MUM SAYS IVF TAKES IT OUT OF YOU BUT WAS SO WORTH IT

MUM SAYS IVF TAKES IT OUT OF YOU BUT WAS SO WORTH IT

A couple who met while studying at Bristol University have just become proud parents to a baby boy with the assistance of Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM) after facing ‘unexplained’ infertility.

Olivia Whetton, now 33, and husband William, now 35, moved together to London after graduation, but returned to Bristol two years later and settled in Little Stoke.

After struggling to conceive for three years, the couple’s GP referred them to BCRM for investigations which revealed no obvious cause for their difficulties in becoming pregnant. 

Olivia said: “This put us into an apparently huge group of people who have ‘unexplained’ fertility issues.

“Fortunately, however, we were told we would be eligible under the rules of our local integrated care board to receive NHS funding for an initial round of IVF treatment.

“Nothing can prepare you for the realities of going through assisted fertility treatment, and we count ourselves very lucky for the fantastic support we had from the team at BCRM, because it’s not easy.

“I had good results with my egg retrieval – 20 in all – but needed some time off to recover before we could embark on the next stage because my ovaries had been working so hard.

“That pause felt very long, but in the meantime BCRM’s embryologists succeeded in creating five viable blastocysts which were then frozen until the following month.

“Sadly the first frozen embryo transfer did not result in a pregnancy, but we were overjoyed when the second one did.

“I had a very straightforward pregnancy and in January we welcomed our beautiful boy into the world.

“I have to say that the IVF does take it out of you – it’s tiring both emotionally and physically – but we couldn’t have had better support than we got at BCRM and we are so grateful to them for making it possible for us to have our lovely Rory.”