern Fertility Center is offers this site as an information resource for couples coping with the difficulties of infertility. Just as our center provides the most advanced treatment for our patients, this site provides the most recent and accurate medical information concerning infertility and reproductive surgery.

Located in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Southeastern Fertility Center specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of male and female infertility problems. Under the direction of Jeffrey A. Keenan M.D., F.A.C.O.G., our patients receive the highest quality medical care available in the region. Dr. Keenan is one of the most experienced and respected specialists in infertility and reproductive medicine and surgery.

We provide updates on this site to ensure you are receiving the latest information. For the latest updates, please click here. If you wish to schedule an appointment at the Southeastern Fertility Center or have questions, please call or use our appointment request form.

WINTER UPDATE 2007-2008

With the holidays quickly approaching, many couples are steeling themselves for the mixed blessing of gatherings with fiends and family. While everyone enjoys catching up with old fiends and acquaintances, it can be a painful reminder of another year without the joy of a new baby in your own family.

However, this time of year can also be a great time to reevaluate or renew fertility treatments. With scheduled holiday time off and insurance deductibles met, many patients find that now is the time to begin looking ahead and planning for a renewed focus on expanding their families in the coming new year.

Looking back over this year's ART cycles, our statistics have been phenomenal. We have exceeded national averages and continue to explore new research and clinical advances in the hopes of seeing our pregnancy rates rise even higher.

It is also important to keep in mind that patients whose focus is no longer on achieving pregnancy, can also benefit from our services. Whether you're struggling with irregular periods, menopause, pelvic pain, PCOS, or some other "female" problem, we are a great resource to explore options available to you.

If you're ready to begin or renew your journey through reproductive health, call or email us now!

Center News

Please welcome Ms. Tina Jackson as our new nurse practitioner. Tina comes to us with years of experience from both a pregnancy help center and another infertility practice. Tina’s strengths include ultrasound, PCOS, ovulation induction, well-woman care, and even counseling. We are extremely fortunate to have Tina on our staff!

New cryopreservation technique now available! We have recently ‘made the switch’ from conventional cryopreservation using slow cooling techniques to the ultra-rapid “vitrification” process. In this process, the cells are prepared slightly differently, and then plunged directly into liquid nitrogen. This helps to avoid ice crystal damage to the cells of the eggs or embryos. Several comparison trials have now found this method to be more effective, so we look forward to even higher frozen egg and embryo pregnancy rates in the future!

Several of our staff will be traveling to Santa Barbara this summer for what is arguably the world’s best course in Assisted Reproduction. We maintain our commitment to excellence by continual learning and discussion/collaboration with some of the world leaders in this field.

Literature Review

Do I really need treatment? What are the chances that I can conceive without it? These are the questions that are answered in a new internet based assessment tool from the Netherlands. The idea is to give couples a good idea of their chance for pregnancy on their own. Employing these guidelines could save you the costs and time associated with fertility therapies. I think it is a very useful tool for those couples who are not extremely anxious or impatient regarding pregnancy. You can find this tool at http://www.freya.nl/probability.php .

Smoking and Pregnancy. We have known for years that cigarette smoking causes a major (approx. 50%) reduction in a patient’s ability to conceive. This is likely true for spontaneous pregnancies as well as those resulting from fertility therapy. A recent study in Human Reproduction used an egg donation model to determine whether this effect was simply due to toxic effects on the eggs, or whether something about the uterine environment was also affected in a negative way. They found the latter to be true – i.e. even with eggs not exposed to the toxins in cigarettes, implantation and pregnancy rates were lower in women who smoked by about 1/3. Thus, the effects of tobacco are may be as detrimental on the uterine environment as it is on the oocyte. PLEASE stop smoking if you are seriously wanting to become pregnant!

(footnote: There is a new medicine – Chantix – which is not being promoted by the company, but which appears to be the most effective drug yet to help people stop smoking. Please talk to your doctor if you would like to consider this option…)

Obesity and Pregnancy. Another recent study analyzed the time to pregnancy in couples who were overweight. These were unselected couples who were trying to conceive for the first time, and their fertility status was unknown. The researchers found a significantly longer time to conceive in women who were more than a few pounds overweight. In women with a BMI of 30 or over, they were about 20% less likely to conceive even when they were ovulating regularly. With obesity at epidemic proportions in the U.S., this study is enlightening as to why fertility clinics are becoming more and more busy.

(footnote: Another new drug, “Byetta”, has been used successfully by many patients to lose weight. This is an injectable medication used to treat diabetes. It is not FDA approved for weight loss, but we have heard many anecdotal stories of it’s effectiveness. Please see your doctor if you would like to know whether this could be a safe and effective alternative for you)