Chair: Charlotte Gentry, Founder, The IVF Network

Leading Expert: Dr Irfana Kiota FRCOG, Fertility Consultant & Director, IVF Matters

In the latest in our Ask the Expert series we are delighted to be joined by leading fertility expert, Dr Irfana Kiota. Our Ask the Expert sessions are a fantastic opportunity to ask your questions directly to our leading fertility specialists.  

Irfana will share her expertise on preserving your fertility through egg freezing.  She will dispel the misconceptions about women who want to freeze their eggs and talk through the process and what is involved.  It is a lot easier than many think and as awareness is growing about this procedure as a real option for all women, this is a great opportunity to understand where to start and how it can improve your chances in having a baby.

There will then be plenty of time for you to ask your questions to Irfana not just on accessing the right experts to support your journey but any fertility questions you have for her on this important topic.

Ask the Expert: Emma Cannon, Fertility & women’s health expert & Founder of the Emma Cannon Clinic Thursday 17th August 7:00pm – 7:45pm Virtual Live Session

Chair: Charlotte Gentry, CEO & Founder, The IVF Network

‍Leading Expert: Emma Cannon, Fertility & women’s health expert & Founder of the Emma Cannon Clinic.

For this month’s Ask the Expert we are delighted to be joined by Emma Cannon, Fertility & women’s health expert & Founder of the Emma Cannon Clinic. Our Ask the Expert sessions are a fantastic opportunity to ask your questions directly to our leading fertility specialists. Emma Cannon is a fertility mentor, advisor, acupuncturist and author of 5 books on Fertility. Emma has been supporting individuals and couples on the path to becoming parents for over 25 years; her aim is to help people to become parents from a place of health and balance. Emma works in a unique integrated way that combines the best of modern research, treatments and diagnostics with complementary therapies and traditional practices. She also has a special interest in immunology and the role the immune system has on fertility and also the impact of trauma, past and present. Emma holds a bachelor of Science Degree and is a member of The British Acupuncturist Council.

For this months Talk to the Expert we are delighted to be joined by Phoebe Babbington, Deputy Laboratory Manager at Care Fertility.

Our Talk to the Expert sessions are a fantastic opportunity to ask your questions directly to our leading fertility specialists.

Phoebe Babbington completed her embryology training in the NHS in Manchester. Here she graduated from the Scientist Training Programme as Registered Clinical Embryologist in 2015. Since then she has worked for CARE Fertility, in both their Tunbridge Wells and London clinics. After a few years in the London clinic Phoebe become a biopsy practitioner, and more recently promoted to the Deputy Lab manager in 2021. The lab she works in does approximatley 800 cycles per year, of which a large proportion of patients have PGT-A cycles.

Tuesday 20th June 7:00pm – 7:45pm
Virtual Live Session

Chair: Charlotte Gentry, Founder, The IVF Network
Leading Expert: Sara J Matthews, Gynaecology and Fertility Consultant

For this months Talk to the Expert we are delighted to be joined by leading fertility expert Sara J Matthews. Our Talk to the Expert sessions are a fantastic opportunity to ask your questions directly to our leading fertility specialists.

Sara J Matthews has one of the broadest experiences of all consultants in the UK in the field of Fertility Medicine, having worked in a number of the largest, most established and highly regarded fertility units in the country.

Miss Matthews trained with Sir Robert Winston at the Hammersmith hospital in London, then in Leeds at the General infirmary and St James University teaching hospitals, where she did her Masters degree. RCOG subspecialty training in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery followed at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, in conjunction with the University of Cambridge. Miss Matthews was an undergraduate tutor for several Cambridge colleges, and continued her IVF training at the famous Bourn hall clinic.

Subsequent consultant positions include clinics in both the NHS and private sectors: ISIS fertility clinic (now Bourn Hall) in Colchester, The Bridge Centre in London, The London Fertility Clinic, and CRM London (now CARE London).

Miss Matthews became the youngest Medical Director of an IVF unit in the UK when she was appointed at the Homerton Foundation University NHS Hospital Trust in London in 2005.

She is now based solely at the Portland Hospital for Women and Children in London, where she has had her own very successful independent practice since 2008.

Miss Matthews is a senior gynaecologist as well as a fertility specialist. She trained in psychiatry and genitourinary medicine, holds the MSSVD certificate for the management of STIs, and is a qualified Forensic Medical Officer (trained in the assessment and care of victims of sexual assault). She is an advanced laparoscopic surgeon (MAS level 2), and certified aesthetic gynaecologist.

A number of TV and radio programmes, and national women’s magazine articles have included Miss Matthews over the years, and she made headline news worldwide last year as the doctor responsible for the first woman to have a baby using transplanted ovarian tissue that had been frozen before puberty. She continues to be involved in cutting edge research in this exciting area of fertility preservation.

Ongoing research projects at the clinic include the use of poppy seed oil infusions (lipiodal) to improve implantation for women having IVF, and the efficacy of radio frequency treatment (ThermiVa) to treat vaginal dryness in women with breast cancer on Tamoxifen.

Chair: Charlotte Gentry, Founder, The IVF Network
Panellist: Jonathan Ramsay, Male Fertility Specialist

Jonathan Ramsay is a urologist who specialises exclusively in the diagnosis and treatment of sub fertile and infertile men. His approach is to treat the man to improve chances of natural and assisted fertility outcomes.  As part of Men’s Health Week Mr Ramsay joins us to share his expertise and advice on male fertility.

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Tuesday 6th June
7:00pm - 7:45pm

Our Members Virtual Community Catch-Up sessions are a safe space for you to connect, share stories, ask questions, and gain support from other members of The IVF Network who know exactly what you’re going through. This month we are delighted to be joined by Jennifer Elworthy, Career and Fertility Coach.

We hope you can join us to meet other members and gain support from The IVF Network community.

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Chair: Laura-Rose Thorogood, Founder, LGBT Mummies

Panellist: Carole Gilling-Smith, CEO, Founder & Medical Director, The Agora Clinic

To celebrate Pride month we are delighted to be joined by Laura-Rose Thorogood and Carole Gilling-Smith who will share with us their expert advice on the various pathways available for LGBTQI+ families and what fertility options and treatment processes are available. They will consider what are the barriers & implications that impact your journey to parenthood for LGBTQ+ people and look at legal considerations.

For this months Talk to the Expert we are delighted to be joined by leading fertility expert Ed Coats. Our Talk to the Expert sessions are a fantastic opportunity to ask your questions directly to our leading fertility specialists. Ed Coats will share his advice on Fertility over 40.

There will then be plenty of time for you to ask your questions to Ed Coats.

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Join our LIVE stream from RSA House as we host our Fertility in the Workplace: ‘JOURNEY’ event. We will show you how to create a fertility policy as well as hear from other experts and influencers who will be sharing their real-life stories.

Our Fertility in the Workplace: ‘JOURNEY’ event will feature two panels including Real-life Stories with host, Laura Capell-Abra, and LGBT Mummies Founder Laura-Rose Thorogood, APLBC CEO Linda Bekoe, and Partner at Burgess Mee Family Law Natalie Sutherland.

Our second panel will explore 'How to Build a Fertility Policy' and will feature host Hannah Vaughan Jones and Senior Associate at Lewis Silkin Lisa Dafydd, Career Fertility Coach Jennifer Elworthy, CPC, Senior Corporate Lawyer and Co-chair of 4Womxn at Channel 4 Pamela Bird and Clinical Director of Lister Fertility Clinic James Nicopoullos.

Join here: https://vimeo.com/event/3401983

Thursday 11th May 7:00pm - 7:45pm

Our Members Virtual Community Catch-Up sessions are a safe space for you to connect, share stories, ask questions, and gain support from other members of The IVF Network who know exactly what you’re going through. This month we are delighted to be joined by Laura Barnett, author of This Beating Heart, who will share her own experience of undergoing IVF.

We hope you can join us to meet other members and gain support from The IVF Network community.

Laura Barnett is an author, journalist and teacher of creative writing. Her fourth novel, This Beating Heart, is rooted in her own experience of undergoing IVF. The lead character’s story is not her own, but an exploration of the physical and emotional impact of fertility treatment lies at the heart of the novel.

Laura is also the author of The Versions of Us, Greatest Hits and Gifts. As an arts journalist and theatre critic, she has written regularly for The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph and Time Out London.

Laura lives with her husband Andy, son Caleb and cat Eno in rural Kent.

Donor Conception Awareness: Truth and Transparency
Chair: Charlotte Gentry, Founder, The IVF Network
Panellist: Laura-Rose Thorogood, Founder, LGBT Mummies

To celebrate Donor Conception Awareness Day we are delighted to be joined by Laura-Rose Thorogood, Founder, LGBT Mummies. Laura-Rose will share her own donor conception journey with us and discuss key considerations before embarking on donor conception including; Why it is important to talk about donor conception before trying to conceive as a person/couple/co parent; Legal implications to consider; Choosing a donor; Talking to your children about donor conception.