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About
About 40% of embryos that look good under the microscope and test chromosomally normal still do not implant. Reshef Tal has built his career on the half of that statistic nobody biopsies: the uterus. His lab’s finding, published in PLOS Biology in 2019, was that bone marrow-derived stem cells migrate into the endometrium and differentiate into decidual cells — the cells that build the implantation niche — which put a regenerative-medicine mechanism inside a question usually answered by “try another embryo.” A 2023 paper in JCI Insight extended the same logic to the placenta, showing that loss of the maternal chemokine receptor CXCR4 produces placental defects and pregnancy loss. Endometrial inflammation, which he regards as under-investigated in implantation failure, is the clinical target of that line of work.
The translational side is a clinic conversation. If a patient has had three euploid transfers and no pregnancy, the differential in Tal’s hands is not only embryo quality but the receptive window, the immune environment of the lining and prior injury to it — chronic endometritis, intrauterine adhesions, and the thin-lining problem that brings out-of-state referrals to Hugh Taylor in the same division. His clinical studies have gone the other way round, modelling anti-Müllerian hormone to predict live birth after IVF, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and Fertility & Sterility, which is what makes him comfortable quoting a patient’s reserve number with its real uncertainty attached.
He trained at Tel Aviv University School of Medicine, taking his MD and his PhD in cell biology in the same year, 2009, then a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto in 2010 and reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellowship training at Yale in 2017. He is double board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in obstetrics and gynecology and in REI, and holds an NIH K12 women’s health research career development award (2017), the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s research funding award (2020), a Society for Reproductive Investigation president’s plenary session award (2018), the Albert McKern scholar award (2017) and an ASRM fellow’s research award (2015). He sees patients in English and Hebrew, at Orange, and offers telehealth.
Clinical Expertise
Recurrent implantation failure. Structured evaluation of the receptivity window, endometrial inflammation and cavity pathology in patients with failed euploid transfers.
Endometrial and uterine injury. Asherman syndrome and scarred linings, where his stem cell work informs how recovery is discussed.
Endometriosis and PCOS, including the endocrine work that comes before a stimulation decision.
Ovarian reserve interpretation. He co-authored the AMH models that estimate cumulative live birth, so the number comes with a range rather than a promise.
Reproductive loss with a placental or immune mechanism, following his own CXCR4 work into the clinic.
Why Choose Dr. Tal
An MD-PhD who still sees patients. He completed a doctorate in cell biology alongside medical school and runs a laboratory while carrying a clinic panel, so the regenerative literature he cites is literature he has written.
He works on the least-tested variable. Most implantation-failure pathways re-make embryos. His published hypothesis is that the endometrium’s immune and regenerative behaviour deserves the same attention, and he evaluates it in the clinic.
Funded by peer review, repeatedly. ASRM research funding (2020), the NIH K12 (2017), and society award citations in 2015, 2017 and 2018 are competitively reviewed, which is a different quality of signal from a listing.
He quantifies uncertainty. His own AMH modelling means he will tell you what a reserve test does not predict.
Professional Affiliations
American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, certified in obstetrics and gynecology and in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. American Society for Reproductive Medicine, research funding award recipient (2020) and fellow’s research award recipient (2015). Society for Reproductive Investigation, president’s plenary session award (2018). Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics-related scholar recognition (Albert McKern scholar, 2017). NIH K12 women’s health research career development awardee (2017). Associate professor and clinician in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale School of Medicine, and in Yale Medicine Fertility Center’s clinical practice.
Suitable For
- Patients with failed transfers of genetically normal embryos, where embryo quality has been ruled out and nothing else has been
- Anyone told their lining is thin or their cavity is scarred, including after a D&C or myomectomy
- Suspicion of chronic endometritis or an inflammatory endometrial contribution to loss
- PCOS and endometriosis patients whose endocrine picture needs assembling rather than protocol-fitting
- Hebrew-speaking patients — the only physician on this panel listed with Hebrew