Dr. Zeynep Gurtin, a Lecturer in Women’s Health at the Institute for Women’s Health at UCL, and holds an Affiliate Lectureship at the University of Cambridge Sociology Department.

In 2020 - spoke to a sample of 457 women to find out their experience of fertility treatment whose treatment has been delayed due to clinic closures. The questionnaire was live for 6 weeks during May-June 2020

The focus was to talk about the issues from lockdown stopping treatment. It was monitored by a multidisciplinary team of 6 - clinicians, counselor, psychologist

The survey was an anonymous online long questionnaire - some quantitative, other questions asked for people to tell in their own words about the impact.

For many people, it was underlined with a sense of how important the treatment was. Dominant responses were that they were much less concerned about covid than their declining fertility.

People scared about how long this is going to last. How at the start there was such little clarity

People were saying ‘I don’t want to look back and say that this virus is what robbed me of my last chance to become a parent.

People who were essential workers, such as nurses, had a priority of wanting to undertake treatment, yet they were very aware they had to expose themselves to the virus.. and at the time we had no idea of the impact it might have on pregnancy.. and of course, it became impossible for them to take time off - issues of there not being enough clarity on what people should do when it came to having the vaccine initially.

On the other side, people who became furloughed or jobs were precarious, which made it even more difficult. People feeling anxious about how secure their employment was and what impact that would have on them having a family.

Words used to describe feelings :

Powerless, helpless, frustrated, anxious, intense feelings

‘when i heard the clinic was going to close I was completely devastated, my partner isn’t getting any younger and further delays to our treatment was beyond belief. It was a particularly bitter pill to swallow with all the jokes about lockdown baby boom’

‘i was so heartbroken to be so close to making it happen and then it was wiped away from us’

‘i find the uncertainty of the wait unbearable ‘

People talked about it as ‘yet another disruption’ people having to halt treatment in the past due to losses, for financial reasons, to stop caring for a family member - and now there was this

Patients having to undergo surgery for fibroids and just at the point when they could start treatment, it was put on halt… ‘a feeling like the world is against us.’

When will we get over the Covid crisis and when will we understand the impact it is having on the TTC community

People found it really difficult to receive support - many stories of people with young children/friends or work colleagues being insensitive ‘ at least your lucky you don’t have to home school’

How the clinics let people down - lack of communication such as timelines, lack of access to staff, and also a perceived lack of care and empathy. People getting letters with black lines

When clinics did offer updates - zoom meetings, webinars were really appreciated.

Having a counselor or patients supporter is an enormous help and reassurance, helps them feel connected, they have a place to check-in.

Hopefully, the message will be to the sector that better communication should be implemented. Some clinics have said they’ve been using the findings. It’s so important we put these mechanisms in place if some other form of disruption is to... 

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