It wasn’t that I chose a career or a single lifestyle over that of having a family. I just didn’t meet the love of my life until I was 39. I knew that my biological clock had been ticking, but with a husband who had had a vasectomy and a failed reversal, we knew that in order to conceive we would have to go the route of IVF.
So, on top of my ageing eggs, we also knew that our attempts would necessarily be infrequent. We were indeed about to become the poster children for reproductive disappointment. Over six years we had six ICSI attempts using my own eggs, which finally resulted in a much-longed-for pregnancy. But the loss of the pregnancy at the end of the second trimester was truly devastating and brought home to us that our dream of bearing our own child was realistically over.
So after much heartache, we began thinking about adoption and soon I was well over my worries about rearing a child that was not biologically mine. But, like IVF, adoption is a long and tortuous road, and after almost three years we began running into difficulties. Not knowing what to do, we had three more abortive attempts to conceive using different techniques in three different countries, thus experiencing almost every form of reproductive headache. And it was at this time that we heard about egg donation. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were; that some incredible woman might, after all these years, give us the chance of having the baby we longed for.
The end of our story is that we now have blessed and adored twins. We thank the unbelievable generosity of the donor. There is no doubt about the incredible gratitude we have for those who helped us but mostly for our incredible donor who has changed our lives forever.