Elizabeth Mary Bryan (13 May 1942 – 21 February 2008)[1] was a British paediatrician who specialised in multiple births and twins.
[2] She was the eldest of three daughters born to Paul Bryan, a Conservative MP, and Betty Hoyle, a physiotherapist.
She began her medical training at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London, but she left her studies for a year to nurse her mother, who had developed bipolar disorder; she resumed her training at Scarborough General Hospital and qualified with an MBBS in 1966.
[5] Inspired by this encounter, she gained an MD in 1977 with her thesis on "Serum Immunoglobulins in Twin Pregnancy with Particular Reference to the Fetofetal Transfusion Syndrome".
She also campaigned for IVF providers to reduce the number of embryos they implanted, to decrease the incidence of multiple births.
[4] She and her husband, Ronald Higgins, an ecologist and diplomat, wrote a book titled Infertility: New Choices, New Dilemmas (1995) about their failed experience with IVF and other attempts to become pregnant.