Couple have spent more than £22k on treatments
ACCOUNT manager Darren McCluskey hasn’t given up hope of becoming a dad – even though he and his wife have been trying for kids for 13 years and have spent more than £22,000 on fertility treatments.
Darren, 45, who lives in West Lothian with wife Fiona, 47, was told he has poor sperm motility – the ability of sperm to move properly through the female reproductive tract to reach and fertilise the woman’s egg.
The couple have been together since 1997 and began trying for a family after they got married in 2004.
Tests revealed Fiona’s hormone levels were slightly out of kilter and Darren had a problem with sperm motility so would probably need treatment.
The couple underwent their first round of ICSI – where a single sperm is injected directly into an egg – on the NHS in 2005.
Darren said they then had to self-fund five future treatments at about £4500 each.
The last two were at a clinic in Barcelona. Fiona fell pregnant with one but sadly had a miscarriage a couple of weeks later. Their last treatment, in 2015, was unsuccessful.
They’ve used egg donors for some treatments and are now considering a sperm donor. They estimate treatments so far have cost at least £22,500.
Darren said: “Fiona had some savings and some family had funded a cycle as well.
“In the early stages, your masculinity takes a bit of a knock. But you leave your dignity at the door when you go through this process.
“It’s in the back of your mind that you’re not going to be able to have kids but I think it’s harder for the woman.
“Being in a supermarket or at the football, I’ll see someone with a kid and think, ‘That’s never going to happen to me’.”
He believes the chance of Fiona falling pregnant are now probably at about two per cent but he refuses to give up hope.
Darren said: “I need to remain positive for Fiona. If she wants, I’ll go through it again.”