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About
Before she was a reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Carrie Riestenberg was the resident whose research on subclinical hypothyroidism and IVF outcomes won Kaiser Permanente’s Best Scientific Study award — a question about thyroid antibodies and embryo transfer success that she still handles in clinic today. She joined Coastal Fertility Specialists in the summer of 2022 after a three-year REI fellowship at UCLA Medical Center.
Her entire medical training was done in California: a biology degree at UC San Diego, magna cum laude, then the UCSD School of Medicine, an OB/GYN residency at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara where peers voted her into the Gold Humanism Honor Society and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine gave her its residency award for excellence in obstetrics, and finally the UCLA fellowship. She is board-certified by the ABOG in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.
The published work clusters on three problems that decide IVF outcomes: polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometrial receptivity, and preimplantation genetic testing of embryos. Those papers appear in Fertility and Sterility and in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. In practice that mix maps onto a specific kind of patient — the woman with PCOS whose stimulation needs careful dosing, the patient with transfers that did not implant, the couple trying to decide whether PGT-A is worth the biopsy and the wait. She describes her own approach as shared decision-making built on patient education, and she lives in Mount Pleasant.
Clinical Expertise
- PCOS stimulation: protocol design for patients at risk of over-response, an area of her published research
- Endometrial receptivity and implantation failure: evaluation of why embryos do not take, rather than repeating the same transfer indefinitely
- PGT-A decision-making: which embryos to biopsy and how much aneuploidy screening changes the plan, the third leg of her research program
- Thyroid autoimmunity in IVF: the subclinical hypothyroidism work that won Kaiser Permanente’s Best Scientific Study award
- IVF and IUI cycle management in a practice where all embryo culture happens in one on-site, CAP-accredited laboratory
Why Choose Dr. Carrie Riestenberg
Three research programs, three daily clinical questions. PCOS dosing, receptivity and PGT-A are not side interests — they are the decisions her patients face in a first cycle.
Peer-voted and society-recognized during training. Gold Humanism Honor Society election by colleagues, plus the SMFM residency award for excellence in obstetrics, and an institutional best-study prize.
Double board certification from the start of the practice. Certified in both OB/GYN and REI before joining CFS, so the subspecialty exam is already behind her.
A California academic pipeline into a low-volume-geography clinic. UCSD, Kaiser Santa Clara and UCLA fellowship, then a Mount Pleasant practice that also serves as MUSC’s reproductive endocrine division — academic resources without academic wait times.
Professional Affiliations
Board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Elected to the Gold Humanism Honor Society during residency; recipient of the Kaiser Permanente Best Scientific Study award and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine residency award for excellence in obstetrics. Publications in Fertility and Sterility and The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Practices within a physician group that forms the Reproductive Endocrine Division of the MUSC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and reports cycles to SART and the CDC.
Suitable For
- Patients with PCOS, especially those worried about hyperstimulation or irregular response
- Repeated implantation failure, where receptivity rather than embryo number is the open question
- Couples weighing PGT-A, who want the evidence behind the biopsy explained rather than assumed
- Thyroid disease combined with infertility, the subject of her award-winning research
- Patients who want a say in the protocol, in a practice built around informed shared decision-making