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About
Alpha Omega Alpha, the honor society that admits a small fraction of each medical class, elected Dr. Heather Cook into its chapter at USC’s Keck School of Medicine — and she ended up running it. That was the start of a training path that stayed inside one California system: a psychobiology degree at UCLA, an MD at Keck graduating with highest distinction, then recruitment back to UCLA for both her OB/GYN residency and her reproductive endocrinology fellowship. She came to Coastal Fertility Specialists from Southern California and is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology.
Her research interests are the parts of IVF that happen after the eggs are retrieved and before a pregnancy is confirmed: embryo development and assessment, cryopreservation survival, oocyte donation, and the immunology behind recurrent pregnancy loss. Papers have appeared in Fertility and Sterility and the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, and she has presented at the ASRM annual meeting four times. Earlier, time at the National Institutes of Health produced a manuscript on uterine fibroids and reproductive outcome written with some of the leading researchers in that field. Grants followed her through training — the Baxter Foundation Research Grant and the USC Top Merit scholarship — along with Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Lambda Delta.
Teaching never stopped. She lectured residents and medical students at UCLA and at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, and she now teaches at MUSC, where she and four colleagues form the Reproductive Endocrine Division of the obstetrics and gynecology department. Patients notice the lab-facing side of her practice; a recent Google review of her care at CFS reads, “Dr. Cook and her team was amazing. They made our IVF journey great,” and another this year called her “exceptional.”
Clinical Expertise
- Recurrent pregnancy loss: evaluation with an immunology background, one of her named research areas
- Embryo development and assessment: grading culture outcomes and deciding what a development pattern means for the next cycle
- Embryo cryopreservation and vitrification: survival after freeze-thaw is an explicit research interest in a clinic where all freezing happens in one lab
- Egg donation: recipient-side management in a program whose donor screening admits about 2% of those screened
- IVF cycle management with individualized stimulation, alongside residency and medical student teaching at MUSC
Why Choose Dr. Heather Cook
A clinician who reads the lab’s output, not just the chart. Embryo assessment and cryopreservation survival are her published subjects, which is unusual grounding when a cycle produces fewer good-quality embryos than expected.
Elected to AOA and then led its chapter. Recognition from faculty at a major medical school, followed by an administrative role in the society.
NIH research experience with a high-impact topic. A uterine fibroids and reproductive outcome manuscript produced with senior NIH investigators.
Four ASRM presentations and a teaching appointment on two coasts. UCLA, Cedars-Sinai and now MUSC, where residents learn from her directly.
Repeated patient praise by name. Two of the clinic’s most recent Google reviews single out Dr. Cook and her team, including one patient who returned for a second transfer after having a baby.
Professional Affiliations
Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility; Alpha Omega Alpha. Board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology. Faculty, Medical University of South Carolina. Publications in Fertility and Sterility and the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.
Suitable For
- Patients with two or more pregnancy losses, where immune and embryology factors both need a look
- Cycles with slow or asymmetric embryo development, and the freeze-all decisions that follow
- Donor egg recipients, an area of her published interest and a core service at CFS
- Anyone who wants their physician talking to their embryologist, in a practice with a single centralized laboratory
- Second opinions on a prior loss workup, offered free to patients previously seen by a reproductive endocrinologist