Magazine

• September 20, 2020 Fertility stories: Katy
  

  Katy's story

  Hey, I’m Katy - a Healthcare Assistant living in Devon. I’m sharing my story in the hope that it can help others and raise awareness. 

  "Like many, we too are on this difficult journey" 

   

  My husband and I have been trying to conceive now for five years. We have been together since December 2011, fell pregnant naturally in January 2015 and then married in April 2015, unfortunately two weeks before the wedding, at our 12 week scan we had found out that the baby we went to see for the first time and were very excited about had no heartbeat, we’d had a missed miscarriage this news was devastating for both of us. 

  Once the disbelief of what had happened had time to sink in we were in a waiting room sat side by side waiting to discuss the procedure to remove what a few hours earlier we believed would be our child, a very emotional feeling for both of us basically we were in a state of shock that this is happening to us.

  Although the pain was horrible we knew we had to keep going and believe it will happen for us, we cannot give up hope and we must do whatever it takes to finally have our baby in the future.

  "I knew early on something wasn’t right"

  One Year Later

  Moving on exactly one year I fell pregnant again, this time I knew early on something wasn’t right, after various investigations and weeks and weeks of scans we had to take yet another loss, this time it was a blighted ovum, again disappointment and anger and again sat in the side room awaiting a procedure to take away our baby, although we suspected the worst early on it was still extremely hard to take and we felt helpless almost feeling it will never happen for us but we had to pick ourselves up and go again, it was clear our journey was going to be a tough one but one we are willing to battle until one day we have our baby.

  IVF Community

  I started using the IVF blogs after my 2nd miscarriage as we were due to start our own procedure as I wanted to hear other people’s stories and honestly the strength I gained from some of the battles these women had gone through to get their dream was inspiring to me and has given me the determination  to never give up. Given this new found optimism we were ready for our first round of IVF. 

  After all our tests we were told it is unexplained infertility and so once the results all came back good we were optimistic about the IVF procedure.

  

  IVF

  After no success naturally, we started IVF eighteen months ago and have since had two failed transfers and one chemical pregnancy. We started our third Frozen Embryo Transfer at the end of February, but unfortunately, after three weeks, due to the Covid 19 outbreak we had to stop all of our medication and our cycle was cancelled, which was so frustrating but I look back now and I am thankful because I did get Covid myself which would have been around the time of transfer. 

  After months of waiting finally in May we got the go ahead from the health secretary that clinics can apply to reopen. My clinic unfortunately took a little longer but we have now been allowed to start treatment and I am currently in the down regulation phase and all being well we are hoping to transfer our 4th Embryo in August. 

  "We are very passionate about breaking the silence of infertility."

  The Journey Starts Here

  Whilst we awaited our appointment to prepare for our FET attempt we decided we wanted to make this journey a bit more fun and take out (even if it's only for a second) the seriousness and anxiety of it all and that’s when we came up with our IVF socks company, to document each stage of the process. 

  We think it’s a fun way to tell your fertility story. We hope it brings couples together and also brings a smile to everyone's face as it’s such a difficult journey. They can make lovely, thoughtful gifts to family and friends or other men and women you know who are also on this journey of trying to conceive. 

  Connect with Katy on Instagram @ivf_got_this_uk

  Head to the shop on our app to buy some of Katy’s lucky socks or find them here. 10% of every sale goes to Fertility Network UK!

  

• August 13, 2020 A Discussion On Male Infertility In Communities Of Color
  

  SPEAK on M.I.C

  A Virtual Discussion on Male Infertility in Communities of Color hosted by TJ Peyten. TJ Peyten is the author of Semen Secrets, a book about a wife's journey through her husband's infertility. 

• August 13, 2020 Q&A: what's it really like to freeze your eggs?
  

  Egg Freezing has gained popularity in recent years as the go-to option for delayed parenthood.

  With increasing numbers of fertility providers now offering the service - in which a woman's eggs are surgically collected then stored and preserved for future use - not to mention companies such as Facebook and Google now offering egg preservation as an employee benefit, the trend looks set to continue.

• August 13, 2020 Fertility Letters: Alex
  

  Dear future mother/mother to be/you/friend I haven’t met yet,

  It’s taken eight years to be 100% comfortable with my decision to have a child on my own and three years of IUI and cycles of IVF to be now enjoying a healthy pregnancy. 

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