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WORK TITLE: Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Denver
STATE: CO
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married Richard Katkin; children: two
EDUCATION:Yale University, B.A.; Columbia’s Law School and School of International and Public Affairs, J.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Lawyer. Worked formerly as a partner at a large international law firm for fifteen years.
AVOCATIONS:Skiing, swimming, cycling, traveling, and spending time with family.
MEMBER:Board of Trustees of Colorado Ballet, co-chair.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Elizabeth Katkin is a writer and lawyer. She attended Yale University and received her J.D. from Columbia’s Law School and School of International and Public Affairs. She has lived in London, Moscow, and the United Arab Emirates. Katkin worked as a partner at a large international law firm for fifteen years before she redirected her focus to reproductive medicine. This decision was a result of her own struggles with fertility. Katkin met with doctors in six countries and investigated state-of-the-art western practices as well as ancient eastern and traditional approaches to fertility. Following 10 cycles of IVF, Katkin had two successful pregnancies. She, her husband, and their two children live in Denver, Colorado.
Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility is Katkin’s first book. Conceivability details Katkin’s struggles with infertility and her journey educating herself about reproductive practices around the world. Katkin always knew she wanted to have children, she just wanted to be sure she had them when the time was right. For years she had used contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, a fact that now causes her to laugh.
When she and her husband were finally ready to have children, she was surprised when she did not get pregnant immediately. Following a miscarriage, Katkin understood that fertility may not come easily to her. Her journey to have children spanned ten years, in which she saw countless specialists, tried costly medical procedures, and contemplated other options to parenthood. She and her husband ultimately spent $200,000 on treatments, sought out help in six countries with numerous physicians, and dealt with the emotional turmoil of seven miscarriages.
While detailing her own journey, Katkin provides readers with information she learned in those ten years. She explains how IVF works and gives an in depth explanation of the way the female body responds to a pregnancy. The medical sections of the book include excerpts about hormone shots, the ways in which a healthy uterus maintains an embryo, and the effectiveness of acupuncture and Chinese medicine in correspondence with IVF. Katkin addresses the failure of the American medical system when it comes to infertility issues, and compares the U.S. with doctors, medical regulations, and traditions around the world.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described it as “a well-researched, informative, and positive account of a very long journey to motherhood,” while a contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote, “Katkin’s lawyerly thoroughness has resulted in an invaluable and inspiring text that will be a boon to others navigating the deep and ‘choppy waters’ of fertility treatment.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2018, review of Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility.
Publishers Weekly, April 16, 2018, review of Conceivability, p. 88.
Elizabeth Katkin, a lawyer and mother of two, is a former partner at a large international law firm. A graduate of Yale University and Columbia’s Law School and School of International and Public Affairs, she lives with her husband, Richard, and their children in Denver, Colorado. Conceivability is her first book.
Elizabeth (Liz) Katkin, is an accidental fertility expert. A lawyer and mother of two, Liz was in private practice for over 15 years, until her struggles to have children led her down an entirely new path. Her unexpected difficulties plunged her into the then-unknown world of reproductive medicine, leading her to explore every conceivable (and inconceivable) route to having a baby.
Her legal career, fortunately, took her to live and work in London, Moscow, and the United Arab Emirates, with frequent trips to Switzerland, Germany, and South America, exposing her to different approaches to fertility around the globe. Armed with years of practice in the international arena and a global network of supportive friends and colleagues, she undertook the massive and multi-faceted research project involved in having a baby. She saw doctors in six countries, and educated herself on state-of-the-art western practices as well as ancient eastern and traditional approaches to fertility challenges.
Having successfully navigated her way to having her own two children, Liz has a passion for sharing what she has learned with others. When she is not talking about fertility with hopeful parents, she is often working with nonprofits, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Colorado Ballet.
In her spare time, she enjoys skiing, swimming, cycling, traveling, and spending time with her family.
A graduate of Yale University and Columbia's Law School and School of International and Public Affairs, she lives with her husband, Richard, and their children in Denver, Colorado. Conceivability is her first book.
ELIZABETH KATKIN , a lawyer and mother of two, is a former partner at a large international law firm. A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School and School of International and Public Affairs, she lives with her husband, Richard, and their “inconceivable” children in Denver. Conceivability is her first book.
What your doctor isn’t telling you about IVF — but should
By Jane Ridley
June 27, 2018 | 8:29pm
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Richard and Elizabeth Katkin spent $200,000 on 10 cycles of IVF to have their two children, William, 8, and Alexandra, 11.
Kimberly Benfield
Smiling for the camera, Elizabeth Katkin, her husband, Richard, and their two kids look picture-perfect. But it took the Katkins nine years, seven miscarriages, a total of 10 in vitro fertilization cycles, five natural pregnancies, four IVF pregnancies, 10 doctors, one surrogate mother and roughly $200,000 to create their beautiful family.
“I look back on the years when I took contraception to avoid getting pregnant and laugh,” Elizabeth says.
Her epic voyage to motherhood led the Yale- and Columbia-educated lawyer to pen the new book, “Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility” (Simon & Schuster).
“We had so many bad things happen to us, but a little bit of luck, too,” says the Denver resident.
‘I look back on the years when I took contraception to avoid getting pregnant and laugh.’
Daughter Alexandra, now 11, was conceived and carried to term by working with a top fertility specialist, New York-based Dr. Joel Batzofin, and using a British surrogate whom the Katkins had met when they lived in England.
Three years later, William, now 8, was born via the same surrogate after Katkin’s 10th round of IVF, this time performed in Russia using low-dosage drugs.
On a friend’s recommendation, they’d gone to a specialist in Moscow who had a different approach than American doctors and believed that all of the fertility drugs she had taken had harmed her eggs. Thanks to acupuncture, good nutrition and traditional Chinese medicine, Katkin believes she improved the quality of her eggs, allowing William to be conceived.
“We are so incredibly fortunate to have two beautiful, healthy children,” says Katkin.
Here, she shares her advice on five things your fertility doctor might not be telling you.
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Getty Images
You can improve your egg quality with alternative medicine
Women are often told that they only have the number of eggs that they were born with and the doctor will just do the best they can with what’s there, Katkin says. In fact, anecdotally and according to small studies, acupuncture, fertility yoga and Chinese herbs can be helpful. In her book, Katkin quotes renowned endocrinologist Dr. Jamie Grifo, of NYU Langone, who notes that, while acupuncture is “not a panacea,” it does “improve pregnancy rates and quality of life in some people.” Other beneficial effects can be derived from taking supplements, such as vitamins B6 and B12 and omega-3.
Carrying multiples is risky
Most European countries recognize the risks of multiple pregnancies and, during IVF, limit the number of embryos that can be transferred to two. Not so in the US, where there is neither state nor federal regulation. In 2017, nearly 4 in 10 infants conceived through IVF in the US were twins, which Katkin sees as troubling.
“[The mother] faces a higher risk of high blood pressure, preeclampsia, anemia, postpartum hemorrhaging and [early] menopause, while the babies have a heightened threat of cerebral palsy, blindness, retardation and pre-term births,” she says. “I understand parents are desperate and really want babies, but . . . there is [this] risk.”
Drugs are over-prescribed
Since it was FDA-approved in 1967, clomiphene citrate has become the go-to drug for assisting a woman’s body with ovulation because it tricks the body into releasing one or more eggs. But Katkin claims that, partly because of its affordability, it is over-prescribed and given in larger doses than necessary. Its effectiveness may also be overstated. “The pregnancy rates of approximately 10 percent per cycle are underwhelming and have varied little over time,” she says. (A 2015 study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that clomiphene citrate achieved a live birth rate of 23 percent across four cycles.) There are also conflicting results in studies examining potential links to cancer, increased incidence of miscarriage and birth defects.
There are often more options to consider
Many clinics have failed to move with the times and they transfer embryos to the uterus too early, Katkin believes. Five-day-old blastocysts have a much better chance of achieving pregnancy than a 2-day-old embryo. “It ranges from two to three times the success rate,” says Katkin. “And in women over 40, it can be a 10-fold increase.” It also pays to use a clinic that employs preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which screens for embryo abnormalities ahead of transfer and thus reduces the risk of miscarriage. “I’m not saying that you have to become a scientist, but you need to ask your doctor basic questions about protocols like this,” says Katkin. She is also a proponent of mini IVF (where fewer hormones are used and fewer eggs harvested) and even natural IVF — a process pioneered in Japan more than 20 years ago that involves removing an egg in an unstimulated cycle. “There are options. And it is important to ask about them.”
Not all embryo storage is safe
More than a thousand patients who used either University Hospital’s Fertility Center in Cleveland or Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco learned the worst in March 2018. Both centers informed clients that their embryos or eggs may have been destroyed as a result of storage tank failures that coincidentally occurred on the same day. “You have to ask how this could happen,” Katkin insists. “Make sure you know that a clinic’s methods and types of storage are as fail-safe as possible and what their records are on that.” Don’t feel intimidated by the doctors’ superior expertise or pushy sales pitch. “Apply the same philosophy to all your interactions with fertility specialists,” adds Katkin. “You are your best advocate.”
'Conceivability' Follows One Woman's Journey Through The Global Fertility Industry
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"Conceivability," by Elizabeth Katkin. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
When Elizabeth Katkin and her husband decided to have children, it took nine years and involved multiple miscarriages and in vitro fertilization treatments. They eventually had two healthy children, but Katkin's experience inspired her new book.
Katkin (@LizKatkin_books) joins Here & Now's Femi Oke to talk about "Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility."
Interview Highlights
On her efforts to become pregnant
"I definitely didn't start out as a person who felt like, 'Oh I have to have a baby no matter what.' Part of what happened to me is that I did get pregnant, and things kept going wrong. And it was a little bit like a dog with a bone. I mean it was a science project for me: No one could explain why I couldn't get pregnant easily. And more than that, no one could explain why I kept miscarrying. So each time I would get pregnant, and then I would miscarry, I would think, 'Well I just got pregnant, I can do it again.' And I just sort of kept trying, it was like a hamster in a Habitrail, and you can't get out."
"No one could explain why I couldn't get pregnant easily. And more than that, no one could explain why I kept miscarrying." Elizabeth Katkin
On how difficult the journey was
"Wow, let's see. It's quite a list. I had seven miscarriages. I did [in vitro fertilization] 10 times — that was eight fresh IVF cycles and two frozen. I had five natural pregnancies, so natural was without assistance at all, four IVF pregnancies. I saw 10 doctors — four of whom insisted I give up trying — in six countries. I worked with two potential surrogates. It took us nine years. My husband and I spent close to $200,000."
On financial tips for couples trying to have a baby
"One which I didn't learn until very late in the process was that a lot of insurance that won't cover IVF or reproductive procedures will actually cover the tests that will help you figure out what's wrong, and those tests themselves can be very expensive. So one woman, for example, Rose, who I interviewed — who'd spent loads of money and had gone through three cycles, and she'd spent about $70,000 and still didn't know her problems — learned that having her regular OB-GYN order diagnostic tests was fully covered by her insurance, while those exact same tests were denied with a fertility clinic, because if it was seen as fertility, it wasn't treated, but if it was seen as diagnosing a gynalogical problem, that was covered. So really simple tricks like that, like getting as many tests covered by insurance as you can.
"Or if you work in the right sector, switching jobs. I spoke extensively with a woman named Rachel who's in IT, and she figured out that if she got a job at Apple, all of her infertility would be covered. So she switched companies and picked up insurance.
"And traveling — traveling is a big one, whether that's U.S. or domestic. I spoke with a couple who were from Boston originally, but had their entire professional lives been outside of Massachusetts, and they decided to move back home to Massachusetts where their IVF would be covered. And they have a healthy daughter now. And similarly, traveling to places like Spain, Prague, Russia — there's a host of countries with fabulous IVF programs with very high success rates and much lower costs."
"A lot of problems are solvable, but it takes a lot of thought and brainpower to get to the right solution. And you have to be a proactive part of your own care." Elizabeth Katkin
On health tips she learned along the way
"Rest is important, nutrition's important, getting the right vitamins is important. I mean there's loads of research now that shows that certain B vitamins — B6 and 12 and omega-3 and CoQ10 — they have really important impacts on egg development and egg quality, and egg quality is something I think we really don't focus on enough in this country. That's probably the single most important element I learned in all of my travels to all of these countries, was how much other countries are focused on the quality of eggs over the quantity, and in the U.S. for the most part, many of the doctors and clinics I encountered are focused on the quantity. I think in the U.S. in general, with everything, more is better. But with fertility, is more really better? It only takes one egg to get pregnant.
"And so getting the healthiest egg possible is a really key part of the process, and that can be things like food, eliminating plastics with BPA, we've all heard a lot about how BPA is bad. And also really talking to your doctor about the level of hormones, that was my probably single most shocking moment in the fertility journey, was to learn that a lot of the high levels of hormones I'd been injecting through rounds and rounds of IVF may have actually been damaging my eggs, which explain in part why I kept getting pregnant and kept losing them."
On what she would say to a couple having trouble getting pregnant
"I would tell them that the most important thing is to really take control of the situation. Knowledge is power. And what I found in my own experience — and I interviewed dozens and dozens of women and couples, and gay and straight couples — is that most people who are successful had an aha moment, this moment where they realize that they can't just be funneled through the system and they have to take charge. It's asking the right questions, and not being afraid to keep asking questions until you understand the answers: 'What exactly is my problem? Why do you think this protocol is going to work for me.' That sounds quite simple, but really forcing the doctor to look at you and not pick one or two protocols off the shelf. A lot of problems are solvable, but it takes a lot of thought and brainpower to get to the right solution. And you have to be a proactive part of your own care."
Katkin, Elizabeth L.: CONCEIVABILITY
Kirkus Reviews. (Apr. 1, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Katkin, Elizabeth L. CONCEIVABILITY Simon & Schuster (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 6, 19 ISBN: 978-1-5011-4236-9
A chronicle of the great lengths one woman went through to conceive and birth two children.
Denver-based lawyer Katkin was sure she wanted children. Like many women, she assumed it was much harder to avoid pregnancy than to become pregnant. However, after her first miscarriage, she began to realize that becoming a mother wasn't as easy as she originally thought--but she wasn't going to give up. As the years progressed--years filled with more miscarriages, hormone injections, in vitro fertilizations, and so many doctors' appointments that she lost track--her determination to have children only grew stronger. In her debut memoir, the author shares the various methods she and her husband used to finally have two healthy children in their lives. She thoroughly examines the medical side of her treatments, giving readers an in-depth accounting of hormone shots, the way the female body functions pre/during/and post pregnancy, the role a healthy uterus plays in keeping an embryo viable, and the effectiveness of acupuncture and Chinese medicine alongside IVF. Katkin discusses the inadequacies found in the United States when it comes to helping women deal with infertility issues and how patients become consumers, "shopping" for the best clinic when there are few standards, lax regulations, and almost no data on success rates to help patients make informed decisions. She shows how other countries around the world have far better information and rates of success than the U.S., which will lead some readers to question if they should look outside the U.S. for help with similar matters. Katkin also incorporates the stories of other couples, giving a wide-angle look at the pros and cons of medical intervention, the use of surrogate mothers, and the extreme measures many will go to in order to have a baby.
A well-researched, informative, and positive account of a very long journey to motherhood.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Katkin, Elizabeth L.: CONCEIVABILITY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700387/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e2d5c310. Accessed 25 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532700387
Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility
Publishers Weekly. 265.16 (Apr. 16, 2018): p88.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility
Elizabeth L Katkin. Simon & Schuster, $36
(304p) ISBN 978-1-5011-4236-9
Lawyer and debut author Katkin shares her trying experiences with fertility treatment in this in-depth memoir of her obstacle-ridden journey to motherhood. "Driven to share" the information she collected, Katkin takes readers on a relentless, 10-year quest to conceive two children; in the process, she spends $200,000, weathers seven miscarriages, and visits six countries and numerous physicians. Katkin interweaves research with her personal struggles; while her writing is replete with technical terms ("most IVF protocols rely on an injection of HCG 36 hours prior to egg collection"), she personalizes her research with anecdotes, such as the birthday she spent flying to Moscow for timely egg retrieval. Katkin perceptively explores the emotional pain of miscarriage and shares her feelings about adoption (which she and her husband considered) and surrogacy (their eventual choice.) Her story reveals the importance of becoming a savvy, educated consumer, questioning fertility protocols, and investigating different options. She also examines the ethical questions surrounding egg and sperm donation, and helps readers unpack confusing and sometimes conflicting laws. Katkin's lawyerly thoroughness has resulted in an invaluable and inspiring text that will be a boon to others navigating the deep and "choppy waters" of fertility treatment. Agent: Gillian MacKenzie, MacKenzie Wolf. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Conceivability: What I Learned Exploring the Frontiers of Fertility." Publishers Weekly, 16 Apr. 2018, p. 88. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532775/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=eb632723. Accessed 25 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532775