Dr. Konstantinos Pantos is one of the world’s most famous gynecologists, due to his huge pioneering work in one of the most critical and, perhaps, most important areas of medical science.
Professor of the University of Athens, and father of 8 (!) children, he has actively used his experience on all aspects of healing and assisted reproduction, and he is now held responsible for the happiness of thousands of couples around the world, as also for the birth of people who would have never existed without his services.
Founder of the GENESIS CLINIC, which attracts couples from around the world, he and his colleagues “export” this knowledge and methodology officially to China where “Genesis” clinics are being created under his supervision in many cities! Wherever there is Hellenism, is a station for Constantinos Pantos, as with the President of the Athens Medical Association Giorgos Patoulis, they are touring in large centers of the Omogenia by promoting their science and services.
One of his aims is to make Kos, the island of Hippocrates, the world’s “Mecca” of medicine, and already with his initiatives, this project is at the beginning.
Hellenic Daily News was at his clinic in Athens and had a very interesting conversation with him.
Mr Pantos, the problem of fertility is a matter of many new couples nowadays. What services do you offer and what do you think about IVF?
In vitro fertilization is an additional weapon in our quiver to help couples suffering from infertility. When a couple can not have a child and comes to us, in the beginning we recommend trying with normal ways to investigate any medical reasons why they can not have children the couple.
If the necessary examinations are done and the couple fails to do so within a reasonable time, then we will resort to the extracorporeal. It is effective, but it is the last solution.
One-third of the couples ending here make extracorporeal, but for the 2/3 of the couples we find normal solutions. That is the goal. Through counseling, through treatment, through ovulation with pills, through proper handling of the contact process. I had a couple here, married for 10 years, and we realized they had not normal sexual intercourse! The woman was a virgin! In several cases I have encountered incidents with married women virgins! For various reasons, either because of ignorance or because of bad contact …
As soon as we showed them the process, they immediately got a kid … So the problem is never clear… The first question we ask them is “do you have contacts”? Physical contact is the goal.
What is the most important cause of these problems?
Everything is related to the age of the woman. Differently we face a couple with the woman 35 years old, and differently 44, who does not have time to test and treat …
This is the enormous problem that I am constantly seeing and I call on journalists to raise awareness as much as you can in the world. The vast majority of women who come here are over 40. Whether because of a career, due to studies, because of the crisis, anything, they reach the age of 40 and then they present the problems of climacteric and menopause.
Although life expectancy has increased and now a 45 years old woman appears to be a young woman, 50 years ago she would be a grandmother, but the ovaries did not increase their function, remain stable and stop on average over 45 years. To a successful 45-year-old woman, when you tell her she’s gone into menopause, she does not believe it ….
There are solutions of course, but most women have lost the “train” for their own eggs. We should then resort to some research protocols for ovarian regeneration, or to the solution of the oocytes, or to the surrogate mother in some cases where the uterus has been damaged.
You have been distinguished worldwide for such a case. But some of your colleagues have their objections.
Yes, a grandmother in Greece, 67, became a surrogate mother to her daughter. Society has accepted it very well, as did the scientific world abroad.
In such a case, we must primarily check the health of the woman and protect her during the pregnancy process. When these conditions apply and ask for help, then we need to help these couples to acquire a child. That is what I had to say to this woman, go to find a Romanian, which is forbidden by law, while you have your mother?
I am not saying that it should be done at this age – I say we have to help couples and the healthiest way is from the family environment. And that is true in Greece, that we have a family nucleus, we are helping and there is a bond between us. So we overcome the crisis …
Your medical center is very popular in our country and abroad. Why is this happening; What is it that you do well?
Here in Genesis come couples from 65 countries of the world. This is because, above all, we offer good services. We have also begun an information campaign in the Diaspora, because outside of Greece there is another Greece, scattered. New York, Montreal, Chicago, London, Melbourne, Sydney, we went everywhere, with the President of the Medical Association Giorgos Patoulis, and we were given the opportunity to show our our services.
And of course we also referred to IVF, which was the spearhead of our projection process, because I was able to bring couples who tell their experience and the success. For example, I had a mother in Boston who had made 20 attempts, had failed, came to us and everything went well. These stories create headlines.
A writer refers to her book especially to us. The same thing happened to a famous Australian who went to the TV there and thanked us publicly. He does not need to talk about Pantos, as long as he speaks about Greece.
Do not forget: Greece has a good climate, good services, cheap services … And for the Diaspora, it is easier for a Greek of America to come to his country and not to go elsewhere … Where we suffer is that they do not trust the state, that we keep the rules and we have services. But in medicine they trust us and that’s why they come.
From what we are aware of, you have undertaken other “outsourcing” of your science …
Indeed, we have taken an initiative, and now we bring doctors from abroad, we go to Kos and make a representation of Hippocrates’ original oath … If we manage to pass this as a message, then all the doctors of the world who so swear to Hippocrates, they will come to Kos once and give the oath here. Think of the benefits for this.
I’m also pleased to tell you that Genesis is now becoming a brand in China. We provide know-how to medical centers in China and the Chinese doctors will be trained here and we will go there and check their activities. There are also programs for joint research.
The purpose is to say that Greece is not a small state which faces extinction, but a state that still offers and produces science. We want to plant the seed so that the Greek doctors who emigrated will come back!
What is the message that you want to pass into the world?
People need to be informed, especially women, that after the 40s they can be cut off. Make your life the way you want, but put the kids on schedule!
We have a serious problem of infertility, society needs to be sensitized. In 70 years, as it is, there will be only 2 million Greeks left!
