Exhibitor Spotlight: Clínica Tambre
April 2023
Hello and welcome to April's Blog, and it's official... Spring is finally here!
And we are well underway with plans for this year's Fertility Show Live!
More on that shortly.
March saw the end of our "Let’s all Talk Fertility" regular webinars, and what a brilliant way to end the series!
To start we heard from Dr Vivienne Hall from Harley Street Fertility Clinic, who told us all about egg freezing - the ins, the outs and how to go about it all.
Next we were joined by Bethan Shoemark-Spear, the Wales Project Worker for Fertility Network UK. Bethan told us her own experience of fertility treatment as a woman in a same sex couple, plus gave some great advice on the legal aspects of co-parenting.
We also discussed fertility issues whilst in the workplace, and all the complications that can arise there. This was with the wonderful Anya Sizer from Fertility Network UK. Anya helped is navigate various situations from both an employee and an employer's point of view.
Then finally we held a live Q&A with Dr Katherina Spies, the Medical Director at Vida Fertility. Dr Spies gave out some fantastic advice during the hour, dedicated entirely to your questions.
Join inspirational IVF patients & advocates
We have partnered with Leeaf to bring you the "Let's all Talk Fertility Lounge". This lounge will feature inspirational IVF patients and advocates, sharing their stories with Sophie Sulehria across the weekend.
Leeaf is a brilliant MedTech start-up that empowers fertility treatment through their cognitive physician portal and patient mobile app. We'd love to thank our sponsor Leeaf for their support this year so far and you can find out more about them here.
Explore your emotional wellbeing
NEW: We have partnered with Parla to host well-being workshops
Take a moment away from the crowds and connect with yourself and our experts in this safe, supportive and intimate space.
From journaling to nutrition, yoga to breathwork - take part in hands-on sessions which will help you explore the complex feelings of a fertility journey in an intimate group setting. You’ll leave feeling relaxed, supported and empowered with practical techniques to support your emotional wellbeing.
Workshops cost just £4 per session. Partners are welcome to join, only 1 ticket required per couple.
Exhibitor Spotlight
The Fertility Show will host over 70 companies who are all on hand to help you with your fertility journey. Clínica Tambre has been exhibiting at The Fertility Show for many years and we are delighted to share with you more about them in this exhibitor profile.
What are you most proud of as a clinic?
We are the leaders in the field of assisted reproduction. Our 45 years of experience have allowed thousands of people to fulfil their dream of creating a family. Moreover, by applying the latest technologies and protocols, the clinic is proud of having achieved higher successful rates than the national and European average.
Tell us more about the doctors/ clinicians that work at Tambre...
We have a team of highly qualified and experienced medical staff from different countries, who have many years of experience in assisted reproduction and fertility treatment. Tambre also has a large multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, researchers, and embryologists who are available on site. This is especially important because it saves us a lot of time, and enables us to be more efficient when establishing a diagnosis. Most importantly, it's convenient for our patients.
We are also proud of our Psychological Support Unit, set up for the patients who need emotional support during their treatment.
Why is Clínica Tambre so successful?
At Tambre, all of our treatments carefully adjust to suit the personal situation of each patient, in order to offer them the best results. One of the aspects that makes us the preferred choice is our team. They are composed of native speakers from different countries, which makes the approach with international patients more personal and intimate. It is not just about speaking the same language, but also about understanding their habits, culture, lifestyle, etc. Most importantly of all however, is a diagnosis - it's essential to us. We therefore meticulously study the medical file of each patient and, if necessary, carry out additional tests to prevent risk factors that could negatively affect the pregnancy. These facts have led Tambre to be very well placed on an international scale with one of the highest success rates at a national and European level.
What technology do you use and what are popular treatments at Clínica Tambre?
We fully support the modern technologies specifically designed to prevent any potential problems, to ensure the best results for our patients. We are currently using leading techniques and technologies such as RI Witness, Geri, Fenomatch, Endoret or Chip FERTILE. These have enabled Tambre to become a highly specialised centre in the treatment of the most complex fertility cases for patients from all over the world. Patients come to our centre for different treatments - the most requested ones are IVF and Egg Donation. However, we also offer treatments that many people are unaware of and that are not available in all countries, such as the ROPA method - a technique exclusively designed for female couples where both women actively share the maternity process.
What support do you offer UK patients who are considering treatment at your clinic?
In order to make the journey to Madrid easier and more comfortable for our UK patients, Tambre takes care of our patient's accommodation and airport pick-ups. Then prior to their arrival, we offer patients access to specialists close to their home, who they can visit for their necessary scans and tests to reduce the time they have to spend in Madrid. As mentioned above, we also have native doctors who will make the service and treatment of patients much more personal and intimate for them.
Tambre has had a clear motto, which we've held for for 45 years: the patient is the priority. This patient-centred philosophy and personalisation of each case is what has made us a leading and pioneering clinic in the sector. Most of our patients come to us when they have given up hope, which fills us with pride. Our team do everything in their power to help our patients achieve their dreams.
One of our fabulous ambassadors joining us in the Let's all Talk Fertility Lounge will be the amazing Amber Izzo.
Tell us a bit more about your fertility journey so far.
It took me nearly 3.5 years of trying before I was taken seriously by my GP, and so when I was finally under the care of the fertility team, I naively thought it would be a case of some ovulation assistance due to my PCOS, and I’d have a baby in my arms 9 months later. Instead, having a laparoscopy that confirmed both of my tubes were blocked and I was “absolutely infertile”, meant our dream of growing our family would only be possible with IVF. IVF wasn’t funded in our area and so this meant we had no choice but to dig deep and do IVF privately. Both of my private cycles failed; our first resulted in no embryos making it to day 5 to transfer, and our second resulted in a low number of very poor quality embryos. Only one made it to day 5, and failed to implant. We took some time off from IVF as at this point lockdown had just begun, testing being about 2 days into lockdown number one. In the end we took around 18 months off from treatment, using the time to really look into a new clinic; we had consultations with about 4 different clinics before deciding to head abroad. We had numerous tests done during that time which resulted in the diagnosis of issues on both mine and my husband’s part, and without those tests we would have been continuously looking down the barrel of negative tests. My husband had incredibly severe DNA fragmentation which required treatment with a specialist, and we had further infections on my side too. I had launched the Fight for IVF campaign in 2020, and a few weeks before we were due to fly to Greece, we found out that my campaign had been successful and that not only was IVF being reinstated on the NHS in Cambridgeshire, but we qualified too. I had my NHS cycle starting on New Years Day 2021, and we received our very first positive test. I count my lucky stars every day.
You launched the Fight For IVF Campaign back in 2020 which resulted in reinstatement of IVF in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in 2021. Tell us how you did this and what changed as result of your campaign.
I launched the campaign during Fertility Week 2020, as I found it abhorrent that there is such an IVF postcode lottery across the U.K. I live in Cambridgeshire and my MP was also very passionate about this, and so he was quick to get involved which was incredible. I gained a lot of support on social media and as a result, a fair amount of news interest. I had interviews with the BBC, being the top watched video of the day when that launched, Sky News and other main news channels, which raised the awareness even more and was ultimately part of the reason the CCG agreed to meet with us. I met with my MP on numerous occasions to discuss this and pushed for a meeting with the CCG, as well as a local councillor. With the support of some other ladies in the TTC community impacted by Cambridgeshire’s funding status, the case was pitched to the CCG and in summer 2021, they did reinstate it with a unanimous vote in their meeting. I couldn’t believe it and still to this day, I can’t believe it was successful. Now, everywhere has access to IVF (depending on eligibility), but there’s still so much work to be done in terms of equality.
You are now a Mum to your baby boy after a long journey – tell us how that feels and how eventually you had success .
I still pinch myself every day when I look at my baby; it’s so surreal that after everything we had to go through he’s here. I was reluctant going into our final cycle; the NHS cycles notoriously cannot offer some of the things available privately and so I was worried that the protocol wouldn’t suit us, but we were at a clinic I really trusted and they understood my concerns and supported us the whole way through. I maintain that without the tests we had done during the break between cycle 2 and 3, we wouldn’t be here, as those aren’t tests available on the NHS. We spent a lot of money speaking to professionals and following their advice and treatment plans to be in a place where our embryos were of a good quality, and so I think that played a huge part in our success. Our protocol was completely different; I was on different medication and a much higher dose, I had an endometrial scratch and multiple changes were made in comparison to our first cycles. I think it’s super important to advocate for yourself and I had no issues in asking questions constantly, asking why x was being done or to explain anything I didn’t quite understand. Dealing with infertility and failed IVF cycles is the hardest thing I have ever done, and the most emotionally wrecking thing I’ve ever had the displeasure of going through, and so I knew I wasn’t sure if I could do it again, so I wasn’t prepared to take any chances and not ask or challenge any decisions being made about my treatment.
What is your wish for the future of fertility awareness and treatment?
I would love to be in a place where everyone had access to the same treatment across the board on the NHS. Infertility is a disease as defined by the World Health Organisation and I really wish that it started being seen that way, rather than still feeling it’s a huge taboo and something for which treatment has to literally be fought for. Having children is a choice, but being infertile is not, and when your body cannot conceive “naturally”, then medical assistance should absolutely be available.
Finally you’ve been invited to be a FS ambassador we are delighted to have you with us , why do you think the show is so important for the TTC community?
Having attended The Fertility Show twice before, once as someone in the crux of her journey and once as a guest on the Let’s All Talk panel, this will be my third visit and I’m so excited. I think it’s great to be in a room where you are surrounded by people who just get it. You don’t know each others stories, you don’t know Eve from Adam necessarily as you walk around, but what you do know is that every single person in that room relates on some level. You may be looking at clinics, you may be wanting to speak to people with lived experiences; whatever your reason for being there, it’s just comforting to know you aren’t alone.
So that's all for now! We really hope to see you at Show next month, where you can meet our exhibitors, take part in the Parla Workshops and come and listen to the incredible experts appearing in our seminar theatres.
See you soon and Happy Easter.
The Fertility Show Team