A savior of fertility

Alfred Otto Mueck joins a discussion session about difficult patient cases with his Chinese colleagues at the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. Photos provided to China Daily

Alfred Otto Mueck, 71, is helping a Beijing hospital develop a bank for ovarian-tissue preservation. Liu Xiangrui reports.

When local colleagues jokingly call him "a real friend of Chinese women", Alfred Otto Mueck smiles and says it is an honor to help Chinese women resolve their health issues. After all, the 71-year-old German specializes in obstetrics.

Over the past few years, Mueck's ties to China have grown. He continues to serve as a visiting professor at the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital and as an honorary director of its endocrinology unit.

"It is my second home now," Mueck says, during a recent visit to the Beijing hospital.

He has been to China some 40 times so far.

Mueck, who studied biochemistry, pharmacology and medicine, has had a long career in obstetrics and endocrinology. He is a founding member of the European Menopause Society and chairman of the German Menopause Society. He also serves on the editorial board of several scientific journals.

In 2008, when he came to Beijing to attend an international conference, Mueck established connections with medical experts here. He then invited a few Chinese doctors to conduct research at Germany's University of Tuebingen, where he teaches.

"I was impressed by their diligence," Mueck says of the visiting Chinese doctors.

After he started to work for the BOGH in 2011, he helped launch a project on women's reproductive conservation.