Belinda and Duncan IVF

My partner Duncan and I met later in life after both having jobs that had us travelling overseas for long periods of time. We tried conceiving naturally for two years and due to my age thought we best enquire and seek possible assistance when it wasn't working. It was discovered I have a low AMH level - Meaning I was born with a lower egg count than normal and combined with my age would need IVF in order to get pregnant.

Little did we know that we had already missed the opportunity to be entitled to any funding assistance with fertility treatment. We decided to go ahead with our first round of IVF at a personal cost of $20,000 due to requiring the highest level of hormone treatment and injections. Four eggs were collected, only one fertilised normally. Our hopes were high as it only takes 'one' embryo to have a baby. Unfortunately in this instance it was not successful and we were back to square one.

Our Fertility Clinic are aware we are only able to try one more round of IVF, due to the cost and the fact that our chances continue to decrease with time, so the plan is different for this round of IVF than our previously unsuccessful one. We will be using ICSI (where the sperm is injected into each egg collected) increasing the chances of having more embryos. This time two embryos will be transferred back to me in the hope that if one does not take, the other may. Our Specialist informed us there is a 'risk' of conceiving twins using this method, we don't see that as a risk at all and instead see it as being incredibly fortunate.

Duncan and I are both extremely independent and are not used to asking for help, we have managed to save $10,000 towards the $17,000 cost of our next IVF round, however I have recently turned 42 and time really is of the essence. If we continue to try and save for this on our own, we fear we may miss our opportunity to have our very own family.

Every little bit gets us closer to achieving our dream, we send heartfelt appreciation for any assistance you are able to offer.

Belinda and Duncan x