Lillian Meacham, MD, is a Pediatric Endocrinologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She has worked in the field of late effects of cancer therapy for more than 25 years. Dr. Meacham currently serves as Program Director for Fertility Preservation, Reproductive Health and Endocrine at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s and Kathleen V. Amos Children’s Chair for Cancer Survivorship and Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine.

Dr. Meacham’s current focus is on fertility preservation and reproductive health in patients treated for cancer or treated with cancer modalities. Her career in this field began as the endocrinologist in a multidisciplinary neuro-oncology clinic in 1990. In 2001, Dr. Meacham was asked to develop a multi-disciplinary pediatric cancer survivor program. This program sees more than 1,000 visits each year. In 2014, Dr. Meacham created a centralized fertility preservation consult team for the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. This team provides information about the risk for infertility based on planned treatment and counsels patients about fertility preservation options for oncology and non-oncology patients undergoing to BMT. The team also focuses on sperm cryopreservation and testicular tissue cryopreservation before treatment and oocyte or ovarian tissue cryopreservation before treatment and when appropriate oocyte cryopreservation after completion of gonadotoxic therapy.

Dr. Meacham’s interest in survivorship led her to serve as the site principal investigator on the multi-institutional National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) for the past 20 years. She serves on the expert panel for four of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) task forces that develop the Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines for Survivors of Pediatric Adolescent and Young Adult Cancers, including an ovarian late-effect task force and a testicular late effect taskforce. Dr. Meacham also serves on five working groups for the International Guidelines Harmonization Group, which works to globally harmonize recommendations for long-term surveillance for late effects of cancer treatment. The harmonization groups she has been asked to participate in include male health late effects, female health late effects, hypothalamic and pituitary late effects, female fertility preservation and obstetrical outcomes in survivors. Additionally, she is part of the leadership team for the Pediatric Initiative Network (PIN) for the Oncofertility Consortium and have been chair of the Best Practice Committee for PIN for the past two years. In 2019, Dr. Meacham was asked to be an advisor to the Oncofertility Consortium for their strategic plan for the next 10 years.

Research

Dr. Meacham’s areas of research include fertility preservation, reproductive health outcomes, reproductive health in sickle cell disease patients, anti-Mullerian hormone, risk communication and decision regret.

Learn more about Dr. Meacham’s research.