Bring To Bear

With the rise of fertility issues among couples these days, gynaecologist Dr Helena Lim works to solve the problem to the best of her abilities. She relays to Kathlyn D’Souza how the people whose lives she has changed, end up touching hers too.

- Kathlyn D’Souza

NOW HERE’S a person who really loves her job. Like a luminous ray of hope, Dr Helena Lim helps to provide a solution for the problems her patients face. However, she refuses to see it that way, and likens herself to a coach, or team member, rather. “When they come to see me, we all establish that we have a common goal, or a mission to accomplish—which is to help them conceive,” she said. “I look upon a patient’s success as our victory and similarly, their defeats are mine too.”

She then shared an incredible story of one of her patients. “There was this one lady, who after 10 years of infertility, and having been told by five doctors that she will never get pregnant, finally gave birth to a child after fertility treatment. She thanked me profusely and told me that I have changed her life completely,” Dr Lim relayed. “She told me that she was discriminated by her husband’s and her own family for being infertile, and was shunned at family events such as weddings, baby showers, birthdays and so forth for many years. It broke my heart when I heard this. I never realised that infertility can have such a severe and damaging impact on a woman’s life.”