Family will share eggs to assist couples to conceive
THE joy Mia Cotton brings her proud parents is something they are desperate to share with other families struggling to conceive.
The three-year-old’s smile brightens up any day as she is held aloft by her smiling mum and dad in a photograph that radiates happiness.
For mum Rachel, it is a picture that at times she feared would never be taken as she battled with fertility issues.
Four years ago, the 33-year-old and her partner Ryan were at the start of an IVF journey.
It was a frightening time in their lives, but looking back Rachel has nothing but good memories, and she just has to look at her gorgeous daughter to know it was worth all the ups and downs.
Despite it being a positive experience, complications after Mia’s birth mean Rachel can’t go through the process again, and they have taken the brave decision to donate the healthy eggs that remain so they can help other families trying to conceive.
She is telling her story for the first time in a bid to help others and raise awareness for this month’s National Fertility Week.
“After I came off long-term contraception in 2014, I had lots of problems with my cycle and I was in a lot of pain,” explained Rachel, from Rhyl.
“Blood tests showed that I wasn’t ovulating, and an ultrasound scan found that I had polycystic ovary syndrome.”
Polycystic ovary syndrome, which also is known as PCOS, is a common condition that affects how a woman’s ovaries work, and is a leading cause of infertility in women in the UK: “There are lots of different forms of PCOS, and it affects people differently, and I was diagnosed with hormonal PCOS,” explained Rachel.
There are no fertility centres in North Wales, so Rachel and Ryan had to travel across the border to Liverpool at the Hewitt Fertility Centre.
Rachel’s account of her treatment there is glowing, and one of the high points was when she was able to take daughter Mia back to meet the staff who had helped with their journey.
“After taking my medical history, it was decided that ICSI IVF would be the best way forward. It is where the sperm is injected into the egg and is something that tends to work better for patients with PCOS.”
The treatment involved regular injections and trips to Liverpool for scans, and on May 15, 2017, Rachel had a procedure to have her healthy eggs extracted.
The team were happy they had eight really good quality embyros, and the successful transfer went ahead at the start of October that year.
Rachel said: “It was a really weird time. According to the guidelines the earliest I could take a test was October 13, but that year it fell on a Friday, and I was worried that was a bad omen so I did it earlier.
“It was Ryan’s birthday on the 11th and I really wanted to surprise him. On the morning, I did eight tests all at the same time and they were all positive, so I was able to give him the present that he was going to be a dad on his birthday.”
Rachel had what she described as a “lovely” pregnancy, with no complications and Mia was born at Glan Glwyd Hospital on June 22, 2018: “We were so lucky, it was like it was meant to be,” the delighted mum said. “I didn’t really believe it was real until we saw her, and she was here safely.
“One of the best days of my life was having the 12-week scan and seeing the tiny embryo on the screen. Because everything was OK we were discharged from the fertility unit and were allocated a midwife from the local hospital.
“There can be more risks with IVF pregnancies, but we were very lucky and it means we have got pictures of her right through my pregnancy, from when she was a tiny embryo.”
After having Mia, Rachel had more problems linked to her PCOS that resulted in her having to have a hysterectomy in May this year.
It was then that the couple decided to donate their seven healthy embyros, so they could help other families be as happy as they were.
“It was ruining my life,” said Rachel. “I had an operation to permanently remove my womb lining in September, 2019. It didn’t really help and in May this year I opted to have a hysterectomy.
“It changed my life for the better, but we had to make the decision what to do with our healthy embryos. The choices were destroy them, donate them for training purposes, or donate them to other couples desperate to have a child. We decided together that was what we wanted to do. We just both agreed.”
The couple had to go through counselling, have blood screening tests and needed to sign consent forms to be able to go ahead with the donation.
“They had to prepare us for the fact that any children who were born could come looking for us when they are 18,” said Rachel. “We are their biological parents, and a change in the law means they have the right to access our information.
“Again, there was so much support through this process and, in the end, we decided it wouldn’t bother us if they got in touch, because it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
“It didn’t put us off helping others. We were so lucky and have so much joy with Mia, and we just wanted to be able to give that to other couples who face the sort of problems we did starting a family.
“Our embryos that we have donated are for allocation to same sex couples as well as heterosexual couples. This was really important to us that we were able to open the opportunity to donate to all couples if they decided to look for donation of embryos rather than egg/sperm.
“We know what it was like to go through IVF and it’s tough even when it works.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about the people on that list, what they must have been through already to get to that point and it was a no brainer decision for us.”
If you are looking for support, more details are available from the Fertility Network https://fertilitynetworkuk.org