2026 Top #27 Fertility Clinic in the US | Boston IVF - The Portland Fertility Center | IVF in South Portland, Maine

About Boston IVF - The Portland Fertility Center

The name says Portland. The building is in South Portland, at 778 Main Street, Suite 2, just past Broadway on the road in from the Maine Mall. This is a full-service IVF center with its own embryology laboratory on site, and the practice describes it as the only provider of in vitro fertilization in Maine, a role it says the center has held for more than 15 years.

Boston IVF itself is a Massachusetts-based network, not a Maine company. It has been running cycles since 1986 and says it has grown to roughly 30 centers with around 40 reproductive endocrinologists in eleven states, including Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Utah. Its network figures — 15,000 cycles a year, more than 150,000 “success stories” as the network itself words it, an average of 11 births a day since opening, and a laboratory that freezes over 5,000 eggs annually — are Boston IVF’s own system-wide claims, published by the network rather than measured at any single address. Nothing on this page attributes them to the South Portland address, and the office publishes no breakdown of its own share.

The Maine roster is three clinicians, and they are not all physicians. Dr. Ben Lannon is the board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and splits his practice between South Portland and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dr. Alexandra Huttler is a reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellow who divides her time between Downtown Boston and South Portland. Kristen Adams is a physician assistant (PA-C) based at the Maine office, working alongside the center’s endocrinologists rather than running cycles independently. Consultations are in person at South Portland or by telehealth for patients in Maine and New Hampshire. What this location lists as its own services is a short, concrete set: consultations, IUI, IVF, HSG, saline infusion sonography, semen analysis, and blood and ultrasound monitoring.

The outcomes are checkable, which is the useful part. SART’s 2023 final data for the Maine reporting unit — filed under the network’s Maine registry name, Boston IVF, The Maine Center, ClinicPKID 2000018 — records 823 cycles and cumulative live birth rates per intended retrieval of 53.8% under 35, 43.8% at 35-37, 23.1% at 38-40 and 11.5% at 41 and over. SART reports by registered unit, not by street address, and the practice publishes no per-office share, so read that row as the Maine unit’s result with South Portland inside it. Against the national row in the comparison table below the chart — 53.2 / 39.9 / 26.2 / 9.4 in the SART 2023 National Summary — the shape is mixed rather than a clean win: essentially level under 35, better at 35-37, worse at 38-40, better again at 41 and over. Two further caveats worth carrying into a consultation. The 41-and-over row is a blend of two bands the registry reports separately, 13.9% across 36 retrievals at 41-42 and 6.25% across 16 at 42 and over, which is why it swings more than the rows above it. And our sources capture no fresh-versus-frozen split for this unit, so nothing here should be read as a protocol-specific rate. The practice maintains no standalone success-rate page; the registry is the source.

Patient ratings collected for this center average 3.9 out of 5 across 64 reviews. That is an ordinary, uneven picture rather than a standout, and it belongs to this address only — the network’s other offices carry their own review counts, which are not reproduced here.

Accreditations & Awards

SART member reporting. This center submits cycle and outcome data to SART and the CDC, so its results can be pulled from the registry and matched to the age bands on this page rather than taken on faith.
CLIA laboratory standards are recorded for the center’s diagnostic and embryology work.
Fertility Equity e-Learning certification. The center states that its staff completed the cultural-competency modules issued through Morehouse School of Medicine with support from Ferring Pharmaceuticals, the credential on this list that speaks most directly to LGBTQ+ patients and to patients from minority and multicultural backgrounds.
Recognition attached to the Maine physicians: Dr. Lannon is a Castle Connolly Top Doctor from 2014 through 2025, holds a Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award for 2022-2023, and is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Huttler won an ASRM Resident In-Training Award in 2021.
Network-level, not site-specific: the Boston IVF system reports being named a top 5 private practice in the country for reproductive medicine by Castle Connolly in 2025, and claims New England’s first IVF/ICSI pregnancy, New England’s first donor-egg pregnancy and Massachusetts’s first birth from a patient’s own frozen eggs, along with an ongoing clinical partnership with Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, SUNY Upstate Medical University and Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. None of those firsts is dated or located at the South Portland office.
An accredited fellowship pipeline. Boston IVF runs an REI fellowship program with Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Alexandra Huttler is inside that program, and she holds clinic at this address.

Why Choose Boston IVF - The Portland Fertility Center

The laboratory steps stay in Maine. A stimulation cycle is a schedule problem before it is a medical one: scan-day bloodwork, growing follicles, a trigger shot timed to the hour, then retrieval. A center with its own IVF lab means the monitoring and the procedure can happen at 778 Main Street instead of on a Massachusetts turnpike.
You can look up this practice’s numbers by age band. Few things in fertility marketing are verifiable; the SART record is. The rates are roughly national for younger patients and below national at 38-40, so read them as a baseline to question rather than a selling point.
A reproductive endocrinologist who has worked the coverage side. Dr. Lannon sat on the boards of All Paths Family Building and Fertility Within Reach, regional advocacy groups, and says he took part in passing legislation that widened access to fertility care in New Hampshire and Maine. Patients fighting an insurer get a physician who has read that statute.
Small roster, real continuity. The same three clinicians appear across the Maine practice, so the person doing your monitoring visit is not a rotation of strangers. Ask for the physician, the fellow or the PA by name when you book.
Reach behind the local address. Donor egg, donor sperm, donor embryo and gestational carrier pathways, PGT and research protocols live at network level, along with telehealth cover for Maine and New Hampshire. The network scale is a resource here, not a claim about this building.

IVF & Fertility Services

Listed by this center for its own site:

IVF: cycle management from stimulation through embryo transfer, with the embryology laboratory on site
IUI and ovulation induction: first-line treatment for unexplained infertility and ovulatory problems
Diagnostics: hormone panels, ovarian reserve testing, semen analysis, HSG for the fallopian tubes and saline infusion sonography for the uterine cavity
Monitoring: bloodwork and ultrasound through the cycle, plus telehealth consultations for patients in Maine and New Hampshire
Consultations for new patients, in person or remote

Carried in this center’s service tags but itemized at network level rather than on the South Portland page:

ICSI for male-factor cases, requested alongside an IVF cycle
PGT-A and PGT-M: embryo screening for chromosome number and testing for known single-gene conditions
Egg, sperm and embryo freezing, including preservation before gonadotoxic cancer treatment
Donor egg, donor sperm, donor embryo and gestational carrier programs
LGBTQ+ family building, including fertility preservation for transgender patients. The network cites landmark published studies on fertility care for minority and transgender communities
Wellness supports sold under Boston IVF’s Wellness Center navigation: acupuncture, emotional support and nutritional counseling. Our sources do not list any of them among the South Portland services, so ask before assuming they are available at this address

Where a step physically happens matters more here than in a single-building clinic. Ask, before signing anything, which lab does your PGT biopsy, where your embryos would be stored, and whether a retrieval or a surgical case would be scheduled in South Portland or at another center.

Fees & Packages

There is no published price list. Boston IVF quotes per patient, because the bill depends on protocol, medication dose, whether ICSI or PGT is added, and how long embryos sit in storage. Ask for the estimate in writing and ask it to break out four lines: clinic and monitoring, laboratory and embryology, anesthesia, and medications plus storage.

What the practice does publish is help paying for it, and these are network programs rather than Maine-specific contracts:

Insurance verification before a cycle starts, with guidance on navigating fertility benefits
Installment financing for patients paying out of pocket
A Costco member discount, offered through the Sesame platform as part of a broader fertility-care program the network advertises
External grants the practice points patients toward, including the Boomer Esiason Foundation IVF Grant and the Kids Like Connor IVF Grant
Advocacy resources on employer benefits, from Fertility Within Reach, Progyny’s Talk to HR and Resolve

Coverage in Maine is not the blank wall it once was: a 2021 state law requires insurers to cover at least some IVF treatment, and the network’s own patient stories describe Maine couples returning to treatment after it passed. Confirm what your plan does and does not include rather than assuming the mandate settles it. Parking at the South Portland office is complimentary.

Patient Journey

Request the appointment, online or by phone. Maine and New Hampshire patients can open the chart with a telehealth consultation instead of driving in; in-person consults run at South Portland, and Dr. Lannon also consults in Portsmouth.
Baseline workup: hormone panels and pelvic ultrasound, a semen analysis for a male partner (booked separately from the main appointment), and uterine and tubal assessment by HSG or saline sonography at this office.
Treatment plan: the physician reviews findings and proposes a path — ovulation induction and IUI, IVF, freezing, or a donor or gestational carrier program coordinated through the network. Kristen Adams, the center’s physician assistant, works the recurring visits inside whatever plan the physician sets.
Stimulation and monitoring at 778 Main Street: repeat bloodwork and scans as follicles grow, with dose adjustments relayed to the prescribing physician.
Egg retrieval once follicles are mature, then fertilization by IVF or ICSI and culture to the blastocyst stage in the on-site laboratory. If you are doing PGT, the biopsy and the result drive which embryo transfers; embryos not transferred are frozen and banked.
Transfer, fresh or frozen depending on the protocol chosen.
Pregnancy blood test about 12-14 days after transfer, then follow-up and referral to obstetric care once a heartbeat is confirmed.

Local Legal Framework

The questions that actually decide a cycle in Maine are parentage, contract and insurance:

Gestational carriers: Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A governs parentage and gestational agreements, and the practice treats surrogacy contracts, including compensated arrangements, as enforceable under state law. Intended parents and the carrier normally retain separate counsel before medications begin.
Donor eggs, sperm and embryos: donation is legal and runs on a written donation agreement, with parentage fixed under Maine’s own statutes rather than by genetic link.
Embryo legal status: our sources record that Maine has not defined the legal status of an unused embryo. What governs instead is the storage and disposition consent you sign when the embryos are created, so read those forms as the contract they effectively are.
Genetic testing: PGT-A and PGT-M carry no Maine-specific restriction beyond informed consent.
Insurance: the 2021 Maine law requiring coverage of at least some IVF treatment is the reason in-state patients have more to claim than they did before it. Plan-by-plan exclusions still exist, so verify your own documents.
LGBTQ+ families: Maine law protects the family-building rights of LGBTQ+ patients, and this center’s staff hold the Fertility Equity cultural-competency certification.

For a third-party reproduction cycle — donor gametes, donor embryos or a gestational carrier — take the paperwork to a Maine reproductive attorney before starting. That is the area where state-to-state differences bite hardest, and our sources do not cover Maine’s procedural requirements in detail.