Jennifer Talley started her search for a fertility specialist as many do, trying recommendations from her general practitioner. Not feeling she’d found the right specialist, she visited an online support group for women dealing with infertility. She read a recommendation for Fertility Partnership in St. Peters.
At the clinic, she saw pictures of smiling families with their babies, a montage of success stories. Dr. Elan Simckes, the reproductive endocrinologist who started the practice, was unlike many other physicians. “He had a colorful personality and used humor to put us at ease,” Talley says. “I remember at one exam he was playing air guitar, and when I was getting ready to have a transfer he came in singing Looney Tunes.”
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Simckes also keeps the cost of his clinic reasonable. “A sense of service to the community drew me to the field of reproductive health, but then there were people who couldn’t access it because of money,” he explains. “The lower you can get it without sacrificing quality, the better.” (The Centers For Disease Control ranked Fertility Partnership No. 2 in Missouri in live birth rate for women ages 35 to 37.)
For Talley, her online support group also continued to play a pivotal role. “Our journeys all looked different, had different outcomes and twists and turns, but the emotions and fear and sadness, it’s all the same,” Talley says. “These women were there to support you. They were there to cry with you.”
One of the women, who lived in England, would send a knitted teddy bear when a fellow member had a child. When Talley’s daughter, Lillian, was finally born two years ago, she received a bear. It remains one of the family’s favorite toys.
