Dr.Thanuja Perera Wimalananda A fairy godmother for the childless

6 May 2015 10:52 am By Shihara Maduwage

Giving the gift of motherhood to hundreds of women 

Most women dream of being mothers one day. However, for some unfortunate women, it can be difficult to achieve their dream. Not being able to become a mother can be a hard experience for these women. There is pressure from the home-front, especially from parents and in-laws who cannot wait to be grandparents. There is also a societal stigma where a woman unable to become a mother is viewed as something less of a woman. For women going through such a hard time, Dr.Thanuja Perera is a fairy godmother, a heaven-sent. As an Embryologist, Thanuja has specialised in the field of blessing women without babies with what they want the most in life: motherhood. An embryologist is a scientist who works with sperm, eggs, and embryos. Her work includes helping the process of fertilisation by aiding the sperm and egg unite. So, an embryologist in an in vitro fertilization program (IVF) plays a vital role in the journey to pregnancy for a couple struggling with infertility. This is more commonly known as “test tube babies.” Thanuja says that early in her life she was not aware of the field of embryology. She had two dreams. One was to study about infectious diseases or medical microbiology.Her other dream was to have 10 children! However, now she has helped hundreds of couples become parents, in a sense giving life to not just 10 but hundreds of babies! In this context, who could be more perfect for LW’s Mother’s Day Issue than Dr.Thanuja Perera? During a chat we had with energetic and multi-faceted Thanuja, she told us about the many aspects of her life including family, career and hobbies.

Focused student: Dreaming big, aiming high

I come from a very close knit family. My dad is a businessman and my mum a housewife but was also involved in supporting my dad with his business. I have a younger brother and we share a very close relationship. I studied at Ladies’ College Colombo. Whilst at school I was involved in various extracurricular activities and most of my time was dedicated to these. I was in the school choir, debating team, English and Sinhala drama, band etc and was also a school prefect. I was always keen on my studies but looking back I feel I enjoyed the extra activities even more. After my GCE A/L I gained entrance to the North Colombo Medical Faculty. Medical Microbiology was the subject that fascinated me.  However at the time our universities were not offering this degree and my plan was to study Medicine and specialise in Microbiology/Pathology. A few months after entering the Medical school the universities shut down for a prolonged period of time. During this time my parents were getting quite anxious and decided to send me to UK for higher studies. In UK I gained a BSc. Honours in Microbiology. Shortly, thereafter I was awarded a full scholarship by the Medical Research Council to study for a PhD under Prof. Neil Gow a world renowned fungal biologist. He headed the largest Medical Mycology group in UK. . My PhD was on the most common human fungal pathogen Candida albicans commonly known to cause ‘Thrush’. On completing my PhD I was offered the opportunity to continue with a project in Collaboration with Jansen Pharmaceuticals as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow. By this time I had stayed out of the country for eight years and felt ready to come back. On my return, I got the chance to work with the Late Prof. Manthri Ramasamy on a Malaria research project at the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Kandy. It was around this time that two of my cousins were undergoing fertility treatment. One succeeded with IVF and the other didn’t. As a person who is immensely fond of babies I found it extremely distressing to watch their struggle. This was when my interest in the field of fertility developed. At the time,in SriLanka there was only one centre which was offering fertility treatment. There weren’t any qualified Embryologists in SriLanka and as a result they sort assistance from foreign experts to perform the procedures.  Around the time that I was researching into a career in Embryology I was astonished to receive a call by Dr. Rohana Haththotuwa who was part of the first and only IVF team in Sri Lanka. He was to start his own state of the art fertility hospital and was on the lookout for a medical scientist who was interested in training up as an Embryologist. Well, it was like a God send! I didn’t have to think twice about it, I knew that this was the career I wanted to pursue. My Embryology training was with Prof. Ariff Bongso, a pioneer in the field of ART in South East Asia, at the National University Hospital in Singapore. I gained a Masters in Clinical Embryology from the National University of Singapore.

Family first: Devoted wife, loving mother

Whilst studying in the UK, once I was in Colombo on holiday. My friend Shamara Herath  invited me for her dad’s (late Hon. Harold Herath) 60th birthday party; that is where I first met my husband Janaka Wimalananda. It was a long distance relationship for a considerable period of time. So this was the reason I decided to come back to SriLanka. We have three children; two girls and a boy. Siara the eldest who is 12 years, Akash our son who is 10 years and Enara the youngest who is 8 years. The children and I have been living in the UK since 2009 while Janaka shuttles between the two countries. Janaka is a man with a big heart and big dreams with a very clear vision of the future! He is the founder and owner of Loon Tao and Tsing Tao restaurants.  Loon Tao is situated on the Mount Lavinia Beach while Tsing Tao is located at Colombo Racecourse Promenade. He is very passionate about his work and his innovative vision, attention to detail and commitment is the success of each of his projects. At the moment he is working very hard on his latest 2 projects. I will not let anything out just yet but I can guarantee that Colombo can look forward to another great experience in dining and entertainment!

Work in Sri Lanka

After completing my Masters in Clinical Embryology I joined Dr Rohana Haththotuwa and his team at Ninewells Care Mother and Baby Hospital. I was instrumental in setting up the laboratory facilities there. It was a wonderful experience being part of starting the whole facility and very rewarding to watch it flourish with success. Unlike many other IVF centres, at Ninewells we got the opportunity to follow the patient from the initial investigations through to their fertility treatment, their delivery and subsequently to observe the babies when they came for their follow up appointments with their paediatricians. So there it was: my dream career! My childhood dream was to have 10 babies but now I feel that I have hundreds of them!!!

A day in the life of Thanuja

I wake up at 5.45 am and whilst in bed meditate for 5 minutes, and then in my head I go through the schedule for the day. My first task is to get the breakfast and the packed lunches ready before waking the children. Every morning I make it a point to go to each of them and hug them until they wake up and remind them of any important events that they may have for the day. The children then go down to have their breakfast while I get ready. I leave home by 7.30am. Akash and Enara walk or cycle to school with the childminder or Janaka when he is here. Siara is in secondary school which is close to where I work. So I drop her on my way to work. Work commences at 8 am and the first task for me is to check for fertilisation of eggs of patients who have collected eggs the previous day. Then I or a colleague calls and updates the patient with the result. Thereafter the embryos of the other patients are observed and graded. The egg collections start at 8.30. Following on from the egg collections we then perform the embryo transfers. Before each transfer we have to update the couple of the events that have taken place since their egg collection, also to discuss the quality of their embryos and the option of how many embryos they can have transferred. By lunch time all the transfers are finished and then we have to do the inseminations and the ICSI injections. Around the same time we have to perform any cryopreservation of spare good quality embryos. Then the paper work and preparation for the following day is done. On a normal day I finish work around 4.30 pm. On my way back I pick Akash and Enara from school. Then the children have to be taken back into the city for their extracurricular activities like ballet and swimming. By the time I reach home it’s about 7 pm. Then, we have our dinner, go through the homework and spend a few minutes talking to the children. The children are in bed by 8.30-9.00 pm. After that I finish off the household chores and spend some time with Janaka.

Career: Making a difference

There are not many careers where you can claim to make a difference in someone’s life, but in the field of Embryology, we can do just that. An embryologist is a scientist that works with sperm, eggs, and embryos.We actually help the process of fertilisation by aiding the sperm and egg unite. So, an embryologist in an in vitro fertilization program (IVF) plays a vital role in the journey to pregnancy for a couple struggling with infertility. The field of IVF became a reality in July of 1978 with the birth of the world’s first “test tube” baby. As of today, over 5 million children have been born utilizing the cutting edge skills that occur in IVF centers worldwide. One in four couples suffer from infertility today, many due to delaying childbirth until later in life. A woman’s reproductive potential declines with age, and unfortunately not everyone is aware of this and therefore it is often “too late” to conceive without the help of an IVF center. Male reproductive potential can also be affected by age, environmental factors, lifestyle or genetic causes.

Challenges as a woman: Juggling it all

In today’s world the woman is challenged with many issues. Women have to juggle their career, their duties as a wife and a mother. In addition women have so much pressure from society to look and feel perfect. So, it is very important to prioritise your duties. I encounter several circumstances each day which test my patience, my character and my peace of mind. Coming from a strong religious background, for me, my values guide me and shape my priorities and reactions. They serve as my markers to tell me if my life is heading in the right direction and if it is turning out the way I want it to. That being said, when the children were younger life was indeed a real juggle. For example, my youngest daughter Enara was born a few weeks prematurely. Patients were lined up for IVF treatment around that time and I had to come back to work when she was just 2 weeks. Of course as I was nursing her I had to bring her in with me daily as she refused to take the bottle. I couldn’t have done it without the support of my parents. Each morning my mother came to spend time with the children whilst I was at work. My children are my top priority. I believe that if we have brought them to this world it is our duty to make sure we give our time, love and care that they deserve. Currently we focus too much on academic achievement for our children and I believe in the saying that “To educate a person in mind and not morals is to educate a menace to society.” As a mother, I want my children to grow up to be responsible citizens and good people. I want them to learn to feel, think and act with respect for themselves and for other people. Janaka and I have different working hours. I start early and finish by about 5 pm whereas Janaka starts mid-day and carries on until 2-3 am the following day; all 7 days of the week. So I have to be very understanding and have to constantly try and make time for each other. Accepting each other’s weakness and constantly trying to improve our selves is the key to a successful relationship. Success comes with hard work in anything you do and marriage is no exception! When it comes to work the moment I step into the IVF lab the phones are switched off and I block everything else from my head so that I can focus totally on my work. If you think about it we are aiding with the creation of human life and unless you are fully focused and committed you will not achieve your ultimate goal.

Enjoying the many aspects of life: Making the most of everything

I like to lead a very simple life. My mother is my greatest inspiration. She has given and still continues to give to her children selflessly. She also spends her entire day trying to make a difference in the life of people around her. I believe that living life this way becomes very simple and the satisfaction you gain by making others happy is a guaranteed way of finding one’s own happiness. At the end of my life I want to feel that I have in at least the smallest possible way made a difference to our society, to our country to the world. Since moving to UK in 2009 I have been working in an IVF clinic which performs 500 cycles per year. We live in a small village just outside Canterbury. We really enjoy the countryside living and have learnt to enjoy and appreciate life’s simple pleasures. The children cycle to school and when Janaka is around he joins them. We also go for walks in the country side. Our move to the UK is temporary. We have enjoyed every minute of it and have had a chance to spend a lot of time together as a family. I make it a point to spend quality time with the children on a daily basis. Dinner time is when we all sit at the table and discuss how the day’s been for each one. When Janaka is here half the time we are in stitches as he makes us all laugh with his dramatic stories. This is my favourite time of the day when I look at my family and feel truly blessed. After dinner I make it a point to share my time equally with each child and give them “Mummy and I period”. I have a good chat with them or just simply lie on the sofa cuddling them or reading to them. The children just love it. Akash plays Rugby for the Canterbury RFC and this means during the season every Sunday we have to drive him away to another city for his matches. Whenever possible the entire family joins in and we make it a family day out. I love cooking, and since of late have started baking and I get the children involved. Whenever I have free time I try to go for a walk as it relaxes me and gives me time for myself.

Words of wisdom from Thanuja

Clinical embryology is a satisfying and rewarding job. It is a pleasure to serve the patients you treat and especially to see their joy when the outcome is positive. Embryology can be a very lucrative career for those who are willing to work hard, stay focused and dedicated to the task at hand. Attention to detail is a must. It’s important to remember that Embryology is still a young and growing field. The growth potential is limitless. It will allow individuals to enter this unique field during its infancy and help shape the future of the profession.