It’s Fertility Week in the UK, and throughout the week the TTC community are talking about the many different ways we are affected when dealing with infertility.
Fertility Network UK the leading fertility support charity is focusing today on Mental Health using the hashtag MentalMatters and a former guest on this podcast Kelly Da Silva is sharing her experiences of being childless not by choice. Kelly spoke to Kate and me in a previous episode about feeling at peace with the situation and you can hear her conversation be sure to visit FNUK’s website to find out more about what’s happening this week.
The Agora Journals
In the fertility podcast world today I’m sharing an exclusive episode which is part of a new podcast series I have made called The Agora Journals – conversations about empowering the freedom of reproductive choice for everyone, featuring a wide range of individuals and couples on their road to parenthood with wisdom, compassion and honesty.
This first episode is a conversation with Carole Gilling-Smith. Medical Director of The Agora Gynaecology and Fertility Centre in Hove, East Sussex. The clinic specialises in diagnosing and treating the causes of infertility and welcomes people from all walks of life to support alternative parenting.
The clinic offers specialised programmes for same-sex couples and single women who wish to conceive using donor sperm. Carol talked about how she set up her clinic Agora in Surrey as a desire to create the perfect clinic to experience for patients and is interested in fertility education and believes strongly that we should be educating young people about fertility in schools but also for people in their 20s before they start thinking about making a family. She works with the LGBTQ community to help them in the different ways that can make a family and importantly get the communication right with this group of patients.
Fertility preservation and the LGBTQ community
is a key part of the clinic’s work and Carol highlights that at the time when an individual is considering transitioning, is generally not the time that they are also considering their fertility? It is important to start having these discussions and consider fertility preservation before commencing hormone treatment, to avoid later regrets.
Carole explains the fertility preservation care and processes that transgender individuals receive at the Agora and that the Agora are very sensitive to their specific concerns. The Agora Clinic is leading the way in Fertility Care for the Trans community and actively celebrates alternative families. More clinics are beginning to open their doors to this community. We talk about the support that The Agora offers individuals and couples in terms of counselling and other resources they share with patients on how and when to discuss their stories with their children. Carole recommends that these discussions start with their child from a young age.
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