Aspire Fertility - Piney Point Clinic (Aspire Houston Fertility Institute)

About Aspire Fertility - Piney Point Clinic

Piney Point Clinic is one of 14 Aspire Fertility offices across Greater Houston and the major Texas metros. It keeps weekday hours from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM at 2500 Fondren Road, Suite 300. The clinic page names two physicians for this address, Ryan Steward, MD, and Maya Kriseman, MD, describes an IVF lab on site, and lists IVF, egg freezing, fertility testing, donor eggs, LGBTQ+ care and genetic testing as what it does there.

Aspire Fertility is the registered entity Aspire Houston Fertility Institute, renamed in 2026, and calls itself the largest fertility care group in Houston on its About page. The numbers behind that claim are network numbers: 15 providers, 14 locations, and more than 30,000 babies born across the group. The group belongs to The Prelude Network and the OptumHealth Centers of Excellence network, and it was started by TJ and Margaret Farnsworth. Aspire’s Houston provider roster runs to 17 clinicians, 14 physicians and 3 nurse practitioners; only the two listed above practice at this address.

What “established 2000” means here. That year is the founding date our sources attach to Houston Fertility Institute, the predecessor entity behind Aspire, confirmed through business databases. No opening date for the Fondren Road office appears in our sources, and the website’s line about serving Greater Houston “for over 39 years” covers predecessor practices as well. So read 2000 as group history rather than as continuous experience at this particular clinic.

What the success data actually covers

SART registers Aspire’s Houston outcomes under a single reporting unit, ClinicPKID 2201, filed as Aspire Houston Fertility Institute. Our sources describe that unit as group-level across the Houston offices, and they do not identify which of the 14 addresses the registration sits at. Every percentage below is therefore the Houston group’s result, not a Piney Point number.

Both rows below come from the same registry and the same reporting year, SART 2023, so they are directly comparable.

Live birth per intended egg retrieval, all transfers, group row versus the SART 2023 national row:

The group clears the national line in all four bands, but only the under-35 band is a wide gap; the other three sit just barely above the national figure.

Frozen embryo transfer without PGT-A is where the picture turns:

Here the group beats the national average only under 35 and falls below it in every band from 35 up. Aspire’s own success-rate page says its rates run “higher than the national average, year after year.” That is a clinic-published marketing statement, and the SART 2023 snapshot supports it for per-retrieval rates and for under-35 frozen transfers, but not for frozen transfers at 35 and older. Weigh both lines, not just the one that reads better.

Two more notes on reading these tables. First, the PGT-A subset looks stronger: frozen transfers with PGT-A reported 56.3% under 35, 54.9% at 35-37, 48.5% at 38-40, 44.7% at 41-42 and 37.9% over 42. Those are also group figures, and a PGT-A cohort is already screened (blastocysts that survived biopsy and vitrification, then tested euploid), so do not read that gap as clinic skill. Second, no fresh-transfer figures came back in the report row our sources captured, so this page makes no fresh-embryo claims in either direction.

The 2024 preliminary SART report shows 51.3% live birth per retrieval under 35. Preliminary data runs low because late-reporting cycles are not yet in; that is not a measured drop.

Volume: the SART 2023 row lists 7,120 cycles for the Houston reporting unit. The national reference row in our data reads 932 cycles, a per-clinic average that does not line up with a multi-site group total, so this page does not turn either figure into a multiple of the other. Aspire’s own page carries the matching warning that clinic-to-clinic comparison can be meaningless when patient characteristics and entry criteria differ.

Accreditations & Awards

• SART member clinic, reporting under ClinicPKID 2201 for the Aspire Houston group (2023 Final and 2024 Preliminary submissions both exist)
• OptumHealth Centers of Excellence network membership, stated on the About page for the group
• The Prelude Network member, stated in the site footer
• Fertility Providers Alliance member, stated in the site footer
• Castle Connolly Top Doctors 2026: the homepage says three of Aspire’s Houston specialists were recognized. Our sources do not name them or say which offices they work in, so this is a group-level honor, not a Piney Point credential
• Texas Super Doctors and America’s Top Obstetricians and Gynecologists: About-page claims about award-winning specialists across the group, again without a per-clinic breakdown
• Listing rating on this page: 4.3 stars across 197 reviews

Two absences worth stating. Our sources show no JCI accreditation and no CAP or CLIA laboratory certification number for the IVF lab, which is normal for a US fertility practice but means the lab’s accreditation cannot be confirmed from the material we hold. A REI Protect seal claim could not be verified either: the certification exists, but the award list is not published.

Why Choose Aspire Fertility - Piney Point Clinic

• The embryology lab is at the address you book. The clinic page describes itself as an infertility clinic and IVF lab, which means monitoring, retrieval logistics and lab work are not spread across different brands. One caveat our sources do not settle: the network lists a separate location called Piney Point Surgery Center, and nothing states which of the two sites performs egg retrievals. Ask before you schedule.
• Both listed physicians hold the same two boards. Ryan Steward and Maya Kriseman are each certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, so the person running your cycle and the person reading your labs sit inside the same specialty. Steward also holds the network job of Director of Assisted Reproduction Technologies and Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing, which is a group role rather than a site role.
• Monitoring can happen closer to home. Aspire runs 14 offices across Greater Houston and Texas on the shared Prelude Connect patient app, and both physicians here also see patients at other offices: Steward at The Woodlands, Kingwood, Piney Point and the Women’s Clinic, Kriseman at the Medical Center (Woman’s 7900 Fannin) and Katy. During a stimulation cycle, that distance matters more than any marketing line.
• Prices are on the website before you call. Starting figures for IVF with and without PGT, egg freezing, IUI and frozen transfer are published, which is unusual in US fertility care.
• A refund-backed option exists. The network sells a BUNDL package built around a 100% IVF refund structure, plus financing.
• Language reach. Kriseman sees patients in English, Russian and medical Spanish. The network’s international patient page lists Spanish, Arabic, Korean and Vietnamese support within its clinical teams, and patients coming from Asia, Africa, India, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe typically plan on a 3-4 week stay in Houston.

IVF & Fertility Services

• In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval, fertilization and embryo transfer, presented as a four-step program
• Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI): injected fertilization for male-factor cases
• Preimplantation Genetic Testing: PGT-A for aneuploidy screening and PGT-M for single-gene conditions, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, Tay-Sachs, BRCA1/2, Lynch syndrome, Huntington disease and Marfan syndrome. Carrier screening by blood draw and oral swab is offered at the first visit
• Egg Freezing and Embryo Freezing: elective and medical cryopreservation, with storage handled by the clinic
• Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET): monitoring, thaw preparation and transfer
• Fertility Preservation: including oncofertility work before cancer treatment, plus sperm freezing
• Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) and Ovulation Induction
• Donor Egg, Donor Sperm and Gestational Carrier Programs: run through a dedicated third-party reproduction department
• LGBTQ+ Family Building: IVF and IUI for same-sex partners, reciprocal IVF, donor gametes, carrier programs and fertility preservation for transgender patients
• Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Evaluation
• Fertility Testing: AMH, day 3 FSH and estradiol, transvaginal ultrasound with antral follicle count, HSG, saline infusion sonography, thyroid and prolactin, progesterone, and semen analysis
• Family Balancing through PGT
• Telemedicine Consults through Prelude Connect
• International Patient Coordination: remote phone consultation, local monitoring at home, then travel to Houston for retrieval and transfer

Fees & Packages

Aspire publishes starting prices for uninsured patients on its own pricing page, captured 2026-08-05:

What is inside those numbers is only partly documented. The FET line explicitly includes ultrasound monitoring, thaw preparation and the transfer, with medication billed separately. Egg freezing is quoted both with and without drugs. The IVF lines do not itemize whether monitoring, retrieval, anesthesia, ICSI, biopsy, freezing or storage sit inside the starting price, so get that in writing during your financial consult.

Payment paths our sources record: financial counselors contact your insurer before your first visit and tell you what is covered, what is not and what you would pay out of pocket; a Financial Assurance Plan, grants and third-party lender options are offered; the BUNDL package is structured as a 100% IVF refund program; and treatment payments go through the Prelude Connect app at least two weeks before a cycle starts.

Insurance in Texas works the other way around from what many patients expect. Aspire’s pricing page states that some Texas plans must offer IVF coverage, but your employer can choose not to buy it. Self-funded plans set their own rules, so read the fertility language in your summary before assuming a cycle is covered.

Budget for more than one transfer. The clinic’s own FAQ cites SART’s figure that 26% of IVF patients succeed on the first try and says most patients go through two to four cycles before a successful pregnancy.

Patient Journey

1. Book a consultation. No referral is needed for most patients, though some insurance plans require one for coverage. Consults run in person or by telemedicine.
2. Set up Prelude Connect and file your paperwork. Complete the patient health history form in the app at least 72 hours before the visit, upload or bring records from earlier fertility treatment, labs and ultrasounds, and set up the EngagedMD account where you watch treatment explainer videos and sign consents electronically.
3. Insurance gets verified before you are seen. Aspire checks your benefits ahead of the appointment; after the consult, the financial counseling team walks you through estimated costs, payment options and financing. Payments are due in the app at least two weeks before treatment starts.
4. First visit, 45-60 minutes. A fertility specialist reviews your history and options, and diagnostic testing such as bloodwork or ultrasound can happen the same day if recommended. In-person patients should arrive 15 minutes early with ID and insurance card, and plan a 10-30 minute buffer. Telemedicine patients join from the Treatment Plan in Prelude Connect, with payment arranged in advance.
5. Your plan gets written. Diagnostic testing, then a treatment path (ovulation induction, IUI, IVF or something more advanced), then a cost breakdown from your financial counselor.
6. The cycle itself. Stimulation with monitoring runs 8-12 days in the cycle summary our sources record, followed by egg retrieval, fertilization, embryo culture, PGT where selected, then transfer or freezing. Culture day targets and anesthesia details are not published in our sources.
7. Pregnancy test, then storage decides your next step. Remaining embryos are kept for later frozen transfers. The interval from transfer to a beta-hCG test is not published in our sources.

Aspire’s About page also says the group takes part in multi-site IVF clinical trials, and its first-visit material recommends stress reduction, nutrition and exercise alongside treatment. Both are network-level statements.

Local Legal Framework

Five things this profile can state about Texas assisted-reproduction law, and none of them carries a verified statute citation, so treat the parentage items as a checklist for a Texas family-law attorney rather than as legal advice.

• Gestational carriers / surrogacy: our sources record that Texas enforces written gestational carrier agreements and that pre-birth orders are available, which is why intended parents can usually secure parentage before the birth. The broader claim that Texas is surrogacy-friendly is a characterization rather than a rule you can rely on; what decides your case is the agreement signed before transfer and the court order after it.
• Egg, sperm and embryo donation: legal, and the mechanism our sources describe is a written agreement in which the donor relinquishes parental rights. The donation itself is not the risk; parentage papering is.
• PGT-A and PGT-M: our sources identify no Texas restriction on embryo genetic testing beyond standard medical informed consent.
• Legal status of embryos: unsettled at the state-law level according to our sources. In practice, disposition of unused embryos follows the clinic consent forms you sign at creation, so read those before you sign them.
• Insurance: Aspire’s pricing page states that Texas requires some plans to offer IVF coverage while letting employers decline the benefit. Ask for the fertility clause in writing.

Location

• Address: 2500 Fondren Rd., Suite 300, Houston, TX 77063
• Phone: (713) 730-2229