LGBT

A personal story of fertility tourism: Lisa and Isabella’s journey towards parenthood

[By] Cryos International Sperm Bank | 15/5/2024

Meet Isabella and Lisa, who have been married for two years. They were ready to become parents and decided to begin fertility treatment to try and add another member to their family. Read their story here.

My name is Isabella, I am 30 years old and have been married to my wife Lisa for two years. We have known each other for half our lives. We have two great dogs, but to be completely happy we were missing a baby of our own, which we both wanted so much.

Choosing a clinic and procedure

So, to begin treatment, we had to go to a fertility clinic. Of course, there are a lot of them, so we did some research to find out what options and methods were available to us. In the end, we decided to use reciprocal IVF and chose a clinic in Austria because the method is not yet permitted in Germany.

In reciprocal IVF, the eggs of one partner are fertilised with donor sperm and transferred to the other partner who is going to carry the pregnancy. Our clinic works closely with two sperm banks - including Cryos Sperm Bank. In the end, we decided in favour of the latter.

Let us help you on your journey to parenthood

At Cryos, we give you full access to all donor profiles including pictures, voice recordings, handwritten letters, and more. Just create an online account by providing only your name, email, and country. A Cryos account is free and non-binding.

3. Start here

Choosing the donor

In the process of choosing a sperm donor, the many years of experience and, above all, the structure/overview of the respective donors convinced us. You find out a lot of information about the donor - especially about the donor's health and family. But also something about hobbies, diet, appearance, and so on. The whole Sperm Donor Search is free to access.

In our case, a baby photo was also available. Some donors also have Adult Photos, which you can see if you have an Extended Profile. If you choose a donor with a Basic Profile, you can still use the Cryos Face Matching. This compares your photo with the donor's photos and displays the results that resemble yours.

We spent a long time looking at which donor was the right one for us, then decided after some back and forth, simply ordered online and the donor sperm was delivered directly to our clinic. The sperm was delivered in a nitrogen or dry ice container.

The treatment

We were very nervous and excited before the first embryo transfer. So many hormones and so much new information and new experiences – now was the time to get started. Unfortunately, the first two attempts were negative. The third attempt in November 2022 worked and our joy was incredible!

Unfortunately, the embryo did not develop any further. My body did not realise the miscarriage, so I had to have a medical termination. That was a really hard and difficult time for us, and it took us a while to come to terms with our grief. We talked about it a lot, dealt with it again and again and of course asked ourselves why it had happened like this.

The question “why is my body doing this to me?” and “why can´t my body get it together?” kept running through my mind. However, we saw the whole thing as a kind of life task/test, so giving up was not an option for us. I think this experience brought us even closer together.

In May 2023, we had another transfer, which was also negative. As a result, we and our clinic decided to pursue other alternatives. The first step was a detailed immunological examination, which revealed that I was missing some important KIR genes. In addition, I had slightly elevated thyroid levels, which affected my fertility. Once I was ready for the next transfer, I had to take daily injections to replace the missing KIR genes and on the 6th of October, we received a positive pregnancy test. We are pregnant a second time!

Of course, there was always a bit of anxiety - especially at the first appointments, right up to the first heartbeat.

Success!

I am now 23 weeks pregnant, and our little treasure is doing great! From appointment to appointment, the relaxation gets a little greater each time and the joy increases all the more. Anxiety is no longer a constant companion - even if there are of course always moments when you think back to this difficult time and, above all, to this generally very upsetting journey of trying to conceive. It was a rollercoaster of emotions.

We can hardly believe our luck and are looking forward to finally meeting our little "crumb" in June 2024.

You should never give up hope!