Empowered Patient Podcast Protecting Access to IVF and Other Reproductive Treatments with Dr. Philip Chenette
Dr. Philip Chenette, a fertility doctor with over 20 years of experience, talks with Deepak Puri, CEO of Democracy Labs, about misunderstandings about reproductive health and the political ramifications. They discuss the role of doctors in educating patients and politicians about fertility treatments and the importance of the patient's voice and vote to protect reproductive rights.
Deepak sets the stage, "Patients often don't connect the dots. So, having a doctor explain, these are the complications, this is what's happening, this is why I cannot treat IVF for you because regulations and politicians are interfering with the process. As a physician, there's only so much I can do. But if you, as an individual, as a mother, and as a father, want to bring about change, you have to get involved and vote. So, that's where the connection happens. And Dr. Chenette articulates this really well."
Philip explains, "In the early days, it was just people who were trying, and trying, and trying at home and just couldn't get it done, couldn't accomplish the goal of conceiving a pregnancy. I was impressed by the drive that they showed. These were new techniques. Our office was brand new at the time. The ideas of using fertility techniques, of using fertility medications, and laboratory techniques to manage human embryos were all brand new at the time. But people were so driven, patients were so driven to accomplish this goal of building a family that they were willing to engage in those new techniques, and try new ideas, and push, and push, and push until they could get it done."
"As you get older, it gets harder and harder to find that good embryo. Just to illustrate that, in our data, at age 25, 1 in three of your embryos is a healthy one, a third. At age 40, that number is one in 10. At age 44, that number is one in 100. 1% of the embryos you can produce have the chromosomes it takes to produce a baby at age 44. That problem is really what we dealt with and what created the fertility world we know today, in vitro fertilization, and the busy practices that we have taking care of patients."
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