Fertility information - Northern Ireland

Sometimes it can seem as if anywhere outside London gets forgotten when it comes to fertility-related events, but for anyone living in Northern Ireland there's good news with a special Fertility Information Day set for October 20th.  

Run by the lovely Sharon Davidson from Infertility Network UK, the day will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Templepatrick, Ballyclare.  A variety of presentations and workshops are planned including sessions on new developments in treatment, donor treatments, nutrition, complementary therapies, emotions and stress and dealing with work issues. A number of fertility clinics will be running exhibition stands on the day too.

The day costs just £10 - unless you are a professional working in the field in which case it is £25 - and that includes refreshments and a sandwich lunch.  For more information, click on this link.

The FertilIty Show

It's nearly that time of year again... I've just been sent posters and flyers for The Fertility Show, which this year runs over the weekend of November 3 and 4 at London's Olympia.  Promising to be a bigger event than ever before, there's an impressive range of speakers lined up covering pretty much everything you could want to know about fertility from the absolute basics to the latest new techniques in IVF.  The seminars also take in many related issues including complementary therapies, surrogacy, treatment for single women and lesbian couples, the male perspective, adoption, fostering, treatment abroad and help and support too.

This year there are around 100 exhibitors too, giving you a chance to talk to staff from fertility clinics around the world as well as complementary therapists, legal firms and support networks. The Fertility Show gathers together leading experts in the field along with a wide range of specialists all under one roof for one weekend - and provides an ideal opportunity to learn more in a supportive environment.

I know it's not always easy to get your head around going to a "show" about fertility when it can be hard to talk about the subject to your closest friends and family, but one of the real benefits of the weekend is being in one place with so many other people who know exactly how you're feeling - although infertility affects one in six of the population, it doesn't always feel that way when you're in the middle of it all.  

Take a look at the website - www.fertilityshow.co.uk- and see what you think. I'll be there on the Saturday, talking about how to choose a fertility clinic and chairing a question session with overseas clinics - so come along and say hello1

Quintuplets - should this really be a success story?

I've just been reading about a "miracle" birth in the States, where a woman has given birth to quintuplets after fertility treatment.  The tiny babies were born at 28 weeks and are apparently "critical but stable".  It is so very sad that anyone who has had to go through the traumas of not being able to conceive should then have the further trauma of premature babies spending weeks if not months in intensive care in hospital. The babies are in an intensive care unit that has just recently been caring for sextuplets, born to a couple who had IUI.

No reputable fertility professional should be putting the lives of babies and mothers at risk by carrying out treatment which results in the conception of five or six babies at once.  We are only hearing about the babies which make it as far as being born, albeit prematurely, but it would be far more common to miscarry when so many embryos implant at the same time.

In the early days of fertility treatments, when specialists were still unsure quite how women's bodies would react to fertility drugs, such multiple conceptions may have been more understandable, but there is no need for anyone to take such risks any more - and any fertility specialist who boasts sextuplets or quintuplets on their CV should be avoided as they certainly don't have their patient's best interests at heart.

Obesity and your eggs

For some time, women who are very overweight have been told that they have a reduced chance of success with IVF - and in some areas have been denied access to funded treatment because of this - but now for the first time researchers may have found out why.  It appears that women who are very overweight are more likely to have abnormalities in their eggs and that this reduces the chances of fertilisation.

Researchers in the US examined almost 300 eggs that hadn't fertilised during IVF cycles, and found that the eggs belonging to women who were severely obese were much more likely to have abnormally arranged chromosomes.  It is important to stress that these weren't women who were just a little plump - the eggs were only shown to have a problem in women who had a BMI (body mass index) of at least 35.  Interestingly, the research team say that by losing weight woman could improve their chances of getting pregnant - so the damage is not irreversible. 

Losing weight can be difficult when you're going through fertility treatment and feeling generally rather down and depressed, but this new research suggests that for anyone who is seriously overweight, making an effort may prove to make all the difference.  Don't forget that you can always visit your GP for help and advice about weight loss - and that joining a group can sometimes give you the added impetus you need.  For anyone with PCOS who is finding it hard to lose weight, I'd suggest getting in touch with Verity - the PCOS network - not because they have some miracle weight loss magic, but because the support of others in a similar situation can make all the difference. 

Sammy Lee

I was so sad to read in Bionews this evening of the death of Sammy Lee, a leading scientist and embryologist who had worked in the fertility field for many years and had carried out a range of research projects.

I'd heard of Sammy long before I met him as he had often courted controversy in statements to the media, and I'd imagined some kind of rather pompous figure.  In fact, when I finally got to meet him, Sammy wasn't a bit like that - he was kind, gentle and fascinating company.

You can read Sammy's obituary on Bionews here, and you can contribute to a fund in his name here which has been set up in accordance with his wish to support his students.

GPs lack knowledge and empathy when it comes to fertility problems...

As you may remember reading on this blog a few months ago (yes, we're often ahead with the news...), research for the National Infertility Awareness Campaign has found that nearly half of all GPs lacked knowledge about infertility and treatment and many found that their family doctors were very unsympathetic.

It's a great shame as showing a little compassion can go a long way when it comes to fertility problems, and the NIAC research makes me realise how fortunate I was when I first went to see my GP about not getting pregnant as he immediately offered to do some tests and set us on our way.  He was very matter of fact about it all, which was actually really helpful as it made me realise that this was a common problem and that there were things we could do.

What's even more depressing about the NIAC survey is the fact that a third of women who should qualify for fertility investigations and treatment are turned away by their doctors and made to wait.  The results of the survey would suggest that it's always worth getting a second opinion if you feel your doctor isn't taking the problem seriously.  I know how hard it can be as not being able to conceive often erodes your self-confidence and you may not feel able to argue your case when faced with an unsympathetic GP - but it may make all the difference in the long run.

You can find more details about the NIAC research on the Infertility Network UK website

   

Thank goodness you don't live in Malta...

If you ever think there’s a lack of sensitivity towards infertility, you should perhaps be grateful that you don’t happen to live in Malta.  There a political debate about regulation for IVF has become increasingly heated with the Church issuing a pastoral letter describing IVF as “morally wrong” and encouraging couples “not to concede to the temptation of taking easy solutions” by having IVF.

The Catholic church has never supported IVF, but such outright condemnation is a terrible blow to religious people with fertility problems.  It’s hard enough not to be able to have a baby anyway, without being told that opting for the medical treatment that could help would be conceding to temptation - it seems to me to be a particularly cruel line in emotional blackmail.  What's more, I don't think anyone who'd had any personal experience of fertility treatment would describe IVF as an "easy" solution.  It's not as if there are any effective alternatives either...

For anyone who has had treatment, the pastoral letter allows that their offspring are apparently "still the children of God, even if the methods through which they were conceived go against Church teachings and against human dignity".  It seems incredible that such a line could be written in 2012, and after initially feeling horrified at such sentiments, I was left with a sense of sadness that religious leaders could show themselves to be so lacking in empathy, understanding and human kindness.