Dr. Chun-Chi Lu

About

NUWA organizes an autoimmune department as its own team rather than folding immune questions into the obstetric or reproductive endocrine side, and Dr. Chun-Chi Lu is the part-time attending physician attached to it. The clinical territory is the overlap between autoimmune disease and reproduction: why immune conditions sit behind some cases of infertility, recurrent miscarriage and repeated implantation failure, and how to manage medication and monitoring when a patient with a rheumatic disease becomes pregnant.

Medical school was at National Defense Medical Center, the military medical school that runs Tri-Service General Hospital, followed by doctoral training at the University of Washington in Seattle. Postgraduate and attending roles were then spent in the allergy, clinical immunology and rheumatology division of Tri-Service General Hospital — resident physician there, then attending physician at its Penghu branch and back at the main hospital — alongside an assistant professorship at National Defense Medical Center. The current hospital appointments are attending physician in the same division at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, plus part-time cover of the division at Tri-Service.

The fertility-clinic role is part-time and separate from the two hospital posts, which is the normal arrangement for a subspecialist consulted on specific cases rather than a physician who runs cycles. There is a general practice side to the work as well: part-time immunology and rheumatology cover at Dianthus Minquan Internal Medicine Clinic.

Clinical Expertise

• Autoimmune disease pregnancy consultation: risk assessment and medication review before conception for patients on immunosuppressants or anticoagulants, since several standard drugs are not compatible with pregnancy and switching has to happen before, not after, a positive test.
• Antiphospholipid syndrome: an antibody-mediated cause of recurrent early loss and thrombosis, usually managed in pregnancy with aspirin and heparin; the work sits between rheumatology and obstetrics and needs the same physician in both places.
• Systemic lupus erythematosus: conception timed to a stable, non-flaring period, with monitoring for flare during pregnancy and attention to the specific antibodies that carry neonatal risk.
• Immune-factor infertility assessment: working out whether an immune abnormality is actually the reason a cycle failed, which is one of the more over-claimed areas of reproductive medicine and needs a rheumatologist’s judgment rather than a screening panel.
• Intestinal immunology: gut immune regulation as a research and clinical interest, relevant to the chronic inflammatory conditions this practice also manages.
• Ankylosing spondylitis, vasculitis and myositis: inflammatory and autoimmune conditions where fertility planning has to be negotiated around disease activity and long-term medication.

Why Choose Dr. Lu

A rheumatologist, not a fertility physician improvising immune workups. The career is allergy, clinical immunology and rheumatology end to end — residency, attending posts and a university appointment in the same division. Immune causes of recurrent loss are frequently over-diagnosed and over-treated, and the person best placed to say whether one is present is the subspecialist.

Pregnancy medication decisions fall inside the same practice. Consultation for autoimmune disease in pregnancy is the leading commitment here, meaning pre-conception drug switching and trimester monitoring are handled by the physician who also treats the underlying disease, rather than being split across two clinics that do not talk to each other.

Two medical centers, not one private office. Current appointments at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and Tri-Service General Hospital keep the practice inside hospital-grade rheumatology, which matters for severe disease, while NUWA is where the reproductive questions get asked.

Doctoral training in the United States. The University of Washington work follows National Defense Medical Center, and the teaching appointment at NDMC indicates the academic side of the same field.

Professional Affiliations

Appointments held: part-time attending physician, Autoimmune Department, NUWA Fertility Center; attending physician, Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Division, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital; part-time attending physician, same division at Tri-Service General Hospital; assistant professor, National Defense Medical Center; and part-time immunology and rheumatology cover at a Dianthus Medical Group internal medicine clinic. Prior training and posts: resident physician in the Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Division of Tri-Service General Hospital, then attending physician at its Penghu branch and at the main hospital.

Education: School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center; doctoral training at the University of Washington.

Suitable For

Recurrent loss with abnormal autoimmune markers: a positive antibody result needs interpretation against the actual pattern of loss before it becomes a treatment decision, which is where the rheumatology reading changes the plan.

Trying to conceive with antiphospholipid syndrome: management depends on anticoagulation started early and continued through pregnancy, so the physician who diagnosed the syndrome should be in the room for the conception plan.

Pregnancy planning during stable lupus: timing conception to a quiet period and choosing drugs compatible with pregnancy are decisions made months before the first scan, and they require disease-activity judgment alongside obstetric planning.

Repeated implantation failure needing immune assessment: immune causes are one branch of a wide differential, and a specialist opinion is useful mainly for ruling the branch in or out rather than adding another treatment by default.

Ankylosing spondylitis or other rheumatic disease with fertility goals: biologic and conventional medications in this group have differing pregnancy compatibility, and disease control and family planning have to be sequenced together.

Adjusting immune medication in a high-risk pregnancy: switching or stopping therapy carries its own flare risk, so the change needs the physician who manages the underlying condition.