Robert Harrison - The Smart Guide to Infertility: Myths and Reality

The Author, Robbie Harrison, was brought up in Liverpool, qualifying in Medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Dublin in 1967. He trained in Obstetrics and Gynacology, firstly in Dublin at the Mater and Rotunda Hospitals, moving on in 1972 to Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospitals for Women and The Royal Postgraduate Medical School London University as Lecturer and Honorary Senior Registrar. His in-depth involvement in the management of infertility began then and has continued to the present day, some 37 years later.

Following his return to Dublin in 1976, initially as Consultant/Senior Lecturer at Trinity College and the Rotunda and then Associate Professor, he set up the first specific, couple-orientated, clinics in Ireland to provide modern management of infertility at the Rotunda and St Jamess Hospitals. This has included pioneering the various Assisted Reproduction Techniques as they have come on stream clinically, initially at Sir Patrick Dunns (1985) and St Jamess (1986) Hospitals, but from 1989 until his retirement from active practice in 2005, back at the Rotunda. It was here where he founded Human Assisted Reproduction Ireland (The HARI Unit) as well as being the Professor and Head of the RCSI Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The Rotunda/HARI Unit services are ongoing and continue to have a worldwide reputation for research, training and couple care and the Unit is the largest and leading provider of these services in the area of Human Reproduction in the Irish Republic.

During his time in Human Reproduction, as befits someone with a worldwide reputation earned through over 210 published peer review papers and 135 invited presentations, amongst honours gained he chaired the WHO Taskforce on Infertility from 1984 to 1988. He was given the Andres Bello First Class Award by the President of Venezuela in 1992 and he served as President of the International Federation of Fertility Societies 1998-2001. In 2008 he became the Irish Fertility Societys first Honorary Fellow.

The Contributor: Throughout this time until her death in January 2008, Robbies constant companion, muse and mentor was his wife Caroline. Mother to their four children, she was initially a fashion designer, then a social worker and Trinity College Lecturer in Social Studies, becoming latterly the sex and relationship psychotherapist to the Rotunda and HARI unit. She was also a member of the Irish Government Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction (2000-05) and had been steadily gaining recognition as an artist of promise. Now, sadly, written about here posthumously, she is the only other direct contributor to this book. Despite her sudden illness, her qualifications and skills made her the obvious choice to provide the illustrations and the text of the section on physical coital problems and sexual dysfunctions.

This book was written in 2007-8 in the terrible time during the Authors wifes fatal illness with ovarian cancer. It draws foremost upon his experience as a clinician practising daily in the field for over 37 years, but also his knowledge as a teacher, personal researcher and evaluator of the work of others.

He has put together a volume that covers exclusively and comprehensively infertility management as it is today. It is designed principally for those who are wondering if they are infertile. It provides basic facts, personal comments and guidance, but throughout, a greater depth of information is also provided than is perhaps usual in such books as it is this sort of knowledge that, in the Authors experience, the discerning infertile couple of today will demand.