Hello again, here is the update from day 2 at the NEFS 2012 Conference.
Before the presentations today, I went for a walk along the cliffs of the conference location and took some photos that can be seen below. The weather was a bit windy, but there were beautiful, sunny skies.
The first presentation today was given by Dr. Richard Yu, who described the “Fertility Preservation of Pediatric and Young Adult Males”. Dr. Yu’s main focuses were: Current methods of fertility preservation available for young males, the key barriers to banking sperm for young cancer patients, and the role of spermatogonial stem cell preservation for prepubertal young men. This presentation was of special interest to me, as we do encounter patients who are about to undergo cancer treatment, which often can affect their future fertility, and the barriers that exist to banking these patients’ sperm is a struggle.
After the presentation it was time for lunch, followed by another exhibition session. During this time I met with Cathy Glennon, donor coordinator atMass. GeneralHospital, Fertility Department. She loved our sperm chocolates and pens, and let me know that her physicians and embryologists say our vials are of the highest quality they come across for insemination.
I also got to speak with Paul Nader, CEO and founder of BabySentry– a highly efficient and elaborate Assisted Reproductive Technologies database software. We discussed how the new trend in fertility being observed is that the information, choices and power are now often in the hands of the patient and that we as businesses need to gear the information and accessibility of our product in that direction.
The afternoon session was given again by Dr. Albertini. He discussed the implementation portion of his talk from the previous night and provided many good tips that also applied to the need for standardization amongst sperm banks.
I went to dinner again with Steve Pool, director of Fairfax Cryobank, but we decided to head out for freshMainelobster instead of the buffet at the conference hall. We discussed success stories of our client’s achieving pregnancy, fun interactions with our donors and the ever growing need for more donors.
Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment or question below, and I will respond as soon as possible.