Baby joy pair urge others to donate eggs
ACOUPLE who had a baby through IVF are donating their own eggs to help others in the same situation.
Jennie and Karen Gamble-Flowers recently welcomed baby Cora to the world, but are now urging others to donate their sperm and eggs.
The Cheadle couple went through a number of failed attempts at artificial insemination in Copenhagen and were told they were not be entitled to any help from the NHS until they had tried six rounds. They ended up having private IVF treatment using donor sperm.
Teacher Jennie, 34, who says she has dreamed of becoming a mum since she was 20, said: “When the insemination kept failing I was just completely distraught thinking I was never going to have a little baby. I thought there would always be something missing in my life.
“Unlike heterosexual couples we can’t just spend 12 months trying. A year of trying for us would mean having to spend around £10,000.
“Going through that process on the NHS would just have taken far too long so we worked out the cost of returning to Copenhagen would be the same as having IVF privately in the UK.”
The pair turned to Reproductive Health Group in Cheshire and used 32-year-old Karen’s egg and donor sperm which were implanted into Jennie’s womb.
Jennie said: “As a couple we needed that extra part, which is why we were so glad someone had been willing to donate their sperm.”
In turn Karen is now planning to donate her own healthy eggs to help other childless couples.
There is a national shortage of donor eggs and sperm with many UK clinics increasingly relying on imported donations from across the continent.
Jennie said: “We’ve been helped so now we would love to help others too. We want to give something back. If getting access to donor sperm becomes harder then people who aren’t as lucky as us might start turning to the black market to get it, which is so risky. We were lucky that we had savings and family who were willing to help out.
“If we didn’t have the options we did then it would have been so upsetting.
“We have one more egg stored at the clinic but if that one doesn’t work, we still feel like everything has been completed now.
“I’ve got my wife, a lovely home and a beautiful daughter.”