Presentation to City Fertility Centre national conference

Last Saturday I presented in Brisbane to the national City Fertility Centre conference. City Fertility Centre is an IVF clinic with branches in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

I presented about surrogacy- but one of the things I love about going to conferences like this are the things I learn. It’s always good to come away with more than you came with.

One of things that struck me about the conference was the enthusiasm. There were about 140 in attendance- and they included IVF doctors, fertility counsellors, nurses and administrators- and one lawyer! All seemed enthusiastic to learn.

Another thing that struck me about the conference, which reflected the IVF experience, is the level of jargon. When I commenced my presentation I mentioned just two of the words that I had heard for the first time just a few minutes before. I thought that I had a pretty large vocabulary- but i had NEVER heard these words before, nor many others.

I chose two words at random, because I thought that I wanted to know what they meant- and I figured that if either of them were put on the Scrabble board, I would be a winner! FACT: morphokinetic is not in the Scrabble dictionary, but trophectaderm is! The former is the process in which a cell changes, moving from an embryo to a 5 day old embryo called a blastocyst. Trophectaderm, as the name implies is the “skin” of the cell.

But the most amazing thing about the conference? When I told those present about how the Queensland government was seeking to remove discrimination int he adoption laws, so that same sex couples, singles and those undergoing IVF can undertake adoption, I was met with both appLAuse and CHEERS! Wonderful!