Patient Notice: Updates to Services & Care Team

With the departure of Dr. Gihan Bareh, LLU Fertility welcomes new providers while continuing to serve patients with the same dedication to high-quality, university-level care.

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Loma Linda, Calif. (July 23, 2025) – Loma Linda University Center for Fertility & IVF wishes to notify patients and prospective patients of recent changes to its care team and scheduling.

First, we bid our reproductive endocrinologist of 10 years, Dr. Gihan Bareh, a fond farewell. As Dr. Bareh leaves the Center for Fertility for other pursuits, the whole Loma Linda University team thanks her for the many years of deep devotion to our patients’ care and success.

LLU Center for Fertility will continue services with a new interim team working alongside our current clinical team.

Continue reading for details, with further updates to come. For questions about this transition and continued care, please message us through our Contact Us Online form.

In the lab

Our highly skilled lead embryologist, Natalie King, continues to oversee and securely maintain all stored embryos, eggs, and sperm specimens in our lab. For patients pursuing IVF or other treatment currently or soon, Natalie will handle the secure transfer of specimens to an outside or partner clinic as needed.

The interim lab director is Justin Kerstetter, MD, an LLU pathologist who will ensure ongoing lab quality and compliance.

In the fertility clinic

Our team of LLU Obstetrics & Gynecology (OB-GYN) physicians and advanced practice providers, overseen by Department Chair Dr. Kevin Balli, will also support and continue care for establishing new patients, including consultations, testing and monitoring, and will coordinate existing patient care with our interim outside partner IVF clinics until a new fertility physician permanently joins the in-house team.

For new patients

We anticipate a temporary pause in new patient appointments during this transition to a new team but anticipate restarting new patient consults by late summer or early fall. In the meantime, please request an appointment online using our secure form to be added to the waitlist.

For existing patients

While we orient our new team members, LLU Center for Fertility & IVF will have a brief pause in clinical operations, with the goal of resuming the following care by late summer:

• Diagnostic testing, labs and imaging.
• Andrology services (such as semen analysis).
• Hormone testing, treatment.
• Fertility workups and care planning.
• Basic fertility treatments, such as intrauterine insemination (IUI).
• Coordinating in vitro fertilization (IVF) and related treatments with a partner clinic, with stimulation/pregnancy monitoring locally.

How to transfer your specimens

For patients ready to resume IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) fertility treatments right away, embryologist Natalie King will coordinate secure transfer of embryos, eggs or sperm specimens to an LLU partner clinic or an outside IVF clinic of each patient’s choosing. To coordinate a specimen transfer, patients may a use our secure Contact Us Online form.