YORK, Pa. — WellSpan Health and Shady Grove Fertility have joined forces in an effort to provide better reproductive care for patients in South Central Pa.
In this week's Health Smart, FOX43 talked to a doctor and one of their patients to find out how the partnership will work.
"It's never anything I thought that I would ever hear," Sarah Bosserman Matulewicz said about infertility. "In the back of my mind, I knew the word infertility was a possibility, but hearing that we had unexplained infertility was emotionally devastating."
About 6.5 million reproductive-aged patients struggle with infertility, which is one reason why WellSpan Health and Shady Grove Fertility Center decided to join forces.
"These two centers of excellence coming together is a huge win for our patients," Dr. Melanie Ochalski said. She's worked for both companies for years and says prior to the merger, many cases required patients to travel sometimes long distances in order to access fertility care. Now it's considered more of a one-stop shop and allows patients to stay within the WellSpan network of care.
"Patients can access and initiate fertility care within WellSpan and if and when more advanced fertility treatment is required, then that patient can be seamlessly integrated into the Shady Grove system."
Sarah and her husband know firsthand how overwhelming the process can be. In fact, Shady Grove was the third fertility clinic they tried.
"Prior to seeing Dr. Ochalski at Shady Grove, we were trying to get pregnant for close to two years," she said. Sarah also said that getting both physical and emotional support throughout the entire process was key. "That is undoubtedly the most important aspect of infertility. There was so much information to give us and I never felt like I didn't know what the next step was."
For them, that next step will include the birth of their first child.
"I can't even put into words what it felt like that we were pregnant; I didn't even believe them when they told me at first, I thought they were kidding," she said. "It's been a nice healthy journey so far and we are so excited to welcome a little boy into the world in September."
Shady Grove Fertility is the largest fertility clinic in the United States. It currently has several locations in Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland and this fall, Dr. Ochalski said they are excited to be opening up another office in York County.
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