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About
Botros Rizk wrote the paper that reported the world’s first 1,000 babies born through IVF, and it came out of the clinic where IVF was invented. He completed his fellowship at Bourn Hall — the London and Cambridge clinic founded by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards, the man who received the Nobel Prize for making IVF work — with Edwards as his mentor. In the early 1980s, when the technique was still being argued over, that dataset was used to answer the safety questions that had parents and physicians hesitant.
He did not stop at reporting other people’s innovation. Rizk developed the long GnRH agonist down-regulation protocol, the stimulation framework that standard IVF cycles ran on for roughly twenty years. He is also the author of the reference textbook on ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, having made original contributions to how OHSS develops and how it is prevented — the single most dangerous routine complication of fertility treatment. His publication record stands at 28 edited or authored medical textbooks and more than 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and he has served as principal investigator on FDA-sponsored trials for over three decades, spanning infertility, osteoporosis, menopause and sexual health.
Today he is professor of obstetrics and gynecology and chief of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility division at the USC Keck School of Medicine, and practices at HRC Fertility’s Pasadena campus. His credentials are unusually international: ABOG certification in the United States, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in England, and American Association of Bioanalysts certification in embryology and andrology — the last of which means he is credentialed on the laboratory side of the cycle, not only the clinical side. He has maintained a large patient population from Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, chaired the ASRM International Members Committee for seven years, and co-founded and led the Middle East Fertility Society. He consults in English.
Clinical Expertise
- OHSS risk management: the physician whose textbook defines this complication; antagonist strategies, dose design, coasting and freeze-all decisions to prevent severe hyperstimulation
- IVF for complex and repeated failure: four decades of cycle experience applied to prior low response, fertilization failure and implantation failure
- Stimulation protocol design: the originator of the long agonist protocol; protocol selection grounded in comparative trials he has led as an FDA-study principal investigator
- Andrology and embryology oversight: AAB-certified in embryology and andrology, which changes how he reviews a lab report or a severe male-factor case
- Age-related and diminished-ovary infertility: counseling and protocol choices for patients with limited reserve
- International patient coordination: care plans, cycle timing and follow-up for patients traveling from the Middle East, Europe and beyond
Why Choose Dr. Rizk
Lineage you can trace to the invention of IVF. Trained by Robert Edwards at Bourn Hall is not a marketing line — Bourn Hall is where the technique was developed, and Rizk was one of the physicians who scaled it and documented its outcomes when the sample sizes were the entire world’s experience.
He authored the safety literature on the treatment’s main danger. For a patient with PCOS or a prior hyperstimulation episode, seeing the person who wrote the standard OHSS reference is a different kind of reassurance than a five-star review.
The protocol you may be prescribed came from him. Long agonist down-regulation carried IVF for two decades; he still designs stimulation personally.
Credentialed on both sides of the glass wall. Clinical boards in three countries plus laboratory certification in embryology and andrology. Few US physicians hold both, and it means he reads your embryology report as a colleague of the people who wrote it.
He runs a division, not just a clinic. As USC chief of REI he trains the next cohort of reproductive endocrinologists and remains active in FDA trials, so practice patterns here are literature-driven.
Professional Affiliations
Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in both OB/GYN and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility; fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (England) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; certified by the American Association of Bioanalysts in Embryology and Andrology; fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Past chair of the ASRM International Members Committee (seven years); founding member and past president of the Middle East Fertility Society; member of ESHRE. Editor or author of 28 textbooks and more than 400 manuscripts, with a specialization in ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.
Suitable For
High OHSS risk — PCOS, high antral follicle count, prior severe reaction. This is his published area of authority, and the practical decisions (trigger type, dose, freeze-all) are his subject matter.
Multiple failed cycles elsewhere. Four decades of stimulation and lab-side experience on cases that have not responded.
Severe male factor infertility. Board certification in andrology means the semen and testicular workup gets physician-level attention, not a referral slip.
International patients, particularly from the Middle East. Visits in English, and a practice built around international patients who fly in for a monitored cycle.
Patients who want the least marketing and most history on their physician’s résumé.