Recipient Story: “Without NUH, we may never have been brave enough to complete our journey”

My wife Rachel and I have always wanted to have children – but as a gay couple we realised that it might be a difficult journey. We visited our doctors’ surgery to fill out some forms, and we were referred to the fertility team at the QMC, Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH).

Deciding on a sperm donor

The Donor Co-ordinator was a great help, and she gave us plenty of information and options in terms of the sperm donors available. We decided on our first donor whilst we were on holiday in Northumberland. There were a number available to us that had characteristics similar to Rachel in terms of height, hair and eye colour. It was the profile of that particular donor that drew us to him, and it was nice to have that little bit of extra information.

The sperm donation process

I had six cycles of intrauterine insemination (IUI) via the fertility team at the QMC. We initially felt a bit overwhelmed by the process and all the stages necessary, but we were always put at ease by the wonderful caring staff. We felt exceptionally pleased with how we were treated and were always informed, cared for and treated as a couple. 

Although the six cycles of IUI failed, the fertility team helped us make the next step to have IVF, and we were able to use the NUH donor. After retrieval of over 20 eggs, 3 blastocysts were created. We used one blastocyst and two were frozen. 

our success

We had a successful pregnancy, and have a son who is now 5 years old. A couple of years later we used one of the frozen blastocysts – and we now have another son who is 3 years old.

We feel extremely grateful to the fertility team at NUH and the sperm donor to have helped us create our family. The initial treatment that we had with the fertility team made the next steps through our journey seem easier, as we had had such a brilliant start. The team at NUH are very friendly and professional and we can recommend them highly. Without them we may never have been brave enough to complete our journey, but they helped us navigate all the rough patches.