Peter Kemeter
The Modern Laboratory · People
The Modern Laboratory
Peter Kemeter
A hormone specialist who took IVF out of the hospital, and later asked what infertility does to the mind.
Vienna. Peter Kemeter was born in Vienna on 7 July 1941 and grew up in the district of Penzing. He qualified in medicine at the University of Vienna in 1968. In 1970 he joined the Second University Women's Hospital, where he trained under Hugo Husslein and learned reproductive endocrinology from Florian Friedrich. In 1975 he took charge of its hormone and infertility clinic.
Follicles and IVF. In the early 1970s he measured hormones in the fluid of human follicles, work later used in planning the Vienna IVF programme. With Wilfried Feichtinger and Stefan Szalay he began that programme in 1979. Austria's first IVF baby was born on 5 August 1982.
A laboratory over the bath. At the end of 1982 Kemeter left the clinic and set up IVF in his own practice in Penzing, in the house where his family lived. The bathroom became the egg laboratory, with an incubator fixed on a wooden board above the bathtub. Feichtinger joined him. At first eggs were collected by laparoscopy in a private hospital across the city and carried back in a battery-powered incubator. Then they turned to ultrasound-guided puncture through the full bladder, so the whole treatment could be done without an operation.
The vaginal route. With a new vaginal scanner and a needle guide attached to its side, they could puncture follicles from the vagina under ultrasound. Kemeter and Feichtinger described the technique in 1986, in Human Reproduction and in Fertility and Sterility. It is the basis of egg collection today.
Mind and body. Kemeter had long worked on the links between hormones and emotional life. From 1991 to 2005 he led his own institute for reproductive medicine and the psychosomatics of infertility, where he met each couple together with the psychotherapist Jutta Fiegl. In 1998 they wrote in Human Reproduction about adjusting to life when assisted conception fails. Since 2008 he has worked again at the Hietzing institute Feichtinger founded, running donor sperm and counselling couples.
Also see: Wilfried Feichtinger, Pierre Dellenbach, Suzan Lenz
About the sources
- Kemeter P. 25 Jahre Geburt des ersten IVF-Babys Österreichs: eine Wiener Erfolgsgeschichte, Teil I. Journal für Fertilität und Reproduktion 2007;17(3):17–20; and Teil II, 2007;17(4):13–21 (kup.at/kup/pdf/6666.pdf and 6790.pdf): Friedrich as his teacher; radioimmunoassay 1973; the Penzing practice, bathroom laboratory and incubator over the bathtub; laparoscopy at a private hospital with a transport incubator; transvesical puncture; vaginal scanner with needle guide; Jutta Fiegl.
- Wikipedia (German): Peter Kemeter, consulted October 2026 (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kemeter): born 7 July 1941, Vienna; MD 1968; joined the clinic 1970; head of the hormone and infertility clinic 1975; institute 1991 to 2005; return to Hietzing 2008; habilitation 1991.
- Peter Kemeter, personal website: “Eigener Werdegang und Pionierarbeit” (kemeter.cc/dr-kemeter.php): Austria's first IVF birth 5 August 1982; ARGE in Penzing 1982; institute for reproductive medicine and psychosomatics of infertility 1991 to 2005; with the Feichtinger institute again from 2008.
- Wunschbaby Institut Feichtinger, team page: Univ.-Doz. Dr. Peter Kemeter (wunschbaby.at), consulted October 2026.
- Kemeter P, Salzer H, Breitenecker G, Friedrich F. Progesterone, oestradiol-17β and testosterone levels in the follicular fluid of tertiary follicles and Graafian follicles of human ovaries. Acta Endocrinologica 1975;80:686–704.
- Kemeter P, Feichtinger W. Trans-vaginal oocyte retrieval using a trans-vaginal sector scan probe combined with an automated puncture device. Human Reproduction 1986;1(1):21–24.
- Feichtinger W, Kemeter P. Transvaginal sector scan sonography for needle guided transvaginal follicle aspiration and other applications in gynecologic routine and research. Fertility and Sterility 1986;45(5):722–725.
- Kemeter P, Fiegl J. Adjusting to life when assisted conception fails. Human Reproduction 1998;13(4):1099–1105.
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
