MADISON, Ala. — A Madison IVF clinic has announced its upcoming closure. Huntsville Reproductive Medicine will close on January 1, 2025, after 20 years of service. According to their social media post, the clinic will stop accepting new patients after September 5, 2024, but will continue current IVF cycles until the end of the year.
"Dr. Harper was the first IVF clinic in Huntsville," said Dr. Brett Davenport, infertility doctor at the Fertility Institute of North Alabama, "As an infertility doc [I'm] grateful for him pioneering the first IVF lab in the city."
Davenport used to work under Dr. Harper before starting his own clinic. "To form an IVF clinic from scratch, I now know what that's like. But at the time, I did not," Dr. Davenport said, "It's very humbling to be able to first work under him and then be able to actually go and do what he did myself."
With HRM closing, Dr. Davenport's clinic will be the only IVF lab in the area. He said, "We are definitely expecting to be able to serve some of the patients that we haven't gotten to serve yet."
Stored embryos, sperm, and eggs will remain safely stored until further notice. Due to a recent court ruling, the clinic will not dispose any embryos, though patients can arrange for the discard of their eggs or sperm if needed. For patients currently undergoing treatment, no new cycles will be started after November 30, 2024.
Huntsville Reproductive Medicine has clarified in a post that the decision to close is personal and not related to the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling.