Lucie and Ben – our fertility journey

All I wanted was to be married with kids 

“I always wanted to have children and we started to try. Then we went on holiday to Majorca and were just lying on the beach talking and I said ‘I think I want to get married before we bring children into the world. I want to have the same name as my children’.  

“So, the following year in May 2015 we got married and started trying from then. 

“It got to the point that I was doing everything. I’d got the app on my phone, I was checking my temperature, body discharge, everything. I always used to get ovulation cramps as well so I sort of knew when the time should have been right.

“It didn’t work basically.”  

Getting advice led to investigative tests

The couple went to their GP for advice.

“I wasn’t taken seriously to begin with as I was so regular – every 28 days. Ben’s tests all came back fine so the doctors were a bit stumped, I guess.”

Lucie was referred to Peterborough Hospital for a HyCoSy test – this uses a dye to check that the tubes leading from the ovaries to the womb are all clear. This revealed Lucie had a blocked fallopian tube and she had an operation to see if it could be unblocked .

“The consultant said to me before the investigation ‘if we find something do you want us to do surgery’ and I agreed. They found I had got a blockage on my left fallopian tube, so they removed it there and then. They said ‘the fallopian tube is so tiny that trying to unblock it would probably cause more damage’.  

“It was a bit of a shock; I thought ‘that’s it, I am never going to be able to have children'”.   

Referral for IVF coincided with NHS funding cuts

Lucie and Ben were told they would need IVF, but then disaster struck as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG announced it was cutting all funding for NHS treatment. (This was reinstated in 2021)

“When we heard about the NHS funding cuts panic hit,” says Lucie. “I was desperate for children. The thought of not ever becoming a parent was unbearable. 

“We had a meeting at the hospital to discuss next steps; it was bit of a knife-edge, but because of the date of my operation we were told that we would still be eligible for funding.

“We had the letter to confirm this just two weeks before we started treatment  – the same month that funding stopped!”   

Starting on medication ahead of treatment

 “At the time it seemed as though we were the only ones who couldn’t get pregnant, but we went for a seminar at Bourn Hall (this was before Covid) and there were about 20 couples, so we didn’t feel so alone.  

“To be honest, the first injection was the worst. My husband always says I am such a strong-willed person but the thought of the injections was scary. 

“I had my mum with me and she was saying ‘you know this is going to get you what you want, so you need to do it’. There were 60 injections, but after I had done the first one, I was like ‘I don’t know what I was worrying about’. Actually, it was fine.   

Egg collection and fertilisation  

The medication is to stimulate the ovaries to develop more than one mature egg.

“On the scan they could see 12 eggs developing. That is a good amount, a number they like to see. But when they went in to take them out they only managed to get four.  

“It wasn’t very nice; they numb you and you are half conscious. It’s painful because everything inside is blown up so they can get out what they need. I remember a weight, like you get in the gym, pushing down on my stomach, obviously to try and move the ovaries and try to get as many eggs as they could. They got four eggs and then called me the next day to say two hadn’t fertilized.

“So I had two embryos which looked good. I was a bit disheartened because I thought ‘I have only got two and if they don’t work, I have got to do this all again’.   

Transferring our embryo to its ‘natural habitat’

“When they talk about the embryos, they ideally want them to get to day five blastocyst stage, so I was worried when they called me and wanted me to go back in at day two.

“Did that mean I really had not got a chance? Were they just hoping for the best?  

“But they told me that it was a really good embryo – they have got a scale (grading) and they told me that it was already developing to a six cell embryo and it had doubled and it was really strong. They said to get it back into its natural habitat was the best thing to try and make it work.

“The other embryo got to a day five blastocyst and was frozen.”

The long wait before the pregnancy test   

“I had to wait 12 days to do a test; that was awful, the waiting – and I had no symptoms that I was pregnant. Some people just know don’t they?  

“I hadn’t even told Ben the test had to be done that day, I just thought if it was bad news I would need some time on my own, rather than people asking about the result.  

“I remember I could hear him downstairs and I woke up and I couldn’t wait any longer. I heard him go off to work and did the test. The lines were so faint I wasn’t really sure. I had never had a positive test before, and I assumed it would just come up bold. Also, I had read that if you test too early you can get a positive result because your hormone levels are still high.

“I rang my mum; she said ‘I don’t know, it’s been 30 years since I have done a test, ring Bourn Hall and see what they say.

“I rang Bourn Hall and spoke to a nurse and said ‘I can see two lines but they are not bold’ and I can remember her saying to me ‘you are pregnant’ and I just burst into tears.

“In my lunch break I made Ben a card saying ‘you are going to be a dad’ for when he came home – he couldn’t believe it. I videoed him so that was really nice.

“I also phoned my mum and made her go and buy me some Clearblue tests just to be sure, because the lines were so faint. I did seven more tests over the next few days.”

She is here and we are parents at last

“I had a good pregnancy, and Alice-Mai was born at Hinchingbrooke Hospital on 23 August 2019, in five hours. I remember just looking at her; it was surreal. I hadn’t put anything up at home, not even the Moses basket – I didn’t want to tempt fate or anything.

“We just felt in a bubble – she was here and she was ours.”

Frozen embryo transfer and dreams of having second child

“There are five years between me and my sister and then eight years between me and my half-sister (I am the oldest) and I always said it was too big a gap – I wanted my children to be closer in age.  

“Selfish as it sounds, my body was craving another child; I knew that I didn’t just want one. I was so lucky to get one but my mind and body knew I wanted two children.”  

“We only had one frozen embryo left, and I had it in my head that the longer it was left it would lose its goodness. I knew this wouldn’t have happened because it was frozen, but I didn’t want to take the chance.   

Science is amazing

“We were really lucky that the treatment worked first time both times. But it took us four or five years for us to get our children, and everything we had to do to get them. Now I have got them I think how lucky I am and forget what we have been through.

“Some people go through a lot of heartache, so I know now we were lucky.  

“The science that goes in to it is amazing – I understand why it costs so much because of the technology and the science that is used, but it is sad for people who can’t afford it.  I think everyone should get at least one round free, no matter the circumstances; if there is a medical issue people should be given at least one chance.