Friday morning plenary
Fertility Network UK update
Gwenda Burns, Chief Executive, FNUK
Gwenda Burns is Chief Executive of the patient charity Fertility Network UK – the only national charity in the UK, which supports anyone experiencing fertility issues, providing free and impartial support, advice, information and understanding.
Gwenda has been with Fertility Network UK for the past 13 years and is a strong advocate of emotional support and counselling for everyone struggling to conceive and beyond, her mission is to change the conversation and get more people talking about fertility issues and believes that access to NHS treatment should be fair and equitable to all and not depend on your postcode.
Surrogacy – who, what, how, where, when and why?
Dr Kirsty Horsey, Senior Research Associate, London Women’s Clinic, UK
Presentation learning objectives:
- Who is participating in surrogacy in the UK and why?
- How many are participating in surrogacy?
- What do they think about the current legal framework?
Dr Kirsty Horsey has a background in legal academia: she taught and researched law at the University of Kent, Canterbury, from 1998-2021. Her main field of research has always been on families created by assisted reproduction, particularly surrogacy, and the socio-legal implications of these family forms. Since around 2015, she has been heavily involved in campaigning for reform of the law on surrogacy and welcomes the input of the Law Commissions of England & Wales and the Scottish Law Commission in this area. Kirsty joined London Women’s Clinic in September 2021 as a Senior Research Associate, a new role created to carry out original socio-legal research on aspects of the work undertaken at LWC. Her first project looked at the surrogacy treatments undertaken at LWC and LEB clinics since 2014, including conducting surveys and interviews with surrogates and intended parents. The first paper from this study, looking at clinical outcomes and trends in LWC’s IVF surrogacy treatments over 8 years, was published in June 2022 in Reproductive Medicine Online.
Providing fertility health care as an employment benefit
Tammy Sun, CEO and Founder, Carrot Fertility, and former fertility patient
Tammy Sun is the Co-founder and CEO of Carrot Fertility, the leading global fertility healthcare company. Carrot’s mission is to make fertility care accessible and affordable to all regardless of age, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or geography.
Under Tammy’s leadership, Carrot has been honored by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies, recognized for its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a gold winner in the inaugural Anthem Awards, and named to Fierce Healthcare’s Fierce 15 list highlighting the most promising healthcare companies.
Prior to founding Carrot, Tammy had a successful career across marketing, technology, and politics. Most recently, she was the Director of Partnerships at Evernote. Prior to Evernote, she spent a decade in politics, where she served as a presidential appointee at the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama administration. She also held roles at the Clinton Foundation and The White House.