About Margaret Garrisi:
Margaret Graf Garrisi, MD is a Founding Partner at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science. She brings more than 30 years of experience and achievement in Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Infertility to her position as Medical Director of Assisted Reproduction in the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology.
Dr. Garrisi fills many roles at IRMS and in the community. She is a clinical specialist with expertise in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of fibroids, uterine polyps, and endometriosis. Dr. Garrisi also lectures to physician groups and the public about topics related to reproductive health and infertility. But perhaps the professional role Dr. Garrisi values more than any other is the opportunity to meet with and consult with her patients—a process she says is very much a two-way street:
“I am still amazed to see what I get back from my patients on a human level. It still moves me.”
Prior to joining IRMS, Dr. Garrisi practiced at the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at Cornell University Medical Center, and served as an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cornell Weill Medical College, where she had completed her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Garrisi completed her fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. An attending physician in IVF for over three decades, she is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology, as well as reproductive endocrinology.
Over the course of her career, Dr. Garrisi has worked at the forefront of reproductive medicine and IVF, and has seen the field blossom from a highly experimental medical oddity to a mainstream medical discipline. Along the way, she raised three daughters and one son, and works diligently to maintain a balance between her personal and professional lives. Fiercely proud of her children, she also admits to the usual variety of parental concerns, and hopes that her daughters do not overlook their biological clocks as they pursue their careers. She sees reasons for professional concern, as well, in the increasingly complex relationship between reproductive medicine, the media and politics:
“We’ve already succeeded in advancing the science and technology of reproductive medicine far beyond what anyone thought possible even a few short years ago. The most important challenge now is to help more people make good choices by planning ahead and being more actively involved in their own reproductive health—rather than looking for the next technological miracle.”
Dr. Garrisi earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Canisius College in 1975, and her Doctor of Medicine from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1979. Among her professional memberships, she is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a member of both the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the New York Obstetrical Society.
