NHS Lothian

I'm a psychosexual therapist.

I work over two health boards and I'm the clinical lead of the psychosexual team in NHS Lothian.

I've also run a pilot group with Maggie's in Forth Valley for an intimacy group, one for males, one for females and one for couples, which went quite well.

And I'm also working with Kirsten on embedding sexual health and wellbeing into clinical practice within NHS Scotland.

We have one minute left, so I'm just going to wrap up quickly so that I can introduce actually what our next webinar is going to be as well and tease it.

So our next webinar is taking place on the 3rd of December and we'll be hosting... and Ask the Expert session featuring Dr. Rowley McGaw, who is a clinical lecturer and honorary consultant ophthalmologist at the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian.

Many of you might be familiar with Dr. McGaw from a previous webinar we've done, and he's also been involved in hereditary retinal disease research.

Most recently, a Retina UK-supported research at the University of Edinburgh led by PhD student Chloe Brotherton.

Medical specialists in Scotland have performed the United Kingdom's first testicular tissue retransplant on a nineteen-year-old patient, marking a major clinical milestone in male fertility preservation.

Surgeons at NHS Lothian and researchers from the University of Edinburgh reimplanted previously frozen testicular tissue into the young man in August 2026, three years after the tissue was harvested prior to him undergoing gonadotoxic chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant for a severe blood disorder.

The landmark operation represents only the second procedure of its kind ever reported worldwide, offering long-awaited clinical proof of concept for preserving future paternity among boys whose treatments for cancer or serious medical conditions risk permanent infertility.

The procedure addresses a major medical challenge facing young male patients as prepubertal boys and teenagers facing aggressive chemotherapy or radiation therapy cannot produce mature sperm for conventional banking prior to medical treatment.

With plans to biopsy a portion of the transplanted tissue eight months post-surgery for detailed microscopic evaluation, the success of the procedure carries far-reaching implications for pediatric oncology and reproductive medicine across the globe.

University of Edinburgh researchers report that more than one thousand two hundred young patients in the United Kingdom and over three thousand one hundred worldwide have already had testicular tissue harvested and stored in cryopreservation banks ahead of potentially sterilizing treatments.

Healthcare leaders at NHS Lothian described the operation as a transformative advance, emphasizing that as pediatric survival rates continue to improve, restoring adult fertility options remains essential to ensuring long-term quality of life for childhood cancer survivors.