Women & Infants Fertility Center is the academic fertility program of Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, located at 101 Dudley Street in Providence, Rhode Island — the flagship women's health institution in the state and a major teaching hospital affiliated with Brown University Medicine. Women & Infants Hospital is nationally recognized for its specialization in obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn care, and its fertility center brings this depth of expertise in women's reproductive health to patients across Rhode Island and southeastern New England. The program's connection to Brown University's medical school means that clinical care is integrated with academic research and graduate medical education, providing patients with access to a faculty team at the forefront of evidence-based reproductive medicine. Rhode Island has a fertility insurance mandate. For other Rhode Island fertility resources, visit the Rhode Island state directory.
Physicians and Clinical Team
The Women & Infants Fertility Center is led by fellowship-trained reproductive endocrinologists who hold academic appointments at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School. As an academic program, the fertility center integrates clinical care with medical education — clinical fellows in the REI subspecialty train under the supervision of faculty attending physicians, providing patients the dual benefit of direct attending physician oversight and the engagement of trainees who bring current academic knowledge to the clinical setting. Brown's medical school is one of the nation's respected academic institutions, and faculty physicians at the fertility center contribute to the national literature in reproductive medicine through research publications and participation in professional societies including ASRM.
The clinical team at Women & Infants spans reproductive endocrinology, obstetrics and gynecology, maternal-fetal medicine, genetics, and urology — a multidisciplinary depth particularly valuable for complex cases. Nursing coordinators, embryologists, and reproductive endocrine nurses support the fertility center's clinical operations, ensuring that patients receive well-coordinated cycle monitoring, medication guidance, and timely result communication throughout treatment.
Services and Treatments
Women & Infants Fertility Center offers a comprehensive range of fertility and reproductive medicine services:
- New patient consultations and comprehensive fertility evaluation
- Ovarian reserve testing (AMH, antral follicle count)
- Ovulation induction with monitoring
- Intrauterine insemination (IUI) with partner or donor sperm
- In vitro fertilization (IVF) with individualized stimulation protocols
- Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
- Frozen embryo transfer (FET)
- Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) and hereditary conditions (PGT-M)
- Egg freezing for elective and medical fertility preservation
- Oncofertility — urgent fertility preservation before cancer treatment
- Embryo cryopreservation and banking
- Donor egg coordination
- Donor sperm coordination
- Gestational carrier medical management
- Recurrent pregnancy loss evaluation
- Endometriosis surgical evaluation in coordination with minimally invasive gynecology
- Male infertility evaluation in coordination with urology
- Genetic counseling and preconception genetic screening
- Research protocol participation (where eligible)
Laboratory and Success Rates
The Women & Infants Fertility Center's IVF laboratory operates within the standards appropriate for an academic medical center program, supporting the full range of ART procedures from egg retrieval through fertilization, extended culture, genetic testing, and vitrification. Academic laboratory teams bring a research orientation to their work — many embryologists in academic programs participate in laboratory research studies, contributing to the development of improved culture systems, cryopreservation techniques, and embryo assessment methods. Patients should review the most current cycle-level data published by the CDC's ART Surveillance program and the SART Clinic Summary Report.
Academic programs often see a more complex patient mix than community practices, which can affect aggregate outcome statistics. Patients are encouraged to discuss published outcomes data in the specific context of their age, diagnosis, and reproductive history during their consultation.
Patient Experience
The Dudley Street address is at the core of Women & Infants Hospital's campus on Providence's East Side — a neighborhood that also encompasses Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital, and the broader Jewelry District medical and academic community. Providence is a compact, walkable city, and the Women & Infants campus is accessible from I-95, I-195, and local transit routes. Rhode Island's small geographic footprint means that essentially all Rhode Island residents are within a reasonable drive of Providence — even from Newport, Westerly, or the Blackstone Valley communities in the north.
Women & Infants has a long-standing reputation as the premier institution for women's reproductive healthcare in Rhode Island, and its fertility center benefits from that trust. Many Rhode Island patients who have had births at Women & Infants or received prenatal care through the hospital system choose to return to the fertility center when they encounter fertility challenges. The continuity of care within the Women & Infants / Lifespan health system is a meaningful advantage for patients who want their fertility treatment integrated with their overall women's health record.
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
Rhode Island has a fertility insurance mandate. Rhode Island law requires most fully insured group health plans to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility. Rhode Island's mandate covers IVF and related fertility treatments for eligible patients, making it one of the more supportive states for fertility treatment access. This mandate is particularly meaningful in a small, densely covered state like Rhode Island, where most residents are employed by companies subject to state insurance regulation.
Patients should verify whether their specific plan is fully insured under Rhode Island law or self-funded under federal ERISA regulation — self-funded plans remain exempt from state mandates. Employees of large national corporations or the federal government may be on ERISA-exempt plans. The Women & Infants Fertility Center's billing team can assist with insurance verification and pre-authorization, and the hospital's financial counseling resources can help patients navigate coverage questions. For patients without mandate coverage, the academic program's pricing and any available financial assistance programs should be discussed during a financial counseling appointment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Brown University Medicine affiliation mean for fertility patients? The Brown affiliation means that Women & Infants Fertility Center physicians hold academic appointments at one of the country's respected medical schools, participate in research, and operate within a graduate medical education framework. For patients, this translates to access to faculty physicians engaged with the latest evidence, a culture of ongoing learning, and the ability to discuss participation in clinical research studies where appropriate. Academic environments also tend to have stronger interdisciplinary consultation infrastructure — genetics, urology, oncology, and maternal-fetal medicine are all within the same hospital system.
Is Women & Infants Fertility Center a good choice for oncofertility patients? Yes. Women & Infants Hospital is closely integrated with Rhode Island Hospital and the Lifespan Cancer Institute, making oncofertility coordination highly practical. Newly diagnosed cancer patients who need urgent fertility preservation before starting chemotherapy or radiation can receive an expedited fertility consultation and — where medically appropriate — complete an egg or embryo freezing cycle before treatment begins. Communication between oncology and the fertility team is streamlined within the Lifespan system.
Does the fertility center serve patients from Massachusetts or Connecticut? Yes. Rhode Island's location at the intersection of southern New England means it draws patients from southeastern Massachusetts (Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton) and northeastern Connecticut. Brown University's academic reputation and Women & Infants' specialization in women's health attract patients who are willing to cross state lines for higher-quality specialty care.
What is the process for starting fertility treatment at Women & Infants? New patients typically begin with a consultation appointment during which the physician reviews medical history, discusses fertility concerns, and recommends a diagnostic evaluation plan. Testing — including AMH, antral follicle count ultrasound, semen analysis (for couples), and potentially a uterine cavity assessment — is ordered and results reviewed at a follow-up visit. Treatment recommendations follow from this evaluation. The academic center's scheduling can have longer wait times than private practices; patients who need timely access should call early and ask about cancellation lists.