The 'Pioneering a fertile future' public engagement event took place on 21 May 2024 as part of the Edinburgh Fertility Preservation Conference at the EICC, which was organised by researchers at the Centre for Reproductive Health. Image The evening was a game of two halves starting with a conversation with Professor Roger Gosden, a reluctant hero in the scientific community working on fertility preservation, and finishing with 'The Great Sperm Race', an interactive theatre show created by Toby Peach and Lucy Wray. Professor Gosden led the audience through his career and research highlights, from the start at the University of Bristol, where he was an undergraduate student and on to Cambridge, where he worked with the pioneers of IVF; and finally arriving in Edinburgh and Leeds. It was a veritable tour of the Russell Group research intensive Institutions in the UK. He worked in the lab of Steptoe and Edwards, the pair that developed the technique of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) at the University of Cambridge, and offered some fascinating insight into this time of his career. Throughout his talk, Professor Gosden made it abundantly clear how much he has always championed the role of women in science (female scientists can, unfortunately, still be overlooked and uncredited) including Jean Purdy, a British nurse and embryologist and a key member of the team of the team who developed IVF. The conversation delved into discussions about fertility preservation, embryos, oocytes and sperm, and highlighted why Professor Gosden is seen as a hero in this field of reproductive health. Image The second item on the bill was The Great Sperm Race, an original theatre show and interactive game by Toby Peach which was attended by 113 members of the public. There was a level of excitement (and perhaps apprehension) in the room as no one had any prior idea what this would involve. Enthusiastic participants picked up their phones and connected to their router and began finding your designated sperm on the screen (which wasn't always the easiest to identify) and moving it left and right using controls on your phone. Soon enough, everyone was set up to play the game. The members of the audience were animated as the sperm started to move through the digital vaginal canal. Pressing left and right, each participant dodged the walls and progressed on to the next level. The game became more difficult as the players moved through the female reproductive tract (choosing the right path through the cervix proved particularly tricky). An unfortunately timed leukocyte managed to wipe everyone out at one point. Toby Peach is a cancer survivor who underwent fertility preservation during his treatment and has recently found out that he is, in fact, fertile. The Great Sperm Race was interspersed with Peach describing his own experiences of cancer, fertility, fertility preservation and climate anxiety. These were deeply personal explorations intertwined with his concerns about the climate and the possible environmental impact on fertility. The truth and vulnerability with which Peach presented himself was astonishing and made us understand his conflicting emotions regarding his new-found fertility and anxiety regarding bringing up children in a warming world. The juxtaposition between the game and Peach's exploration of his emotions regarding his fertility journey made the audience resonate with topics such as reproduction, the creation of future generations, and climate change. Members of the audience were forced to reflect on their own thoughts and feelings surrounding various new and emotive topics. There was no winner at the end of The Great Sperm Race, but maybe this was the point? All but one sperm loses out in the race to the egg and with the threat of climate change looming, maybe there are no winners? Read more about Fertility Preservation This article was published on 2024-09-10
