Dr. Stefani Hayes, ND, L.Ac. (she, her, hers)
A Personal Message from Dr. Stefani Kovacovsky Hayes (she/her/hers):
Do you yearn to hold your baby in your arms? Are you overwhelmed with where to begin with preparing for a healthy pregnancy? Are you feeling confused about what steps to take next on your fertility journey? Are you single or queer and not know where to start on your fertility journey? Do you need postpartum support or adjunctive pregnancy support to help you enjoy that time with your baby?
Whether you are at the beginning of your fertility journey, or years into a complicated infertility process, my team and I would love to support you. From helping you to optimize an IVF cycle or knowing where to begin with trying for pregnancy, I love meeting all my patients where they are on their journey. Whether looking for a “natural” alternative or an adjunctive support to a highly interventional process, I can offer you support. If you have a partner in this process, we want to work with them too, to help you both be healthy parents, whether or not they are contributing eggs or sperm to this conception process.
I deeply value collaborative care. At Kwan Yin, we have an active fertility team that supports our patients. Myself and my very experienced fertility acupuncture colleague, Lisa Tongel, have brought together and lead a highly coordinated team. We both greatly enjoy helping extremely talented new providers to thrive. Two of our team members, Dr. Laura Clevenger and Dr. Rachel Peterson, are newly licensed doctors who are doing an intensive 2 year post graduate fellowship in fertility medicine with Lisa and I. By having a fertility team that provides your support, you truly get the best minds on your case while also having access to quality care more frequently than either Lisa or my schedule could provide.
For single by choice individuals, queer persons, or those with male factor infertility, myself and my fellows are trained in providing intrauterine insemination (IUI) using frozen or fresh sperm in order to achieve pregnancy. We also offer Zymot assisted wash for more advanced male factor infertility or known/suspected DNA fragmentation. We are especially skilled in providing this opportunity along with a natural cycle. If enhanced ovulation support is required, we can add additional support with supplements or medication. We have very high ethics about how we provide all fertility care, including how we offer IUIs. If you are not getting pregnant with our IUIs or if your labs show that your fertility needs require more advanced techniques, we actively refer to our local reproductive endocrinology/infertility specialists.
For individuals who have uterine factor fertility issues, myself and Dr. Laura Clevenger offer intrauterine low volume, high concentration, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) infusions. This anti-inflammatory and regenerative technique harnesses the healing power of your own blood to optimize uterine healing post surgery and support healing from conditions such as: Asherman’s, thin lining, endometritis, adenomyosis, or recurrent implantation failures. We collaborate directly with your IVF clinic or specialist to create a plan of timing and frequency for PRP infusions that will aim to best optimize your uterine health outcomes. If you are a specialist interested in collaborating, please email me (listed below).
I love offering a collaborative, integrative model of care for my patients, through co-treating with my direct fertility team, my additional colleagues at Kwan Yin and with other specialists throughout the Pacific NW for nearly two decades. I view myself as the center of a wheel, and I work hard to create an amazing team for you that addresses all the “spokes” of your wellness. I am very skilled in treating complex fertility, pregnancy and postpartum cases, using this whole body approach. I am especially passionate and adept at addressing conditions such as endometriosis, diminished ovarian reserve, premature ovarian insufficiency, unexplained infertility, secondary infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, recurrent implantation failure, pre-term delivery, postpartum thyroiditis, and chronic iron deficiency to name a few. I approach fertility struggles from a holistic angle. Often times, fertility imbalances can be seeded in the gastrointestinal or endocrine system, for example. In co-collaboration with my colleagues, we have had great luck with helping patients optimize their fertility, pregnancy and postpartum experiences while minimizing their other health struggles.
My favorite modality to support this process is through the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy TM. I enjoy providing this gentle but powerful bodywork to balance hormones, minimize pain, and optimize nutrient absorption through improved blood flow. I also love to dive into blood labs, to make sure nothing is being missed when balancing my patient’s health. I do use supplements, but I try to encourage lifestyle balancing techniques over adding too many supplements.
My greatest passion is assisting all types of families in not only realizing their goals of parenthood, but also having the energy and health to enjoy a long lifetime with their family. My most treasured clinical experience is supporting individuals and couples through the entire family building journey – up to 5 years before conception, adjunctively throughout pregnancy, and for the entire 5 year postpartum period after each birth.
I aim to be conscious of ethical, financial, and complex social/emotional aspects that affect the lives of my patients. I aim for equity and inclusion in how I practice medicine. I strive to help you feel safe, heard, and more vibrant – mentally, emotionally, and physically. As a naturopathic doctor, licensed acupuncturist, and practitioner of Maya Abdominal therapy, I am able to holistically address your concerns or find providers who can support you – separately or in collaboration.
I gain joy from improving the quality of fertility medicine taught to all types of health professionals. I regularly teach and lecture locally as well as nationally. If you are a provider and interested in enhancing your fertility knowledge, explore my “Art of Fertility” offerings at art-of-fertility.com. As a patient, you may experience my passion for teaching, not only in how I aim to educate and empower you on your healthcare journey, but also through meeting local doctors or medical students who are shadowing me or by having visits with my incredible post graduate fellows.
When not in clinic, you can often find me immersed in fertility related passion projects for the benefit of my patients and my colleagues. I also experience great fulfillment from gardening, back-packing, baking sourdough recipes, and spending time with my two daughters and wife. My daughters bring so much light and joy into my life; I desire for all my fertility patients to achieve this same joy.
Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to explore my bio. Whether you have found this page randomly or because of a referral from one of my lovely patients or colleagues, I hope I was be able to give you a sense of the kind of doctor I am. If you have any lingering questions after exploring this page, please feel free to email me – shayes@kwanyinhealingarts.com
I am currently accepting new patients, as are all my team members with whom I directly collaborate and cotreat. Give our clinic a call to get scheduled – 503-701-8766 ext 2. I look forward to meeting you!
Current patient comments:
“Dr. Stefani – I’m so incredibly grateful for all of the help and support you provided me while under your care. I really feel like you saved me from a really bad place when I felt completely alone and hopeless. I will never forget the sense of relief I felt after our first meeting. I was honestly ready to give up on having a baby completely, but now I know what I need to do to hopefully make our dreams come true. I appreciate our time together more than you’ll ever know. “
“You have been such a vital part of allowing us to start a family, and I truly can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for us.”
“Dr. Hayes. We had our baby last Thursday! … I just wanted to say thank you for all your help and support in making this dream come true for us. I could not have done it without you!!”
“Stefani was instrumental in helping me become healthier and therefore pregnant. I always felt very supported by her and appreciate how she explains things in layman’s terms.”
“Dr. Stefani Hayes is outstanding in her work and has effectively and compassionately worked with me over the years. It is to her that I turn for medical/health care. That speaks volumes of her competency. “
“I just wanted to send you a picture of my kids to say thank you for everything you did to make it possible for me to start a family. They wouldn’t be here without you!! Thanks again!”
“Dr. Hayes is amazing and has helped me more than any other person has.”
“Dr. Stefani Hayes is the best provider … off the charts!”
“Dr. Stefani – Thank you for helping me through the muck of my healing. You are an extraordinary soul in the most quietly strong way.”
Dr. Hayes’s Bio:
- Mother, Wife, Daughter.
- Writer, Educator, Colleague.
- Licensed Naturopathic Physician (ND)
- Licensed Acupuncturist (LAc)
- Extensive training in women’s health and fertility
- Trained to perform intra-uterine insemination (IUI) with fresh or frozen sperm, along with Zymot device us
- Trained to perform low volume, high concentration intrauterine PRP infusions.
- Practitioner of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy (AT-MAT)
- Additional training in pregnancy techniques for AT-MAT
- Post-graduate training in Five Element acupuncture
- Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from the National College of Natural Medicine
- Master of Science in Oriental Medicine from the National College of Natural Medicine
- Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior from Mount Holyoke College