CHESTERFIELD — For at least the second time in eight months, fertility patients storing their frozen eggs and embryos at St. Luke’s Hospital were left frightened after getting a letter stating that the hospital laboratory had moved their tissues to a storage facility in Texas. “Our facility has ceased operations and will no longer store frozen specimens.
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Your specimens were recently relocated to ReproTech’s Garland, TX Cryostorage center,” read the latest letter , sent this week to patients via email from St. Luke’s. Maddie Bobbitt, 33, of St.
Louis, said she received a letter and email from ReproTech out of the blue on Nov. 29, saying the hospital had sent the facility Bobbitt’s four embryos. Bobbitt has since gotten her embryos returned to another nearby storage facility, but that day was extremely scary, she said.
“No one told me this was happening,” she said. “And when you are going through IVF and desperately trying to have a baby and your embryos are everything to you — you spend tens of thousands of dollars making them — and to have them shipped without even asking my permission was really frustrating and really concerning.” Hospital officials did not answer questions about why their facility “ceased operations,” why patients were not informed ahead of time or why a facility as far away as Texas was selected.
Hospital officials released the following statement: “In 2023, after careful consideration, St. Luke’s decided to no longer offer assisted reproductive technology services, including in vitro fertilization, after the end of that year.” The statement referred to ReproTech as the hospital’s “long-standing partner,” and that patients could request their specimens to be transferred to a fertility clinic of their choice.
The Infertility Clinic of St. Louis run by Dr. Sherman Silber, a pioneer in fertility treatments, had been located at St.
Luke’s for decades. And while Silber’s website still shows the clinic’s location at St. Luke’s, patients say he has been operating out of a surgery center in Frontenac since at least February.
Silber did not return requests for comment before deadline to publish this story. Some patients say they are upset they were not notified before the move and had no say in where their tissues were sent, especially as concerns mount that conservative states like Texas which have largely banned abortions might also move to restrict the use of in vitro fertilization. “I was super worried especially just knowing they were in Texas of all states,” said Bobbitt.
Texas bans abortion in nearly all cases and was the first state in 2021 to allow citizens to sue anyone who provides or abets an abortion. “Man, I don’t want my embryos in Texas,” Bobbitt said. “I would’ve picked other states.
” Stoking the fear was an Alabama Supreme Court decision in Februar y that ruled embryos created through IVF — even before they are implanted in the uterus — are “extrauterine” unborn children. The ruling caused some IVF providers in the state to suspend services. The Alabama decision stemmed from wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic.
Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.” Tim Schlesinger, an attorney at Midwest Fertility Law Group , said in Missouri, parents are the owners of their genetic material. It does not belong to a hospital or fertility clinic.
Facilities have the right to move patients’ tissues, Schlesinger said, and those conditions are usually laid out in consent forms that patients sign before treatment. “However, it would certainly be the right thing to do to make sure they are notified in advance so they can make a choice about where they want their materials moved to,” he said. The email sent by the hospital this week told patients that their specimens were transported by ReproTech staff to its facility and “are safely being stored there.
” Patients were told they can get the specimens back for any reproductive procedures, or transfer the specimens to another location. Hospital officials did not answer questions about who would cover the cost. Bobbitt, one of Silber’s patients, said she never got a clear understanding of why her embryos were moved.
But it seemed Silber’s office was also caught off guard by the move, she said. She said she signed mounds of paperwork before beginning IVF treatments two years ago, but doesn’t recall reading anything about moving her embryos. “There could definitely been something in the fine print,” Bobbitt said, “but I don’t believe I singed something that said, ‘Oh we can just ship your embryos wherever out of state, and you’re just giving us blanket permission.
’” Bobbitt is still trying to get pregnant after her latest procedure failed in February. She was surprised to hear that others are still getting letters like she did. “IVF is already just unbelievable stressful and traumatic, and you’re already under all this stress and to have this happen,” she said.
“It’s so unnecessary and could have been avoided.” Danielle Zoll, founder of Making a Miracle, a nonprofit that provides resources and support to those in the St. Louis area struggling with infertility, urged anyone needing help to reach out to the organization at makingamiracle.
org ..
