Dr Meenakshi Choudhary is a Senior Consultant in Reproductive Medicine at Newcastle Fertility Centre.
Biography
Dr Meenakshi Choudhary is a leading Clinician in Reproductive Medicine at the internationally renowned Newcastle Fertility Centre and clinical lead for the Newcastle Fertility Centre’s egg donor program.
She is also in charge of the new mitochondrial donor program for the world-first licensed treatment for mitochondrial replacement techniques.
Dr Choudhary is passionate about empowering women who volunteer to be donors and give a ‘gift of life’ to several women who suffer from infertility or deadly inheritable diseases. She believes in a ‘donor-centric’ approach keeping the best interests of the donors at heart without compromising the chance of a baby for the women needing these eggs.
Her clinical expertise and interests are in managing the challenges faced by patients in the field of fertility, early pregnancy loss and paediatric adolescent Gynaecology.
She is the clinical lead for the Paediatric and adolescent Gynaecology service and also oversees the NHS England specialist service commissioned congenital gynaecology anomaly service at Newcastle which is one of the 11 trusts in the country to offer this. She is the named gynaecologist for the multidisciplinary input in the regional Cloaca clinic.
She has numerous publications to her credit and is a global expert giving invited speaker talks at several international meetings. Her PhD research focussed on assessing factors that influence embryo donation and embryo development.
Creation, storage and use of embryos including research is subject to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Dr Choudhary oversees the ethical and regulatory aspects of the research program at Newcastle Fertility Centre as the named Person Responsible for research for the HFEA. She is also affiliated to Newcastle University and Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research.
She is also an elected member on the National Institute for Health Research and Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) Prioritisation Committee advising on development of research topics related to mental health, women and child health and has been co-applicants on several multicentre NIHR HTA funded RCTs.
She is the elected Secretary for the national executive committee of the British Society of Paediatric & Adolescent Gynaecology and also oversees their website, social media handle and patient information resources. She has also served on several national committees including the RCOG, Association of Early Pregnancy Units and British Fertility Society. She was appointed as a Trustee on the board of national UK Charity, Sperm, Egg, Embryo Donation (SEED) Trust.
Dr Choudhary has published a number of publications in the field of human reproduction and have received several awards, the latest being the Asian Women of Achievement Award 2020 Finalist.
Special Interests
Donation related:
- Egg Donation
- Embryo donation
- Mitochondrial donation
Fertility related:
- In vitro fertilisation (IVF)
- Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
- Elective egg freezing
- Frozen embryo treatment
- Pre pregnancy fertility advice
- Fertility preservation
- Surrogacy
- Reproductive surgery
- Implantation issues
Pregnancy loss related:
- Recurrent Miscarriage
- Three-dimensional ultrasound
Young person related
- Paediatric and Adolescent Gynae-endocrinology
- Complex congenital Gynae anomalies
- Future fertility advice
Engagement
- Reproductive Ethics
- Patient and Public Engagement
- Media engagement
Research
Dr Choudhary has been awarded a PhD from Newcastle University in the role of proteins in early human embryo development and embryonic stem cells. Following completion of PhD, Dr Choudhary has continued with her research theme of understanding and optimizing assisted conception practice and oversees several researches in the field of assisted reproductive technology (ART). Her key research interests cover reproductive ageing, recurrent pregnancy loss, improving ART outcomes, reproductive ethics and gamete donation.
Current collaborations address intervention strategies to improve IVF-based techniques and prevent inheritance of mitochondrial disease funded by Wellcome Trust.
Key research themes:
- Fertility research
- Ovarian ageing
- Egg and mitochondrial donation for research
- Recurrent miscarriage
- Genomics
