Tag Archives: Bourn Hall

Is ignorance really bliss when it comes to your fertility?

Posted in motherhood, Sponsored, Today I'm trying by
Katy Pearson, pregnant

Throwback: Just days before I gave birth to Sonny Jim

Knowledge is power – or so the saying goes. But sometimes the more information you have, the harder stuff seems.

Take fertility, for instance.

Having had a successful round of IVF, three unsuccessful rounds of IUI, six months of clomid treatments and years of hospital appointments, I’d say I’m pretty well versed in this area of life.

I’m under no illusion that I can just have another baby at some time in the future (though medically, there’s no reason why that couldn’t happen – oh the joys of unexplained infertility!)

I know that post-35 the chances of IVF working start to drop – and dramatically. That when you hit 35 the risks – to mum and baby – rise rapidly. That you’re actually classed as a “geriatric mother” in medical terms.

I know all of this, but at 34, it sometimes feels like information overload.

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Fertility myths busted

Posted in motherhood, Sponsored by
Sonny Jim, Katy Pearson, #whatkatydidUK

No test-tube used here…

Despite the fact more than 60,000 couples have IVF every year, (us being one 2015’s crop!) there’s still rather a lot of myths surrounding infertility and assisted conception.

So, when the new Bourn Hall clinic opened in Wickford earlier this year I got chatting to one of the fertility nurses and asked her to dispel some of the more common…

MYTH – If a woman is born with no uterus (womb) it is not biologically possible for her to be a mother

FACT – If a woman has no uterus but has working ovaries then she still may be producing eggs. Having some of her eggs removed and fertilised with her partner’s sperm and arranging for a surrogate to carry her child is an option which some women choose. Bourn Hall was the first clinic to provide surrogacy with IVF.

MYTH – “Test-tube babies” are “made” in test tubes

FACT – Although embryology labs do have test tubes they are mainly for storage purposes not the actual process of IVF. The process of mixing the sperm with the eggs is actually done in a petri dish!

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Fertility isn’t fair… the clock only ticks for women

Posted in baby, motherhood, Mummy life by
Katy Pearson, Sonny Jim, #whatkatydidUK

My heart: Sonny Jim and me

It’s a man’s world… so the saying goes.

And nowhere is that patriarchy more apparent than when it comes to fertility.

For all the strides that have been made over the last century. For all the hard-fought rights (to vote, to own our own homes, to smash those glass ceilings) when it comes to having children, nature has us pegged at a real disadvantage.

Women get maybe a 20-year window in which to have their babies. And that’s it.
However we dress it up. Whatever advances that have been made by science, no one has really found a viable, risk-free way for women to put off children well into their forties.

At 35 women’s fertility goes off a cliff – conceiving gets harder and the risks to baby and mama go up too.

Fellas though? Well there’s absolutely nothing stopping them having little ones into their dotage. Continue reading →

New IVF clinic officially opens this week in Essex

Posted in Features, motherhood, Sponsored by
Katy Pearson, Angela Leach

Bourn Hall Wickford: Me with fertility nurse specialist Angela Leach

A NEW multi-million pound IVF clinic officially opens in south Essex this week.

More than a thousand procedures, to help people struggling to conceive, will be carried our per year at the £5.2m Bourn Hall centre.

I was given a tour around the London Road clinic in Wickford ahead of the opening.

The purpose-built centre replaces a smaller, satellite clinic, which was in the same road, and is one of six Bourn Hall clinics in East Anglia.

Sarah Pallett, Bourn Hall’s business development director, said: “Our concern is people often go into denial about their fertility problems and put off getting advice through embarrassment. Continue reading →

When infertility leaves you feeling useless, it’s good to have options

Posted in motherhood, Sponsored by
Katy Pearson, Sonny Jim, IVF, #whatkatydidUK, Bourn Hall

Thanks to IVF: My darling boy

I’ve written previously about how IVF on the NHS in Essex is fast becoming a thing of the past.

Until 2014, all the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in the East of England offered the same level of provision to all eligible patients, which was in line with the NICE recommendation of three full cycles of treatment.

Then things started to change all over the country… especially here in Essex.

By the end of last year lots of CCGs had ditched IVF completely – in a bid to save the NHS cash. Mid Essex now offers no IVF whatsoever, neither does North East Essex. Or Basildon and Brentwood. Castle Point still offers two cycles. And most recently, Southend (after an extensive consultation process) now offers just the one cycle – and only if you’re under 40.

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New clinic set to make IVF easier for mamas-to-be in south Essex

Posted in baby, motherhood, Sponsored by
Bourn Hall, Wickford, Essex, #whatkatydidUK

Opening soon: Bourn Hall’s new purpose-built IVF clinic in Wickford

Sonny Jim was conceived thanks to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) at Barts Hospital, in London.

We were living in Leigh-on-Sea (in Essex) while undergoing the process. And while I think I would have travelled to Scotland three times a week, if it meant the treatment would be a success, there is no doubt the commute to the clinic did take a bit of a toll.

Juggling a job on a regional newspaper, with the newsroom based in Basildon, but travelling into London to undergo internal scans (always a joy!) and blood tests and egg collection and embryo implantation was not exactly easy. A lot of the appointments were mere minutes long… but the round trip meant it was at least a 3-hour plus process. Which was not simple to slip in before work. It meant I had to tell my boss I was having IVF – and while he was very understanding and good about helping me work shifts around it, I would still have rather not have had to tell him. Continue reading →