Maria and Jay's Story

"Thank you abc. We couldn’t be more grateful for the whole process."

We had been trying for a baby for over two years when we started looking into treatment. While we were trying naturally we sadly experienced a miscarriage and then we fell pregnant again but we decided to terminate the pregnancy due to a severe diagnosis. This was very heartbreaking to go through and I was very conscious that time wasn’t on my side either, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and look into fertility treatment.

My partner has two children already so we knew we wouldn’t be able to get help from the NHS and started researching private clinics.

Abc ivf really stood out to us during our research because they had good reviews, offered a less invasive IVF treatment, were a lot more affordable than other clinics and we also found the information on the website really easy to understand - it really ticked all the boxes for us,.

We went into the process quite blindly, actually, and we were quite shocked by certain things. We had to do certain tests before starting treatment to gain more insight into our fertility and help abc create a treatment protocol that is right for us. The results weren’t as good as we expected and that really opened our eyes. Abc were very open and honest about our success rates and we really appreciated that, actually.

Jay: From my point of view the whole treatment was an eye-opener. I had no idea that trying to conceive is such a complex process and the IVF process in itself is even more complex. For me, it was important to just be there for Maria and support her through it all.

It’s quite a complex process when you get down to the details of everything you have to do during a cycle of IVF, however, abc made the process as easy as possible for us. They made everything super clear from the very beginning and took time to explain every step of the process, even down to how and exactly when to take my medications. We were also given ample opportunities to ask questions, which we did, and the staff at abc took the time to answer them all and ensured we felt comfortable at all times. We really can’t fault the treatment at all.

Our first cycle had to be cancelled as my eggs were not developing as well as they should have so we abandoned the cycle and decided to try again. We were disappointed, but we didn’t feel hard done by, we knew that abc wanted to give us the very best chance of success so we went for a second cycle and this time around my body reacted a lot better. They had taken learnings from the first cycle, made some adjustments to my protocol and we ended up having 8 eggs collected.

In the end, we managed to get 1 embryo and this worried us. If this 1 embryo didn’t take, we would have to go through the process all over again and that was a very scary thought. The team kept reminding me that it only takes 1 embryo, but I didn’t really believe that at the time.

The two-week wait after the treatment was the hardest part of it all because you’ve no control over what happens at all. You just have to sit there and wait to see what the embryo does in your womb and that felt awful. The process had been an emotional rollercoaster up till that point and so we expected the worst.

When we went into the clinic for my pregnancy test and they told us the results are positive, we were beside ourselves. Honestly, we simply couldn’t believe it - the one embryo created really was enough. Now we have a beautiful daughter called Sofia and we are both absolutely besotted by her.

We would 100% recommend abc to anyone needing help. We already recommended it to somebody we know. From the beginning until the end, everything was spot on.

Jay: To anyone considering starting treatment, my only advice is to do your homework before you start. Make sure you understand what’s involved as it’s a huge commitment from both partners. We all have expectations, of course, but it’s important to make sure they’re realistic. And lastly, support each other through it; there are difficulties for both partners, though they are different.

Thank you abc. We couldn’t be more grateful for the whole process. Although it was terrifying, it was totally worth it!