Our Physicians
Our Fertility Specialists Servicing South Carolina
Coastal Fertility Specialists was founded by Dr. John Schnorr and Dr. Michael Slowey to create a unique, patient-centered experience in which both the clinical team and embryology laboratory are simultaneously pushing the boundaries of technology in healthcare to provide the highest levels of care possible. These pioneering efforts include being the first in the state to have a pregnancy from oocyte cryopreservation and Dr. Schnorr’s newest achievement, an AI platform called Cycle Clarity (see below).
We are proud to have Reproductive Endocrinologists Dr. Heather Cook, who joined our team in 2014, Dr. Jessica McLaughlin, who joined in 2019 and Dr. Carrie Riestenberg who joined us in 2022. The most recent addition to our team is Dr. Andrea Peterson who joined us in 2023. Our physicians collectively have over 70 years of Reproductive Endocrinology experience and work cooperatively to enhance patient care. Their combined experience has resulted in them performing over 35,000 ovulation induction and intrauterine insemination cycles and 15,000 in vitro fertilization and donor egg cycles.
Dr. Schnorr, Dr. Cook, Dr. McLaughlin, Dr. Riestenberg and Dr. Peterson meet with the medical team daily to review the day’s patient ultrasound, laboratory and semen analysis results to make individualized patient care decisions. Weekly physician patient reviews are performed to plan upcoming ovarian stimulation protocols, troubleshoot problems and exchange ideas. Their high pregnancy rates are due to their emphasis in individualized ovarian stimulation protocols based upon patient age, infertility diagnosis, ovarian reserve testing, and prior treatments. All ovarian stimulations are with recombinant gonadotropins and an embryology culture system that uses low oxygen levels and emphasizes blastocyst culture.
Our pioneering efforts at Coastal Fertility Specialists began when Dr. Schnorr started the first ovarian transplantation program in the state of South Carolina at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2001. Through similar collaborative efforts Dr. Schnorr and a wonderful team of embryologists were proud to have the 1st, 2nd and 3rd babies born from ooctye cryopreservation (egg freezing) in the state of South Carolina. We are now successfully using our oocyte cryopreservation technologies to help women delay reproduction and in donor egg treatment.
We feel the next breakthrough technology in Reproductive Endocrinology will be the harnessing of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare to improve your fertility care. As a result, Dr. John Schnorr has developed, patented and received FDA approval for a “first of its kind”, breakthrough AI platform Cycle Clarity. Cycle Clarity assists the clinical team in detecting all of the developing eggs within the ovary and predicts the optimal time of the oocyte retrieval. The magic is not only the improved outcomes but it also decreases the time required for the monitoring transvaginal ultrasound from 10 minutes to 20 seconds! The complete follicular measurements are emailed to you daily. Yes, less time on the exam table getting an ultrasound and improved diagnostic information is a Win-Win-Win for you, the clinical team and embryology team! Here’s to the first truly tangible benefits of artificial intelligence in Reproductive Endocrinology.