Reciprocal IVF Success story | abc ivf
The staff at abc were amazing. The way they treated us was second to none.
Because we are a same sex couple, we needed that help. We knew we wanted to do reciprocal IVF, and we weren’t eligible for NHS funded treatment.
Abc ivf was our very first clinic and we didn't go to any others.
We joined an abc webinar, and I had a friend who went through treatment with abc ivf and also had a baby, at a different clinic and they recommended it to me.
We were a bit nervous to begin with. But the team at the Oxford Clinic, were absolutely amazing. Our fertility nurse Polya took things really slow with us. She was patient and very informative, and when we had the initial scans she was very gentle. She was just amazing, really.
After we had the initial scans we were really happy with how those went and we both had good results from them. Following on from that, we had a meeting to discuss what treatment we would like to go ahead with, which is where we agreed on reciprocal IVF. Hayley then began medication which we had an appointment to go through how to administer.
After the medication cycle, Haley had her Egg retrieval.. Between that we were in for scans every other day. So we visited the clinic roughly three times a week.
Hayley’s egg retrieval went really well. Also the clinic let us know really quickly how many eggs we'd had. Which we were quite happy with because it's quite a nervous wait.
It was then, my turn. The clinic rang us to say how many embryos we had and how they were developing.
I had to wait to ovulate and then after that we spoke to Polya, because I was a little bit nervous about the ovulation that I thought I'd missed it. I hadn't missed it after all. Pretty quickly after that, they booked us in for the transfer. It was all it was all fairly quick, but they were very good the whole way through at letting us know what was going to happen at each step
The communication was second to none, really.
Everything was really well explained every time we had a question or something we didn't understand, either Polly or Bridget or someone else at the clinic were all absolutely brilliant. The embryologist who phoned us explained it all in such detail that we then didn't have any questions at the end of it.
It's important, especially as it was our first time doing this kind of treatment. You don't begin with an understanding so it'll take the time to make sure you understand it.
The staff at abc were amazing. The way they treated us was second to none.
At Oxford our nurses consultants were Polly and Bridget, but even the desk team are absolutely lovely. You go in, and they're always smiling, they would offer you a drink when you got in, or just a general chat.
They're warm, they're caring, you can tell how much they love their jobs and how much they just want to help people. We took our son to visit them.
When we found out we were pregnant we were over the moon, We were shocked, to be honest.
Before we started the IVF treatment, we had a lot of people in our lives saying, you know, don't be surprised if it doesn't work first time. IVF is a tricky thing and it doesn't always happen as quickly as you want it to. We were incredibly lucky that it did actually happen first time, first transfer. Everything just went so smoothly.
Everything lined up for us. Within the space of a year, we've been through treatment and had a baby.
My pregnancy was actually really good. I got incredibly lucky. I didn't have any sickness. I didn't have any weird cravings.
Life as a parent is very busy ,but amazing. We’ve been dreaming of this for so many years, and now that it's here, it just fills a hole in our heart.
We'd 100% recommend abc IVF to other couples.
The main team and the people on the end of the phone. They're so lovely. Even if you just have to phone for advice.
For example we didn't really have much of a clue when we were ordering the sperm donor samples. I ended up talking to somebody on the phone from the Manchester location and she just went through the whole thing over the phone, it was, brilliant.
We did the donor search using the links that abc ivf provided which was, really helpful.
Knowing that it was going to be transported to the clinic and we didn't have to do anything was great. We chose our donor purchased the sample and then the clinic and the sperm bank sorted it out between themselves. That takes a lot of stress off of it because choosing a donor itself is so stressful.
We went through quite a few profiles. Because it was Hayley's egg we wanted the donor to have attributes from me, so we chose a red headed donor and genetically tall. It's definitely important to choose factors that you want. I wouldn't choose the donor just for the sake of choosing one, be patient. Check all the sites and you don't have to choose one just because you're ready now. Give it time and keep checking as well because different donors pop up. It’s definitely worth waiting for the right one, when we found the right one, we just knew instantly.
Advice I’d give to other couples starting their fertility journey would be to write down any questions that you have that pop into your head immediately.
Have a notebook to write down all the questions because sometimes when you get there, you're so overwhelmed that you just forget everything. Ask all the questions you have, no question is too small and just have a good support network.
Make sure you feel comfortable at the clinic, because if you don't feel comfortable at the clinic you then you need to choose a different one.
Also visit the clinic that you want to choose because we went to Oxford and they had tonns of cards up. All these baby photos and all these thank you's. And that speaks for itself.
Also try not to be disheartened if it doesn't work out as quickly as you want it to. If you’re two females, it can be quite frustrating with cycles syncing. But just be just be patient with yourself with your body.
Overall, we are so happy with our journey.