Sally and James

“I like the thought that someone who struggled to make their family now wants to help us, and that our future children will have full siblings out there.”

I met James through work when we were both in our mid-thirties. We knew that we wanted to have children. We also knew it would probably be difficult to conceive naturally as James has had testicular cancer and the treatment has left him infertile. Before he’d started his cancer treatment, he’d stored some of his sperm at a specialist clinic. We decided to use the sperm and embarked on IVF.

Unfortunately we were given a very low chance of success because of my age and also because my fertility test results didn’t look very positive. Over four years we had six rounds of IVF, all of which, ultimately, failed. Although we knew it would be hard to conceive we hadn’t expected it to be this hard. We’ve now used all of James’s sperm and I’ve been advised that it’s unlikely we’ll conceive using my eggs. Life can feel so unfair.

We spent a long time trying to work out what to do next. We’ve considered traditional adoption and although it’s not ruled out we’d love to have a baby from birth and I would really like to experience pregnancy and breastfeeding. We’re now currently working with our clinic to find an embryo donor. I like the thought that someone who struggled to make their family now wants to help us, and that our future children will have full siblings out there.

Why I need an embryo donor

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