Scotland’s first IVF unit: ‘I’ve helped bring over 10,000 babies into the world’

Phillip Milne is an embryologist who creates the embryos that are then transferred into patients’ wombs before hopefully developing into a pregnancy.

It’s also his job to update patients on how their embryos are progressing within the lab at Ninewells.

He told BBC Scotland News: “We have good times, and we have bad times when we speak to patients.

“You have to take the rough with the smooth sometimes and it can be very difficult speaking to patients when things aren’t going well. You can get quite emotional with patients, you do feel quite responsible for what you do.

“Even though the embryo quality is out of your hands, if things are not going well then it can really impact how you feel that day. You want to do the best for the patients.”

Inside the Dundee lab, around 7,000 embryos are currently held in a freezer tank filled with liquid nitrogen at a temperature of –190C. These embryos may be used for further treatment and can be stored safely for up to 55 years in the UK.

Technology is constantly developing, and the Assisted Conception Unit is now trialing AI to help them identify eggs that are suitable for fertilisation once they have been collected.

Advances in technology means pregnancy rates have improved significantly in recent years.

Phillip said: “We often have patients coming in with babies, I have so many pictures of me with babies.

“It’s really nice to see them start as a single cell and then see them fully grown.”