‘It took 13 years for me to get my Faith’
KIRSTY TURNER is 32 and lives in Doncaster with husband Nick. She gave birth to daughter Faith in April last year after a 13-year battle.
“I was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries at the age of 16,” says Kirsty. “The doctors back then told me I would struggle to fall pregnant naturally.
“I was devastated. Even at that young age, I couldn’t wait to be a mum and have a family. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, from being a teenager.
“Nick and I became a couple in our teens. When I was 20, I went to see a fertility expert and I was put on a fertility drug called Clomid to try to stimulate my ovaries into working. I was on it for a few years, but it didn’t work. So we started to look into fertility treatment, but were told that for the best chance of success, I had to lose a massive amount of weight.
“I’d lost my brother who died of pneumonia when he was just 23 and I comfort-ate through my grief. And also the stress of not being able to get pregnant was a vicious circle because I ate more to comfort myself through that as well. So I had piled the weight on.
“But I was determined to try anything so I joined a slimming group and managed to lose a staggering five and a half stone – taking me from 19 stone to a much slimmer 14 stone – before we were able to start treatment at CARE fertility clinic. We were so excited and so hopeful that it would make a difference to us at last.
“I had the daily injections for two weeks to try to help my ovaries produce as many eggs as possible, but unfortunately my body only managed to produce a single egg.
“The doctors didn’t think it was worth trying the IVF procedure and were going to cancel the treatment, dashing our hopes, but then they said we could have artificial insemination instead.at least there was still some hope for us. We knew it was only a small ray of hope as we were relying on only one egg.
“Two weeks later, I finally discovered I was pregnant – after 13 years of trying. It was so amazing to finally be pregnant. We had only one egg, yet it had worked.
“We just couldn’t believe it. We had waited all this time and now it had finally happened.
“When I was five weeks pregnant, I started to bleed and I was terrified I was losing the baby, but an emergency scan at the hospital revealed there was still a heartbeat.
“Then at 38 weeks I developed the lifethreatening condition pre-eclampsia and doctors at Doncaster Royal infirmary had to induce the birth. But Faith was born weighing a healthy 7Ib 1oz.
“It was scary, but once she was born, the condition went away, so there was no risk any more to either of us, thankfully.
“It’s amazing to be parents after all this time, and to have our first Mother’s Day.”