Real Stories - London Women's Clinic

"If she hadn't made that phone call, I would never have known that embryo had a chance..." At 46, having already been through three IVF cycles and preparing to begin donor egg treatment, Ella had almost given up on the idea of becoming a mother using her own eggs. Then an embryologist at London Women's Clinic made a call that changed everything. This is the story of one frozen embryo, a DNA swab sent from overseas, and the four-year-old girl who is now the light of her mother's life — and why advances in genetic embryo testing are making the seemingly impossible possible.

Michelle was 39 when she walked into a London Women's Clinic open day, already certain of one thing: she didn't want to waste time. What followed was two IVF cycles, a devastating first round where no embryos were chromosomally normal, a mosaic result, and an embryo that came back from retesting as something extraordinary — euploid, chromosomally normal, and ready to become her daughter.

The increasingly popular fertility preservation technique of egg freezing is now fulfilling its promise

Mark and Nick openly share their experience of becoming fathers for the first time, through surrogacy at London Women's Clinic and using donor eggs from London Egg Bank

Knowing that they would need to use a sperm donor, Darel and Lauren came to London Women’s Clinic to benefit from their experience in same-sex fertility. Read their story below.

The process of egg sharing amongst same-sex female couples sees one partner’s eggs being used to impregnate the other – resulting in the egg provider being the biological parent and the person carrying the baby being the gestational parent. Lauren and Lisa describe how this process helped them start their family.

After several miscarriages, Paul and Gemma welcomed their beautiful rainbow baby in September 2020. Read about their pregnancy after miscarriage journey and how they kept the faith.

After struggling to maintain a healthy pregnancy due to her PCOS diagnosis, Becky’s friend offered to be a surrogate to help her dreams of a family come true. She describes her story below

A reversed vasectomy and low ovarian reserve were the starting point for the challenges ahead.

Kelly and Ian knew from the start they would need some help. Here’s how they found it at LWC Darlington…

Six years after they started a journey with LWC London Bridge, Debby and Mark tell us how that journey to parenthood worked out for them…

A recipient of donor sperm from the London Sperm Bank, Samantha*, writes a letter to her donor

A London Women’s Clinic patient, Sarah*, shares her experience of using donor eggs and donor sperm to undergo IVF…

Linh and Henrik visited the London Women's Clinic for fertility treatment and had two beautiful children at LWC London Bridge. Working alongside them was LWC's own Mr Michael Summers. Read more about their story here.

Heather and her wife Jacey had intra-partner egg donation treatment at the LWC Bristol and now have a baby son.

Georgina and her husband Chris had IVF Lite treatment at the LWC Cardiff and now have two children Francesca and Harri.

Natalie had IVF as part of the LWC's egg-sharing programme in Harley Street and now has her son Oliver.

Following a diagnosis of endometriosis and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), Nicola and her partner tried unsuccessfully to conceive.  They came to the LWC Brentwood for IVF and are now 15 weeks pregnant.

Kirsty and her partner had IVF treatment at the LWC Harley Street.  After the devastating loss of their twins they had success with two Frozen Embryo Transfers and now have two children Lily and Harry.

After one devastating pregnancy loss after another, Charlene and Neil were offered a new PGT-M technique of 'karyomapping' to help prevent the miscarriages.

Alisha and her husband’s fertility journey was made more complex when they discovered that they were both carriers of the cystic fibrosis gene. Here she shares their story of opting for PGT-M treatment.

Kathleen donated her eggs through our partner clinic, the London Egg Bank, which has seen hundreds of women come through its doors looking to donate their eggs since it opened in 2013. Here she tells her story.

"We will be eternally grateful to LWC Wales for their professionalism, care and support"

"It’s scary to think that you’ll not be able to have a baby without IVF but we made the right choice by going to the LWC Cardiff and having our treatment with the best in the field"

Alison and her husband had treatment at LWC London Bridge in 2005 using a surrogate (her sister-in-law) and donor eggs.

"We have our final piece to our jigsaw and life now is truly complete."

"Having  a  child  on  my  own  is  without  a  doubt  the  most  challenging,  craziest  and  happiest  thing  I  have  ever  done."

Carrie Thomas from South Wales had suffered from endometriosis and eventually had both Fallopian tubes removed. IVF was the only chance of pregnancy - but this time success followed success.

Find out more about why Lisa and Kelly decided to have treatment at The London Women's Clinic using donor sperm from the London Sperm Bank.

Leona, 37 and happily married, endured two ectopic pregnancies, with both tubes removed. Now, following two IVF disappointments, she and her husband have twins to complete their family.

Louise was in her mid-30s, without a partner, and afraid that time was running out for a family. But she made a choice and followed her instincts. My advice, she says, is ‘Go for it and never give up’.

For Liam and Laura McCaffrey from Milford Haven in West Wales, becoming parents to Owen, now aged two, involved a long journey in many ways, from a serious illness through to Liam’s sperm travelling thousands of miles to help them achieve their dream.