Thoughts from Seetal Savla on The Fertility Show 2023
Hello and welcome to the first diary after this year’s Fertility Show!
If you were there, thank you for coming - we hope it helped. If you weren’t, don’t worry, you can still catch up with our seminars online. More on how to do that later on.
This year’s Show featured over 70 exhibitors, including UK & overseas clinics, advice groups, charities, acupuncturists, dieticians, nutritional & lifestyle advisors, holistic therapists and more.
We are just delighted about how it all turned out:
However, if we needed a reason as to why we continue to do what we do, it is this lovely feedback we received from a visitor at this year’s Show:
“I just wanted to say what an amazing event!
Thank you so much. The clinic we had in mind were there, which was amazing. It was invaluable to be able to ask our questions in person and we will now save money on a consultation. So good.
We travelled from the Isle of Wight - very worth our time!
SEMINARS
Over the 2 days, we hosted 40 live talks and Q&A's across three seminar rooms with leading experts and ambassadors in the world of fertility.
All our Seminars followed our popular interview format with plenty of time for audience questions. Not a Powerpoint presentation anywhere to be seen!
Here are 10 talks you may want to watch again:
An introduction to IVF treatment with Mr James Nicopoullos, the Clinical Director at The Lister Fertility Clinic
Choosing a clinic in the UK and abroad with Anya Sizer from Fertility Network UK and Andrew Coutts, the MD of the International Fertility Company
Treatments for unexplained infertility with Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Monica Mittal
How to treat premature and low ovarian reserve with Professor Geeta Nargund, the Director of Create Fertility
Helping male fertility and lifestyle with Mr Jonathan Ramsay, a Consultant Urologist specialising in male fertility, and Nutritionist Melanie Brown who specialises in fertility, IVF and pregnancy
New IVF advancements and how they can help, with Dr Alison Campbell - the Director of Embryologist at Care Fertility
Holistic therapies and how they help, with Barbara Scott, the Chair of The Association of Reproductive Reflexologists and Sarah Clark, a specialist in acupuncture and Chinese medicine for treatment of fertility, gynae, pregnancy and post-natal care
Egg & sperm donation overseas with Dr Katharina Spies, the Medical Director of Vida Fertility
Boosting fertility - diet & lifestyle with fertility nutritionist Sandra Greenbank
If you want to watch these, and all the other seminars at the Show again, you can! All tickets to The Fertility Show included a digital access pass to our online portal.
LET’S ALL TALK FERTILITY LOUNGE
One thing The Fertility Show teaches you is that you are not alone.
I was particularly proud to host The Let’s all Talk Fertility Lounge at this year’s show, which featured some wonderful IVF patients & advocates from across the world of fertility.
These fantastic people have made it their mission to help others through their own fertility experiences. coping with loss, IVF treatment, donor conception, various routes to parenthood were all discussed in an informal setting across the weekend. Watch out for our social media @thefertilityshow for inspirational clips and quotes.
Thoughts from Seetal Savla
Seminar Host
I first attended The Fertility Show as a patient in 2018. At that point, I’d had three failed IVF cycles and was considering donor conception. Although I felt optimistic about this path to parenthood, I was overwhelmed by what was involved. After a weekend of visiting stands, sitting in seminars and hearing advocates’ stories, I left feeling more informed and ready to take the next steps. What’s more, I had my first contact with my third, final and favourite clinic there, plus my future consultant!
This year, I was invited to host several seminars in person after being a virtual host and panellist in previous years – something I’d hoped to do following my first visit. Being able to chat face-to-face with experts in nutrition, embryology and fertility testing on stage was such a great experience – you can’t beat the buzz of talking to people in front of a live audience. After our conversation, each guest answered questions from the attendees, an interaction that I really missed when hosting the virtual seminars.
While the show’s seminar schedule has always been extensive, it was encouraging to see that the 2023 line-up included many discussions on male fertility, an area which often gets overlooked as the focus is usually on the female partner. The impressive turnout for the ‘Helping Male Fertility & Lifestyle’ seminar with nutritionist Melanie Brown and Dr Jonathan Ramsay (also affectionately known as “The King of Balls”!) showed that there’s a huge interest in men wanting to learn about the non-medical changes they can make to improve the quality of their sperm. I didn’t get the chance to listen to the whole seminar, so it’ll be one of the first recordings I watch on the show’s online portal.
Speaking of catching up, ticket holders can watch any of the 36 seminars on demand via this platform from now until the end of July. If you couldn’t make it to the show, don’t worry – you can buy a digital ticket here to get access to all the recordings.
Another aspect of the show that I enjoyed was the Let’s All Talk Fertility Lounge. When you’re on a fertility journey, it can often feel like a very isolating experience. These informal panel chats with IVF patients and advocates are incredibly powerful because they make you realise that you’re not alone. As well as offering solidarity, they can provide much-needed hope and inspiration. This is particularly true for people from ethnic minority communities who still aren’t very well represented in the fertility space.
Speaking of support, this year saw the introduction of Parla Wellbeing Workshops. Separated from the rest of the stands by dreamy drapes, this intimate space felt like an oasis of calm from the moment you stepped inside. It was the perfect environment to safely explore the complex feelings that can come up when trying to grow your family through yoga, journalling, reflexology and mindfulness. Undergoing any form of fertility treatment is full of emotional and mental challenges, not just physical ones, and it’s crucial for them to be acknowledged and validated to prevent feelings of shame and failure. I appreciate that the show recognises this element of the fertility experience. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, and I loved having the opportunity to take part as a host this year. During my breaks, I finally met some of the advocates who I’ve been working with and chatting to online for years – we all found it surreal to see each other in person at last! I’m delighted to continue teaming up with The Fertility Show to help people feel more empowered on their fertility journeys.
Thank you for reading, and for your support. We have really enjoyed putting a programme of events together aimed to help you make those all-important decisions to your route to parenthood. Remember you can watch our seminar content again via our online portal HERE
Until next time,
Sophie