Fertility is not simply a career specialty for Dr. J. Preston Parry and his team at Positive Steps Fertility; it’s a calling.
“We really love what we do …,” Parry says. “If we aren’t successful, some couples will forever return to an empty home, so we take what we do incredibly seriously — even if there is a lot of hope and humor along the way.”
While Parry describes himself and his team of nurse practitioners, embryologists and numerous other experts as data- driven nerds searching for the best outcomes, they have more to offer patients than their skillsets.
“I want them to know how much we care before they care how much we know,” he says. “I’m so fortunate to work with an amazing team, where we try to care for people like family rather than (treating them as) a number—which is where so much of medicine has gone these days. “We’re open-minded, where we give options, but we also are transparent enough to say what we’d do for our own spouse or children in similar circumstances. Finally, we’re fairly efficient, where we try to cut away the irrelevant and focus on that which gets people pregnant as quickly, but as affordably, as possible.”
That kind of passion led Parry to create, develop and patent the Parryscope, an approach that provides a breakthrough
in female fertility testing. It is considered a more effective alternative to hysterosalpingography, or HSG testing.
Instead of using an X-ray to view inside the uterus, Parryscope involves placing a fiberoptic camera, approximately the width of a coffee straw, through the cervix and into the fallopian tubes. Parry then uses saline and air bubbles to determine if the fallopian tubes are open and whether the uterus is receptive to pregnancy. If the bubbles cannot pass through the tube, Parry says, neither can sperm. The entire in- office process takes about five minutes and draws patients from across the South and as far afield as California and New York.
“It’s a gentle, accurate and affordable approach to single-visit fertility testing,” he says. “It combines ultrasound with office hysteroscopy for the gold-standard assessment of egg reserve, the gold standard for uterine evaluation, and it comes close to gold- standard testing for whether the fallopian tubes are open — but without the incisions, pain, anesthesia and cost associated with laparoscopy.”
The clinic also offers advanced care, such as in vitro fertilization and egg donation.
“But we usually don’t start there, as many women can conceive through low- cost, low-tech measures such as oral medication and insemination,” Parry says.
According to the National Infertility Association, one in eight U.S. couples will struggle with infertility, which is defined as being unable to get pregnant after one year of unprotected sex. That means Dr.Parry is staying busy at his offices in Gulfport, Madison, Hattiesburg, Starkville and Shreveport.
“Our home base is in Madison, and we occasionally visit Starkville and Hattiesburg,” he says. “However, we plan for Gulfport to be our second full-time base in Mississippi, even though we know it will take some time to get to that volume.”
Those wanting to learn more about Positive Steps Fertility can visit positivestepsfertility.com or call (855) 759-4124.
“Don’t go through this alone,” Parry says. “Get expert support, and think positive.”
