Wollongong doctor Elizabeth Maxwell describes herself as an introvert, who is more at home talking one-on-one with her patients or working behind the scenes to help get them pregnant.
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So when she was asked to appear on a national TV show, she was initially hesitant.
However, after years seeing how difficult it can be for people to talk about infertility and IVF treatment she agreed to a request to appear alongside some of her local patients as part of Nine's show Big Miracles.
With several episodes of the show aired, she has no regrets about opening up and hopes her part in it will shed light on some of the experiences and struggles that women and men go through with infertility.
"It can be a bit of a taboo topic and not talked about as much as it should be," Dr Maxwell said.
"The show is trying to break down those barrier and any stigmas that might still be attached to infertility and treatment, because it's so common."
The doctor, who works at Wollongong's Auburn Street clinic of IVF Australia (previously known as the Fertility Centre) said one in six couples struggled with infertility, which meant being able to talk openly about the issue would help many people.
"Since watching the show, I've heard of lots of people coming out and saying 'I've also gone through infertility struggles' and I think people feel braver to bring that topic of conversation up," she said.
"I'm an introverted person so I was hesitant to go on a show, but then I thought, these are important stories to be told and my patients wanted to tell their story on the show, so I wanted to support them.
"Hopefully this makes infertility a part of everyday conversation, and not just a private, not talked about thing."
Dr Maxwell, an obstetrician and gynacologist who has done extra training to become a fertility specialist, said the show was also a chance to talk about some of the common issues facing the couples she sees.
"I want people to know that fertility treatment doesn't always mean IVF, it can just mean a few lifestyle tweaks," she said.
"And there are also less invasive treatments - my couple on the show just needed a tablet to induce ovulation and that was their starting point. So people aren't just going to be offered IVF."
"People know that IVF is somewhat invasive, but I don't want them to stay away because they think that's all that's going to be offered."
As in real life, the show explores the ups and downs of infertility, and, despite some commentators accusing it of exploiting people's hardships, Dr Maxwell says it has been handled sensitively and shows what patients and doctors really go through.
"The obvious best moment of my job is when you find out a patient is pregnant, and I do the first ultrasound at seven weeks so I get to see the heartbeat and it's always really emotional and wonderful," she said.
"There are also some really hard parts of the job. IVF doesn't always work and it can be really sad, not just getting a negative pregnancy test, but sometimes women may fall pregnant after a long time and then miscarry and that's really devastating.
"Seeing poor couples who have gone though the process so many times and for it to not work for them is really quite devastating. We can help them a lot more than we used to with the increasing availability of donor eggs and donor embryos - there is often a plan B or plan C that you can go down.
"But it's hard. The reality is that most people don't fall pregnant on their first IVF cycle."
She also wants to use her public platform to bust some myths around fertility.
"I think it's often thought that infertility happens to older women, and that's a myth because I have plenty of couples in their 20s," she said.
"The most important factor in fertility is a woman's age, but there's a whole lot of other things that go into it.
"For example, in almost 50 per cent of cases there can be some male factor, which I think people don't realise."
Additionally, in many cases, there is no clear cause for infertility, she said.
"There's a whole big category called idiopathic, which means we just don't know why something is happening," she said.
For people considering becoming parents, Dr Maxwell said her advice was to seek advice as soon as possible if something appeared to be of the norm.
"If people are not getting periods, or having very painful periods, or have any sort of known medical condition like family history of early menopause, then they should see a fertility specialist early on to make a fertility plan," she said.
"That may just mean doing some basic investigations, and making a plan going forward. It may be that they don't want to have children for 10 years, but it might mean having hormonal suppression for potential endometriosis.
"Or if something comes up, like a very low ovarian reserve, it may mean fast tracking their plans to have children or doing something like freezing eggs or embryos. It's never too early to think about it."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
