What Causes Infertility and How We Test for it
In chapter 9 of my latest book, Your Fertile Years, I will explain the different causes of infertility and how we test for it. In this blog I will briefly cover some of the main things covered in this...
Is egg freezing the answer to age-related fertility decline?
Chapter 8 of my book is about egg freezing. The method of freezing eggs has really improved over the last 15 years. By freezing eggs when she is in her 20s or 30s, a woman can, in theory, extend her...
What you should know about pregnancy and childbirth
Chapter 7 of my book is about pregnancy. Pregnancy and childbirth are topics that are rarely taught in school or discussed in public. It is really important to teach this subject because there are...
Your Fertile Years; what you need to know to make informed choices
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge #iwd2021 A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions...
Race and reproduction
Race & Reproduction Monday 8th March 2021, 1300-1415 This event brought together four amazing women from minority backgrounds to discuss baby loss, infertility, female genital mutilation,...
The biological clock, female fertility decline
In this blog I am going to introduce you to the main topics covered in Chapter 2 of my book, Your Fertile Years; The biological clock, female fertility decline. If you want to have children in the...
Pregnancy and giving birth during the pandemic
Pregnancy and giving birth can be a very lonely journey at the best of times. But what is happening during the pandemic? I asked midwives, health visitors, doula’s and women to tell me how women...
Nuffield report on egg freezing in the UK
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics published a document on Egg freezing in the UK this week, for which I was acknowledged (I sent the Nuffield my book chapter on egg freezing). The document highlights...
What is it like to be a childless man?
It takes two to make a baby, but often men are overlooked. I have seen a study which showed that men going through fertility treatment are often ignored and discussions are mainly directed at the...
UK study on fertility treatment delay and coronovirus
The Coronavirus epidemic has resulted in many global fertility clinics having to pause their treatments for their patients. In the UK, all IVF clinics closed during this time. This pause or delay in...
Survey on women’s attitudes to having children
Fertility education is a global issue and this week we have launched a survey to ask women aged 25-45 about their attitudes to having children. Globally women are having children later and later, but...
Global Fertility Education Campaign
Six countries have started to work on fertility education: UK, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Portugal. A group of experts from these countries have got together to develop a global fertility...
IVF add-ons are commonplace but have little evidence of increasing live birth rates
For over a decade I have becoming increasingly upset by the growing number of new treatments being marketed towards patients going through IVF, that have little or no evidence of increasing the... Launch of a global fertility education poster campaign
We are having children later than ever in every country. In many countries the age women have their first child is over 30. There are many reasons women are delaying having children, including...
Should the health service pay for IVF treatment?
Globally the funding of infertility treatment varies greatly between different countries. So who should fund IVF treatment? The health service or the couple themselves? The World Health Organisation...
Why don’t we talk about miscarriage?
October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month and specifically tomorrow (15th October) is pregnancy and infant loss awareness day. I have never understood is why we have this tradition of not...
It takes two to make a baby but have we forgotten to talk to men?
I work in the Institute for Women’s Health. But have we got our name wrong? For too long men have been ignored with regards to fertility, infertility and reproductive health. Once their sperm have...
Rethinking our menstrual cycle
So when do you ovulate? Our whole reproductive lives women are either trying not get pregnant or trying to get pregnant. In schools we are taught that most women have a 28 day cycle, and that they...
