My name is Ranae. My wife Audrey and I live in Ireland with our 21 month old daughter Ava. We decided in 2015 to undergo ‘Reciprocal IVF’ treatment in Spain, as it was not available to us in the South of Ireland under the current legislation. (That’s a topic for another day!) It’s also known as ROPA or Shared Motherhood. Not many people have done reciprocal IVF in Ireland, and it’s an unknown area for lots of couples.
Think of this as a ‘behind the scenes’ look into the world of same-sex IVF or for anyone wishing to avail of IVF abroad.
When we went looking for information on reciprocal IVF in Europe, the information we found on the internet was scarce. This was a hard time for us- we would have loved someone helping us to understand the ins and outs of this treatment. We had so many questions but we were totally in the dark. Even now, having been through the process once, the information is hard to come by.
That’s why we decided to do THIS blog! Nothing fancy, just two people in love, trying to make another baby.
We just started the process again and will be travelling abroad next month to continue treatment and hopefully make a baby brother or sister for Ava. Over the next weeks and months, we’d love you to join us on our journey as we prepare for a fresh reciprocal IVF cycle in the Ferticentro Clinic in Coimbra, Portugal.
Join us as we go through the whole process; choosing our clinic, what country to go to, how to choose accommodation and how to travel, issues around sourcing medication, scans and blood tests needed before travelling, how to choose the sperm donor, issues around known vs unknown sperm donor, the process of egg retrieval, how the eggs fertilize and the process to becoming blastocysts, the day of the embryo transfer, choosing how many embryos to transfer, the 2 week wait, what happens if you get a positive or negative result and so much more.
Think of this as a ‘behind the scenes’ look into the world of same-sex IVF or for anyone wishing to avail of IVF abroad!
We are excited to get going again:) I hope that you enjoy reading these posts as you join us on our journey.
Ranae x