To kick start this new series of The Fertility Podcast, I am joined by a returning guest and friend of the podcast, Lucy Lines. Lucy is an embryologist in Australia, she is also a fertility educator and advocate. On today’s episode, Lucy joins me to talk about embryo grading and what it is and how it’s done. Lucy explains how to grade an embryo and how a decision is made on which embryo to transfer. Lucy then delves into what it is like to be an embryologist, talking about the training period and the subjective nature of grading embryo’s and how this will differ from one embryologist to the ne ..read more

*Just a little note: There is a little bit of background noise as Kayleigh joins me from a busy office. We’ve done our best to minimise it, but apologies if you hear a bit of background noise. * In what is the last episode of this current series, I am delighted to be joined by Kayleigh the founder of Fertility Mapper.  Fertility Mapper aims to personalise and humanise the access to high quality fertility care. The site allows you to choose a fertility clinic based on geography, cost and patient reviews. There is also a calculator to help you identify whether you are eligible for NHS ..read more

In this episode of The Fertility Podcast, we are joined by a friend of the podcast, and as this episode comes out just a few days after International Women’s Day - one hell of a woman - Jessica Hepburn. Jessica is an author, arts producer and, using her own words, ‘the most unlikely adventure activist’! Jessica returns to talk about her latest book, Save me from the Waves. However, for those of you who have not yet come across Jessica (and there really can’t be many as she is a living icon!) she also shares her fertility journey so you can get up to speed.. Jessica’s fertility story lasted a d ..read more

This episode of The Fertility Podcast I am joined by Gemma. Gemma is going to be sharing her IVF journey with us as she goes through the process and on to the next step of donor conception. From this episode onwards, we are going to be keeping up to date with Gemma, so tune in each episode to hear a little update from Gemma. In this episode, however, Gemma starts from the beginning. After going through many tests and everything coming back as normal, they decided to take matters into their own hands and started using the cycle and ovulation monitor -  OvuSense.  As time went by Gemma ..read more

In this episode of The Fertility Podcast, I’m discussing how to navigate through the private IVF system. It’s a topic I’ve wanted to record for an age, mainly because many of you book in to see me for advice and support on this very topic. It seems to be a big pain point. In the UK we’re not familiar with accessing private healthcare, so how do you do it? And importantly how can you change your mindset from a patient to a consumer and why is this important? I also share some great tips on how to choose the right clinic for you and what questions to ask at your first IVF appointment.  Late ..read more

Happy New Year and welcome back to The Fertility Podcast. In this first episode of the new series, I'm joined Professor Helena Teede all the way from Australia! Helena is one of the authors of the International PCOS Guidelines and is here to talk about the changes to the PCOS guidelines and the proposed PCOS name change. We discuss PCOS in general, chatting about the symptoms of PCOS, both the common ones and the not so common. Helena and I discuss weght stigma and how the new guidelines move away from this and instead why we should be helping women to just be healthy to manage their PCOS proa ..read more

Morven is an independent fertility nurse specialist living in rural Scotland, and also a nurse working in cancer care within the NHS. She joins the podcast to talk about the difficulties faced by women and couples accessing fertility treatments in Scotland and the general lack of provision across the country.   What we discussed:  The difficulties faced by those accessing treatment in rural areas of Scotland and other areas of the UK How traveling long distances for fertility treatment can add to the emotional burden experienced when accessing fertility treatments Unlike Englan ..read more

Trigger Warning - This episode contains discussion surrounding Pregnancy loss. If today is not a good day, please come back to this episode when you're feeling a little stronger. Here at The Fertility podcast, we're always here for you. We're delighted that this week's episode is sponsored by The Lowdown - the place to get the lowdown on your reproductive health. Learn about your fertility share your experiences and read those of others. In this week’s episode of The Fertility Podcast, I am joined by a patient of mine -  Katie. Katie @secondary_infertility_life shares her story of seconda ..read more

In this episode of the Fertility Podcast, I am joined by Mike Johnson-Ellis who is here to talk all about surrogacy. We talked about the ins and outs of surrogacy, his own surrogacy journey and how that led to the launching of TwoDadsUK and Your Surrogacy Journey. Mike and his partner Wez aim to support couples who are starting their own surrogacy journey, and are passionate about paving the way for a better future for surrogacy.  What we discussed: Mike shares his surrogacy journey which resulted in two beautiful children. We talked about TwoDadsUk which launched back in 2016 and the su ..read more

This week is National Fertility Awareness Week and we thought it was important to discuss male factor infertility. MFI is sometimes hidden in plain sight, as far too often (both by medical professionals and the TTC community) the focus is on the impact on us women. Therefore, joining me today on the Fertility Podcast is Frank Fallon a.k.a @betatwindad to talk about male factor and infertility. Frank and I talk about his diagnosis and the lack of answers from doctors, how he learned to advocate for himself and his drive to seek out his own support.  Frank shares how low and shell shocked h ..read more