Latest / The Home of Fertility with Liz Walton & Helen Zee / Fertility and Donor Egg Insights with Dr. Shlomi Barak and Catherine Boldison

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Fertility and Donor Egg Insights with Dr. Shlomi Barak and Catherine Boldison · The Home of Fertility with Liz Walton & Helen Zee

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Fertility, health and Coming Back to the Self, an opportunity to go deeper into your journey of life, and all this can encompass with your host, liz Walton.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: This podcast follows the threads of life and the journey of fertility on every level emotional, physical, spiritual and the consciousness we consider our health and what that means in our lives today.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: And we bring all of this together with coming home to ourselves, the conscious and unconscious journey of life and how we traverse this in the best way possible.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I am so grateful and humbled you are here.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: So good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are in the world, and I know for me it's a good afternoon.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: For Dr Shlomi Barak it is a very good morning, absolutely.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And for Catherine Bolson it is also a good afternoon because we are speaking in a couple of different time zones on this wonderful podcast today.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So welcome welcome to today, dr Shlomi Barak.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Lovely to have you here from Israel, is that correct?
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: It is correct and thank you for the kind invitation.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I'm very excited for our conversation today and, kat, speaking from the lovely, warmer place of Queensland even though Canberra today is very warm really lovely to have you here too today.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Thank you for inviting us.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: The pleasure is literally all mine.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: And today what we're discussing about is donor eggs and the whole conversation of donor eggs, which can be a very big conversation of why donor eggs are needed, how do we get donor eggs, how do we know we might need a donor egg.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's actually a very, very big subject.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: So thank you for being on here today.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: So I think let's start off with who we are first.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: So, dr Shlomi Barak, I'll say that first and then I'll continue with Shlomi.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Would you like to tell us a bit about you?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: And then we'll find out about Catherine, and then we'll find out about who Central IVF is.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm Dr Swami Barak.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I'm a fertility specialist, I'm actually an andrologist, and I took my subspecialties two subspecialties and my fellowship in Australia.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So I'm a fellow of the college, an Australian fellow of the college.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I used to live and work in Melbourne for almost 10 years and this is when I really found, you know, I found a need, like an urgent need, to offer something else for Australians in terms of egg donation.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: As I said, I had my own practice in Melbourne and I can remember the day when one of the carpers that I treated my patients came back from I think it was Greece from their egg donation journey.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: So at that time, at that time, there were no alternatives in Australia whatsoever.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: So if you needed an egg donation treatment, you had a few options you can go overseas.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: This is probably what most of Australians did at that time.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: So they had Europe, they had Spain, greece, and South Africa was open at that time.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Some went to the West Coast and there was also one American bank in Australia and that's it.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: It was quite expensive, didn't offer much, and these were the alternatives and it was bad.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And I remember going back to the couple.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: So they came back from Greece I said how was it?
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Well, how many embryos did they have?
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Do you have a report?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: No, they had no report.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: How many embryos did they put back?
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Did they transfer?
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: We have no idea.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: So I realized that this is a big issue.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: This is a big issue in terms of quality assurance.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: It's a big issue in terms of what Australian patients are used to, the culture, the medical culture and transparency, and for some of them, it can be also a language barrier.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: So it was clear to me that we need to find the solution in terms of bringing eggs into Australia, hopefully and preferably to the clinic that patients are used to, so they can use it in their environment, in the environment they know and they are familiar with, with their doctors, with their fertility specialists or with fertility specialists like their fertility specialists.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know the same culture, obviously English speaking, and this is what we did, obviously English speaking, and this is what we did.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: And the central IVF central egg bank was founded.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Then, back in 2016, I was still in Australia and and I think he changed a lot this was the first ever European egg bank in Australia.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: We were the pioneers and we changed so many lives.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: I think cut how many.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: We have life like.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: More than 400 live births so far.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Live birth and we have seven.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: We're at now yeah yeah, 407 and, and, as we speak, always we have around 70 to 80 ongoing pregnancies all the time.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: So it's expanding, it's growing and definitely changing lives and we are very proud of it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Wow, that is really exciting to hear and I didn't realize you were one of the first egg banks or the first egg bank in australia the first?
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the first european egg bank.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: So as I said there wasn't.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: There was an american egg bank back then, definitely the first european egg bank, and uh, and we met, we made it like the most common alternative in terms of egg donation for Australian couples.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: And this is, you know, there are two main options for you know, for patients in Australia they can use a local, what they call clinic recruited donors, and there is an egg bank or an overseas egg donation in Australia like an egg bank, and I think I don't have the stats, but I feel that this is one of the most popular options that people use Lots of variety.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we can talk about it.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Brilliant.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: So, um, just reading back from that, is your fertility specialist understanding that there actually was a need?
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: People were going overseas and I've been.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I'm from the uk originally and, yes, I know that a lot of europe is definitely open.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: A lot, lot of people from the UK go to Europe, liz I just want to say that going overseas is not necessarily a bad thing.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: It can be lots of fun.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: However, when you live in Australia and you go once to Europe and seek for fertility treatment, fine, and if you got pregnant, even better.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: However, there are a few disadvantages, like, if you didn't fall pregnant, you would like to fall pregnant again and the frozen embryos are there.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: So obviously you need to go back, and this is you know.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: We know from our program is that a very, very, very common scenario is that you'll have an embryo being transferred, going back, and few will be frozen.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, so every time that you need the transfer, you need to go back to that place.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: If you are in, if you're in australia and you know it's not the uk and you go to I don't know to to spain, okay, so you live in australia.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: So this is logistically is very, very different.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: You need to leave your work, to take time you know to take leave.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: For what?
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Three weeks at least.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: To be committed to it.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: No other vacations so you need to go there.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: So, from many aspects, from many perspectives, I think it's here.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: You know they can leave work, go and this is I used to have my own practice in Melbourne CBD so they can leave work midday, go, have the transfer, go back to work their lunch break, yeah.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: So it's a completely you know, completely different.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think it's just amazing because you know, we've got it here now in Australia where we can, where you can bring it now into this space and, yeah, people don't have to do the traveling, which is, I just think, amazing.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: So that's just so, so fantastic.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: So, Catherine, now introduce us to you and also then with the egg bank and how you are also at with.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Is it sent?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: It is central ivf or is it central egg bank?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: so we'll say the central ivf is probably that the company we have, central egg bank, and very, very, very soon we are going to have a sister company and that we are going to launch very, very soon.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: We would be happy to tell you about it soon, very, very soon.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Exciting, exciting it is exciting Sorry.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Kat, Sorry Kat.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: No, that's okay, that's okay.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: So, as you know, liz, I'm from England.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: I'm a fellow Englander too.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: We all seem to migrate at some point.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: I reckon we do.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: So I came to Australia as a midwife and while I was practicing as a midwife I obviously looked after a lot of patients who obviously had fertility issues and they spiked my interest.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: So I then went off and became an IVF nurse, which I was for 13 years at two separate clinics, and at one of the clinics I was at, I was the donor coordinator, and again, this was at a point when not many clinics used overseas donor services.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: So donors are very rare clinic recruited and non-donors are very rare in Australia.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: So, but the time when I worked in donor, this is the option we had, um, but then, um, obviously overseas donor egg banks opened up and I joined Central Egg Bank in April this year.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Um, so I'm their, so I'm their Australian representative, so I deal with the clinics.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: Um, if you know, if there's any issues, I'll speak to patients.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Um, I make sure all the because, as Shlomi was saying, we are just branching out and bringing in a new branding, so so I make sure the clinics are up to date with where we're at with that um and so and.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: But my, my role is very varied, like um, for instance, is, one day I can be doing some admin work for the team because we have a donor team overseas as well.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Um, so there's not just myself, there's another donor on a team.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: I'll do admin.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: The other week I was at the clinic there when a shipment of eggs were delivered, um, so I got to meet the eggs coming into the lab and what happens to them there.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Um, other days I can be working with the web designer looking at, and you know, talking about our web page, what we're going to do and, as shalomis mentioned earlier, we're going to do and, as Shlomi mentioned earlier, we're just in the process of bringing in a new branding.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: So it's a very, very job.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Um, and, and I still keep up my clinical practice as well.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: So I still practice as a midwife, um, and then I also do this.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: So I kind of keep my you, you know my skills up all around and I'm fascinated with Don't Work.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I just think it's just so amazing that we actually have this.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Like, how lucky are we to have this service so lucky?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: so lucky, so lucky.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Liz, may I add to Kat, because she didn't mention one of the things that I feel that are very, very important in her role.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and because we are talking like you.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: You introduce yourself, as you know, dealing with, like the emotional journey of fertility patients, and I was evident to a few times and I know that Kat does it regularly.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: She didn't mention it, but we don't feel ourselves like a separate, like a bank which is separate to the clinic, and we behave.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I told you, I'm not an admin, I'm a fertility specialist, so for us people seeking egg donation.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Having treatment with their clinic is our patients as well and we treat them as our patients and from time to time Kat just calls them and rings them if there are any issues and supports them.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: So it's a lot of support, lots of big heart into this organization and for us, and this is important because you know the same time zone, a nurse like Kat that you know the feels for them and supports them in the journey.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Obviously, they have their counselors and they have their specialist and the donor team that treats them, and they have us as well.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: So this is something that I would like to emphasize.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: It's much more than the websites and the programs and the prices.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: It's us as human beings, as people in this industry me as a founder and this is the DNA of the organization For me I'm their fertility specialist as well and I'll do whatever I can for them to be successful.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: So it's very, very, very different from what you can imagine as an egg bank.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: It's definitely not.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: It's far from being technical and Kat is there in their time zone with her big heart and her big smile, and she's there to assist and to support, and this should be emphasised.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: No, I love that, and I think what I really hear from that is the human connection and the understanding of this need which is, you know, which is here in Australia.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: You know, for all our different journeys, we want to be able to fall pregnant naturally, but that doesn't happen for everybody, and so being able to have this when this is needed, in the same country, is massive, and the fact that you're really passionate about that connection is, I think, it's's um, it's really lovely to hear, you know, really lovely to hear, because we don't always understand what it means and it can be a clinical thing.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: so, to understand that there is connection, there is that person, as you say, with the big smile and the big heart, it's lovely and I think and liz you know, sorry, I'll just say that, you know, I, I, we know fertility patients and they don't get to egg donation at the first stage, as you know.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: So they get to this stage emotionally and many times financially exhausted okay, exhausted, and this is when we meet them and this is when we know about them.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, and this is the whole.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: You know, the services are about it.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: So to assist them emotionally as much as we can and to make it accessible and to make it, you know, realistic for them.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, so we're coming from this point of view.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So I think that brings us nicely into that sort of.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: One of the first questions that we sort of chatted about earlier on is you know when on the fertility journey do we need to have, you know, a donor egg?
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when does that happen?
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And so that was not my journey, but I know it's been a lot of people I'm aware of, as well as my client's journey, and this can happen on several different reasons.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: So we may have the same sex couple, we may have the woman who I know with a lot of my clients where they've been trying and trying and trying, and so then it's now time to look at egg donation, um and um.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: So where is it that you end up finding that your clients tend to find you?
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: cut.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: You know you.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: So usually with with my fertility experience, patients would.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: I think it's.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: It's a hard line, as we were talking about last week, because patients can be advised they need to use donor eggs, but whether they accept it at that point, yeah that's is a different story.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: So you know, obviously, if the fertility specialist is advising them, you know maybe we should be looking at donor eggs then maybe that you know that that patient's had several cycles already with not very good outcomes, so it could be approached then.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: But, as I said, I'm aware of couples that were told after you know three or four cycles that the best route for them is probably donor eggs.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: But then they find it difficult to accept.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: So then we see these couples but the other ones that are just going to have one more cycle, but then it never ends being one more cycle.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: It ends up, you know, can be two more, three more, um, which is quite sad because you it, you know it's.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Which is quite sad because you know it's, because then they're wasting.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: You know there's got more time, they've spent more time on that, they've spent more finances on that, but they obviously have to do that to reach to that point where they kind of accept that it is their.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: You know their time.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: So it could be other people.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: You know people who already start fertility and already know they've got a low ovarian reserve you know, diminished ovarian reserve medical reasons you know genetic
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: reasons why they need donor eggs.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: Um, the other one is, you know, as we said, you know they've, they've had repeated in, you know, transfers and just have, you know, recurrent failure, implantation, so, um, but you know the the time that most people get advised to use donor eggs, they probably don't, you don't, access the service.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Then it's probably a bit further down the line and it's usually from their fertility specialist.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: That, you know, is the one that approaches it with them.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: And if it's one of our partnering clinics, then, um, the fertility specialist then sends them, you know, refers them to their donor team and then the donor team will then take over and if they're interested in central, they get given a link and then they register with us and then the donor team then pick up from there and we start the process from there.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Or you could have a couple who know they need donor eggs but they aren't with a partnering clinic, so they haven't been referred from their fertility specialist and we usually get, you know, those usually refer themselves through our website.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: So they'll send an inquiry to us, we can send them all the information and if they're thinking this is a good option for them, they can see which clinics we partner with, and then they can go and, you know, have an appointment with their fertility specialist at that point and then get linked within with us from there.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, but it's, you know, it's that acceptance that they need to accept that they do need this service, which is which is a hard.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: And the other thing is as well, because donor isn't talked about.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: It's very taboo in australia, I find.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I don't know if that's the same in israel.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Show me, is it a bit taboo and a bit cloak and dagger.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: So I don't think many people are aware of the services that are out there as well.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: So this is another, you know, another good thing with your podcast it gets out there that there is services, because some people who I've spoken to at conferences that I've been to this year have like, I didn't even know you existed, yeah, but I think it's because dawn is very taboo and not spoken about enough yeah, well, I suppose, um, so, coming at it from an emotional way, um, with the donor exits we as the woman, you know.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: So this would be different than if we're a same-sex couple or um, well, I don't know, but that's my assumption.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: So I, from my point of view and from my assumption here so apologies if I may overstepping any lines.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: So for the clients that I've worked with, it's like I'm not enough, something's wrong with me, why can't I, you know?
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: So then there becomes all of this pain.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: So I know I have worked with clients where it's just like oh, you know, there's a lot of pain.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: So it's really beautiful to be able to work with that and support them, to break down those barriers and realizing that they are enough.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: This is part of the journey, and if this journey is the one that will take them to get what they want at the end, then how can we find acceptance, how can we find love for the self, how can we understand that actually, this is going to be, you know, part of this beautiful journey that will give them your baby.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: So, depending on what it is for the individual, it's looking at supporting and finding the solution and creating peace and, and you know lots of love and forgiveness and truth.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: You know whatever it is for that person and then they have, you know, they have their donor egg and the outcome it's like it doesn't matter, but it is part of the journey, it is.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: If that journey means they need to find acceptance there, then it is.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: You know, again, it's part of that inner journey of finding peace, love and acceptance, forgiveness, usually for the self, because we can attack ourselves.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Because we all take the blame.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Quite a lot and it is that, that inner language, and by working with that and this is what I love with my clients is we can work with that to turn it around, find acceptance, and then it just creates such a beautiful flow in the body and has a wonderful effect of you know all the next steps and you know becoming a parent.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: So and that's what I love, it's like part of that and, like you say, the more we can have that conversation and realize, look, if it's part of your journey, realize, look, if it's part of your journey, it's okay, there's nothing wrong with you.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: You are perfect and enough as you are.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: But isn't it wonderful that there is egg donor banks where we can find the solution?
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: so and you know, liz, when, when I communicate with my patients and we talk about egg donation, you know and I talk about.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: You know the need and the medical need for egg donation.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: The next sentence is don't get to it before you find.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: You know the acceptance and you know the love, and this is so important.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: And this can take a few months for some patients.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: It can take a few years for others and they should take their time.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: So people should never rush into this option.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: It's definitely not trivial.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: It can be emotionally challenging many, many times.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: They need to take their time.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: They need to find the acceptance.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Some will never find their acceptance.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Some will find it very, very quickly.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: We are there to support and to assist whenever is need.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: And this is the thing about egg donation and this should be emphasized as well.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: You can seek, let's say, if it's a matter of you can seek egg donation now.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: You can seek your egg donation treatment, like in five or six years.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: The chances to conceive are not going to change dramatically.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, and this is something that people should know the womb, the uterus, the uterine cavity is the same and the chances to conceive, whether you are, you know, 35 or 45 or 48, 50 is the same.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Obviously, physically, you know, like in terms of general health, this can change.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: However, in terms of chances to conceive is the same.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: So this is coming from your fertility specialist and this is why, you know, people shouldn't rush into it.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, many times they should rush into it emotionally, because they want to get pregnant, they want to be parents, they want.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: You know this is a different thing, but not medically or physically necessarily.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Mm, hmm, yes, and that's interesting, isn't it, you know, because we have these amazing bodies.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: So even if it's, even if it is done by egg donation, it's still the same body yeah, still the same person, yeah yeah, um right, so, um.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: So how does an egg bank work?
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I mean what we've found acceptance, this is where I want to go.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I know this is my next step.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: So how does it work?
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: So we can go through.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: If I understand correctly, we can go through one of the IVF clinics or we can come straight to central IVF.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: So if they're with a partnering clinic and they've done the acceptance, all right.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: So if they're with a partnering clinic and they've done the acceptance, then they're referred along to the donor team and they will give the donor team the link to register with the.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: We have a portal, okay, so it's so the, the recipients then enter all their information onto the portal and they have access and then, once we've confirmed registration with the partnering clinic, um, they are then able to seek and have a look at all the donors and they can be filtered by, you know, preference of who they want or, you know, whether they're after certain characteristics, whether they want, you know, it can all be filtered and then they can have a look.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: They can ask for more information on the donor If there's, you know, questions that aren't in the donor profile, that are on the portal, and again, we will assist them with that.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: So, but once they get access to the portal, that's when they're able to view the donors and, as I said, they can see photographs, they can see their profile, education.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Uh, one big thing that um we probably should mention is about the genetic screening for the.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: So all the donors are genetically screened.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: Um, this has obviously come a whole jump since when I was in donor, when I worked in donor previously, we we only screened for a few genetic traits, but now so we do have some donors in our system that are, you know, have basic genetic screening, but all our newer donors are being screened for 416 genes.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And yes, and once a recipient chooses a donor, then the clinic they need to be donor matched.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: So they the genetic results of the recipient and the donor will be matched and confirmed before they can continue with the process.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: So sorry to be unknowing, but what does that mean?
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Being donor matched?
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: So if a recipient chooses a donor and their recipient's partner, for instance, and the donor are carrier of the same gene, then we can't allow them to continue with the process gene, then we can't allow them to continue with the process.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: So they then will be able to, you know, pick another or choose another donor and make sure that they're genetically matched so that neither the donor or the recipient's partner or donor sperm are a carrier of the same genetic trait.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: And I would like to add, liz, that we consider ourselves in Central Ag Bank as part of the patient's medical team, so we are all the medical team.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: By the way, many, many times we'll find ourselves having a team discussion with the donor team and the medical geneticist and the medical directors and whoever is, you know, is in charge of their treatment, and this is this contributes to the peace of mind of patients.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: They know that they're in good hands and not separate hands.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, so this is the same treating team and I can tell you a secret that every medical director in Australia has my number.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: They know that they can access me and call me and text me and whatever, and I'll call them back pretty much immediately.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: They know that they can.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: And this is a good thing and this is I tell you about that because this, this should contribute to the patient's peace of mind.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: They know that we are on the same page in their treatment and I have, like, like, like yesterday, I had a very big discussion with the medical geneticist of a very big organization in australia, a fertility organisation in Australia.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: So we are synchronised, we're on the same page and we have our recipients, mutual recipients' interests, in front, you know, in front of our eyes.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: So, yes, they should know that we speak the same language, like medically, and we look after their interests.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, gosh, it's just amazing what can happen these days, isn't it?
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: And how, you know, all aspects of health can be looked at.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: you know pre-birth, so it's we can kind of thank covid a bit for this, couldn't we, don't we so?
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: It's just amazing.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: It's absolutely amazing.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: So, okay, so now we understand, um you know about the egg bank, how, how we might find that we need an egg bank, how an egg bank work, how an egg bank works.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Um, so how, where do these eggs come from?
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Where do these eggs come from?
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: That's another really interesting part.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Actually, when you asked about an egg bank, the first thing that I wanted to say is that there are human beings behind it.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: It's not about the eggs, definitely not about the bank.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: It's about the donors.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: It's not about the eggs, definitely not about the bank.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: It's about the donors.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: And you know, for us as an organization, as a clinic, for us, donors are patients, like our recipients are patients.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: And you know, at the beginning of our conversation, I told you that we feel, you know, to our recipients like our own patients, and the same for our donors, and this is probably something that everyone should know.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Definitely, every recipient that uses our services On the other side there is a donor that is a patient of ours, and this is the beauty of it.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: I'm an australian fertility specialist, my culture is as an australian fertility specialist, and our donors are getting the same attention and the same behavior and the same respects and the same, you know, the same level of medical treatment like our Australian recipients, and this is something that everyone should know.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: So our donors are located in the Ukraine, our banks are located mainly in Kiev, in Odessa, and beautiful, beautiful donors.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: You know that they are all being counselled by an Australian counsellor, by the way, our counsellor travelled to the Ukraine just to meet them face to face and to know them in person.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: So they are coming from there Like it's an ongoing thing happening since 2016.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: And I can tell you that whoever meets them, like in terms of counseling, et cetera, definitely us is highly impressed from their spirits, from their you know, their willingness to give okay.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: And they are very, very different from donors that we know from other countries, so very, very unique.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Beautiful, I mean I just again.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I keep feeling like I hear people first and it's about supporting.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: It's like a win-win, isn't it?
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: We're all being looked after and it's that personal experience, that personal touch, the personal connection and communication.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: And we spoke about the DNA of the organization.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: So, again, my training as an Australian fertility specialist is that it's a lot about counseling, it's a lot about emotional, a lot about support, and I can tell you that I implemented it in Central Ag Bank, and Central Ag Bank is the only bank as far as we know definitely the first for sure to introduce, introduce a donor counseling like an in-house donor counseling that has nothing to do with legislation.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, so in central air bank, donors go through two kinds of counseling there is the emotional and the support counseling, what we call the in-house counseling.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, this is being performed by our in-house psychologists.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: So this is one.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: So we know that they have, yes, they decided to become a donor.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Okay, so what?
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: They're still, as we said, a human being.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: They are becoming a patient, are becoming a patient, okay, and we would like to counsel them and to support them and to hear them.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: You know, if they have any needs, emotional needs, and they definitely have.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: And there is the ANZICA, the legislative counseling.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: So, as per the Australian legislation and we haven't talked about it, but in order to provide donor eggs in Australia, you need to be highly, highly compliant with Australian legislations and the bar Liz is know, you
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: won't yeah, you won't, you won't find like a pop up explanation, services coming and providing the services.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: So it's a lot about you know being compliant, but more than being compliant or you know telling everyone that you are compliant, it's about the trust of the clinics and the trust of the medical directors and the trust of and this is where I come in as an Australian fertility specialist you know, trustworthy, they know, they know what I talk about, I know the environment, I know the culture.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: For them it's much, much easier, by the way, for the, for the clinics and for the recipients.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Ok, they know that they're in good hands in terms of compliance.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: And at the beginning of the conversation we talked about patients needed to travel overseas, you know, to to spain, to greece.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: There is a lot in the australian legislation that protects patients and protects offsprings and this doesn't happen, doesn't exist, when you are having your egg donation treatment overseas.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: So there is a lot of rationale into it and it's not just to create a difficult bar or a difficult environment to provide a service.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: It has lots of rationale into it and we are very, very proud to be compliant with the legislation because we know that, at the end of the day, there is someone that needs the protection, it's the recipients.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: But more than the recipients and we talked about recipients it's the offspring.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: And so this serves this motivation to this serves this, you know, motivation to protect the offsprings.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, I love that.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: I love that and that is beautiful.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: To protect the offspring, oh gosh, it's such an interesting subject.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: So if people want to come and find you, how do they do that?
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: So again, they can.
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: If they go into the website they can eat that on the website there is numbers to call, so they can call a number through the website.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: They can also send an inquiry through the website and then either myself or one of the donor team can contact them back and send them some information or, as we said, through the clinic, where they get the link to to, you know, get on through to the portal and then the donor team will then pick them up and take care of them from from there.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: And obviously, if the recipient would like to speak to myself or isn't sure or unclear on anything, then that's where I can step in and give them a call.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: As Shoromi said, I'm on their timeline.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: I can call and go through things because, as we know, sometimes emails can be a bit overwhelming.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: So I'm also there as well to give them a call if they need to, but it's either mainly through the website or through the clinic that they're with.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Beautiful and the website is centralivfcom.
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Dot com.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: It is yes.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Brilliant.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: Okay, but that's currently going through changes, so watch this space Exciting.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: So it's going to be updated, from the sounds of it going through a new facelift maybe it is.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: it is because we, because currently we have, um, we have six different programs.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: All right, okay, yes, we have six, uh, six different programs currently, and these are going to be rebranded and all yeah, watch this space.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Watch this space.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, beautiful.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: Now In the process.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: So what else do you feel I need to be aware of and do I need to know?
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: What else can we share?
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: aware of and do I need to know?
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: What else can we share?
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: We?
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: We should say that, um, obviously, all the the egg service is provided all around Australia, so we service, uh, right up to Darwin.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: So if you're even in Darwin, you can access the service.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: We have a clinic there that we partner with, and we also currently service cairns all the way from sydney up the east coast to cairns, um, south australia.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: We have a clearing act, we're there.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, we're not just limited, we, we, but.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: But if you know recipients wants to have a, they can go on to the website and it lists all our partnering clinics that are there and we're also.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, also, I'll say watch this space, with potential new clinics could be popping up as well.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Brilliant.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Well, that sounds amazing because I know a big area which I'm interested in and how to support is also because Australia is exceptionally large.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: It is sort of rural.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: How to support that?
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: So, and again, I think we're all.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: We're all working towards, you know, being able to support everybody.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: So, yes, as you say, watch this space.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Now, what else would I need to share?
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Do you feel we've covered everything?
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I just want to make sure.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Is there any other words that we need to share and talk about?
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: We've talked about who you are.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Uh, we've discussed why we might need one.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Um, all the different areas, what an egg bank is.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: We've discussed about the eggs.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Have I missed anything?
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: so I want to make sure we've got everything covered I've got one thing, shlomi do you want us to talk about the guarantees of our programs, because I think that's a really good point to make.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: And you know this is one of the things that made Central Egg Bank very, very popular and still and this was like changing the, you know this made Central Egg Bank like very refreshing and very, you know, very different in the environment at that time when it was founded.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: And for me, for us as founders, it was very important not just to provide a service at the end of the day, to see our recipients pregnant and to maximize their chances and to make it, I would say, like a good value for money kind of option.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: And this was the goal.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: And for us, it was very, very clear that we need to give our patients the confidence that this is the right approach in the right way.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: And this is where we came up with very, very generous guarantees of embryos.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: So we tell them, okay, this is the program, these are the eggs, but we are here and we are going to back you up.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: And backing them up means that if we tell them, okay, this is a program that provides you a guarantee or promises a guarantee of's, say, three blastocysts, so three good quality embryos to transfer, they know this is what they can expect.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: By the way, we have cases in which we get double than that.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, it's up to to the eggs, etc.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: It's an amazing and and people can get like a five or six, you know, good quality embryos from the same attempt, from the same cohort of eggs.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: So we invest a lot into quality assurance, you know, of our eggs in our bank, if you call it in our bank to make sure that we are bringing back the donors that have the best results, so patients can have the shortest journey to pregnancy and this is, you know, the time to pregnancy for us.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: We would like them to because we talked about that.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: They get to this point emotionally exhausted.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: They just need to get pregnant ASAP and this is what we are trying to do in terms of our guarantees, in terms of our quality assurance.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: We know, you know we as a provider a popular provider in Australia we have lots of experience from our eggs.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: So I know that every cohort of eggs has a reputation Okay, so we know that the chances from this because we had, maybe we had experience interstate with the same egg.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: So we would like to provide recipients with the best option, with the best attempt.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: And we talked about frozen embryos Okay, so people can have maybe had an embryo transfer, by the way, and the chances to conceive from the first transfer is very, very high.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: But for those who did not conceive okay and they are not pregnant, they have always, always, you know, I think in most of our programs they have an option to have another transfer, like the next month, which is again brings up the advantages of having a local ag bank, okay.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: So it doesn't mean that they need to go overseas again and this again can defer the whole plans in another year or two.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: They can just have another attempt next month.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: And this is amazing and I think this, this was really a groundbreaking option in Australia back then, absolutely.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: The other thing that I would like to point out and we were talking about transparency earlier all of the clinics, all the results that we see, all of the fertilizations, all the day three updates, the day five, the day six, six, this is all clinic reported.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: We don't enter any of this information in, so it's all clinic reported, each, each clinic.
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: There is an allocated personnel that will log into the portal and enters all the data in for us.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: So we don't have any.
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: You know, this is all good, absolutely.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: And you know, liz, transparency it's so, so important in this kind of industry, in this field, you know, in medicine in general.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: But being transparent it's first of all, you know, it brings lots of confidence to the recipient, definitely for the clinics, and we talked about trust and we talked about transparency and at the end of the day, they know what they are getting.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Okay, and now there are chances and I think this is, and clinics and medical directors are highly impressed from this transparency of for us being very authentic.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: We talked about it and you and I told you okay, let's, let's just talk, because for us being authentic it's not just here in this interview, it's a our, you know our way of life we are very very authentic.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is our dna yeah, yeah, and what I, what I love hearing about that, that and when we work on the emotional aspect is when we feel confidence, when we feel someone has our back, when we feel someone hears us and sees us, that changes in our body because we can feel more what would be the right word, we can feel more happy as we go into that procedure and I feel that that has a massive effect on the body.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because how many people go into IVF already thinking this isn't going to work?
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Lots, we see it every day and it, just as you say, it just has a negative impact on their treatment, how they are through treatment you know, when we're in high stress you know obviously high cortisol it can have an impact on um you know, anything in bedding and just an impact on our journey.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: So when we feel confident again, it has a much more positive impact on our body and our being.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: So I love it, I love it.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the other thing we should mention shlomi is um, we mentioned about the guarantees, um, so part of the guarantee is obviously the semen analysis of the sperm that recipients are going to be used.
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: If, if the recipient or you know if they have a semen analysis, we can send that through to the lovely shlomi and he even tells us before the recipient goes.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: You know whether they will be, you know they will be eligible or not.
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: So you know.
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: The recipients are informed again.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: We're all transparent you know it's.
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: It's all very upfront.
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: We can even tell the recipient before they even choose to to come with us whether they will.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: You know their guarantees are valid before they start.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: So brilliant, yeah, it's such good it is, it's good wonderful now, um, I think one of the other things to ask about is what is the pricing when it comes to egg donoring and to go to an egg donor bank, and about that, because IVF itself, because it's the same but slightly different, isn't it?
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Again, it's got quite lots of price tags to it.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: So, out of an interest for me as well and the listener, where is our pricing on this?
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, so we have six different programs, so you can either purchase six eggs, seven, eight, ten, twelve or fourteen.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: Okay, so the price ranges, and it's in US dollars, that's at $8,400 US dollars right through until the 14 egg program is $1,700 US dollars.
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: But with the 14 egg program you are guaranteed a minimum of four blastocysts from that.
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: So each program has its own guarantee.
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: Ok, so so, and then on top of that that you've got your shipping fees as well.
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: So the shipping fees do do vary.
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: Um, purely because if, if we have, say, a lot of recipients going to one clinic, yeah, then our shipping fee is lower.
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the minimum is about 1800 us dollars for shipping.
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: Obviously, if there's only one recipient going to one certain clinic, then the shipping fee will be higher.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: But we always tell them what the cost will be.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: We always want them to confirm before we start any planning for the shipment.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: So they're the two main costs from yeah Well, in a way that can be cheaper than um ivf it is yeah absolutely yeah
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: at least.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: I just want to point out another aspect of the guarantee.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, look, you know the program like kat mentioned.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: You know the four blastocysts guarantee for the four inactive.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: You know we, they will get the guarantee, sometimes not from the same donor, but we know from my experience and the experience is a long-term experience that you know the.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: The quality is usually.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: You know, uh, you know the top quality of eggs.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: This means that the conversion from eggs into embryos is fairly high.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: This means, you know, with donor sperm that people purchase, you know, donor vials because they think about the size of the family and they would like to make sure that they will have biological siblings, you know, from the same donor.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: In a way, in a way and this is you, you know, one of the advantages of our program.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: We cannot commit that you'll have siblings from the same donor, but there is a very good chance that you will have, okay, again, because of what we see.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Because of what we see, because of the, the great results.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: So it's when, when people go with us, they know that there is a lot about quality, it's a lot about maybe the chance of them having biological siblings from the same donor.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: This is not trivial For many.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: It's very, very, very important.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: I think for most patients it's a very, very important aspect and they know that.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: Although and Kat told you about the programs and we really try to make the whole program very highly accessible to patients and different budget, different, you know, not everyone is the same still accessible without compromising the quality, and this is the thing.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: So the variety of options in terms of accessibility doesn't mean that they will need to compromise on quality.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: We would like to keep them with us, we would like to take them hand by hand to the precious and you know, to the pregnancy and live birth, without compromising the quality, without compromising our due diligence of the whole thing.
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: And you know, when you are a clinic partnering with us, you want to make sure that we did.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: You know the best due diligence we could on the donors, on everything you know that's in in this process to give you the confidence.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: And you know if the clinic has confidence the recipient, the recipient has the confidence.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's the whole.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: You know it's, it's one package I love that and I feel like what I've really got from speaking together that some of the main words is about, you know, quality connection, people first.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: I'm making this highly, highly accessible and not compromising on quality.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: And look, I did six IVFs and I think I went.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: All of them in the end were unsuccessful, and this was quite a few years ago now and I think I spent around all of them in the end were unsuccessful, and this was quite a few years ago now and I think I spent around 80 grand with nothing.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: And so I feel like what I hear with you guys, with you guys with Central IVF apologies is that there's just so much connection there and that the people first and really supporting this to be the best step forward to become a parent, if having to have donor eggs becomes your journey.
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: And their last step, hopefully.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: And their last step, absolutely so.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: I am just thank you so much for having this conversation with me and I really hope we've covered all the areas.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: If there's anything more, please let me know, but I feel like we've done pretty well.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: I just want to ask do we feel we've covered all areas today?
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: I think we've covered most of it and I'll just say that, first of all, thank you again for the kind invitation and we are here.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: We are here for you if you'd like to have a follow up discussion, if you'll give any comments, any questions, any queries about egg donation in general, we are more than happy.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: It's fairly easy for us and actually we, we like this kind of engagement, okay, and we would like you know, your and the people that listen to your podcast to engage as much you know, as much as they want, and we would be more than happy to comment and to give, to provide more information if needed.
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: We are here.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much and I love that you know again about being accessible, about being open and it.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: It is a question, um, that can be emotional, but these questions need to be asked.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: You know so what I love we're here if you need it yeah, shlomi, do you want to do a take-home message for any potential recipients out there?
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, look, going in this direction of egg donation, this is a serious decision, okay, and research needs to be done.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, look at your options, ask questions, ask questions, challenge the providers, ask challenging questions, I think, because this is going to impact your future.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: Obviously we talked about offspring, about your family, about your children.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: Try to challenge a provider.
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: It's not always just about price or about accessibility, it's the whole thing.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: Ask, challenge the providers about the due diligence of the service and about the quality assurance of the service, and this is what they need to know from our point of view.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, so there is the clinic aspect.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, and they know everything they need to know about their clinic, about their fertility specialist.
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: They need to challenge the provider about their due diligence, about their process, about the quality assurance, because this reflects on the number of embryos they will have, and definitely their journey, because we would like their journey.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: And again, going back to the start, we talked about our patients, our recipients.
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: We refer them as our patients.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: So, okay, our patients come to us exhausted, emotionally exhausted, financially exhausted.
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: We don't this financial exhaustion to be converted into, be compromised on quality, yeah, okay beware of that okay, so we, we will find your program here with us, with central bank, without compromising and all of these.
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: So ask questions and we are here to answer and, as as kass said, we are trying to be very, very accessible and this is a very long take on message, but it is a good message it's a beautiful message and I think it's one to portray because it shows you being the founder.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: You know your transparency and your passion for this, so thank you so much.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you, and kat.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Do you have anything to leave the last, final message yourself?
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: I guess just what shalami was, as you.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: As he said, they're all exhausted by the time they get to us.
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: And you know, ask those questions.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: You can come to us with anything.
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: If you think it's a silly question, it will not be.
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: We're here to help you and just give you all the information that you require.
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: So don't be afraid.
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, those questions that, um, that should be asked, yes and I'm happy for anybody to call me um at any time.
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: You've got my number, liz um, or email me um and I you know I'll endeavor to help and if I can't help I'll enlist shlomi to help me absolutely.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll be looking through all of your details because I'll put them all in the show notes and they'll go out when we tag you all as well, so that everybody will have that information.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: So from I suppose my parting message is if you find that donor eggs is part of your journey, please know that there is in Australia places where you can go to be supported and ask those questions, find peace and know that this is a wonderful, um, medical, uh step with a big heart that can help you become the parents that you so seek.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: So I really really want to thank you for coming and speaking with me today, from the early mornings of israel to the afternoons of the different parts of australia.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: So, with many blessings and many love, thank you so much, and may this be something that supports people to find their journey and to be the answers for them.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode of Fertility Health and Coming Back to Self, for listening to this episode of fertility health and coming back to self.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and consider leaving me a review, which will help me to reach others who may benefit from this information.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: Feel free to get in contact at liz waltonorg or via social media at liz walton underscore fertility coach, and, if you feel called to, I would love you to share this podcast with anyone you think this could be a healing for, as an elixir for the soul.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I'll see you next time.