Today I wanted to talk to you about a pioneering approach to fertility by some of the top fertility
clinics around the world. It involves testing and evaluating a person immune system through a
simple blood test. So here goes:
So, Im so excited today to have uploaded for you, the immunology animation that we recently created. I thought it might be a nice idea to go through the process and time it took to get this done… I hope you will be as excited as I am when you look at it… And yes its super super simple. Just like our sessions in clinic, we like to make things easy and simple here.
So many of my patients are currently going through immune fertility treatment and to be fair theres not a lot of information out there for people like you and me…. Most of it is just too technical.
So this all started about 8 months ago…. Yes, 8 months ago. Well I am from Cork, like!!!!! Now to be fair, its not 8 full months of work. But between the jigs and the reels, meeting with specialists, interviewing them…. And then for me….. to try and understand the basics of it… Add with all that my own big picture personality rather than a required, drill down detailed personality. Things do take a little longer here, down south….
Creating scripts, story boarding, voice overs and all that…. 8 Months….. I promise I get faster at this… it will definitely not take another 8 months to create the next animation. OK…..I’ll let you into a secret, its already done…. And ready to upload….. The animation is on one of the most common factors we see in clinic, the horrible two week wait, which so many of you experience on a monthly basis.
So last October, I was at one of the Sims IVF Clinic Open Days. while chatting with the clinic Doctors afterwards, he surprisingly mentioned to me that he had seen the previous animation I had done on Sperm and the IVF timeline. I have to admit I got a little embarrassed. Here was one of the top fertility specialists in Ireland looking at my cartoon animations on male factor infertility. ‘Sammy the Sperm’ and he liked it. It was so simple it made complete sense to him.
Fast forward two weeks Im sitting with one of the top immune specialists in Europe for the day and he has some serious patience, trying to explain to me, the whole process of how its possible that our immune system could be a major cause of unexplained infertility. It really did get basic, the poor man….
While working in the States with Dr Lewis a few years ago on her fertility retreats, I was introduced to this idea of the immune system and infertility, now to be fair it was an extremely controversial topic in reproductive medicine at the time, with lines drawn between, the believers and the non believers. Thankfully the world has moved forward and the studies now show it could be a major problem especially when you have a diagnosis of unexplained infertility.
Of the 6 IVF clinics in Ireland, 2 are investing heavily their time into researching this area, whereas the others clinics would say its not a problem. Only the future will tell, we need people to research these areas. Considering that 30% of all diagnosis from a fertility clinic will come back as ‘Unexplained’ its no longer an acceptable diagnosis. And clinics sitting on the fence comfortable with giving their patients an ‘Unexplained infertility’ response should be ashamed of themselves. As you have possibly already guessed, Im leaning towards it certainly being a issue. I’ve seen too many cases without an answer to be solved using fertility immune therapy. I have 8 patients going through fertility immune therapy this month alone.
So back to my story, I had promised I could have it done for December, at latest the New Year.. However, after a 8 week delay on my part, I had nothing done….. And certainly not helped by the fact that I couldn’t find all the amazing notes I had taken down with my sessions with the team at Sims…. CRAP!!!!!!!! I know, how does someone lose these important notes, 24 hours after a meeting like that.
So over the next two weeks I had to do a major self taught crash course on immunology….. Armed to the teeth with some very basic DIY knowledge……. I found my notes…….. Yes, in the booth of my car…. the only place I didn’t look… I’ll tell you that ‘Murphys Law’ fella certainly know when to creap into ones life… All was saved……. Im so so happy we didn’t design this animation around my information…. PHEW WE!!!!!!!!
So Im sitting down with my animator, great guy, super creative and we’re bashing out ideas on how to approach this. I want it super simple, he wants it super complicated. But after some serious negotiations with a muffin and some hard bargaining over a Starbucks coffee we meet half way…We decide to create a super complicated simple animation. Negotiation Tip of the Day: Raising your voice and talking about ‘Sperm and Eggs’ in Starbucks will break any man whose playing hardball… 🙂
The next stage of the process was to script the animation, to create a foundation for the storyboards that would then lead into the animation. Why is it, what amazing in my brain when I get it on paper, sounds like a 6 year old scribbling with crayons on the wall of a creche… It was such a hard process… Over and over, day after day for about 2 weeks I had to rescript, rewrite, edit… This super simple animation was not so simple anymore.
Finally we get to grips on a script and its off to the recording studio to get everything recorded. I had envisaged a 15 minute session for the 2 minute script that had taken over three weeks to write, make a few mistakes, here and there.. it shouldn’t take too long….
3.5 hours later… an exhausted Gordon, with no voice, and extremely sick of listening to my own voice….. But we finally hit a home run on the last take…. I think it was the image of the three studio engineers pale at the thought of implantation and pregnancy being repeated over and over and over again, that final got me over the line..
This audio was then sent to the animator, who synced the audio and the animation. I was getting very excited, we were almost there….
SO I am pleased to announce we have our final draft of the animation, thats so cool. A little late, but what an amazing result…. And hey do ‘like’ us.. Its really appreciated….
If you would like any further information on how your immune system can effect your fertility, call
us now and we would be delighted to help you.