Case Study 4

Mark and I met later in life. It soon became obvious we would be spending the rest of our lives together. I was thrilled when I fell pregnant naturally at 39, but things sadly didn’t go to plan. I had many extra scans, as the baby was looking small. Looking back, I was so naïve and kept kidding myself that all would be okay. However, a bomb struck our world when, at 34 weeks pregnant, I was told the baby had Edwards Syndrome, a chromosomal condition that is not compatible with life. The next few months are a blur of baby loss, a funeral, and a great sense of sadness.

Having fallen pregnant easily at 39, I thought it would be the same at 40. I couldn’t have been more wrong. After a stressful year, our GP referred us to our local fertility clinic and we had our first round of IVF. One reasonable embryo was transferred, but the cycle was unsuccessful. At a different clinic, we had two further rounds of IVF using my own eggs. But the results each time got worse. On the last round, the embryo was such poor quality I knew there was no chance of a pregnancy. At this point, we thought our opportunity to be parents had come to an end.

Six months later, Mothers’ Day cruelly fell on the anniversary of the loss of our baby. I saw my parents the following week and chatted to them about the sadness I still felt. My dad mentioned someone he knew who had been to a clinic in the Czech Republic and now had a beautiful baby girl. I was able to talk to her, and it all sounded very positive. This was the start of a new journey.

Going for  IVF abroad felt daunting. But after some internet research we were relieved to find Your IVF Journey. Having someone to talk to was so helpful. As a couple, we had to accept  that our best chance was to use a donor egg. Ben and Becky were at the end of the phone for both of us at this stage, and they spoke very honestly. I was now 43, and as our three rounds of IVF showed, using my own eggs was very unlikely to succeed. It took a few months to get our heads around this. But once we decided to go for donor eggs, the process moved very quickly.

Ben and Becky organized everything for us with the Czech clinic. They also helped us to order the drugs we needed so that we could start the treatment in the UK. I was able to have scans locally before we went to Brno. Sending details about myself, and several photos, led to a suitable egg donor match very quickly.

We travelled to Brno in August 2018. Making a bit of a break out of it, as Ben and Becky had suggested, helped us to stay calm and relaxed. The clinic was very professional. We went to the clinic on our first full day in Brno and then waited five days for our embryos to develop. While we waited, we explored Brno, which is a lovely city, and even took a day trip to Vienna. We made good use of all the information Ben and Becky gave us about places to visit and things to see. As well as the one embryo we transferred, we have another four which are frozen for the future.

The two-week wait before the pregnancy test was hard. But the treatment was successful – I was pregnant! At six weeks, I had a private scan locally to check everything was okay. The rest of the pregnancy was managed by my local hospital and midwives. Alex arrived safely the following April, and he rocked our world completely. He is our miracle boy and completes our family. We feel so lucky to have him.

I feel the care we were given by Ben and Becky, and the clinic, was first-class. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. Choosing Your IVF Journey and Reprofit was one of the best decisions we made.