"When you want to have a baby and you can't, it takes over your life - you breath, eat and sleep it. It makes you very sad."

The Stress free way to having a baby John O’Keeffe reports on a welcome alternative to IVF treatment

Britian’s new chair of the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, or IVF Chief, Suzi Leather, landed herself in hot water shortly after taking up her post. Showing what many have regarded as insensitivity to childless couples, she announced that “there’s more to life than having children” and “women should not be panicked into having families by the ticking of their biological clocks.”
       In case you’re wondering, Dr. Leather has not only a racy surname and a fast track medical career; she is also a proud parent of three children herself. You might well be forgiven for thinking that Dr. Leather is in the advanced stages of having her cake and eating it. However, Dr. Phil Boyle, a GP from Galway who specialises in infertility treatment has some sympathy with where Suzi Leather is coming from.
      “I would be supportive of what she is saying to some extent. There is a kind way of saying it and a way that can be open to misinterpretation. I would often give similar advice to people.

A lot of time the one thing that can stop people from conceiving is stress and we try and deal with this and get them out of a sense of panic and say, look, it’s good to look at all the positive things you have in your life. We know you want to have a child and let’s do everything we can to do that, but let’s not panic,” he said.
Dr. Boyle specialises in infertility and women’s health and is using an emerging reproductive technique that’s called natural procreative technology or NAPRO for short.
He has been working exclusively in that for the last four and a helf years and says “it is improving in effectiveness the longer that I have been working in it. It works for between 20% and 30% of couples that come to see me.”

His focus differs from IVF specialists around the country in that he encourages couples to try this method before having IVF because it is a less invasive technique.
    “Indeed recent research in the US shows that many couples are referred for IVF too early – about 60% of my patients would not have had IVF before they come to see me.”
     Surely he must appreciate the anguish that remarks such as Dr. Leather’s might cause some people? “There is more to life than having a child. Often I would say to patients of mine, count your blessings. You have a great relationship – look at the good things that are there in your life. I would try and ground my patients in reality and say sometimes no matter how good the treatment you may not have success at the end of it. That is not to be defeatist but realistic. Don’t regard your whole life as only having meaning if you have a child.”

What is the first piece of advice that Dr. Boyle gives a couple when they walk through his room full of hope?

“We give our patients a sense of control and don’t pretend that we can overcome things that we can’t. I also say to them: have fun while you’re going through the treatment – do the things you want to do and let this be somewhere in the back ground.”

One person who cannot sing the praises of Dr. Boyle enough is Louise McMullan, who turned to him after many years of trying for a child and after distressing and unsuccessful IVF treatment. He pinpointed a problem with her progesterone levels and she now has a healthy young girl, Alice. She is effusive in her praise of Dr. Boyle.

“I have nothing but praise for him. IVF is such a horrible experience but you are so desperate by the time you get to IVF that you would do anything. His treatment is designed for you and it makes sense.” However, she does not agree with Suzi Leather’s “tell it as it is approach.”
“When you are trying to have a baby and you can’t it takes over your whole life. You eat, breathe and sleep it. You would do anything for fertility. It makes you very, very sad indeed.”
For those who are unable to have children for whatever reason, they can at least be comfortable in the knowledge they at least have the support of men like Dr. Boyle and others on their side.
The bad news for many couples around the country is that Dr. Boyle has a waiting list of over a year. The good news for those who seek his help is that they will be treated with sensitivity and realism in equal measure.

 The Irish Examiner, Wednesday, 4th September 2002

Finding life when there was only silent despair.

Louise and Eamonn McMullan turned to Dr. Phil Boyle in desperation after seven years of trying to conceive and two failed attempts at IVF.  Days after the second IVF attempt failed, Louise finally decided to watch an interview with Dr. Boyle, which a friend had recorded.  Listening to him speak of how potential hormone problems were often not properly investigated she decided to get in touch.
'What he was saying made a lot of sense, particularly as I had irregular menstrual cycles. He focuses on a woman's individual cycle, where previously I had been given a couple of standard treatments and examinations and then pressed into IVF,' she said.
In April I999, Louise learned to chart her fertility with a designated educator before meeting Dr. Boyle the following June to discuss the results. He pinpointed a problem with her progesterone levels in the crucial period after ovulation and prescribed injections to boost it and to stimulate ovulation.

The following October, Louise became pregnant and went on to give birth to Alice, now a strapping eight months.  "I have nothing but praise for Dr. Boyle IVF was such a horrible experience, but you are so desperate by the time you get to IVF that you would do anything. If they told you to stand on your head overnight and Drink tea through a straw you would do it,' she said.
Dr. Boyle's treatment is totally different, you are in touch with your hormones and understand what is going on. His treatment is designed for you and it makes sense.  'When you are trying to have a baby and you can't, it takes over your life - you eat, breathe and sleep it. You would do anything for fertility, it makes you very sad.  'These days you can get most things that you want, you can study and go to university and have a career - all of which I did. You expect things to work out for you, but with infertility, it feels like the big choices have been taken away and there is nothing,' Louise said.
Her husband a GP, regularly refers couples to Dr.. Boyle. For I7 years, Mary and Michael* suffered an agonizing rollercoaster ride of expectation and despair as pregnancy after long-awaited pregnancy ended in miscarriage.  'It was very hard, really very tough and it got harder as I approached my mid-30s and time was running out. We began to think that we would never have a family and considered adoption or fostering,' Mary recalls.  After losing yet another baby in I997, Mary read about Dr. Boyle, and began treatment in February, I998. 'He monitored me for three months and discovered that I had a deficiency of progesterone. He put me on supplements and I was pregnant by September and and subsequently delivered my daughter five-and-a-half weeks early by caesarean section,' she recalls. 'There is no way that I would have her without treatment. I had never brought a pregnancy past three-and- a-half months. Dr. Boyle has been a godsend,' she said. For Lisa and her husband, John*, who finally had a baby, the beauty of Dr. Boyle's treatment is that it is natural, easy to understand and specific. Lisa, who consistently miscarried, consulted experts in Ireland and abroad, but believes they took a blind man's approach, prescribing this and that hoping that something would work. It never did. 'Using Dr. Boyle's method I learned that my progesterone levels were slightly low. This time, by week 24 onwards, I knew that it was going to be different and thankfully I delivered a little baby last year,' Lisa said. 'I'm so glad that he is offering this hope, I'm sorry that we didn't discover it years ago, it would have saved us a lot of stress and heartache.'

*False names were used.
This article first appeared in the newspaper, The Irish Examiner, 22nd of March 2001