The clinical staff were absolutely amazing.
My husband and I started trying for a baby about 5 years ago. After about a year, nothing had happened, so we had some tests done and they all came back fine. We then went down all the normal channels of seeing our GP, who then referred us to the hospital. Once there, they prescribed me clomid and I actually fell pregnant, but it sadly was an ectopic pregnancy. I had taken the maximum amount of Clomid you can take, so after that, we decided to look into the next best option, which we thought was IVF.
We initially went to do it through the NHS, but we couldn’t because we had already been pregnant. They wanted us to start a 3-year cycle of trying naturally which means we’d be looking at another 3 years before we got any help through the NHS. So that’s why we decided to go down the private avenue which led us to you (CREATE Fertility).
Honestly, when we were looking for a clinic, we were looking for somewhere that we could financially afford. CREATE offered payment plans, the clinic was close to work, and they had good overall success rates, so there were a couple of reasons why we went with them.
We had our collection at St Pauls, on our first round we had 12 eggs collected and non-made it to an embryo and the 2nd time we had 13 collected and one made it to an embryo, which is our little boy.
We found our initial consultation really good; all the staff were really nice. Everything was really clear, and the information was laid out nicely, so it was easy for us to follow. We started treatment not long after that. There were a few bumps in the road and after our first collection, we had a call with a lovely embryologist who explained that we didn’t have any embryos. We gave it a few months to get over what had happened. We then came back on a new protocol which had done the trick!
The clinical staff were absolutely amazing, I couldn’t fault the staff at St Pauls, where I did my egg collection, they were absolutely amazing.
I ended up taking a pregnancy test before coming in for my blood test, which came back positive. I’ve had so many pregnancy tests over the years that I didn’t really take it in. I knew it was positive and knew it was getting more positive every day, but it was only when they called after the blood tests to confirm it was positive, that it really sunk in. It was such an amazing feeling that I couldn’t believe it worked, I actually still can’t believe it worked and we’ve got a baby because it’s taken so long.
The first couple of weeks I was spotting a little bit, and because of my history of ectopic pregnancies I immediately thought the worst. I went to my local hospital and checked on the heartbeat, which was all okay and it was in the right place. I then went back to CREATE for the six-week scan, and it was crazy to see how much had changed already. After that I was discharged from CREATE and the pregnancy from there went well until the end.
I went to hospital at 38 weeks because I couldn’t really feel him moving and I found out I had pre-eclampsia and my placenta was just about working still, so that’s why he had slowed down his movements. The hospital induced me that day and was two weeks early.
Life now, is busy. I didn’t know how time-consuming kids are! It’s a bit of a mind field trying to figure out what’s wrong with them, and what is best to do milk wise, but I think we’re getting there.
With fertility, even if you see all these women going through it, you still feel alone.
The advice I’d give to those at the beginning of fertility treatment would be to just go for it, don’t give up, but be aware it’s a tough ride. When I went for IVF I thought it would be the answer to all my problems. I would think: ‘When I have IVF, it’s going to solve everything’, and it’s not like that. For us it didn’t work first time and I was not prepared for that, I really thought it would. I thought because we’re doing something about it, it’s got to work first time, and I think a lot of women think like that. So, I would say go with an open mind and hope for the best, expect the worst.
