Kimberly W. Keefe Smith, MD

About

Massachusetts General Hospital, 2009-2010; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 2016-2019. Those are Boston’s two Harvard Medical School fertility programs, they compete for the same patients, the same research dollars and the same trainees, and Kimberly W. Keefe Smith, MD has a training record in both. Patients rarely get to compare house styles. She got the comparison built in.

The middle of the line runs out of state and is easy to summarize: study at the University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine (2007-2009), a medical degree from New York University School of Medicine in 2012, four years of obstetrics and gynecology residency at Yale New Haven Hospital (2012-2016), and ABOG certification in obstetrics and gynecology in 2018. She joined the Brigham and Women’s infertility and reproductive surgery staff after finishing subspecialty training in 2019 and is on the Harvard Medical School faculty, as all of the center’s physicians are.

Her directory listing carries no narrow subfocus label — no named robot program, no donor-gamete program directorship — which in a center of eleven physicians makes her read as the general reproductive endocrinologist: the person who handles the common cases well, from stimulation design through transfer, and who sends a patient to a colleague when the problem is surgical, genetic or third-party reproduction rather than endocrine.

Clinical Expertise

• In vitro fertilization: Cycle design and monitoring, trigger timing, retrieval, fertilization and transfer. CIRS cultured embryos are transferred on day 3 or day 5, with ICSI for low sperm counts or prior fertilization failure and assisted hatching for older patients and repeat implantation failures.
• PGT-A and genetic screening: Embryo biopsy on day 5 or day 6 with genetic analysis, offered to patients at risk of chromosomally abnormal embryos; the center’s patients meet genetic counselors to work through what testing can and cannot answer.
• Egg freezing and fertility preservation: Vitrification of eggs and embryos, both for elective postponement and before treatment that threatens fertility. Cryopreservation runs in the center’s own nationally certified laboratories.
• Female infertility evaluation: Hormone testing, ovarian reserve assessment and imaging, then a stepped plan — ovulation induction and intrauterine insemination where they are the appropriate first move, IVF where they are not.

Why Choose Dr. Kimberly W. Keefe Smith

Two teaching hospitals in one specialty training. Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital approach ART differently — case mix, lab culture, operative habits. Having trained across both is the closest thing to a second opinion built into a physician’s background.

Yale residency, ABOG certified in 2018. Four years of general obstetrics and gynecology at Yale New Haven Hospital before subspecialty training, and board certification in the field recorded mid-residency, at 2018.

A generalist in a center of specialists. Not every patient needs a program director. Someone with an ovulatory disorder, a borderline ovarian reserve or an unexplained infertility diagnosis needs cycle judgment and access to the rest of the team, which is how the center is structured: physicians working with embryologists, nurses, social workers and geneticists, with coverage organized around the cycle rather than the individual practice.

You will know you are at a teaching hospital. CIRS tells patients plainly that they may also meet reproductive endocrinology fellows, residents and medical students during their care. That is not a downgrade — fellows here are practicing gynecologists finishing subspecialty training in the oldest infertility program in the country — but it is different from a private fertility boutique, and worth going in understanding.

Professional Affiliations

Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2018). Harvard Medical School faculty; Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery. Training: New York University School of Medicine (MD, 2012); Yale New Haven Hospital residency (2012-2016); Brigham and Women’s Hospital fellowship (2016-2019), with earlier training at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital. The center is a Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology member and reports outcomes to the CDC each year, so her program’s live-birth and multiple-pregnancy rates can be looked up rather than taken on faith.

Suitable For

• IVF patients whose diagnosis is common rather than exotic — tubal factor, mild male factor, unexplained infertility, ovulatory dysfunction — where protocol choice and monitoring matter more than a rare procedure.
• Women freezing eggs or embryos on a personal timeline, including those weighing whether to test embryos afterward.
• Patients considering PGT-A who want the counseling that goes with it, which CIRS provides through its genetic counselors.
• Anyone who prefers a general reproductive endocrinologist and is comfortable being routed to a surgical or third-party-reproduction colleague at the same center when the indication calls for it.