Sherman J. Silber is physician specializing in the field of

infertility Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal state ...

. He invented many of the infertility treatments in use today in the domain of IVF, sperm retrieval, ICSI,

vasectomy reversal Vasectomy, or vasoligation, is an elective surgical procedure for male sterilization or permanent contraception. During the procedure, the male vasa deferentia are cut and tied or sealed so as to prevent sperm from entering into the urethra and ...

, tubal ligation reversal, egg and

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

freezing,

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

transplantation, and the reproductive biological clock.http://www.infertile.com/closlook/biograph.htm
/ref> He performed the world's first ovary and testicle transplants, created and popularized the microsurgical vasectomy reversal, and popularized ovarian tissue freezing to preserve female fertility.http://www.newhopefertility.com/dr-sherman-silber_dr-silber.shtml
He was the first to research the genetic causes of infertility in men, and developed the TESE-ICSI technique for extracting sperm from men with low or nonexistent sperm counts and direct injection of the sperm into the egg. Additionally, Silber has studied fertility in animals and performed microscopic surgery on

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

s, South American bush dogs,

Przewalski's horse Przewalski's horse (, , (Пржевальский ), ) (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), also called the takhi, Mongolian wild horse or Dzungarian horse, is a rare and endangered horse originally native to the steppes of Ce ...

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

, and other endangered species.http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2007/10/08/focus20.html
/ref>

Education

Silber graduated medical school from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1966, and thereafter completed post-graduate training in cardiac surgery at both

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and University of Michigan.Britt, Sue
"The Miracle Worker."
St. Louis Commerce Magazine. Nov. 2004

Career

Before completing his residency, Silber worked as a gynecologist for the U.S. Public Health Service in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

.Garrison, Chad
"The Egg Man."
River Front Times. Oct. 3, 2007 He served as a village urologist for two years before returning the University of Michigan to study urology and transplantation. Silber became interested in microsurgical techniques for kidney transplantation. He took academic posts at the university of

Melbourne Medical School Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences of the University of Melbourne has the largest number of post-graduate enrolments in the University of Melbourne and also hosts the most school departments and centres of all University of Melbourn ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and then the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Medical School in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. While in Australia in 1975, Silber performed the world's first microsurgical vasectomy reversal and popularized the microscopic vasovasostomy.Bowins, Brad
''The Cruelest Cut of All (the Modern Medical Nightmare of Post-Vasectomy Pain Syndrome)''
Infinity Publishing. 2006. pg. 53Cooperman, Jeannette
“Dr. Sherman Silber Takes His Reproductive Technology to China.”
St. Louis Magazine. Aug. 2012 In 1976, Silber moved to St. Louis, Missouri, his wife's hometown, and joined St. Luke's Hospital. In 1978, he reported the first testicle transplant between two twin brothers.Lambert, Victoria
“Fertility: stop all the clocks.”
The Telegraph. Nov. 26, 2009 In the 1990s, Silber and his colleagues at St. Luke's worked with a team at Brussels University to develop intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in which a single sperm is selected to be microscopically injected into an egg. This procedure is coupled with the sperm retrieval method developed by Silber, which involves a single sperm retrieved by microsurgery directly from a patient's epidycimus.Lambert, Victoria

The Telegraph via The Calgary Herald. Oct. 7, 2013 Beginning in 1996, Silber began experimenting with freezing ovarian tissue to regraft into the ovaries of cancer patients who have compromised fertility after chemotherapy and radiation. In 2004, he successfully transplanted frozen ovarian tissue. In 2007, Silber completed the first successful whole ovary transplant. The surgery was performed at his clinic in St. Louis, Missouri.Smith, Rebecca

The Telegraph. Nov. 14, 2008 As of 2014, Silber had removed, frozen, and replaced ovarian tissue in twelve women and done a series of ovarian tissue transplants in nine sets of identical twins. That year, he also traveled to China to complete China's first ovarian-tissue transplant. In 2013, Silber became the medical director of the Infertility Center of St. Louis at St. Luke's Hospital in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, where he has used his expertise to treat patients from around the world.http://www.aish.com/ci/be/48880577.html
/ref> Over his career, Silber has collaborated with medical research teams from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, the University of Amsterdam, and the Kato Clinic in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, and has published more than 250 scientific papers and more than 50 teaching videos.

Awards

In 1965, while at University of Michigan, Silber won the Hopwood Literary Award for Short Stories and Essays.Editors Nicholas Delbanco, Andrea Beauchamp, Michael Barrett
''The Hopwood Awards: 75 Years of Prized Writing''
pg. 222 Silber received the 2008 James B. Eads Award for innovation in engineering, technology, or an outstanding project with major impact.Marquis, Cate. ��Science Group to Honor Silber, Israel.”St. Louis Jewish Light. Mar. 26, 2008 In 2009, he won the Tenth Royan International Research Award for his research in female fertility.

Books

Silber has authored four medical textbooks and five best-sellers on infertility and reproduction,http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/authors_Sherman-J-Silber-MD-(1014069).htm
/ref> including the book ''How to Get Pregnant'', which has been reprinted in several different languages. His other books include How Not to Get Pregnant, How to Get Pregnant with the New Technology, and The Male: From Infancy to Old Age.

Media Appearances

He has appeared on the Donahue Show eight times since 1980, ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'', the Today Show, ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'', Gary Collins, Peter Jennings’ ABC Nightly News, and Ted Koppel’s ''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...

''. He has been a consultant numerous times on the Joan Rivers Show and ABC News, and has been a regular contributor many times on KMOX, WOR, and NPR radio. He was one of four physicians picked to be on the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment study to help infertile couples in the United States. In 2013, he completed the first IVF performed on live television as a Today Show segment.Menkhausen, Jessica
“Why I’m doing IVF on live TV: One woman’s fertility journey.”
Today Moms. Sept. 24, 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silber, Sherman American urologists Physicians from Missouri Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Michigan Medical School alumni