DONATE EGGS

Dr. Miguel Ángel Checa

Specialist in Obstetrics/Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine. Head of the Human Reproduction Section, Hospital Del Mar, and Director of the International Master in Reproductive Medicine (UAB-UPF).

Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan

Dr. Checa is also a professor at Pompeu Fabra University and Coordinator of the International Master in Reproductive Medicine (UAB-UPF), where he teaches assisted reproduction to the next generations of doctors, to specialists of different nationalities, training them not only as doctors but also as global researchers to better assist their patients.

Dr. Checa has contributed to the improvement of reproductive medicine by writing multiple international scientific articles followed by the entire scientific community, medical books, and giving lectures, in Catalonia, Spain, Europe, Asia, USA and Latin America. He has lectured to scientific societies such as the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. His advances in human reproduction have been reported in the media such as La Vanguardia, El Pais, El Mundo and The Wall Street Journal.

He has written more than 35 chapters in books on Reproductive Medicine and has edited 8 books in this discipline. He has published more than 100 scientific articles in specialised journals and since 1998 he has presented the results of his research at the most prestigious congresses around the world. He has had the honour of being invited to lecture at the most important societies of reproductive medicine In Europe and America.

Dr. Checa graduated as a medical doctor from Barcelona University (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona UAB) and in 2003 he obtained his doctorate Cum Laude. He has been a member of the gynaecological endocrinology group of the Catalan Fertility Society since its foundation. He is the coordinator of the Barcelona Research Infertility Group (recognised by the Generalitat de Catalunya as a researcher in Reproductive Medicine). He has spent time at prestigious universities such as the University of California San Diego with Jeffrey Chang. His scientific articles have had a great impact on reproductive medicine, changing established concepts such as the ‘freeze all’ policy that is currently being adapted by many centres around the world.

DISCOVER MORE

Answering would be very long…. It all started when I witnessed a child delivery during my medical studies, that feeling of helping with something so important and positive was a strongly motivating energy. Nowadays, the joy you see in a couple when you finally give them a positive result is much greater than when I was attending a delivery and the second greatest joy is what I call ‘repeaters’, those couples who suddenly reappear in the consulting room with a 2 or 3 year old child, saying that they are coming for a little brother or sister, seeing those children in those families who have wanted them so much and who are already talking to you makes me continue to do reproductive medicine.

Because I can work with the highest technology to have good results with a spectacular laboratory, but I do not lose contact with patients because I can personalise my work and make our gestation rates increase. I would not like to feel like I am just one more name on a big list, at such a crucial moment. Working like this is fantastic, I don’t have any limitations.

My mission is to put all the knowledge I have accumulated over so many years at the service of the patients and to give them the emotional support I have learned during this time after treating many couples. I am always 100% honest and I explain all the different diagnostic and treatment options I know and I usually end up agreeing with the couple on the best treatment for them. None of my couples are sick, they just want to have a child, so they are also important in the decision.

The strength of some patients is incredible, they have a perseverance that reminds me of marathon runners or long-distance cyclists and swimmers. When they leave with a positive result and it has cost them a lot, I always say to them ‘in reproduction, she who pursues it, gets it’. My biggest heroines at the moment are the patients who have suffered from cancer and whose eggs I have preserved, who have subsequently overcome it and come back to continue their lives and have a child.

I try to squeeze my free time to spend as much time as possible with my loved ones: my children, planning all kinds of outdoor activities; my parents, to whom I owe being who I am; my friends, with whom I have shared joys and sorrows, and my girlfriend, with whom I feel alive again and with whom I can practice all the sports I like such as cycling and wingfoil.

I am a person with a pronounced epimeletic profile. Extroverted and eloquent, I enjoy personal relationships.

Both professionally and personally, I like to set myself challenges and achieve them. I also enjoy motivating and helping others to achieve their own goals.