Pakistan Trip
Laurel Fertility Care Embryologist Trains Physicians in Pakistan on Vitrification
Laurel Fertility Care Embryologist Trains Physicians in Pakistan on Vitrification
In October, 2007, Marlane Angle, PhD, the laboratory director for Laurel Fertility Care, attended a meeting in Antalya, Turkey. While there she met Mr. Saif Ur Rehman from Galaxy IVF in Karachi, Pakistan. He later contacted Dr. Angle and asked if she would be willing to come to Pakistan to help train embryologists in her area of specialty, vitrification, a relatively new method for freezing embryos and oocytes. In June, 2008, Dr. Smikle and Dr. Angle both traveled to Pakistan to work with physicians and embryologists in the region.
“We in the United States have access to so much, and take so much for granted in terms of medical care,” Dr. Angle said on her return to San Francisco. “It was a privilege to be able to go there and see what great things are being done for women by a number of dedicated folks, working with less of everything, except a commitment to providing quality women’s health care.”
Dr. Smikle and Dr. Angle spent over thirty hours flying to Karachi where they spent three days giving a series of lectures on medical and laboratory issues relating to infertility and in vitro fertilization and visiting IVF programs. They then went on to Lahore where they again lectured and had the opportunity to visit the oldest IVF program in Pakistan. Ten days later they flew back to San Francisco.
“I think I speak for both of us when I say it was a great trip, and we hope to return—just not too soon. I have to get some sleep first!” said Dr. Angle. Both are slated to return to Pakistan for more lectures and clinic visits in October.
