Medical Disclaimer

I write this site as a doctor, and it is easy for that to be mistaken for something it isn’t. This page sets out what the content here is meant to do, and where it stops.

What this site is

Educational writing about reproductive medicine — how conception works, what tests measure, what treatments are trying to achieve, and why doctors reason the way they do. It is written for people who want to understand the science behind what is happening to them, and who find that the explanation they got in a ten-minute appointment left more questions than it answered.

What this site is not

Nothing here is a medical consultation, a diagnosis, or a treatment recommendation for you.

Reading this site doesn’t make you my patient, and writing to me doesn’t either. I don’t know your history, your test results, your examination findings or your circumstances, and medicine of this kind turns on exactly those things. Two people can ask an identical question and need opposite answers.

So please don’t use anything here to start, stop, delay or change a treatment, to decide against seeing someone, or to talk yourself out of a worry. Take it to the doctor who knows your case. If what you read here doesn’t match what you’ve been told, that is a good reason to ask your own doctor about the difference — not a reason to assume either of us is wrong.

Questions and answers

The questions published here come from readers, and from the kinds of things I am asked in consultations. They are published anonymously, with identifying detail removed or changed — the Privacy page explains how.

An answer is written for the general version of the question, not for the person who sent it. It shows the reasoning: what a doctor would want to know, which factors change the answer, what the evidence supports. It is not a set of instructions, and it is not tailored to anyone.

If a question is about your own situation, write to me directly instead of using the form, and understand that even then what I can offer is general orientation rather than advice — the sort of thing that helps you have a better conversation with your own doctor, not a substitute for having it.

Notes from practice

Some pieces here are reflections drawn from real consultations, written so that no individual can be identified. They are about what a moment in a consulting room felt like or taught me. They are not case reports, they are not a description of how anyone should be treated, and the person in the story is not a template for you.

If something feels urgent, don’t wait for me

This site is not monitored for emergencies. I read messages when I can, and a reply may take days or may not come at all. Nothing here is a way to reach a doctor quickly.

In the UAE, call 998 for an ambulance, or 999 for police. Anywhere else, use your local emergency number. If you are already under the care of a fertility clinic, they will have given you an out-of-hours number — use that.

Go to an emergency department or contact your treating team the same day if you have:

  • heavy vaginal bleeding, or bleeding with severe pain;
  • severe or one-sided abdominal or pelvic pain, especially with a positive pregnancy test, a missed period, faintness, or pain at the tip of your shoulder;
  • fainting, collapse, or feeling as though you might pass out;
  • fever with pelvic pain, or after any procedure;
  • after ovarian stimulation or egg collection: rapid weight gain, a swollen and painful abdomen, breathlessness, persistent vomiting, or passing much less urine than usual;
  • anything that frightens you and is getting worse.

That list is not complete, and it isn’t a triage tool. If you are unsure whether something counts, treat it as though it does.

Where I am licensed, and what that covers

I am licensed to practice in Dubai under DHA medical license no. 07841170, and I hold registration in Poland and the United Kingdom.

Being licensed here does not mean this website is a clinical service. I don’t run consultations, take referrals, order tests, issue prescriptions, interpret your results or manage treatment through this site, and no part of it is an offer to do any of those things. If you would like to be seen, that has to happen in a proper clinical setting, with your history in front of me.

The law here changes, and so does the medicine

Much of what I write touches on rules specific to the UAE — who may access which treatments, what may be stored and for how long, what consent is required. Those rules move. Medically assisted reproduction in the UAE is governed by Federal Law No. 7 of 2019, amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2023, and the amendments changed the position for several groups of people. Clinical practice moves too, sometimes faster.

So: a piece reflects the position as I understood it on the day it was written, and older pieces may have been overtaken. Where a date is shown, take it seriously. Before acting on anything regulatory, check the current position with your clinic — and, if it matters legally, with a lawyer.

If something here is out of date or wrong, please tell me. I would rather correct it.

Rules elsewhere are different

What is permitted in the UAE is not what is permitted in Poland, the UK, or anywhere else, and the differences in this field are large — eligibility, storage limits, what can be done with embryos, who can consent. If you are reading from outside the UAE, or considering treatment in another country, assume the rules are different until you have checked.

Links to other sites

Where I link out, it is because that source is useful for the specific point being made. It doesn’t mean I endorse the rest of the site, its authors, or anything it sells, and I have no control over what those pages say after I link to them.

Contact

For anything on this page, including corrections, write to me at ewa@goncikowska.online.

Last updated: 26 August 2026