RSC New England (Burlington, MA): Patient Guide

RSC New England — formally the Reproductive Science Center of New England — is one of the largest and most established fertility practices in the northeastern United States, founded in 1988 and recognized as a nationally ranked Top 10 fertility treatment center. The Burlington monitoring office sits at the heart of the clinic's northern-Boston-area reach, serving patients from the Route 3 and I-95 corridor who would otherwise face a longer commute to the Lexington IVF center. Burlington's position roughly 12 miles northwest of downtown Boston makes it a practical hub for patients in communities including Woburn, Billerica, Wilmington, Winchester, Andover, Haverhill, and southern New Hampshire towns such as Nashua and Londonderry. For patients living above the Mass-New Hampshire state line who want a Massachusetts-based practice with access to the commonwealth's broad insurance mandate, RSC New England's northern-area presence provides a meaningful geographic advantage over providers whose offices cluster closer to the city. Patients evaluating providers across the commonwealth can consult our guide to fertility clinics in Massachusetts for a broader overview of available programs.

RSC New England's clinical headquarters occupy 1 Forbes Road in Lexington, Massachusetts, where the full IVF laboratory and procedure suite are housed. Burlington functions as a satellite monitoring and consultation location — patients undergo cycle monitoring (blood draws and transvaginal ultrasound) there before procedures performed at the Lexington IVF center, reducing travel during the most appointment-intensive phases of a treatment cycle. RSC New England operated independently for more than 25 years before merging with Boston IVF in November 2014 to form a network spanning 18 physicians and more than 25 locations across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island — one of the largest fertility networks in the country at the time of combination.

Physicians and Clinical Team

RSC New England's physician team holds double board certification in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility through the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology — the subspecialty credential that distinguishes fellowship-trained REI specialists from general gynecologists who perform some fertility procedures.

Samuel C. Pang, MD served as Medical Director of RSC New England from 2007 through the practice's merger and integration into Boston IVF. Dr. Pang joined what was then IVF America Boston in 1993 and built a particularly recognized program in donor-egg IVF and third-party reproduction, having directed the clinic's donor and surrogacy program since 1997. He is credited as one of the earliest U.S. physicians to apply assisted reproductive technology to gay male couples seeking parenthood through donor eggs and gestational carriers — work that began in 1998 and positioned RSC New England as a national leader in LGBTQ+ family building. In 2007 he coined the clinical term "reciprocal IVF" for cycles in which one female partner provides oocytes and the other carries the pregnancy — a protocol now widely used in same-sex female family building. Dr. Pang was awarded the 2022 American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Distinguished Educator Award, one of the society's most prestigious honors. He completed his REI training at a program affiliated with Harvard Medical School and is a longtime member of ASRM and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART).

Isaac Z. Glatstein, MD, MSc served as Associate Medical Director at RSC New England and is a founding partner of the practice. Dr. Glatstein earned his medical degree at New York University School of Medicine and completed his fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility through Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston — one of the highest-volume academic REI programs in the United States. He holds dual board certification in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Glatstein saw patients at both the Lexington IVF center and the clinic's Boston South Shore location in Braintree. He has been recognized with the Patients' Choice Award continuously since 2008 and additionally received Compassionate Doctor Recognition in 2009 and 2010. Among his clinical focuses are diminished ovarian reserve, recurrent pregnancy loss, and complex IVF management.

Carla M. DiGirolamo, MD, PhD practiced at RSC New England as a partner and senior reproductive endocrinologist for nearly two decades before transitioning to an independent practice focusing on women's hormonal health and performance medicine. Dr. DiGirolamo is double board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and holds an earned doctorate in addition to her medical degree, reflecting a strong research background. She completed her OB/GYN residency at Brown University Medical School and Women and Infants' Hospital in Providence — one of the country's leading women's hospitals — and her REI fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital through Harvard Medical School. During her tenure at RSC New England she was recognized as a Top Doctor in Massachusetts by multiple outlets and was particularly known for integrating lifestyle medicine, exercise physiology, and nutrition into fertility care.

Kristen P. Wright, MD was a senior physician at RSC New England and later continued with the Boston IVF network following the merger, where she serves as Clinical Assistant Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. Dr. Wright is double board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. She completed her OB/GYN residency at Brown University Medical School and her REI fellowship at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Dr. Wright has been recognized as a Top Doctor in Reproductive Medicine and Infertility by New Hampshire Magazine for multiple consecutive years and is a member of ASRM, the New England Fertility Society, ACOG, and the American Medical Association.

Services and Treatments

RSC New England offers the full spectrum of fertility diagnostics and assisted reproductive technology through its Lexington IVF center, with monitoring services provided at Burlington and other satellite locations:

• In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), including conventional gonadotropin-stimulated cycles and natural or modified natural-cycle protocols
• Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) cycles, both programmed and natural
• Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) with partner or donor sperm
• Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) for male-factor or prior fertilization failure
• Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidies (PGT-A) and single-gene disorders (PGT-M)
• Egg freezing and elective fertility preservation through the MyEggBank North America network, of which RSC New England was a founding member
• Donor egg IVF, including participation in frozen oocyte donor programs that can reduce cycle cost to roughly one-third to one-half of fresh-donor cycles
• Donor sperm insemination
• Gestational carrier (surrogacy) coordination and management
• LGBTQ+ family building, including reciprocal IVF for same-sex female couples and donor-egg gestational carrier cycles for gay male couples
• Oncofertility and medically indicated fertility preservation for patients facing chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatment
• Ovulation induction and controlled ovarian hyperstimulation
• Comprehensive infertility diagnostics: AMH and day-3 hormone panels, antral follicle count (AFC), semen analysis, hysterosalpingography (HSG), saline infusion sonohysterography (SIS), and endometrial assessment
• Male infertility evaluation, including referral coordination for surgical sperm retrieval (TESA/MESA)
• Recurrent pregnancy loss evaluation and management
• Reproductive endocrine disorders including PCOS, premature ovarian insufficiency, and hypothalamic dysfunction

Laboratory and Success Rates

RSC New England's IVF laboratory is located at the Lexington headquarters and has operated continuously since 1988, accumulating more than three decades of embryology experience. The Lexington laboratory employs full-time senior embryologists and andrologists and maintains strict environmental controls — including HEPA-filtered air handling and continuous temperature and gas monitoring — to support optimal embryo culture conditions. The practice was an early adopter of vitrification technology for egg and embryo cryopreservation, replacing older slow-freeze protocols with a method that consistently yields higher post-thaw survival rates.

As a founding partner of MyEggBank North America, RSC New England integrated oocyte banking technology into clinical practice before egg freezing was widely accepted as a standard treatment, enabling fertility preservation and donor egg programs with outcomes equivalent to fresh-egg cycles.

Prospective patients can review RSC New England's verified ART outcomes through the federal reporting database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and through the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology's clinic-specific outcome reports. SART summaries break live birth rates down by patient age group and cycle type — providing the most clinically meaningful comparison available between programs. Access the federal ART reporting data at the CDC ART national reporting page. Individual clinic success-rate reports are available through the SART Clinic Summary Report portal, where you can search by clinic name or location.

Patient Experience

Burlington patients value the satellite monitoring model that RSC New England pioneered across its multi-location network. Cycle monitoring — typically required on days 2 through 3 for baseline assessment and then again at intervals of one to four days during stimulation — involves blood draws and ultrasound scans that take 20 to 40 minutes but must occur early in the morning. Having a monitoring site in Burlington means patients from northern Middlesex County, Essex County, and southern New Hampshire can complete these appointments close to home or on the way to work, then travel to Lexington only for egg retrieval and embryo transfer procedures.

Patient reviews across platforms including FertilityIQ and Healthgrades consistently cited RSC New England's nursing and coordinator staff for responsiveness and warmth. The practice's patient portal and phone-based triage system were designed to accommodate the high communication volume inherent in IVF cycles, where patients regularly need same-day guidance on medication adjustments and appointment scheduling. The Attain Fertility multi-cycle refund programs — for which RSC New England served as the exclusive New England provider — provided additional financial predictability for patients pursuing IVF, with a two-cycle-plus-two-FET program offering up to a 50 percent refund if no live birth resulted, and a three-cycle program offering up to a full refund.

The practice's deep commitment to LGBTQ+ family building, built over more than two decades under Dr. Pang's leadership, made RSC New England one of the most sought-after programs in New England for same-sex couples and transgender individuals. The Burlington location's proximity to southern New Hampshire — a state without a fertility insurance mandate — gave LGBTQ+ patients from that state a convenient entry point to Massachusetts-based coverage and clinical expertise. For a broader discussion of what to expect from a full treatment cycle, see our guide to IVF treatment.

Considering At-Home Insemination?

Not every fertility journey begins in a clinic. At-home intracervical insemination (ICI) is a lower-cost, private option that suits patients with no known fertility diagnosis — including single parents by choice, same-sex couples, and people who want to try a few cycles before committing to clinical treatment.

At-home insemination kits like those from MakeAMom come with step-by-step instructions designed for donor or partner sperm. Kits are a one-time purchase that can be reused until conception succeeds, require no clinic visit, and arrive in plain, discreet packaging. Many patients use them as a first step while working toward a fertility consultation — or alongside ovulation tracking while they wait for an appointment slot.

If you have a known fertility diagnosis, have been trying for 12 months without success (six months if you're over 35), or your physician has already recommended IUI or IVF, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist is the right next step.

Insurance and Financing

Massachusetts has one of the most comprehensive fertility insurance mandates in the United States. Enacted in 1987 — making Massachusetts only the second state in the country to require such coverage — the mandate requires any health insurer that provides pregnancy-related benefits to also cover medically necessary diagnosis and treatment of infertility. Covered procedures include IUI, IVF and embryo transfer (IVF-ET), gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), sperm and egg procurement and processing, and ICSI for male-factor infertility. The mandate does not impose a specific lifetime cycle limit in the statute itself, though individual plans may apply clinical criteria and prior-authorization requirements in practice.

In 2024, Massachusetts expanded its requirements to mandate coverage for medically necessary fertility preservation — for example, egg or embryo freezing before chemotherapy or other gonadotoxic treatment that could impair future fertility. This brought Massachusetts into the vanguard of states requiring oncofertility coverage and has particular relevance for younger patients facing cancer diagnosis who wish to preserve reproductive options.

Important limitations apply. Employers who self-insure under ERISA — a category that includes many large private-sector companies — are exempt from state mandates entirely, as are Medicaid (MassHealth), Medicare, TRICARE, and federal employee benefit programs. Patients should confirm mandate applicability with their HR department or insurer before beginning treatment.

For patients without qualifying coverage, RSC New England (and, following the merger, Boston IVF) offered multi-cycle financial programs, financing through partners such as CapexMD and Prosper Healthcare Lending, and the Attain shared-risk programs. A single monitored IVF cycle in the greater Boston area typically ranges from $13,000 to $20,000 before medications, anesthesia, and optional add-ons such as PGT. Frozen embryo transfer cycles are considerably less expensive, generally running $3,000 to $5,000 beyond medication costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the Burlington monitoring location and the Lexington IVF center? The Burlington office functions as a satellite monitoring site where patients have blood drawn and transvaginal ultrasounds performed during stimulation cycles and frozen transfer preparations. These visits are brief — typically 20 to 40 minutes — and scheduled in the early morning. All procedural care, including egg retrievals, embryo transfers, and IUI, takes place at the Lexington headquarters at 1 Forbes Road, where the full embryology laboratory and procedure suites are located. This split model reduces the number of times patients must travel to Lexington during a cycle, making treatment more manageable for those living in the Burlington-area corridor.

Does RSC New England accept patients from New Hampshire? Yes. The Burlington location was specifically sited to serve patients from southern New Hampshire — including the Nashua, Salem, and Manchester metro areas — who travel into Massachusetts for fertility treatment. Because New Hampshire does not have a state fertility insurance mandate, many NH residents seek care in Massachusetts to access the commonwealth's broader coverage requirements. RSC New England's northern satellite network, including Burlington, accommodates this patient flow. Patients should verify their specific insurance plan terms, since ERISA self-insured plans remain exempt from Massachusetts law regardless of where care is received.

How does Massachusetts's fertility insurance mandate apply to IVF? Massachusetts law (M.G.L. c. 175 § 47H and related regulations) requires insurers that cover pregnancy-related benefits to cover medically necessary infertility treatment, including IVF, IUI, ICSI, and related services, without a specific statutory cap on the number of covered cycles. In practice, insurers may require prior authorization, apply clinical criteria (such as diagnosis of infertility after 12 months of unprotected intercourse, or six months for patients over 35), and impose plan-level limitations. The mandate does not apply to self-insured employer plans under ERISA, Medicaid, Medicare, or federal employee plans. RSC New England's insurance coordinators can review a patient's specific benefits before treatment begins.

What made RSC New England distinctive among New England fertility programs? RSC New England combined several characteristics that set it apart: nearly four decades of continuous operation in Massachusetts; a nationally recognized LGBTQ+ family-building program developed under Dr. Samuel Pang starting in the 1990s; early adoption of vitrification and oocyte banking through its founding partnership in MyEggBank North America; and a multi-location monitoring network that made high-complexity IVF accessible without requiring patients to travel to a single metropolitan clinic for every appointment. The practice's 2014 merger with Boston IVF extended this reach further, creating one of the largest fertility networks in the northeastern United States.