The IVF Pioneer Who Says His Own Industry Is Lying - Professor Robert Winston
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What is Professor Robert Winston’s background and how did he become a pioneer in IVF?
Well the fact of the matter is we as a professional, I'm not telling the truth, I'm very disappointed. We all agreed that a lot of people needed this and we were not gonna charge private money. Unfortunately, it became massive industry. The truth is that a vast amount of in vitro fertilization is unnecessary. It fails, but then a few months later somebody gets pregnant spontaneously. After six attempts at in vitro fertilization, only thirty four percent of patients have a baby after six attempts. Now that's never said anywhere.
How long do you think it's going to be, Robert, before, you know, people walk into a clinic and they're given the menu and say, look, we can dial this up, this particular gene up, you can dial this gene down. And even just go, Well, you know what, we've got two girls, we'd really like a boy, I want a son.
That's already happening. We're not saying it's happening, but I'm sure it is happening.
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Professor Robert Winston, what a pleasure it is for us to have you on the show. Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
Oh, it's great to have you. Uh lots to talk about. We really want to talk about science and medicine and particularly in the era of fertility and maybe a little bit uh more. But before we get into that, can you tell because I think it's important for people to understand your expertise, uh, a little bit about your medical career. Uh, you're a pioneer of several things as part of IVF. Uh can you tell us a little bit about your experience and and your life in medicine? And and particularly Sarah?
I mean going into medicine was a complete mistake. I didn't expect to do that. I mean I was I mean I had a bad time at school and I think it's partly because my father died when I was eight and I missed that male figure in a very male society which I was in. uh because I was in um one of these elite um schools and my mother had no money because she'd um you know sh she was su supporting three children and I was the oldest. And I got a scholarship which was very helpful. Um but I always had this odd feeling that, you know, I was gonna die at the age of forty two because that's what my father did. And therefore, you know, why Why bother to try? And I wasn't academically inadequate, but I stopped scoring.
during my time at school. So by the time I mean G C S Equivalently O levels are all right, but I don't wanna bore you with all this stuff. But when it came to A level, I really performed very badly in the mock A levels. And my school said, well he's never going to university and just sort of pretty well wrote me off, actually, which was quite common in those sorts of schools. And so I left school actually with quite good A levels, 'cause I suddenly realised I had to work. Um and But with no clear idea what I wanted to do. I had a place at Cambridge, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to do natural sciences. And I thought actually medicine's so glam glamorous, you know. It and it was that was it was th they're ins very interesting people.
It was nothing to do with what you'd now ask a medical student. And I think it's very important that we understand that it's really useful for young young people not to know where they're going, not to not to be too concerned about, you know, the the usual channels to get into a particular place, and to remember that if you're sensible you're gonna change direction again and again anyway. And I think I've done that a bit. And so I mean during school and then later on, because I wasn't doing my academic work very well, I got really involved with theatre and I decided I really wanted to do theatre. In fact at university I produced plays and ended up doing a play of the professor which did incredibly well m commercially.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Professor Robert Winston’s background and how did he become a pioneer in IVF?
0:02–10:05
2
How does Winston describe the current IVF industry and its impact on patients?
10:05–21:54
3
What are the real success rates of IVF and why are they often misrepresented?
21:54–35:21
4
How does age affect egg quality and what are the realities of egg‑freezing?
35:21–44:21
5
What is epigenetics and how might IVF procedures influence long‑term health?
44:21–57:26
6
Why is male fertility under‑researched and what could improve outcomes?
57:26–1:24:19
7
What ethical issues surround designer babies, sex selection and genetic editing?
1:24:19–1:32:04
8
What does Winston think is the biggest societal problem we’re ignoring today?
1:32:04–1:34:47
Speakers
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