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About
Shelby A. Neal, MD runs Duke Fertility Center as its medical director — the physician accountable for how the clinic’s services are organized, from first appointment through embryo transfer. She took on that leadership role while keeping a full clinical practice in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, the specialty she has worked in since 2019.
Her training path stayed inside the southeastern academic system. She earned her MD at UNC Chapel Hill in 2011, completed OB/GYN residency at the Medical University of South Carolina, then subspecialized at Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania. Duke named her an assistant professor in 2021. She has published 25 papers, and Duke Health credits her as the medical reviewer on its infertility patient guidance as of December 2024.
Patients who meet her through the center’s intake process usually encounter her in a telehealth consultation first. Duke’s standard pathway opens with a nurse or assistant phone call, a video visit to review history and order testing, then an in-person visit four to six weeks later to go over results and build the treatment plan.
Clinical Expertise
- Infertility Evaluation: Full diagnostic work-up — hormone panels, pelvic ultrasound, hysterosalpingogram, saline sonogram — followed by an individualized treatment plan
- IVF and ICSI: Cycle oversight at a center whose embryology laboratory is accredited by the College of American Pathologists and uses RI Witness RFID chain-of-custody tracking for specimens and stored embryos
- Egg Freezing and Fertility Preservation: Elective preservation as well as preservation before cancer treatment, a named service line of the center she directs
- Recurrent Pregnancy Loss: Structured genetic, anatomic, endocrine and immune evaluation rather than trial-and-error
- Donor Egg and LGBTQ+ Family Building: Care across donor gametes, reciprocal IVF for two female partners, and preservation before gender-affirming treatment
Why Choose Dr. Neal
She sets the clinical standard at the clinic you’re walking into. As medical director she is the person reviewing how Duke Fertility Center delivers care, not just how one physician delivers it.
Costs are published, not guessed. Under her direction the center posts self-pay prices — an IVF cycle runs $12,450 to $18,000 before medication, medication adds roughly $5,000 to $6,000, a frozen embryo transfer $3,500 to $4,500, and a new-patient consult $245. A financial coordinator verifies insurance benefits before the first visit, and the clinic accepts Progyny fertility benefits and ARC Fertility multi-cycle financing.
Depth in preservation work. Egg freezing, embryo banking and pre-treatment preservation for cancer patients sit inside her named clinical interests, which matters if you are trying to delay rather than start a pregnancy.
A hospital system behind the clinic. Duke Fertility Center operates alongside Duke’s obstetrics and high-risk pregnancy services, and its andrology and urology support — ranked first in North Carolina by U.S. News for 2025-2026 — is in the same system.
Professional Affiliations
Neal holds an assistant professorship at Duke University and practices at Duke Fertility Center, a member clinic of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. The center’s embryology laboratory is accredited by the College of American Pathologists under CLIA, and Duke’s hospitals have been named LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leaders by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. She serves as a medical reviewer for Duke Health patient education content on infertility.
Suitable For
- Patients who want their pricing in writing before committing: The center publishes a full self-pay list and offers two- and three-cycle financing packages
- Anyone pausing fertility for cancer treatment or gender-affirming care: Preservation is one of her stated clinical interests, with Duke’s specialty services in the same network
- Recurrent loss patients tired of unexplained labels: Her work-up covers genetic, anatomic, endocrine and immune causes systematically
- LGBTQ+ patients and donor-gamete families: The clinic’s services and her listed specialties both cover reciprocal IVF, donor sperm and donor egg pathways