Our journey to a family: an introduction

I've been a bit apprehensive about posting about my fertility, or infertility I should say. Infertility is still a bit of a tough pill for me to swallow. 

Me and my partner have always been very private about our journey and only discussed it with very few people. Its not that we have been embarrassed or anything like that.  We just didn't want the questions. Particularly when there wasnt a positive answer to give.

When you go through the process of IVF you get tunnel vision and everything revolves around medication, scans, timings and you forget about everything else. I always thought I was very methodical about it all, but in hindsight i was a bit of an emotional wreck. The repeated negative tests do get to you. Its inevitable. I just plastered a smile on and got on with it.

We first started trying for a baby in 2011, and when nothing happened after 12 months we decided to seek help. In 2012 we started taking fertility medication.

Our daughter was finally born in November 2018. Alys was born through the amazing and generous act of surrogacy. My beautiful cousin was our surrogate and nothing we can ever say or do will replicate her selflessness, love and generosity.

Our fertility journey was a long one, but not as long as some. I'll be talking about some of the processes that we went through with the NHS and also with our chosen private clinic in future blogs.