Julie Lamb, MD, FACOG

About

In 2010 Julie Lamb came back to Seattle to join Pacific Northwest Fertility and founded what the clinic now calls its Center of Excellence for Fertility Preservation. She still runs it. She also co-founded Simplify, PNWF’s frozen egg bank, and wrote a patient-facing book on the subject during the pandemic — The Fertility Experts’ Guide to Egg Freezing: Everything You Need to Know About Putting Your Fertility on Ice. Egg freezing is not an occasional procedure in her practice; it is the program she built.

She is Medical Director of PNWF, where she has practiced for close to twenty years, and is double board-certified in both Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and Obstetrics and Gynecology. She trained at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, graduating at the top of her class, completed her OB/GYN residency at the University of Washington, and did her REI fellowship at UCSF — where she then stayed on faculty before moving back to Seattle.

The rest of her calendar goes into the field’s institutions. She is President of the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society, one of the largest reproductive medicine societies in the world, past President of the Seattle Gynecologic Society, and an original member of ASRM’s Embryo Transfer Committee, through which she has taught transfer technique to hundreds of physicians. At the University of Washington she is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and directed the REI component of the residency program for years. Her first research posting was further afield: a Fulbright Research Grant took her to Harare, Zimbabwe to study women’s reproductive health.

Clinical Expertise

• Fertility Preservation and Egg Freezing: Founded and leads PNWF’s preservation center; co-founder of the clinic’s egg bank, Simplify
• Donor Egg and Gestational Carrier Families: Her stated specialty area — third-party reproduction from medical workup through the path to parenthood
• IVF and Embryo Transfer Technique: Original member of ASRM’s Embryo Transfer Committee; has trained hundreds of physicians in the procedure
• Reproductive Endocrinology: Dual certification lets her read the gynecologic and hormonal picture herself rather than referring it out
• Physician Education: UW Clinical Professor; directed the REI block of the university’s OB/GYN residency and teaches Swedish residents as well

Why Choose Dr. Julie Lamb

She holds two board certifications, not one. Most reproductive endocrinologists certify in REI alone. Lamb is certified in both Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and Obstetrics and Gynecology, and is a Fellow of ACOG. For a patient arriving at a first appointment with fibroids, endometriosis, or an unresolved gynecologic history, that means one physician reads the whole picture instead of handing half of it to a colleague.

She is one of the people who built egg freezing in this region, not just someone who orders it. PNWF has frozen eggs since 2009, and Lamb has led its preservation program since founding it in 2010. She co-founded the clinic’s egg bank and wrote the patient guide. Stimulation length, freeze-all strategy, and vitrification choices are decisions she has made thousands of times and teaches to other doctors.

She sits in the presidency of a major society. PCRS is among the largest and most established reproductive medicine organizations in the world; its presidency reflects a long record in clinical care, research, teaching and mentoring rather than a single publication. She has also served on the boards of Creating a Family and Modern Fertility, and on ASRM’s Patient Education Committee.

Transfer technique is her teaching subject. Repeated implantation failure usually turns into a question about the transfer itself — catheter, ultrasound guidance, timing, uterine crossing. Lamb was an original member of ASRM’s Embryo Transfer Committee and has taught the technique to hundreds of physicians. She has also won an ASRM prize for oral presentation and held a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine research grant.

Teachers explain. She has run the REI portion of the University of Washington’s OB/GYN residency for years and holds the department’s Resident Teaching Award, plus the Joseph Yon, MD Award for Surgical Skill, Humor and Humanity. A patient who wants the reasoning behind a protocol, not just the prescription, gets a doctor whose day job includes reasoning out loud.

Professional Affiliations

President of the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society; Past President of the Seattle Gynecologic Society; American Society for Reproductive Medicine; Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; American Medical Association; Washington State Medical Association; Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and given scientific presentations nationally and internationally.

Suitable For

• Anyone considering egg or embryo freezing: She founded and still directs the program, co-founded the clinic’s egg bank, and wrote the patient guide to the procedure
• Patients facing chemotherapy, surgery or other gonadotoxic treatment: Preservation windows are set by someone else’s treatment calendar; her center exists to work inside that constraint
• Donor egg and gestational carrier families: Third-party building is the area she names as her particular expertise
• Patients with repeated transfer failures: Transfer technique is the subject she has taught to hundreds of physicians
• Patients who want the evidence, not the brochure: A clinical professor who has written for lay readers will walk through the data if asked