Growing New Orleans - One Donor Egg at a Time

By: Debbie Regan, RNC, IBCLC

3rd Party Coordinator

Audubon Fertility, New Orleans, LA

Fertility practices in the state of Louisiana are few and far between, so being a fertility nurse in New Orleans is a unique privilege. It is a job I have grown to love and feel passionate about.

Audubon Fertility, established in 2011 by Dr. Lindsay Wells, has become a well-known entity in the city of New Orleans. Dr. Wells, a native New Orleanian, proudly came back to her hometown to begin her fertility practice in the sweetest little renovated cottage and offered the women in the Big Easy and surrounding area, homegrown and southern charm with her fertility care.

Dr. Wells quickly came to realize that the need for fertility care in New Orleans was far greater than she imagined. The practice has continued to grow each year and continues to achieve successful outcomes.

As a seasoned nurse with years of women’s health experience, I started with Dr. Wells shortly after her practice opened as the first IVF Coordinator / Clinic Nurse Supervisor. Although I was experienced in nursing – Fertility is a “whole other ballgame” in medicine.

Soon after I settled into my position at Audubon, we were ready to get the IVF component going.

I was excited and terrified at the same time. Anyone who has ever met Dr. Wells, knows she is an amazing, intelligent and fearless person. She is also the most calm and reassuring physician to work with as a nurse or as one of her patients. She helped me quickly get over my fear of initiating IVF and with her guidance each step of the way – it was full speed ahead and no looking back.

Our first IVF cycles went well and so the journey began! It seems so long ago that we celebrated our highest number of fresh cycles for one month of 12 and now we are more than quadrupling that number monthly in just a few years. Our practice manager said in a familiar quote, “if you build it, they will come”. She was right!

It wasn’t long after our first IVF cycles were implemented, Dr. Wells informed me that we would need to expand options for our pat