West Coast Fertility Centers Laboratories

To ensure the highest quality of patient care, West Coast Fertility Center operates three laboratories in our Fountain Valley location. Our embryology, Andrology and Clinical laboratories work to provide the finest level of testing and clinical applications in Assisted Reproduction (ART). Our laboratories are accredited by the State of California and nationally by the College of American Pathologists, certifying that we are members of an exclusive group of reproductive centers in the U.S., meeting the highest standards of excellence.
One important factor in the success of our treatment outcomes is the quality of our laboratory scientists. Our team of experts enjoys over 50 years of combined experience in the assisted reproductive techniques dedicated to helping thousands of infertile couples achieve their dream of having children. Another key component of our successful outcomes is the constant attention to detail and the excellent level of communication among our scientific and clinical staffs. Meticulous quality control and clinical benchmarks have led to superior fertility treatment results.

Embryology Laboratory

The embryology laboratory at West Coast Fertility Center is outfitted with state of the art scientific equipment beyond that found in a typical laboratory. Our  laboratory program offers services in all aspects of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), including all IVF techniques such as Conventional IVF, ICSI IVF, Blastocyst Culture, Assisted Hatching, PGS/PGD, In-Vitro Maturation, embryo freezing, and one of the top egg freezing programs in the world. At WCFC lab we perform daily crucial quality control measures to maintain optimum conditions in a setting of Good Laboratory Practice. Our laboratory security systems are designed to give you peace of mind that your embryos and oocytes are in the safest hands possible. 

Our close attention to detail in patient identification and our checks and balances methods have prevented any errors and maximized accuracy. The research arm of WCFC continues to expand the the future of reproductive technology. The embryo lab is under the direction of Antoine La, ELD, a nationally recognized scientist known for excellence and scientific innovation.

Andrology Laboratory

The Andrology Laboratory performs all evaluations, testing, preparation and storage of sperm specimens for our patients. Diagnostic procedures include semen analysis, preparation of sperm for fertilization and thawing of frozen specimens. Semen cryopreservation (freezing) and storage is recommended when a fresh sample may be difficult to obtain.  We also perform semen freezing for men who are scheduled to undergo cancer treatment which may render them sterile.  The laboratory also prepares semen specimens for intrauterine insemination (IUI).  We offer this service to our patients and to other medical professionals.The Andrology Laboratory is supervised by senior embryologist M. Cristina Rodriguez-Karl, BA.

We are fortunate to have the skills of Dr. Richard Holevas, a highly skilled urologist specializing in performing the PESA technique in the collection of sperm cells in difficult cases of obstructive male factor. Under anesthesia, a gentle technique is used to harvest and freeze sperm to be used later in conjunction with IVF. Please refer to the PESA section of our website for more information.

Clinical Laboratory

The clinical laboratory at WCFC is under the supervision of Ms. Leena Dalal, a Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) licensed by California to perform high complexity procedures. She has extensive experience in Microbiology and has been with our program nearly 20 years. Our clinical lab plays a  critical role in providing, timely, reliable and precise results used in patient management. Using a method developed at WCFC, which analyses the uterine tissue, we can uncover problems related to failed implantation and repeated miscarriages. The lab is responsible for daily monitoring of blood levels for the patients going through fertility treatments. One of the advantages of operating our in-house laboratory is that the results are reported in 90 minutes to Dr. Diaz , helping him to make adjustments to the treatment protocol. Chemistry hormone panels for men and women are performed for our referring doctors, thus making WCFC a reference lab of service to the community.

For fertility preservation, semen can be frozen indefinitely for men about to undergo vasectomy thereby providing multiple stored semen samples if the man wishes to avoid a vasectomy reversal in the future. Also, prior to starting cancer treatment, young men can freeze several semen samples to preserve fertility in the event chemotherapy and radiation renders them infertile.

Laboratories Accreditations

Our Laboratories meet and exceed all established guidelines set for embryology and andrology laboratories in the US. We are licensed by the State of California Department of Public Health and the New York State Department of Health as a Tissue Bank. We are also CLIA certified and are accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP certification) and we are registered with the FDA as an Assisted Reproduction Clinic. In addition, we received accreditation from the Institute for Medical Quality and a Quality Assurance certificate from the American Proficiency Institute.

To request a Specimen Kit, please print out this form.