COUPLE HAS BABY AFTER VASECTOMY
A Royal Wotton Bassett couple who met at work have just become parents to a baby daughter despite a vasectomy carried out during the husband’s first marriage, thanks to a gift from the wife’s father.
Shona and Allen Payton married in 2022 and were keen to start a family so - despite the 63% failure rate of the vasectomy reversal operation - they found the £3,500 needed for the procedure.
But when it didn’t produce the desired result, they starting look at alternative ways to have a baby, and Shona’s dad, Geoff Smith, came to the rescue with the cash for private fertility treatment, thanks to an inheritance he’d recently received.
“We were so grateful,” said Shona, now 30, adding with a smile: “… although Dad now jokes that he paid to become a granddad.”
“We weren’t eligible for NHS funding because Allen already had children, but we were eligible for NHS investigations to ensure there were no issues on my side, like blocked tubes or low ovarian reserve.
“We found out about that at a brilliant open evening at Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine where we had chosen to go because we’d heard about their higher-than-average IVF success rate.
“The free event at BCRM included a private mini consultation with a specialist who explained what we were entitled to on the NHS, which was incredibly useful.
“Those initial investigations included blood tests and an internal scan that revealed no obvious issues on my side, so our BCRM consultant suggested they should carry out a sperm retrieval procedure on Allen and try for a pregnancy using ICSI and IVF.
“I was very apprehensive about the injections involved in IVF because I had a real thing about needles, and Allen virtually had to chase me around the house to give them to me at first.
“But it turned out they really weren’t that bad – I soon got used to it.
“Staff at the clinic were incredibly kind to us, and we always felt very well supported there.
“To our delight, after the two-week wait that followed my embryo transfer we discovered I was pregnant, and at the end of January we welcomed our beautiful daughter Madison into the world.
“Every time I look at her I marvel at what modern medicine can achieve, and we’re so very grateful to BCRM for enabling us to have her and for the wonderful care they gave.”
BCRM is the longest established fertility clinic in Bristol, helping people from throughout the South West and Wales with fertility treatment for both private and NHS patients. The clinic is involved in innovative research and has one of the best success rates with IVF and other fertility treatments in the UK.
Free open evenings, which include the opportunity for a confidential one-to-one mini consultation, are held regularly throughout the year. Details at www.fertilitybristol.com
