Dr. Laura P. Smith, MD

About

Laura P. Smith was born in Charlottesville, spent parts of her childhood in Missouri and Alabama, and came back for everything that mattered professionally: a Bachelor of Arts with Highest Distinction at the University of Virginia in 1999, where she studied science and archaeology at once; an MD from the University of Virginia Medical School in 2003; and four years of obstetrics and gynecology residency at the same institution. The single deliberate departure from that pattern is the part of her training that patients ask about. In 2007 she was selected for the three-year Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellowship run jointly by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston IVF, affiliate programs of Harvard Medical School. She is now Clinical Director at the practice within sight of the hospital where she was born.

Her NIH grant was awarded during that fellowship, for research on a newly described biologic pathway in the ovary, and she keeps an active research interest. Her clinical advocacy has a narrower target: patients facing cancer. Her clinic bio states that she has worked especially hard to increase both awareness of and access to fertility preservation counseling for people about to undergo cancer treatment, which is the question an oncologist’s phone call puts in front of a patient on a deadline this practice has committed to meeting — cancer-related appointments are booked within a 72-hour window.

She is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and sub-specialty certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and a member of the Association of Women Surgeons and the Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Married, with two sons and a daughter.

Clinical Expertise

• Fertility preservation: egg freezing by vitrification before gonadotoxic treatment, with the practice’s 72-hour scheduling commitment for oncology patients and an explicit preference for freezing before 40
• IVF: stimulation design through retrieval, culture and transfer, in a program whose default is cryopreservation of viable embryos and single-embryo transfer later
• Reproductive endocrine evaluation: ovarian reserve by FSH, AMH and antral follicle count, thyroid and progesterone assessment, and uterine cavity imaging, read with the patient at the visit
• IUI: part of the practice’s more than 800 annual inseminations, for unexplained infertility, donor sperm and mild male factor cases
• Ovarian physiology research: an NIH-funded fellowship project on a previously undescribed signaling pathway in the ovary, which is also the reason she reads research rather than only protocol documents

Why Choose Dr. Laura P. Smith

A named program, not a vague interest. Fertility preservation for cancer patients is the one area her own biography singles out as work she has pushed — awareness as well as treatment. If you are about to start chemotherapy, that is the difference between a physician who can order a stimulation cycle and one who has spent a career arguing that you should have been offered it.

The Harvard-affiliated fellowship, correctly described. Her REI training is at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston IVF, both affiliate programs of Harvard Medical School. That is her training record, not a Harvard appointment today and not an affiliation of the Charlottesville clinic, which has been independent of the University of Virginia Health System since 2005.

She knows which doors open in this county. Born in Charlottesville, trained at UVA through residency, practicing where she grew up — the local referring relationships with oncologists and obstetricians are hers.

One caveat worth stating plainly. The practice gives Smith and Dr. Linnea R. Goodman the same title, Clinical Director, and its published material never draws a line between the two. So the title by itself is not a reason to choose one physician over the other; the preservation record and the training path are. Ask the front desk who covers your diagnosis before you book.

Professional Affiliations

Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, sub-specialty certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Member of the Association of Women Surgeons and of the Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. National Institutes of Health grant support during fellowship. Our sources list no editorial positions, society offices or named awards for this physician, and none are claimed here.

Suitable For

• Anyone whose fertility is on a treatment clock: chemotherapy, radiation or pelvic surgery, where the conversation needs to happen before therapy starts and the practice promises a 72-hour appointment window
• IVF patients who want their own eggs used: reserve assessment and protocol design, including the gentler oral-suppression option this clinic offers
• Endocrine-driven infertility: irregular cycles, PCOS, thyroid and progesterone issues, where the workup is as much laboratory interpretation as procedure
• Charlottesville and central Virginia residents who want a physician trained in-state, reachable in person, with telemedicine for the visits that do not need an ultrasound