Paul Brezina

About

More than 35 of Paul Brezina’s 50-plus peer-reviewed papers carry his name as first author, and the cluster that matters clinically asks one question: what does genetic testing of embryos actually change in IVF and in recurrent pregnancy loss? He developed that work alongside pioneers in the field at Johns Hopkins, and at Fertility Associates of Memphis it is his job title — Director of Reproductive Genetics, stacked on Managing Physician, two roles on one person at a clinic whose published genetic testing prices run $5,200-$10,000+.

His training path is unusual in its business content: an undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then an M.D./M.B.A. from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., where he also completed an internal medicine internship and an OB/GYN residency, followed by a reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. He is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in both Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and Obstetrics and Gynecology, and he has held academic appointments at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at the same time as private practice.

The publication record is specific rather than decorative: more than 50 research papers, more than 35 of them as first author, six book chapters, and more than 50 scientific abstracts presented at national and international meetings. He also lectures to physicians on newer therapies in reproductive medicine, and has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.

Clinical Expertise

• Preimplantation genetic testing strategy: deciding which of PGT-A (chromosome number), PGT-M (single-gene disease) or PGT-SR (structural rearrangement) a case actually needs, then interpreting the result into a transfer decision. FAM’s embryologists do the laser blastocyst biopsy on day 5-7 and an outside PGT laboratory runs the assay
• Recurrent pregnancy loss: chromosomal and genetic causes in one or both partners are one of the listed branches of FAM’s loss workup, and Brezina chaired ASRM’s Early Pregnancy Loss Special Interest Group; at FAM this overlaps with the Center for Recurrent Pregnancy Loss co-directed by William Kutteh
• IVF with genetic counseling built in: where family history or carrier screening suggests high risk, the clinic’s stated pathway is referral to a genetic counselor before the cycle, not after
• Diminished embryo quality and age-related aneuploidy: PGT-A to identify embryos likely to implant normally, which the clinic frames as the enabling test for single-embryo transfer in patients over 35 and in those with repeat loss
• Cycle management as managing physician: the title means he runs the practice, not only his own panel, in a clinic that reported 997 cycles to SART for 2023
• Physician education: recurring lectures to other doctors on current therapies, and a genetics company board seat that keeps him on the assay-design side of the field

Why Choose Dr. Paul Brezina

The genetics program and the management of the practice are the same person. Decisions about which embryos get tested, how results are read into a transfer plan, and what protocols the clinic runs all pass through one physician, which removes the referral gap most patients hit between an IVF doctor and a genetics consultant.

First-author papers, not just a list of names. Thirty-five-plus first-authored publications is the part of a research record that shows he ran the studies, and his published focus is the exact question he answers in clinic: whether genetic testing of embryos changes outcomes in IVF and in recurrent loss.

Johns Hopkins fellowship with continuing academic posts. He trained at Hopkins and still holds appointments at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital while practicing in Memphis.

He edits the literature he cites. A JARG editorial board seat plus an ASRM special interest group chairmanship means the guidance he gives is filtered through the review process, not only through marketing.

He practices where fertility coverage is not mandated. Tennessee requires no insurer to cover IVF, and this clinic publishes its price ranges and carries three financing partners — a conversation the managing physician of the practice is on the record about with patients every week.

Professional Affiliations

Chair of the Early Pregnancy Loss Special Interest Group within the American Society for Reproductive Medicine; officer on the executive board of the Society of Reproductive Endocrinology; organizing committee member for the Midwest Reproductive Society International; editorial board member of the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics; former board member of the genetic testing company Advagenix. Board certified in REI and in OB/GYN by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In Memphis since 2012 with his wife and two children; he serves on the board of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and plays violin.

Suitable For

• Anyone deciding whether PGT is worth the money: the clinic’s own genetics director can say which test answers which question, and where it changes nothing
• Known carriers of single-gene disease or a chromosomal rearrangement: PGT-M and PGT-SR planning, with genetic counselor referral first
• Recurrent pregnancy loss patients: a genetics-driven workup from the physician who chaired the national early-loss interest group
• Patients over 35 planning single-embryo transfer: PGT-A as the selection tool that makes eSET realistic
• Complex cases needing a second opinion inside the practice: he is the managing physician of the practice, so a genetics question and an operations question have the same answer
• Families building with donor eggs and a gestational carrier: where genetic screening of embryos and donors carries the most weight