Shady Grove Fertility Northern Virginia (Fairfax, VA)

Address: 8501 Arlington Blvd., Suite 500, Fairfax, VA 22031 | Phone: (703) 876-0734 | shadygrovefertility.com

Shady Grove Fertility is the largest fertility practice in the United States, and its Northern Virginia footprint reflects that scale. The network operates seven locations across Northern Virginia alone — Fairfax, Fair Oaks, Reston, Woodbridge, Winchester, Leesburg, and Arlington — anchored by a full-service IVF center in Fairfax. For patients in the Washington, D.C. suburbs who want the clinical depth of a major academic-affiliated network without traveling into the District, the Fairfax hub is the de facto flagship. SGF's Virginia practice has earned the designation of #1 physician practice for reproductive endocrinology in Virginia by Castle Connolly (2024), a peer-nominated recognition that reflects the regard other physicians hold for the team.

The network's mid-Atlantic roots run deep. Founded in 1991 in Maryland, SGF has refined IVF, donor egg, and egg-freezing protocols across more than 100,000 successful cycles over three decades. Patients choosing the Fairfax location get access to that institutional depth, a centralized embryology laboratory, and a physician team that is consistently among the most published in the specialty.

Physicians and Clinical Team

Three fellowship-trained reproductive endocrinologists anchor the Northern Virginia practice, with the Fairfax and Woodbridge offices serving as the primary clinical sites.

Eric D. Levens, M.D., FACOG trained at Indiana University before earning his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He completed his OB/GYN residency at the University of Florida and went on to a Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellowship at the National Institutes of Health — one of the most research-intensive REI training programs in the country. Dr. Levens is dual board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the REI subspecialty. He has authored more than 85 peer-reviewed publications, with work appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and currently chairs the Quality Assurance Committee for the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SART). He previously served as a staff clinician at NIH and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, holding the rank of lieutenant commander in the United States Public Health Service.

Rachana V. Garde, M.D., MPH brings an unusually broad academic background: she studied biology and Russian studies at Duke University, completed graduate work in infectious disease studies at Yale, earned her medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina, and finished her OB/GYN residency at Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her REI fellowship was completed at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Garde holds a Master of Public Health and is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She practices primarily at the Fairfax and Woodbridge locations, where she manages the full range of fertility diagnoses with a particular focus on IVF, donor egg cycles, and male-factor infertility.

Nicole P. Doyle, M.D., Ph.D., FACOG earned her combined M.D./Ph.D. from the Technical University of Munich's medical school. She completed her OB/GYN residency at Georgetown University Hospital and her REI fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Doyle holds Fellow status with the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology and has authored peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and review articles in reproductive endocrinology journals. Her clinical and research focus centers on optimizing embryo transfer timing — a granular question that has real implications for patients with recurrent implantation failure. She also specializes in diminished ovarian reserve, premature ovarian insufficiency, PCOS, fertility preservation, and recurrent pregnancy loss.

The Northern Virginia practice is supported by reproductive nurses, ultrasound technologists, and embryologists across the seven regional locations. SGF operates a shared physician model at its satellite offices, which means monitoring appointments may not always be staffed by your primary physician — a standard arrangement at large-network centers worth clarifying at your first consultation.

Services and Treatments

The Fairfax IVF center offers the full spectrum of assisted reproductive technology. Services available to Northern Virginia patients include:

• In vitro fertilization (IVF), including mini-IVF and natural-cycle IVF
• Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
• Frozen embryo transfer (FET)
• Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
• Ovulation induction and timed intercourse cycles
• Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) and for monogenic disorders (PGT-M)
• Egg freezing (elective fertility preservation)
• Embryo freezing and cryostorage
• Donor egg cycles — SGF operates one of the largest donor egg programs in the country
• Donor embryo programs
• Gestational surrogacy coordination
• LGBTQ+ family building, including reciprocal IVF
• Male-factor evaluation and management, including surgical sperm retrieval
• Recurrent pregnancy loss workup and management
• Fertility preservation for cancer patients

For patients beginning the evaluation process, the Fairfax team offers new patient consultations and a full fertility workup including Day 3 bloodwork, AMH testing, antral follicle counts, semen analysis, and hysterosalpingography (HSG). Virtual consultations are available for initial appointments. For a full explanation of the IVF process and what to expect cycle-by-cycle, see our IVF treatment guide.

Laboratory and Success Rates

The Fairfax location operates one of SGF's two Virginia full-service IVF laboratories, the other being in Richmond. The embryology team uses time-lapse incubator technology and follows the network's standardized culture protocols, which have been refined over 30-plus years of high-volume practice. SGF was an early advocate of elective single embryo transfer (eSET) — a practice that reduces multiple-gestation risk even when it modestly affects per-transfer statistics.

SGF reports outcomes data to SART and the CDC as required of all ART programs. Historically, SGF's Virginia IVF centers have reported live birth rates at or above national averages — in the mid-to-upper 40 percent range per retrieval for patients under 35 using their own eggs. To compare current clinic-reported data across all U.S. programs, visit the CDC ART Success Rates database, which publishes annual reports for each reporting clinic.

Interpreting success rates requires care: patient mix, case complexity, and eSET policies all affect headline numbers. A practice that accepts more complex, older, or previously failed patients will not look as favorable in raw statistics as one that declines high-risk cases. Ask your physician to contextualize their outcomes for patients in your specific age and diagnosis category.

Patient Experience

Patients at SGF Northern Virginia consistently cite the clinical knowledge of the physician team as a primary strength. At a network where individual physicians have 85+ peer-reviewed publications and leadership roles in national specialty societies, that reputation is grounded in verifiable credentials rather than marketing copy.

Common themes in patient feedback include:

• Accessibility across Northern Virginia: Seven locations reduce commute burden for patients in Reston, Woodbridge, Winchester, and the broader I-95 and I-66 corridors.
• Care coordination: As with most large-network practices, patients occasionally note that administrative communication — nursing callbacks, portal responsiveness, cycle scheduling — can lag during high-volume periods. Proactively establishing a named nurse coordinator as your primary contact early in treatment is a practical mitigation.
• Protocol consistency: The centralized lab and standardized stimulation protocols mean that if your monitoring appointments rotate across physicians, the underlying clinical approach remains consistent.
• Donor egg program scale: Patients pursuing donor egg cycles note that SGF's program size translates to more available donors, shorter wait times, and a more structured matching process than smaller programs.
• LGBTQ+ inclusivity: Multiple reviews from same-sex couples and single parents by choice highlight the practice's straightforward integration of reciprocal IVF, donor sperm, and co-parenting arrangements.

A practical note: the Fairfax office handles high daily patient volumes, particularly during monitoring cycles (typically early mornings). Arriving promptly for monitoring appointments and using the patient portal for non-urgent questions helps manage wait times.

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

Virginia does not have a state IVF insurance mandate. Unlike Maryland, which has required large-group employer plans to cover IVF since 1985, Virginia patients depend on employer-negotiated benefits — typically variable and often absent. Patients with federal employee benefits (FEHB) or employer plans from large technology, government-contracting, or federal-adjacent employers in the Northern Virginia corridor sometimes carry meaningful fertility benefits; verifying your specific plan before your first appointment is essential.

SGF participates with a wide network of insurance carriers and employs dedicated financial counselors at each location to verify benefits and estimate out-of-pocket costs before treatment begins. For patients without coverage — or who choose to waive coverage — SGF offers two proprietary financial programs:

Shared Risk 100% Refund Program: Patients pay a flat fee for up to six IVF or donor egg cycles, including all resulting frozen embryo transfers. If the program concludes without a live birth and the patient chooses to exit, 100 percent of the program fee is refunded. Historically, more than 82 percent of own-egg participants take home a baby; the figure exceeds 85 percent for donor egg participants. Medications and diagnostic testing are excluded from the flat fee. Eligibility is based on age and ovarian reserve.

IVF Advantage Multi-Cycle Discount: A discounted multi-cycle package for patients who do not qualify for the Shared Risk program.

Third-party financing through CapexMD and other fertility lending partners is available. SGF also maintains relationships with grant programs for patients facing financial hardship.

For a full comparison of how Virginia compares with states that do carry coverage mandates, see our guide to fertility clinics in Virginia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Shady Grove Fertility Fairfax have its own IVF lab?

Yes. The Fairfax location is a full-service IVF center with an on-site embryology laboratory. Not all SGF satellite locations in Northern Virginia perform egg retrievals and embryo transfers — those procedures are typically centralized at the Fairfax lab, with monitoring cycles available at the satellite offices closer to a patient's home.

Which SGF Northern Virginia locations perform monitoring-only appointments vs. full IVF cycles?

Monitoring visits (bloodwork and ultrasounds) can generally be done at any of the seven Northern Virginia locations, including Reston, Woodbridge, Winchester, Leesburg, Arlington, Fair Oaks, and Fairfax. Egg retrievals, embryo transfers, and surgical procedures are performed at the Fairfax IVF center. Your care team will map out which appointments require travel to Fairfax during your treatment planning consultation.

Does SGF Northern Virginia treat LGBTQ+ patients and single parents by choice?

Yes. SGF's LGBTQ+ family-building program covers reciprocal IVF (where one partner provides eggs and the other carries the pregnancy), donor sperm insemination and IVF, gestational surrogacy coordination, and embryo cryopreservation. The practice has formal protocols and legal referral relationships for these pathways. Single parents by choice using donor sperm or donor embryo are also routinely served.

What is the typical timeline from first consultation to IVF retrieval?

Most patients can expect roughly four to eight weeks from initial consultation to the start of their first stimulation cycle, assuming workup results are available and no surgical intervention is needed. Pre-cycle testing — blood panels, semen analysis, saline sonogram, and infectious disease screening — is typically completed within the first two to three weeks. Patients with prior records from another clinic should request those records before their first SGF appointment to avoid duplicate testing and delay.