A roadblock, and an alternative path

On the morning of your appointment, you receive a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is that Emily?" a familiar voice inquires. You grunt the affirmative. "This is Doctor Lyons. I've got some good news and some bad news, but I'll just jump straight into the bad news; we're not going to be able to perform your surgery today."

Your heart sinks, but Dr Lyons continues before you can find the words to voice your disappointment.

"I am very sorry, I know how disappointing this must be to hear. If you want the reason, it's quite simple: I was in an accident over the weekend and mangled my hand. I'll be purely on consultancy duty for the foreseeable future, possibly even the rest of the year, and the other surgeons were overworked even before they had to pick up my slack, so none of them will have an opening for you for a while either."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry..." You offer your sympathy to Dr Lyons's own plight, even as the jubilation you so recently possessed falls ever deeper into a dark pit.

"Oh, don't worry about me, my own stupid fault," Dr Lyons scoffs. "More importantly is the good news I mentioned. While you may not be able to get the surgery you wanted, there may be another treatment option available that could achieve the same result."

You perk up. "Oh?"

"Come see me at my office, same time that your surgery was scheduled for. I'll explain more there. Sound good?"

You smile, hope blossoming in your chest once again. "Sounds great."

A few hours later, you're sat across from Dr Lyons once again. It's plain to see that he wasn't exaggerating when he said "mangled"; bandages cover his entire right hand and continue on halfway up to his elbow.

"I'm amazed you didn't take time off," you remark.

"In this economy?" he scoffs dryly. "Besides, I couldn't relax if I took a holiday while I knew people needed me. People like you, for example."

You give him another grin, still so thankful to have found such a good doctor. "So, I'm dying to know. What is this 'alternative treatment' option? 'Cos I swear, if you try to foist me off onto some homoeopathic hack, I will break your other hand." You laugh. It's only half in jest.

"Well, homoeopathy actually gets a bad rap due to misinformation," he tells you, then hastily changes track before you can find a heavy object in his office to hit him with, "but that's not got anything to do with today's treatment! No, it just so happens that earlier last week, a pharmaceutical researcher came by to drop off these flyers with us."

Dr Lyons pulls a slip of paper out from a drawer and slides it across the table to you. It's pretty plain by flyer standards, presenting itself much more professionally than the flashy graphic design of music festival leaflets and takeaway adverts she was used to seeing slipped through her mailbox.

"Beat menopause before it starts..." you read from the top line, before looking back to Dr Lyons. "Um, how does that help me, exactly?"

"To summarise plainly, these researchers have developed a new ****. Are you aware that a woman's ovaries contain all of the ova, the eggs, that she will gradually release throughout her lifetime? Well, the premise of this **** is basically that it will **** all of those eggs to be released at once during your next ovulation. Then, after the standard cycle of a few weeks, they'll all be flushed out of the body in a single period. After that, nothing. No more fertility, no more periods, and the way in which the **** triggers this has an added side-effect which should prevent the symptoms of menopause from ever manifesting, no matter your age."

You nod along, slowly taking this all in. Your eyes continue to scan down the page, until you see the words "test subjects wanted" near the bottom, alongside contact details. "So this is all still experimental, then...?"

Dr Lyons sighs. "It is, yes, and so legally speaking I cannot recommend that you follow this up. I can only provide the information, what you do with it is up to you. But from what you described to me about your experience at other hospitals, and what I can tell you about current availability at this hospital, this is the only route I know of which will get you what you want within the next... three years, optimistically. Think it over carefully."