“We IVF doctors are not Gods, we are merely partners on the path to helping women have babies.” – Dr Gavin Sacks.
Dr Gavin Sacks is one of those rare breeds of professionals – highly qualified, humble and genuinely caring.
He’s the type of doctor I wish I’d met when I started IVF years ago.
When we do meet in a coffee shop in Bondi Junction downstairs from his clinic, we are cheerfully interrupted by two of his former patients who stop to shake his hand and update him on the progress of their healthy ‘Dr Sacks’ babies.
As a father of three Gavin knows the struggle to start a family doesn’t stop after conception. He is one of the few IVF specialists to guide his patients all the way through their pregnancies and deliver their babies as well.
“For women who’ve had repeated miscarriages, pregnancy is particularly stressful. It’s reassuring for them to have weekly scans to see the baby’s heartbeat,” he says. “ I’ll go beyond the normal protocols and guidelines, if it helps my patient.”
Unlike some reproductive specialsts, Dr Sacks will never send a patient away after three failed attempts at IVF. He believes in hanging in for the long haul.
Consequently, Dr Sacks sees many of the so-called end-of-the-road patients.
His internationally recognised research into miscarriages and immunology, in particular ‘natural killer cells,’ has led to innovative treatments such as the Bondi protocol, whereby the patient is given prednisolone and blood thinners.
The success rates are promising and Dr Sacks continues to probe into the complexities of infertility, with no less than six research projects on the go.
But it’s not just women who’ve had multiple miscarriages who seek his expertise. Many are drawn to his openness to working with different specialists and trying other options. Not only does he work closely with an acupuncturist to give patients extra support, he invites rabbis to oversee the treatment to ensure so-called ‘kosher IVF’ for his Jewish clients.
However while Gavin may be flexible in his thinking, he is definitely systematic and rigorous in his research and testing.
“I do more tests on my patients – both men and women – than most other reproductive specialists,” he says. “ I don’t believe in the scattergun approach, I want our intervention to be targeted as accurately as possible.”
He might not like it, but many parents these days, thank God for Dr Sacks.