PROFILE: Dr Ed Coats talks race to South Pole with Ben Fogle

Despite the vastly different challenges, Dr Ed Coats, Oxford Fertility Clinic's new consultant, says there is overlap between his different passions.

"There's a lot of time to think when you're walking to the South Pole," he said.

"It's very stark, there's no visual stimulation."

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Dr Coats explained this has helped him advise patients going through the IVF process and make the difficult, and often emotional, decisions around the process.

"Sometimes it can be hard to see the wood for the trees with IVF and so I try to help patients see the big picture."

The dad-of-three is also a former GB track and field decathlete, and the discipline needed to compete at an elite level gives him something else in common with his patients.

He said those going through the process of IVF were some of the most motivated and committed patients he had come across as a doctor, willing to follow the instructions given to improve their chances of success.

Outside of his medical career, Dr Coats has also made a name for himself as a polar explorer.

He was chosen to join James Cracknell and Ben Fogle on the race to the South Pole, for BBC Two’s ‘On Thin Ice’, where he was selected from more than 600 applicants to be the third member of the team.

Setting off on New Year's Day 2009, the series followed the training and then journey across Antarctica.

Dr Coats described it as a 'right place, right time' situation and was already an eager adventurer before he took part.

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As well as representing Great Britain as a decathlete, he also led two teams to swim the English Channel for charity.

Following his South Pole journey, he took part in the '30 at 30' challenge, where he took on thirty gruelling activities including a Thames Swim and an endurance marathon.

In another polar adventure, he jointly led a ski expedition to the Geographic North Pole for Channel Five’s ‘North Pole Ice Airport’in 2012.

He also jointly led a series of extreme classroom projects ‘The Coldest Classroom on Earth’ and ‘The Hottest Classroom on Earth’ for BBC World.

Dr Coats said he had particularly loved those experiences, especially working with young people for the latter shows.

Now aged 40 and with three young children of his own, he said there was less opportunity to indulge his wanderlust.

"I can't just go off for four or five months anymore. I would say my adventures are on pause right now."

Dr Coats, who started at the Oxford clinic last month, said he was excited for a different kind of adventure though, joining a facility with such a long and ground-breaking history in fertility, spanning more than 30 years.

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He said: "I'm in my eighth year of specialising in this field and Oxford also has really strong links for research with the university."

Last October, Oxford Fertility Clinic marked ten years since it moved into a £4 million facility at Oxford Business Park, which brought patient care and cutting-edge research under the same roof.

The clinic, which treats a mix of NHS-funded and private patients, now supports more than 2,000 couples every year.

Dr Coats, has degrees in medicine and human and aerospace physiology from the University of London, which tied in well with his adventures, and has completed a medical law degree.

He undertook specialist training in obstetrics and gynaecology in the South West, most recently based in Bath.

It was where he worked at the height of coronavirus outbreak, going back to what first interested him in the fertility – working in obstetrics.

It was, perhaps, inevitable he would end up as a doctor, coming from a family of medics.

His father, now 80, also worked in obstetrics and gynaecology, and his three sisters are all doctors.

Dr Coats, who grew up in Guildford, said: "It was something I was always interested in, though as I was an athlete when I was younger I did think I would focus in that area."

He said during his medical training, however, he spent time working delivering babies and quickly discovered he 'absolutely loved' it.

"I really enjoyed being involved with the start of life."

He added: "I was really interested in the science of it as well. It is at the cutting edge.

"The impact you can have on people's lives is also immense. Most of the time it's very positive, helping people become parents, though obviously there are the times when it doesn't end the way hoped for."

Dr Coats said things had changed due to Covid-19, with more appointments done remotely and PPE in place at the clinic.

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But with biological clocks still ticking, following a brief pause by the Government at the peak of the pandemic, patients are as keen as ever to pursue IVF treatment and fulfil their dream of becoming a parent.

As an extension of his interest in this branch of obstetrics, Dr Coats has been an ambassador for the Wellbeing of Women charity for more than a decade.

A UK charity, it invests in pioneering research to help find cures and develops new tests and treatments that will save and change the lives of women, girls and babies.

As well as a new job and moving his family across the country the doctor is also writing a book about his experiences called 'Cutting the Cord', which reflects on his 15 years working within the NHS.

He met his wife Karina, who was a midwife, and the pair have three young children - Charlie, six, Will, four, and Elleanor, who is aged two.

Moving during lockdown has proved a challenge, with the family currently renting a home across the border in Buckinghamshire.