Sophie and Leanne's Story

"We would absolutely recommend abc to anybody needing help."

As a same-sex couple, we knew from the get-go that we would have to go through fertility treatment to have children. We had been thinking and speaking about it for a long time, but then in January last year, we decided to begin our journey.

One of my close friends had treatment at abc and they recommended them to us. We did a bit of research into other clinics but abc ivf Leeds came with such a strong recommendation, we knew it would be the right clinic for us so we went ahead and booked an initial consultation.

The first appointment was amazing; the nurses we saw were very reassuring and we both felt very comfortable. We both had scans as we wanted to go through the shared motherhood route. We already knew that I would carry and we will use Sophie’s eggs to create an embryo with our chosen donor sperm but they just had to first make sure we were both healthy and suitable for the treatment before we could go ahead. All was well and we were both given the go-ahead.

We decided to go for shared motherhood as we really thought that would be the best way for us to both feel involved and connected. We are in awe of what science has allowed us to be able to do.

Things progressed pretty quickly from there. We had our treatment consultation, we ordered Sophie’s medication and then started doing regular blood tests and scans to monitor how her eggs were maturing. Sophie was on medication for 2 weeks and the side effects were very manageable - we were pleasantly surprised. It just felt like a bit of bloating for 2 weeks and it didn’t really affect her moods at all.

The next step was then the egg collection and once again we were pleasantly surprised. We thought Sophie would be in there for hours but the procedure literally only took half an hour. Everything just felt like it went so smoothly for us throughout the whole time we were at abc. They were absolutely amazing with us.

The one part that was a bit more difficult was choosing our sperm donor. We went to an external sperm bank in the end because they had a few more options. There was a donor shortage at the time when we were looking to choose one so it did make the process a little bit longer than usual. At first, we did look at all the characteristics of the donors and had something specific in mind but as time went on we began to mainly focus on the medical history. Having a healthy baby was the most important for us so we chose our donor with that in mind.

The most stressful parts of the process were the part we had little control over such as waiting to hear if we had enough eggs collected. Which we did, and then waited for them to be fertilised. For a few days, we received daily calls updating us on how our eggs were doing - which felt incredibly stressful even though the updates weren’t bad!

The two-week wait was horrific. We literally couldn’t think about anything else. We ended up testing really early because I felt as though something was different with me. I can’t put my finger on it but I felt different so we decided to do a test and we saw a very faint positive line! We couldn’t believe it. We tried not to get too ahead of ourselves but as the days went on the line grew stronger and stronger.

The pregnancy blood test done by the clinic later confirmed that we were in fact pregnant, but there was a little extra surprise. My pregnancy levels were very high which meant one thing - we’re having twins! We cried for about 10 minutes when we saw them both on our first scan and we literally cannot wait to meet them!

We both felt very supported throughout our treatment at abc, especially when the treatment cycle actually started. The team made a point to always involve us both and we were kept up to date with everything that was going on at each stage. Our patient coordinator still checks up on us now and we’re not even classed as patients anymore!

We would absolutely recommend abc to anybody needing help. One of our best friends has had a few failed IUI cycles at another clinic and since our treatment we have recommended she try abc ivf and she is now a patient at the Leeds clinic. Let’s hope she has the same luck we did.