AspireHFI Welcomes Dr. Rhiana Saunders
Aspire Houston Fertility Institute is thrilled to welcome Dr. Rhiana Saunders! Dr. Saunders joins our physician team after twenty years of service in the United States Army Medical Corps.
Dr. Saunders was commissioned in the Army through ROTC at the University of Notre Dame before earning her medical doctorate from Georgetown University School of Medicine. She then completed her residency in Gynecologic Surgery and Obstetrics at Madigan Army Medical Center and fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.
Reflecting on the nature of her job, Dr. Saunders says, “this career path was the perfect alignment of challenging me to stay informed of the latest medical advances while being able to work with my hands and to build long, trusting relationships with my patients. I am blessed to be able to share in their excitement and joyful outcomes as well as console in their sorrows. It is the most rewarding, fulfilling, meaningful service I could offer.”
Dr. Saunders is passionate about uncovering the unknown aspects of recurrent pregnancy loss. She says, “miscarriages can be a profoundly heartbreaking experience. The emotional and psychological impact can be particularly devastating for patients who suffer repeated pregnancy losses. Unfortunately, there is so much still left unknown. Researchers world-wide are intensely studying the uterine microenvironment and the critical biochemical processes that occur at the level of implantation and the later stages of the maternal-fetal pregnancy progression. I am hopeful that these areas of research lead to new medical treatments in fertility and early pregnancy with improved patient outcomes.”
Her clinical areas of expertise include diagnostics, artificial insemination/intrauterine insemination (IUI), ovulation induction, fertility preservation (egg freezing), in vitro fertilization (IVF), frozen embryo transfer (FET), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and fertility genetic testing. While at the Brooke Army Medical Center she spearheaded equal fertility care access to single soldiers and same sex couples.
Dr. Saunders shares three children with her husband, a fellow graduate of Notre Dame. She looks forward to dedicating the next phase of her career to providing individualized, compassionate reproductive care for all patients seeking to build their families at AspireHFI.
