Carmen Rodríguez

It is true that it was not my first choice, in fact, it was not until I started looking into possible masters that I could do after my degree that I discovered this world. I started doing my master’s degree and it was when I did my internship that I really realised that I wanted to dedicate myself to assisted reproduction. The possibility of being able to create “life” in the laboratory was incredible.

In the laboratory we have many cases of patients, each one with a different story, some even with many cycles behind them already, and when you see that, after much perseverance and effort, they achieve their dream of starting a family, that is the most beautiful thing about this job.

There are many different patients, each case is different. It is a reality that it is difficult to manage difficult situations for our patients, such as communicating that they have not been able to generate an embryo or that the cycle has not gone well. These are patients who carry a lot of emotional stress and await our call with some hope. We try to speak to them as clearly and, at the same time, as gently as possible.

I had been working in the clinic relatively recently, and I remember a patient who came in for her first embryo transfer. The patient kept saying thank you. And that same day, without knowing what the result of her transfer was going to be, she did not hesitate to send a thank you email, naming each one of us who were in the operating room that day. And best of all, she has her child at home today.

This work can generate a lot of stress both emotionally and physically, especially if you have had a busy day in the lab or have had a difficult case that has not gone well, so when I finish work I try to escape a little and keep my mind busy with activities that are completely unrelated.