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It's still going. Hi everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for so much for joining us tonight. Uh My name is Ruth. I'm an ST four in um general surgery at Northwest Scenery, more specifically in Manchester. And today I have the pleasure to have an amazing board with me on this very interesting topic and very important on infertility. This is the 3rd 3rd webinar that we are doing as part of the woman's Wednesdays um series as um uh honoring the, the woman's uh month, which is the March. Thank you for everyone to joining us. Um People are still logging in, it's only three minutes past eight. So we're gonna probably give two more minutes for, for a lot of people to join and then we'll start the webinar. Um So how things will run today is, this is a safe space. People will be talking about their personal experience during fertility, what they've been through, how they manage, how they cope their strategies, um learning points that you'll be able to share with us. So, um everything we are quite supportive of each other, we've supported all you guys joining us today and um hopefully we can take some uh key key message home. Uh if not just being able to support one another when we are out there in the hospitals in our day to day work. Um As of that, uh some of the topics might be re triggering. So if you guys need um any um help or anything, we'll be able to provide sub level of links and supports for that. And you are always able to reach out to us via message as well. Um We will pass by uh three amazing uh speakers that we have today, which I'll introduce them very shortly. Um After that, uh we're gonna end this webinar with, with a question and answer session in which uh Rosie will be leading on that and we'll be able to see your um uh questions on the chat box that we have in here. So with further ado I'll start by introducing our three speakers today. So, first of all, we have uh Charlotte, er, she's an upper gi consultant and then today she's gonna be our first speaker um tell, telling us a bit through her experience, followed by Paula, also an ent uh consultant in London and then er Gemma, er, one of the pediatric trainees um down in um south in um Essex. And um we, then we have Rosie, which is the Vice president of the Mo Academy and I have the big pleasure of her joining me today and she's gonna be co-hosted this baby now with me. So it's now five minutes past five. So I'm gonna give the floor to Charlotte for her to take a presentation for it. Thank you so much. Hi, good evening everyone. Um I hope you can hear me. Ok. Um Can you pop the slides up for me? Ruth? So, um as I said, I'm a um consultant, upper gi surgeon um in Wales at the moment I work in uh Abergavenny. Um And this is my story of um my journey really through infertility. Um And uh I'm happy to answer any questions uh probably at the end because it's difficult to see um to see stuff by the pop in the chat bar um or at the end. So, um my history really, so how I ended up um sort of in this in journey, it's in a way slightly easier than um than some people's. So I always knew that I was going to have problems. Um I had a really complex gyne history. Um I had PCO S um and also stage four endometriosis. I had three previous um surgical excisions that had been quite complicated um and had been in medical menopause for um quite a few years. Um And due to the complications of that, um I already kind of knew even before I was thinking about having kids that um things were gonna be tricky. Um I then met my husband, um and my husband um, he's, er, 17 years older than me. He had two kids from his previous marriage, wasn't planning any more Children and had a vasectomy, um, which added in the second sort of complicating factor to our situation. Um, anyway, so we got together and, um, you know, decided that actually we'd like to have some, um, kids of our own if that was possible, um, and looked into what may or may not be, um an option. And actually, um because of where we were living at the time, I was on fellowship up in Nottingham, we weren't um eligible for NHS funding if we'd been living in Wales, where I currently live and where we'd live before, uh we would have been. Um so because of my husband's um previous kids, um we, we were not able to access funding which again in a way um was, although um difficult financially um did almost make things a bit easier cos we kind of knew right from the start, um what we were getting ourselves into. So, as I say, I was on fellowship um up in Nottingham at the time doing a, a resectional upper gi fellowship. So super busy, um we'd moved in together um up in Nottingham. Um and we got engaged um during my fellowship year um and ended up getting married, er, four months later. So, you know, nothing like er, striking while the iron's hot. Um I was also writing up my MSC at the time. Which, um, spoiler I never got written up, um, still got a consultant job and no one seems to mind anymore. Um, we'd moved house, um, we got married and my two stepkid, um, who were at the time, er, 11 and 13 decided they wanted to move in with us as well. So I'd gone from, um, single life to being married and all of a sudden having, uh, to sort of, um, teenage stepkid living with us, which was um brilliant, but, um, obviously not the easiest of times. Um, and I was coming to the end of my fellowship, um coming to Ward CCT and thought, um, what a great time to do some IVF. Um I don't know what I was thinking quite honestly. I'm not sure I was, um, so we, we went to Care Nottingham. Um, didn't think too much about where we were going, which I'll talk a little bit about, um, shortly, but I picked it literally because it was five minutes away from where I worked, um, which seemed like a good idea and, um, it turns out that actually that was a great idea because it meant that I could fit everything in around work. Um, I used to um, have either the first scans of the day, the last scans of the day I'd go straight after night shifts. Um, and, um, it was sort of my second home really for, um, for a good few weeks. Um, I had a really complicated, um, cycle. It was the never ending IVF cycle from hell. Um, I used to go to the, er, local pharmacy, um, every day and just hemorrhage money on my credit card. Um, for more and more drugs, um, that they kept giving me. Um, and I think, I guess I'd gone into it really naively, um, because they've sort of said, you know, this is what happens on day one, you come, you come back in five days after doing these injections and we have a scan and then we have some more injections and then on this day you take another injection, then we take your eggs and, you know, that that's it. Um, and it didn't really turn out like that. It went on for, um, about 10 days longer than I was expecting. Um, which for my surgical mind was terrible. Cos I'd had everything planned out. Um, it was terrible for work because it was now in the middle of a really, really busy, um, on call period. Um, and terrible for my husband who was actually, um, about to go abroad with work. Um, so he almost missed, er, his, um, starring role, er, in the cycle. Um, it was a really tricky time emotionally, I think the physical side effects they tell you all about and, you know, it was as expected. I had, you know, ovaries like watermelons and, um, suddenly couldn't go running and you know, found that really difficult cos that's what I normally like to do to, you know, to, um, to decompress. Um, but actually the emotional side of it was not something that I was expecting cos I thought, you know, this is something I really want. It's, um, you know, it, it's, it should be all really, quite, quite straightforward. Um, and I think when things weren't going as planned, um, I found that really difficult to deal with and I think the thing that I found most difficult was the fact that no one other than my husband knew that we were doing it. Um, and I hadn't told anybody at work. Um, I hadn't told, um, the rest of our family. Um, and, you know, I think that actually made things much more difficult, um, for, for both of us really. Um, so as I say, it was sort of the never, the never ending cycle we did get there eventually. Um, we managed to, um, my husband had the, the pleasure of, uh, large needles in his testicles, which he's never quite forgiven me. Um, and we managed to get, um, all the bits that we needed. Um, and, um, and, er, completed that, um, that IVF cycle. Um, so the only person other than my husband, uh, who I told was our rotor coordinator, um, which I wasn't gonna do, but I had to because I needed to have some time off after I'd had my egg collection and I was on nights. Um So I'd told her and said, look, you know, I need a couple of days off. Um And uh and then came back to work but hadn't told um anybody else at this point. Um Next slide, please. So, um it was a successful cycle. Um We were super lucky. So despite um sort of everything being against us for uh most of the cycle. Um and some really tricky days, um we had a successful cycle. Um but I then developed um some ovarian hyperstimulation um and was feeling quite unwell and still working. Um the busiest surgical job that I've ever done. Um days, nights, looking back, I have no idea why I put myself through that. Um And I guess, um, you know, one.