LGBT IVF: Help us expand our family
Donation protected
We are a committed loving couple hailing from Ireland & Germany in a same sex relationship.
Grainne was diagnosed with Endometriosis, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and then blocked fallopian tubes, so she can never get pregnant without the help of fertility specialists.
Although Julia is only 32,she also has fertility difficulties and a low ovarian egg reserve.
Basically, our time is running out!
To conceive our much wanted and amazing son, we underwent IVF in 2015: with all the drugs, scans, medications, injections and emotions that entailed. He has brought us so much joy to our lives and we have achieved our dreams of becoming mummy and Mutti.
We agreed from the outset that although it was more costly and more difficult to find a suitable sperm donor, we wanted a non anonymous known donor for our family. There are no Irish sperm donor clinics so we had to look outside of Ireland and we were limited to the donors and clinics available to us. We chose a donor that has given his consent to being contacted by any children we have once they become the legal age and if they choose to track him down or meet him. This was a very personal and important thing to us. We believe that every child has the right to know where they came from. The decision of whether or not to contact a donor is not ours to make. That donor has given us a wonderful gift of being able to become parents and we are forever grateful.
The cost of achieving our dream of becoming parents and our amazing little bundle of joy was over €8,000. We begged, borrowed and scraped around to make it happen. We did it by ourselves. We never thought we would need to ask for help.
We felt that we got extra lucky when the clinic were able to harvest lots of eggs from Grainne and managed to create 4 "frosties" (frozen embyros) as well as the embryo that went on to become our Seanan Alfie :o)
We returned to the clinic in 2016 and our IVF journey and our dreams of expanding our family have been continuing. We have recently been encountering a lot of challenges and losses. The loss of our precious embryos and the disappointment of yet another one line/ not pregnant result has been devastating. In spite of our grief and sadness, we still want to achieve our dreams.
In Ireland, same sex couples, even those with diagnosed medical infertility, are not treated the same as straight couples with infertility. We cannot access subsidised fertility treatment or state funded medical care. Our only option is to fund IVF privately.
Every year, we have to pay storage costs as it is very expensive to store embryos or sperm in the specialised way it needs to be stored. We have to pay €120 per scan, €120 per consultation, €60 per session of fertility counselling and €2,000 for each embryo transfer/ round of IVF. Our personal funds have just ran out with the last round of unsuccessful IVF. We are even open to change clinic and clinic country at this stage.
Because we have not yet managed to pay off all of the loan we had to take out in 2015 for the start of our IVF journey, (plus the mounting interest!) the banks are now refusing to allow us to borrow any more money. It feels so unfair to have a bank dictate our choices to us and block our dreams of expanding our family. When our little boy asks why he never had brothers or sisters, are we supposed to say "sorry son but the banks wouldn't let us"?!
We have postponed our longed for wedding, we have sacrificed buying a house and having a secure roof over our heads, and we have done our best to find ways around the curse of infertility and being in a same sex LGBT relationship.
We don't want this to be the end of our journey. We have so much love to give and we have holes in our hearts for more babies!
If you can donate a fiver, organise a coffee morning, help us with promoting our story online, share any ideas that may help us or offer us hugs and faith and cuppas, please get in touch; we want to hear from you!
Grainne was diagnosed with Endometriosis, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and then blocked fallopian tubes, so she can never get pregnant without the help of fertility specialists.
Although Julia is only 32,she also has fertility difficulties and a low ovarian egg reserve.
Basically, our time is running out!
To conceive our much wanted and amazing son, we underwent IVF in 2015: with all the drugs, scans, medications, injections and emotions that entailed. He has brought us so much joy to our lives and we have achieved our dreams of becoming mummy and Mutti.
We agreed from the outset that although it was more costly and more difficult to find a suitable sperm donor, we wanted a non anonymous known donor for our family. There are no Irish sperm donor clinics so we had to look outside of Ireland and we were limited to the donors and clinics available to us. We chose a donor that has given his consent to being contacted by any children we have once they become the legal age and if they choose to track him down or meet him. This was a very personal and important thing to us. We believe that every child has the right to know where they came from. The decision of whether or not to contact a donor is not ours to make. That donor has given us a wonderful gift of being able to become parents and we are forever grateful.
The cost of achieving our dream of becoming parents and our amazing little bundle of joy was over €8,000. We begged, borrowed and scraped around to make it happen. We did it by ourselves. We never thought we would need to ask for help.
We felt that we got extra lucky when the clinic were able to harvest lots of eggs from Grainne and managed to create 4 "frosties" (frozen embyros) as well as the embryo that went on to become our Seanan Alfie :o)
We returned to the clinic in 2016 and our IVF journey and our dreams of expanding our family have been continuing. We have recently been encountering a lot of challenges and losses. The loss of our precious embryos and the disappointment of yet another one line/ not pregnant result has been devastating. In spite of our grief and sadness, we still want to achieve our dreams.
In Ireland, same sex couples, even those with diagnosed medical infertility, are not treated the same as straight couples with infertility. We cannot access subsidised fertility treatment or state funded medical care. Our only option is to fund IVF privately.
Every year, we have to pay storage costs as it is very expensive to store embryos or sperm in the specialised way it needs to be stored. We have to pay €120 per scan, €120 per consultation, €60 per session of fertility counselling and €2,000 for each embryo transfer/ round of IVF. Our personal funds have just ran out with the last round of unsuccessful IVF. We are even open to change clinic and clinic country at this stage.
Because we have not yet managed to pay off all of the loan we had to take out in 2015 for the start of our IVF journey, (plus the mounting interest!) the banks are now refusing to allow us to borrow any more money. It feels so unfair to have a bank dictate our choices to us and block our dreams of expanding our family. When our little boy asks why he never had brothers or sisters, are we supposed to say "sorry son but the banks wouldn't let us"?!
We have postponed our longed for wedding, we have sacrificed buying a house and having a secure roof over our heads, and we have done our best to find ways around the curse of infertility and being in a same sex LGBT relationship.
We don't want this to be the end of our journey. We have so much love to give and we have holes in our hearts for more babies!
If you can donate a fiver, organise a coffee morning, help us with promoting our story online, share any ideas that may help us or offer us hugs and faith and cuppas, please get in touch; we want to hear from you!
Organizer
Jules Puchtinger
Organizer
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