Elena H. Yanushpolsky, MD

About

If a workup ends with a question about the uterus, the tubes or endometriosis rather than about the ovaries, Elena H. Yanushpolsky, MD is the physician who owns that branch of Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s fertility program. As director of reproductive surgery at the Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery she answers the question every medical fertility workup eventually reaches — does this anatomy need an operation before embryos mean anything. She holds two other jobs on top of that: she runs CIRS’s service at South Shore Hospital, and she leads the center’s international patient program, the desk that coordinates records, donor and carrier agency selection, screening and travel for patients who do not live in Massachusetts.

Her listed clinical interests cluster around structural and genetic fertility problems rather than around stimulation protocols: endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, genetic reproductive disorders, infertility, and pregnancy in patients with a prior loss or a history of infertility. That combination is uncommon in one physician. Most reproductive endocrinologists prescribe; she also operates, which means the same person can decide that a laparoscopic excision or a fibroid removal should happen first and then do it.

She is a Harvard Medical School graduate who stayed at Brigham and Women’s for postgraduate training from 1985 and completed her reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellowship there in 1991. As international program lead she is the physician Brigham names for overseas patients, and the program’s coordination team includes staff working in Italian, French, Spanish and Russian.

Clinical Expertise

• Endometriosis surgery: Laparoscopic and robotic excision of endometriosis, including deep disease and ovarian endometriomas, coordinated with the Boston Center for Endometriosis that the same department founded in 2012.
• Fibroid management with fertility in mind: Myomectomy by abdominal, laparoscopic, robotic or hysteroscopic route for patients who intend to carry a pregnancy, where recurrence risk after myomectomy is a real part of counseling.
• Minimally invasive reproductive surgery: Hysteroscopic polypectomy, lysis of intrauterine adhesions and correction of uterine malformations; laparoscopic ovarian cyst excision, ectopic pregnancy management and tubal reversal.
• Genetic reproductive disorders: Evaluation of carriers of single-gene disease and chromosomal rearrangement, with PGT on day-5 or day-6 blastocysts after genetic counseling.
• Recurrent pregnancy loss: Surgical and uterine-cavity causes assessed in a program with a dedicated loss service.
• IVF, egg freezing and donor egg cycles: Medical fertility treatment alongside the operative side, including cryopreservation and third-party reproduction.
• Cross-campus and cross-border care: A South Shore Hospital practice plus the international pathway, covering records transfer, agency choice, screening scheduling and visit logistics.

Why Choose Dr. Elena Yanushpolsky

She decides and then operates. At many clinics the reproductive endocrinologist orders a surgery referral and a different surgeon performs it. As director of reproductive surgery she is on both sides of that conversation, which removes the translation step where patients commonly report losing the fertility rationale for an operation.

Three roles that each matter to access. Director of reproductive surgery, director of the South Shore Hospital CIRS site, and director of the international patient program. Patients who cannot be in Boston every monitoring day, or who want a Brigham-affiliated surgeon closer to home in Weymouth, are the reason those two roles exist.

International coordination by a physician, not a broker. The international program’s five documented steps — hospital registration and medical record number, physician consultation, donor or carrier agency selection, financial review with a managed care coordinator, and screening of patient plus donor or carrier — run through her. Brigham maintains a list of agencies it has worked with and endorses none, which is the disclosure a patient should want.

Long institutional continuity. Harvard Medical School, then Brigham and Women’s postgraduate training and fellowship, then a career inside the same department.

Professional Affiliations

Faculty of Harvard Medical School within the Brigham and Women’s Hospital obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive biology department. Certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in obstetrics and gynecology, with certification dates recorded in 1992 and 1995, after reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellowship training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 1989 to 1991. She directs reproductive surgery and the international program at a Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery that holds Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology membership, reports cycles annually to the CDC, and states its laboratories hold national CAP and CLIA certification. Affiliated practice sites include South Shore Hospital and the Newton-Wellesley and Braintree satellite locations that serve the Boston program.

Suitable For

• Endometriosis patients whose pain or anatomy may need excision: Especially after suppression has failed or when deep disease or ovarian endometriomas are involved.
• Fibroid patients who still want to carry a pregnancy: Myomectomy counseling that weighs recurrence and uterine rupture risk against leaving the fibroids in place.
• Known genetic condition carriers: PGT-M and PGT-A planning with genetic counseling, in a program that handles Tay Sachs, cystic fibrosis, SMA, Canavan disease, sickle cell disease and thalassemia screening.
• Patients with repeated loss needing a uterine evaluation: Cavity assessment by hysteroscopy alongside the loss program’s medical workup.
• International patients: One physician across consultation, agency choice, screening and cycle planning, with coordinator support for travel and interpretation.
• Patients outside Boston proper: Those who want Brigham fertility surgery without traveling to the Longwood campus for every visit, via the South Shore Hospital service.