Hello, our dear clients! Today we have a
beautiful interview with our doctor,
professor Ruslan Sobolev and he was so
kind to answer our questions and I hope
you will enjoy this interview and get a
lot of information about the process of fertilization,
surrogate mother, egg donors and some more interesting questions,
so the first question is: "Can
you tell something about yourself
something interesting about your
experience in reproductive technologies"?
I am an incorrect obstetrician-gynecologist
as well as the majority of reproductive specialists in our country
...I am an obstetrician-gynecologist by training,there is no such specialty as "reproductive medicine"
There are obstetrics and gynecology,  there are specialists in ultrasound diagnostics...
...incorrect because,
somehow in my life I did not find love for obstetrics
But suddenly I have discovered that it is very interesting for me to take part in the process of creation
The Creation of Life, from my point of view, is the most important thing, the most interesting
and when I realized this, and I realized this early enough, in 1996,
I became iterested in this,
Therefore, when I managed, fortunately, to make my way to the classes of Professor Michelmann, in Goettingen, Germany,
there, for the first time I did ICSI
He was a great man, his micromanipulator...
By that time we had already bought the real "Eppendorf" micromanipulators, beautiful, electronic...
and his micromanipulator was made of textolite boards,
plastic boards, with inserted disposable syringes, instead of all those pumps
and he then twisted his hands, on an old microscope, and yet, he was one of the first in the world who did ICSI
he was a great enthusiast, absolutely wonderful man!
well, and probably I was lucky, because I came across such wonderful people one after another
Then in 1998, Moscow, Professor Leonov, unfortunately, he is no longer there
But he was the first in Russia, who had a pregnancy, he was an embryologist
in the center of obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics at the Academy of Medical Sciences of Russia
he headed of the Department of Reproductive Medicine, the Department of IVF
He was, probably, alone in the whole center, who did not wear a suit, but a plaid shirt and jeans
That is, everybody was dressed very presentably, all the men were looking very serious, women - important,
everybody had big connections, important relatives
And the only person who, from my point of view, was worth most of the staff of this huge institution
he walked very modestly, went by tram, came to work in a checked shirt
and sat quietly in his office, receiving presidents, when they came to see him
also a very simple, absolutely wonderful man.
They have left a mark on my life somehow, very large
in any case, I've never regretted that I was doing what I was doing
A lot of our clients ask about the success rate
they want to know how high
their chances are, so can you tell, please
how you determine the success rate and can you even tell the success rate for a certain couple
Or is it general statistics?
You know, probably, when we are talking about an individual person - it is always difficult to give exact numbers
But nevertheless, there are statistics, there are metadata, there is processing
And when you start counting, then it goes perfectly displayed in graphics, in percentage, very easy
In fact, the donor & surrogate mother couple is the most effective couple, which only exists in reproductive medicine
so when I am asked about the percentage, I calmly say 55-60%, knowing myself in my mind that I can easily give them 10% more without straining
What could be better, right? A donor is a girl who is examined, always a young woman
she was examined, she has confirmed health, wonderful healthy children, as a rule, from the first attempt
usually, she gives genetically wonderful oocytes,
Moreover, we very often use the so-called "Pro-Donors", the confirmed donors who already have children as a result of IVF
They are especially valuable for clinics. Naturally, we are very careful of such donors, and we use them for our customers diligently
A Surrogate mother. Again, a woman who has confirmed that she gets pregnant easily, bears children and gives birth without any problems
Therefore, in such a bundle, in such a pair, the only weak link is the husband, a man who will give seminal fluid
in fact, it's not such a weak link, most often everything works out very quickly
Statistics, it calculates everything very easily, but, yes, indeed, it is very difficult to calculate for a specific person
How will it be for this particular pair? What if they suddenly, God forbid, get sick, or something else?
But when we are talking about a group of patients, it is very easy to calculate
The next question is...
Why a reproductive doctor has to choose the surrogate mother
and why a patient has to trust this choice to a doctor,
because most of our clients, they think that they better choose the surrogate mother
from some database and that it will be the right choice but,
what do you think about this? Would you better choose a surrogate mother for your patients?
Well, let's say, it's easier for a doctor if a client makes the choice. Easier...
Because in that case, the doctor is not responsible
But at the same time, a doctor has a trained eye for surrogate mothers
After 20-30 minutes of communication with a person, I can already tell, with a certain degree of certainty,
if a person is adequate, if a woman speaks the truth about herself,
whether she uses any psychotropic substances, say, even if she hides it
In other words, there are things you can't judge from a photo, and from a personal conversation with a woman, if you're not a specialist
Off course, it is better if a doctor makes a selection, however, each time when a client comes to us and says:
"Doctor, I brought you my surrogate!"
Well, thank God, it will be easier for me to work.
One of the most frequently asked questions is
about the egg donors: "How are they chosen and...
is there some static database or can you
describe the process of selection of an egg donor?"
Let's say that the concept of the "Egg Donor DataBase" is generally already obsolete, it should not exist
with the advent of the Internet and with the emergence of rapid exchange of information, the very notion of a "Donor Base" has quickly turned into nonsense
I don't know how some large organizations, which provide some databases are trying to implement it
in fact, donors, as a rule, do not wait,
usually, a donor, when she turns to a clinic or an agency and passes tests to enter the program of assisted fertilization,
in fact, within a month, this donor is taken, At once
I don't know any long-waiting donors
therefore, having a database doesn't make sense
These same donors, they apply to all the agencies at the same time, they apply to all clinics or to a number of clinics
the best a clinic can do is to keep a record of donors, which turned out to be good donors,
from which good embryos were obtained, good eggs, and, accordingly, a good pregnancy,
such donors, when they apply repeatedly, or when they appear in the requests repeatedly ...they usually go to the same clinics in which they liked to work...
we, of course, try to take such donors immediately for our clients,
We warn our clients when these donors will appear
and these donors are immediately taken
so keeping a database, some albums, even virtual ones, sending profiles, waiting for a conclusion, some client's requirements
While the patient a day or two will think - the donor will go away
I think in this matter the patient should definitely trust the doctor
patients who understand this, patients who trusts the doctor receive the maximum number of bonuses
because he is interested in having a healthy donor, and a healthy surrogate
a beautiful donor girl, and here in Ukraine, thank God, most girls are beautiful
we are interested in having a healthy offspring for our patients,
because, we want our clients to recommend our clinic to their friends
I have a question about the PGD procedure...
A lot of our clients ask...
If this procedure is recommended before the Embryo transfer
and what can you tell about the side-effects of PGD?
Let's put it that way, if the financial capacities of the client allow that, I'm totally for it!
Anna: that is, it somehow increases the chance?
Of course, it gives us the opportunity to select those embryos, which are chromosomally healthy
PGD is not necessarily a panacea, because the genetic diseases..., not knowing what to look for, we will not find them
Even monosomal diseases, are rather problematic to detect, if you do not know what to are looking for
but as for what regards the structure of chromosomes, karyotype, the embryo of the future person, there it is simple enough,
especially when we are talking about PGD, which is used in the blastocyst stage, when we take a piece of trophectoderm for research,
approximately 8-10 cells are enough to produce a proper, accurate analysis. This is wonderful, of course!
to some extent I envy doctors in those countries, where this is a mandatory procedure
Unfortunately, in our country it's not mandatory yet.
Perhaps, for the time being, the authorities, can not afford  such preferences for their residents, but I would be all fo it!
Anna: many people ask if there are any side effects from PGD? There are some scary stories on the Internet that a child can be without a hand or a foot...
Oh my God!
Anna: The Internet does its job, people ask me this question, "Will the child be normal after PGD?"
Anna: they take a cell and do some invasive intervention, when something is torn from the embryo, that's why people are frightened to do PGD
Anna: is it worth it?
Well, let's make a reservation here, after all the procedure is invasive, for the embryo the procedure is clearly stressful:
opening the shell, removing a part of the trophectoderm... This, to some extent, is a damage.
But...
On the other hand, the embryo consists of cells that are fully capable of compensating for the shortage of the same cells and are quite capable of recreating of what is lacking
at this stage, harming an embryos' arm, leg or anything else is totally impossible!
It is possible to ruin an embryo as a result of an unsuccessful procedure. That is possible, indeed.
Not every clinic, not every specialist does preimplantation genetic diagnosis with the same quality,
but even the most good specialists have cases... There are embryos, which are not so ideal, they do not tolerate this interference ideally,
but still, PGD is good!
A lot of our clients are concerned about being in Ukraine right now...
what can you say about this as a
resident of Ukraine and Odessa City?
Can I ask you a counter question?
When I watch news on the TV or in newspapers or on the Internet, I can't understand, how come there are still living people left in San Francisco or Los Angeles?
Because there are so many earthquakes. How in California there is still someone alive after all the hurricanes and storms, occuring in America?
Anna: Yes.
And is it safe to fly to America at all?
All the people I know are still alive.
Ok, thank you very much for the interview,
it was highly interesting and extremely informative and maybe you want to wish something to our future clients,
future patiens, please?
In my opinion, we have built the best clinic for patients.
We are quite ascetic. We do not hang flowers and pictures on the walls,
but we have managed to provide high-quality equipment, we were able to provide employees
who are able to do their job very, very well on this equipment!
And I know for sure that we really can perform any auxiliary reproductive technology, any procedure in this area,
with the highest quality! So, come to us!
Anna: Thank you very much!
Welcome to Odessa! We invite you to our beautiful clinic and we hope we can help you to become parents very soon!
I'm really happy that we had a chance to have such a beautiful interview with our a reproductive doctor,
professor Ruslan Sobolev, one of the best doctors in Ukraine in this field,
he was the first doctor that began IVF in Ukraine
and I think you can understand what experience he has
it was extremely informative for me
and I hope it was informative for you
thank you for your attention that you
had few minutes to watch the video and
good luck!
