UPMC pauses Penn Hills IVF lab services, leaving couples scrambling
Staff at a UPMC lab in Penn Hills discovered a problem late last week, sending shock waves through a community of patients trying to grow their families.
UPMC uses the impacted lab along Rodi Road to incubate and grow embryos for in vitro fertilization. It also stores some frozen embryos in preparation for embryo transfers.
KDKA Consumer Investigator Meghan Schiller talked to one couple who said this sudden closure left them scrambling.
The couple wished to remain anonymous but said they received a call from the doctor over the weekend, telling them their planned Tuesday embryo transfer procedure would be canceled.
"We were so close to doing the embryo transfer. We were right there, and just to hear everything's canceled within a couple of days of the transfer, that, you know, that just rips your heart out," the husband said.
UPMC released a statement saying, in part, "UPMC upholds the highest quality standards for the IVF services we offer. We are pausing IVF lab services so that we can perform essential lab maintenance in order to meet these standards."
The husband involved said he acted fast, calling another non-UPMC clinic, getting all of the necessary paperwork signed and picking up the embryos at UPMC on Monday before transferring them in his car to the new clinic.
"I keep making the joke, like I felt like the guy in 'Jurassic Park' with the shaving cream thing, you know, transporting the embryos," he said.
He added: "Thank goodness that, you know, the nurses at UPMC and the staff at UPMC, you know, despite, you know, what they're going through, they were able to help us out quickly, and to get the transfer and to move everything along to a new facility over the weekend."
It was a frantic rush because his wife's procedure couldn't happen any other day. They'd spent thousands of dollars on medications and medical monitoring in preparation for this procedure.
Many other UPMC IVF patients mid-cycle expressed similar concerns and fears on Reddit, hoping for clearer communication and reimbursements to come.
One patient who talked to KDKA on the condition of anonymity expressed concern that the lab's closure could have impacted the growth of her developing embryos. That patient was told an issue with the lab's "air handling system" sparked the closure.
"And the other thing, too, is just, you know, I mean there's money lost, of course, because you know, we've had to, you know, get prescriptions again, and constant appointments. But, you know, more than that, it's just the time loss."
KDKA-TV reached out to UPMC for clarification on the closure and they released an updated statement, saying they're pausing IVF services to perform "essential building maintenance," adding the pause will last two weeks.
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