07.06.2021Four questions to our IVF team at the ProCrea Swiss IVF Center
This time with the embryologist Kateřina Vesela.
"Assisted reproduction is a dynamic field of the 21st century."
1) What does your working day mean to you? Adventure, tension, joy or mission?
More or less most of the named. When starting work in embryology, everyone feels that their working day is really a mission to help someone. But over time, you will find that this is just a kind of work, but you must never cheat it, because the level of responsibility you have towards patients is huge. It forces you to do everything 100%, you come to work with tension in the morning and wait to see if the eggs from the previous day were fertilized or if and how the other embryos are divided. You are happy to be able to call patients the good news, to see beautiful embryos or to hear positive pregnancy test results in 14 days.
If we used the statement "I had a successful day", "I did well today", what can we imagine in the field of embryology?
Everything from getting an egg to transferring a nice embryo. Every partial success that we monitor and experience in the laboratory together with the patient on her way to the birth of a healthy child.
2) How would you characterize the field of reproductive medicine. Degree of importance, benefit in society today and in the near future?
Reproductive medicine is becoming an increasingly helpful and capable field for couples who have a difficult time with the birth of a healthy offspring. I am sorry that with the entry of various investors into the field of assisted reproduction, this field is becoming more often dishonored and associated with the word business. Assisted reproduction is a dynamic field of the 21st century, where a lot of people are really actively looking for ways and other approaches to offer couples the same, if not higher, success in their infertility treatment in the context of ever-deteriorating entry conditions.
Reproductive medicine not only can diagnose and treat couples with fertility disorders, it can help a healthy child and couples who are at high risk of giving birth to a child with a serious illness if they do not seek help at the clinic.
I believe that with the shift in medicine and genetics, we will be able not only to capture but, above all, to prevent most serious diseases that manifest in early childhood. Of course, always and only where the legislation and especially ethics allow it.
3) As an expert, what would you say to women who do not yet have a family and children. Do they think, in the spirit of planning, they are still delaying this transition to a new role in life?
In my opinion, there is a lack of awareness in the Czech Republic about the declining fertility of women together with their increasing age. Celebrities who do not talk about infertility and problems with conception, and on the contrary present their beginning reproductive plans after the age of 40 as a woman "normal" are not, in my opinion, a good signal for women postponing their own reproduction. In general, it would be good to know that one's own fertility decreases, especially with the woman's age, and begins to decline more sharply after the age of 35. Just as every cell in the human body ages and withers, so it is with sperm and especially eggs that women have had from birth. If a woman or couple is planning to postpone reproductive plans, it would certainly be good not to neglect prevention and consult your reproductive doctor about your options. Today we have a lot of indicators (examination of ovarian reserve, hormonal profile, spermiogram, ..), based on which the doctor can evaluate the reproductive possibilities of patients.
4) Simply and concisely: what makes ProCrea different and unique?
From the embryologist's point of view, I can say that the equipment of our laboratory is really at the highest level. We are able to provide patients with the most modern methodologies, which we always stand for professionally. Due to the fact that ProCrea is a small reproductive center, as embryologists we are not overloaded with an unmanageable number of patients and we can pay individual care to each egg that enters the laboratory. I see a great benefit in this compared to other large clinics. We can discuss a lot of things directly with patients, both in person and by telephone during the treatment. Subsequently, we can always recommend a possible change in the procedure for further treatment in case of failure.
Mgr. Kateřina Veselá
Embryologist at ProCrea Swiss IVF Center
More about IVF clinic www.procreaivf.cz/en
