Susana Cortés

The truth is that I always wanted to be a veterinarian, but I didn’t have the grades, so I started studying for a degree in Biological Sciences, which was my second choice. When I finished my biology degree, I didn’t know what to do. They told me that they were looking for personnel at INIA (National Institute of Agricultural Research) to work as an intern (which at that time was allowed). Gradually I began to take an interest in this sector, and I wrote my thesis and my doctoral thesis in the department of Animal Reproduction of this Institute, which had awarded me a scholarship. There I met Dr. Isabel Vázquez (one of my doctoral thesis directors) through whom I met Dr. Rocío Núñez (my other thesis director) and Dr. Caballero Peregrín, two very important people in Assisted Human Reproduction and with whom I have grown as a biologist and as a person. Caballero Peregrín, two very important people in Assisted Human Reproduction with whom I have been growing as a biologist and as a person, and to whom I am very grateful for the possibilities they have given me. From this point on, now more than 20 years ago, my life was linked to the Tambre Clinic as an embryologist.

Running the laboratory involves having all the technical equipment and embryologists tuned like a perfect Swiss watch. It is very important to always try to have a good working and collaborative environment for everything to function. In addition, we need to be in a state of continuous development, remaining aware of all the new ideas out there so we can introduce them to our treatments for greater success.

Our role is to help build families, and the thank you (just a smile, or a picture of the baby) is what fills our lives. It is also very important to thank the efforts of patients who, even after having tried, have not achieved pregnancy.

It is often very complicated, because as my colleague Carolina Cordero says, our successes are our patients’ successes, and their failures are also ours. In addition, many of us at the Tambre Clinic have gone through the same things our patients go through, so we are able to understand all their emotions, and put ourselves in their shoes….. because we have been where they are now. The hardest thing is to give the bad news, we know, but they will always get the truth and empathy to be able to move forward from us.

There have been many, as I said, we have not only had female colleagues in the same situation, but also family members. But to be able to help a person who, after multiple failures, has finally managed to get pregnant is the most wonderful thing in the world.

Free time?…between work and always studying, I have very little free time. The free time I have I share and enjoy with my family. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing as long as we’re together.