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About
Most of what medicine knows about fertility preservation in transgender patients has been written in the last fifteen years, and Stephanie Rothenberg’s name is on part of it. Her research in this area has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine and in Pediatrics, and she has spoken publicly about the harder questions the literature is still sorting out — whether sperm production remains possible, and how reliable it is, after a transgender woman has started testosterone.
She is a Washington native who took her medical degree at the University of Washington School of Medicine after graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of Idaho, where she played on the women’s basketball team. Her residency and her fellowship were both completed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Magee-Womens Hospital, a training path that gave her advanced work in infertility management, in vitro fertilization, complex hysteroscopy and medical ethics. Surgical awards followed during that period — the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons’ Outstanding Laparoendoscopic Resident Award and the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists’ recognition for excellence in endoscopic procedures — along with teaching and compassionate care awards, and a slot as co-instructor of “Topics in LGBTQ Health” at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
She joined PNWF in 2019 and, in 2021, co-founded the clinic’s Center for LGBTQ+ Fertility with Dr. Darcy Broughton — described by the clinic as the first dedicated LGBTQ+ family-building center in the Northwest. Fertility preservation for trans and nonbinary patients remains her specific interest, and she appears regularly in public interviews on sperm banking, egg freezing and transgender family planning. She is a Seattle Met Top Doctor and a member of ASRM, the Seattle Gynecologic Society and RESOLVE.
Clinical Expertise
- Fertility Preservation for Transgender and Nonbinary Patients: Sperm banking and egg freezing, including preservation started after hormone therapy is already underway
- LGBTQ+ Family Building: Co-founded PNWF’s dedicated center; reciprocal IVF, donor gametes and gestational carriers
- Complex Hysteroscopy: Fellowship-level training in operative cavity work — polyps, fibroids, adhesions and septum
- IVF and Infertility Management: Stimulation through transfer, with an evidence-and-literature habit from her publication record
- Medical Ethics: A named component of her training, which shows up in the consent-heavy conversations third-party reproduction requires
Why Choose Dr. Stephanie Rothenberg
She publishes in the niche she treats. Reproductive endocrinologists who serve LGBTQ+ patients are common; ones with transgender fertility preservation research in the New England Journal of Medicine and Pediatrics are not. That distinction matters practically when a patient asks how many eggs or how much sperm a given protocol is likely to yield in their specific situation.
She built the Northwest’s first dedicated LGBTQ+ fertility center. The Center for LGBTQ+ Fertility at PNWF has run since 2021 under her and Dr. Broughton. Running a center means designing the intake, the donor and carrier pathways, and the parentage documentation that goes with them, not just scheduling the cycle.
She can operate on the uterus as well as stimulate the ovaries. Complex hysteroscopy was part of her formal training, and her laparoscopic work won recognition from both SLS and AAGL. Patients whose implantation failures trace back to a cavity problem — adhesions, a septum, a submucosal fibroid — can have that diagnosed and treated without a separate surgical referral.
She teaches ethics and LGBTQ health. Co-instructor of a medical school course in LGBTQ health, with a residency award for compassionate care and a fellowship component in medical ethics. Reciprocal IVF, donor gametes and surrogacy all involve consent conversations where that combination earns its keep.
She is a Seattle-trained doctor who stayed local. University of Idaho, University of Washington medical school, then back to Seattle in 2019. Patients who want continuity of care near home rather than travel for each cycle get that from a physician who intends to be in the same clinic through the whole sequence.
Professional Affiliations
American Society for Reproductive Medicine; Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Seattle Gynecologic Society; RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. Awards include the PCRS Merit Excellence in Fellowship Research, the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons’ Outstanding Laparoendoscopic Resident Award, AAGL recognition for excellence in endoscopic procedures, Pittsburgh’s Margaret Scearce Compassionate Care Award, and a medical student teaching excellence award.
Suitable For
- Transgender and nonbinary patients before hormone therapy: Bank sperm or eggs before starting testosterone or estrogen; her research area
- Patients already on hormones who still want to preserve fertility: The harder question she has published on and speaks about publicly
- Lesbian couples and single parents: The center she co-founded was built for these paths
- Uterine cavity pathology: Polyps, adhesions, septum and submucosal fibroids handled by a doctor trained in complex hysteroscopy
- Repeated implantation failure with a suspected cavity factor: Diagnosis and operative treatment in the same practice