Proud Parenting

LGBTQ Parents - Lesbian Moms & Gay Dads

Creating Families Through Surrogacy

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The Greatest Gift Surrogacy Center NW was created to make the surrogacy journey a wonderful experience for all involved.

We realize the decision you are making is an important one and that is why we take the pairing of our Surrogates and Intended Parents very seriously.

We are devoted to maintaining a balance concerning the financial disposition of surrogacy. We want the journey of Surrogacy to be as financially affordable as possible for the Intended Parents as well as making certain that our Surrogates feel cherished.

This journey should be a wonderful and memorable experience for everyone involved and our center is dedicated to providing you with the personal attention that you’ll need, throughout the entire process.

New Fertility programme, DuoFertility, is now available to American couples to help them get pregnant.

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Over two million American couples are having problems getting pregnant.[1] The standard treatment which can help these couples conceive is in-vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF can change lives but can also be very emotionally, physically and financially draining.
The DuoFertility programme is a highly effective method to help couples conceive. The programme is totally non-invasive and drug free, yet published studies have shown a pregnancy rate similar to that of a cycle of IVF after just six months of use[2].

It uses a revolutionary sensor to monitor a woman’s body 24 hours a day, indicating the couple’s most fertile days, giving couples the very best chance of getting pregnant. Fertility experts review the data with the couples regularly to provide feedback.

Studies have shown that DuoFertility can help 8 out of 10 infertile couples, including half of all those seeking invasive clinical procedures such as IVF2. DuoFertility has helped hundreds of couples get pregnant in Europe. Now that same help is available to American couples for $795.

In the US, a single cycle of IVF will cost on average $15,000 to the couple and is rarely covered by health insurance, leaving many American couples struggling to afford fertility treatment. At one-twentieth the cost of a single cycle of IVF, DuoFertility has the potential to help millions of American couples to turn their dreams of a family into reality.

To find out if DuoFertility can help you get pregnant, you can use the DuoFertility suitability tool here.

You can purchase DuoFertility, which is FDA cleared, from the US on the DuoFertility website or the Pride Angel website.

[1] Centers for Disease Control and Preventio (CDC) :http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/fertile.htm
[2] Chausiaux et al., “Pregnancy Prognosis in Infertile Couples on the DuoFertility Programme Compared with In Vitro Fertilisation/Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection”, European Obstetrics & Gynaecology 2011;6(2):92-4 online PDF: http://bit.ly/IfjFiY

Article: 3rd July 2012 www.duofertility.com.us

IVF has higher risk of complications and multiple births

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A recent report states that there is a higher risk of complications and multiple births in pregnancies that result from IVF techniques.
A report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said there were increased risks of premature births, low birth weight and congenital abnormalities. However, it said the vast majority of IVF children were as healthy as other children. IVF accounts for over 1% of UK births. Advances in fertility research have allowed more infertile couples to have children and at an older age.

Risks

The Royal College’s Scientific Advisory Committee reviewed the risks of IVF, which it said were directly related to the number of foetuses and that IVF techniques appeared to double the risk of twins.

It said: “About one in four of all IVF pregnancies result in a multiple birth in the UK owing to the common practice of replacing two or three embryos.”

It also said there was a 23% increased risk of a premature birth, but the risk remained low. “IVF pregnancies still demonstrate an increased risk of low birth weight,” it said. Heart defects, cleft lips and other congenital anomalies are also more common. It said around 5% of all babies were diagnosed with an abnormality, but IVF babies were around a third more likely to have a problem.

Long term

Later in life, the report said there were no differences in brain, language or behavioural development and there “appears to be little impact at age 12”.

Prof Jenny Kurinczuk, director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, said: “IVF pregnancies carry an increased risk of poor birth outcomes and complications. Nevertheless the majority of the children born following IVF will have a good outcome just like any other children.

“The poor birth outcomes and complications may be a combination of treatment and underlying features of the couple such as older maternal age. However, treatment strategies can be altered to improve outcomes such as the adoption of elective single embryo transfer.”

Read more about alternatives to IVF such as home insemination and the Duo-fertility monitor which is as effective as one cycle of IVF after 6 months of use.

Article: 6th June www.bbc.co.uk

Family building for lesbian couples

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Successful pregnancy for lesbian couples through assisted reproductive technologies depends on many factors including the health and fertility of the donor sperm, the lesbian partner providing her eggs and the partner who will carry the pregnancy and give birth. The skill and experience of the reproductive endocrinologist and embryologist facilitating the process are also very important for success.

RSC Medical Director, Dr. Samuel Pang has been helping same-sex couples become parents for over 15 years. He is highly recognized for his reproductive medicine expertise, and is a member of the gay community.

WATCH:

[via Reproductive Science Center of New England]

21 year old frozen sperm worked after only one cycle of IVF

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The news could hardly have been more devastating for policeman John Powell. Diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 32, he was given only six months to live and told that aggressive chemotherapy would leave him infertile.
That was 21 years ago – and now he and his wife are celebrating the arrival of a daughter. Mr Powell had a sperm sample frozen before he began the treatment and, when he was finally given the all-clear after two decades, it was used to create baby Jasmine.

‘We couldn’t be happier – she is a wonder of medical science,’ said Mr Powell at home with wife Chenphen in Orpington, Kent. ‘I look at little Jasmine and think she is nothing less than miraculous. I honestly didn’t believe she was real until the moment she was born and I saw her face. Now I hold her and think she is part of me from 20 years ago, before I had chemotherapy.

‘It’s astonishing that something as beautiful and perfect as Jasmine could come out of a time that was so painful and difficult.’ For Mr and Mrs Powell, the birth of their daughter on February 20 is even more of a wonder because they had enough money to fund only one cycle of IVF.

They were also fighting against the clock because strict rules meant Mr Powell’s sperm would have had to be destroyed when he reached the age of 55. Medical staff at the Bridge Centre in London, where they underwent the treatment, believe it is a British record for 20-year-old sperm to be successful in its first cycle.

Trevor White, an engineer from Manchester, became a father in 2004 after his sperm had been frozen for 21 years. However baby Daniel was conceived after four separate rounds of IVF.

‘I never thought we would be lucky enough for it to work,’ said 53-year-old Mr Powell, a former superintendent with the Metropolitan force.
‘I didn’t allow myself to believe it had been a success until the moment Jasmine was born.’
Mr Powell already had a daughter, now 23, with his first wife when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1990. They split a few years later and after a period alone he visited Thailand, where friends introduced him to Chenphen.
They married in March 2008 but only after he warned her that they could probably not have a family.

Mrs Powell, 36, said: ‘John explained to me that his cancer meant we were probably not going to be able to have a baby. ‘Obviously I was upset but I loved John so much that all I could think about was our future life together, if that was without children then that was okay.
‘But we knew there was a chance of having a baby with the frozen sperm. I knew we only really had one chance of it working so I didn’t really believe it would.
‘It was so unexpected when we found out I was pregnant, John had a huge smile on his face and it was obvious how happy he was.’ Mr Powell, a keen runner who has coached athletes to world championship level, had the sperm sample frozen in April 1991 and it was exactly 20 years later when his wife found she was pregnant.

He is the first Briton to survive a pioneering treatment. Bone marrow was drained from four holes drilled into his pelvis at Guy’s Hospital in London before he was given extremely high doses of chemotherapy. Months later the bone marrow – which had been frozen – was transplanted back into his body and his long road to recovery began.

Mr Powell kept a diary throughout the whole traumatic period of his treatment. He said: ‘I was confronted with the prospect of having just six months to live or having a chance of survival if I took the new treatment. I was determined to fight. It was a terrible time and it has only been since we were expecting Jasmine that I have been able to look at the diary again.’

The couple plan to fly to Thailand in September to show their daughter off to Mrs Powell’s mother. ‘She was crying down the phone when I told her Jasmine had been born,’ said Mrs Powell. ‘It is her first grandchild. I don’t know how she is going to wait until September.’

TV Presenter conceived ‘miracle baby’ naturally, just weeks after stopping IVF

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She spent two years undergoing IVF treatment, and after four failed attempts thought she had lost all hope of becoming a mother So it’s little wonder Kate Silverton looks overjoyed as she shows off the baby she never thought she would have – conceived naturally within weeks of stopping the treatment.
The 41-year-old BBC presenter, who is married to Michael Heron, a former Royal Marine, gave birth to daughter Clemency in November, describing her pregnancy as a ‘miracle’. ‘I still can’t quite believe that she’s here,’ she said. ‘Seeing her smile melts me to the core. It’s the culmination of everything I ever dared imagine or hope for.

‘When I have her in my arms, feeding her in the early hours, with Mike sleeping by my side, I look down at her little face and still feel overwhelmed by what’s happened.’ ‘Whether it’s the beaming smile I get when I lean over her crib in the morning or when her bottom lip trembles if she’s uncertain about something, I just live for those moments now. She’s just adorable.’

Doctors warned Miss Silverton she would struggle to conceive naturally after she had to undergo surgery to remove one of her ovaries. She then underwent four rounds of IVF, but they all failed and the couple stopped the treatment – only for Clemency to be conceived naturally soon afterwards.

Miss Silverton said: ‘I’m not sure how this happened, but I will give thanks every day for the rest of my life that I have experienced giving birth and now have a daughter. ‘It’s heartbreaking to know there are so many couples out there who face the same difficulties as we did and I wish that I could spread some of our good fortune to them.’

The TV star has yet to hire any help with the baby insisting that she and Heron, 44, wanted to do as much as possible themselves. She said: ‘We chose not to have any help as we like the idea of working as a team with her, to learn as much as we could instinctively, although I admit it has been a rather steep learning curve.’ Miss Silverton wed Mr Heron in December 2010 at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street – two years after they began dating.

Article: 23rd January 2012 www.dailymail.co.uk

Cut price IVF test improves chances of a healthy baby

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A cut-price test that could dramatically increase the chances of having a healthy baby through IVF could be available within 18 months. Oxford University researchers say their test could ‘revolutionise’ the treatment as it is half the price of existing tests and may be just as effective.

It may be cheap enough for use by the Health Service. And, unlike existing tests, it does not involve the potentially risky step of taking a sample of cells from the egg or fledgling embryo, making it safer and more ethically acceptable.

Instead, it works by analysing a ‘cloud’ of cells that nurture and feed the egg. These are normally thrown away in IVF treatment but fertility doctors Dagan Wells and Elpida Fragouli believe they hold important clues to the health of the egg.

Keeping and analysing these cells could help clinics select the best eggs for fertility treatment. It should also spare would-be parents the emotional and financial heartache of going through repeated unsuccessful IVF treatments. Analysing these ‘cloud’, or cumulous, cells is also likely to be much cheaper at £1,000 or less compared with the £2,000 cost of other techniques, bringing the technology within range of many more couples.

Despite IVF’s reputation as an insurance policy, the treatment works in less than a quarter of cases, and many of the failures are because of problems with the eggs’ chromosomes. There are already several ways of checking the chromosomes, but they require a small sample from the egg or embryo and so are not completely without risk to the unborn child.

The cumulous cells, however, can be studied without harming the egg. These cells grow and mature with the egg and so any problems that damage the egg, such as a poor blood supply, should also show up in the cells. The doctors have carried out a small-scale study that has shown that certain genes being over or under-active in the cumulous cells is a sign of abnormal eggs.

Calculations suggest that using the technique to pick out the healthiest eggs would boost a woman’s odds of having a baby. Existing tests can double or triple the odds of IVF success, and it is hoped the new test will be just as good.

Dr Wells said: ‘The number of patients we looked at is very small. This is very much a work in progress, but there is good reason for optimism at this point.’

A larger-scale study is planned, and if that goes well the technique could be trialled on women for the first time in the summer of 2012. If it proves to be safe and effective, it could be in widespread use early in 2013.

Article: 28th December 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk

Fertility treatments such as IVF and ICSI rise in the UK

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The number of people accessing fertility treatments such as IVF and ICSI has risen in the UK by almost six percent in the past year.
Statistics released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HEFA) revealed the number of fertility cycles carried out in 2010 stood at 57,652 – a 5.9 percent increase on treatments in 2009. It was also found that the age of women having such treatments is rising; within the last 20 years it has increased by 18 months.

The average age now stands at 35.1 years, compared to 33.6 years in 1991. Additionally, 19 percent of women having fertility treatments were found to be aged 40 plus, equating to one in five treatments. This figure has increased by nearly 10 percent since 1998.

Health experts believe the overall increase in fertility treatments and cycles is due to budget cuts that have affected the NHS. As a result, the National Health Service in the UK has tightened treatment eligibility regulations, meaning it is more difficult for to people to qualify for NHS funded fertility procedures.

However, in spite of this and the fact that most of fertility treatments are carried out and funded privately, the HEFA figures revealed the number of NHS treatments increased last year.

The proportion of fertility cycles that were funded by the NHS reached 40.6 percent in 2010 compared to 38.5 percent in 2009.

The Chief Executive of Infertility Network UK, Clare Lewis-Jones, commented on the findings. She said: “The fact that only a minority of treatment cycles in 2010 were funded by the NHS continues to highlight the difficulties faced by many patients in trying to access NHS treatment.

“The recent suspension of funding by many PCTs means that the number of NHS-funded cycles will no doubt decrease in 2011 and we are also concerned that, if responsibility for commissioning of fertility services is passed to GPs, there will be even more variations in access to treatment.”

Article: 17th November 2011 www.healthcareglobal.com

61 year old IVF mum said ‘I was too old when I had my baby’

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A retired teacher who gave birth at 57 through IVF now admits that she was too old to have a child. Susan Tollefsen sparked an ethical storm after becoming Britain’s oldest first-time mother when she had daughter Freya using sperm from her partner Nick Mayer, who is 11 years her junior, and a donor egg.
Now aged 61 and separated from Mr Mayer, she believes there should be an age limit of 50 for IVF treatment for women in the UK. The pensioner said she had split from Mr Mayer in part because of the ‘shock’ of having a child so late in life.

She said: ‘Freya is without doubt the best thing I have ever done in my life, and I have no regrets. But with the benefit of hindsight I recognise that perhaps some of my critics were right.

‘I get a great emotional feeling when I look at her, and a sadness when I realise time’s running out. If I could change just one thing, I would wish to be younger so I could enjoy watching Freya grow up, get married and have children of her own. ‘If I’m completely honest, my experience has taught me that 50 should probably be the cut-off limit for having children, but until you have them it’s almost impossible to appreciate that. ‘It’s so true that you only learn by your own mistakes, and my mistake was not to have had her sooner.’

Mrs Tollefsen, a former special needs teacher from Laindon, Essex, gave birth to Freya in 2008. The strain exposed problems that already existed in her relationship with Mr Mayer, and she is now bringing up Freya on her own on a tight income, which includes her pension. Freya stays with her father, a warehouse manager, every other weekend.

‘I’ve never regretted having Freya, but I’ve had to pay a heavy price for my dream of being a mother,’ Mrs Tollefsen added. ‘It’s cost me my relationship. ‘You think you’re madly in love with someone and you just don’t realise what they’re going to be like after you’ve had children.’

Mr Mayer, 49, said: ‘We’re living separately for various reasons. I’d prefer us all to be living together but that’s just not the case – but who knows what’ll happen in the future.’

Mrs Tollefsen also acknowledged the age gap between herself and other mothers at the school gates. ‘They are nice people but we are so different – we are from different generations,’ she said. ‘I have little in common with most of them. They talk about nights out and music and things that just don’t involve me. Sometimes I envy them their youth and infinite chances. I realised, belatedly, that I wanted a sibling for Freya but regretfully I had to devote the time to nursing my parents. But perhaps more than most I now know the real value of the time that’s left to us, and I don’t intend to waste a moment.’

She added: ‘A lot of the criticism I faced was based on my age, with claims that Freya would be abandoned in the event of my death. But Nick is still in his 40s.’ She also lamented the fact that older fathers do not face the sort of criticism she encountered, saying: ‘They get a slap on the back.’ Josephine Quintavalle, a co-founder of the pressure group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, praised Mrs Tollefsen’s candour. ‘One has to admire her honesty in coming forward and speaking frankly about the difficulties about being a mother so old,’ she said. ‘We can only hope that this acts as a warning to others who are in their later years and considering having a child.

‘One has to feel sorry for her, because she took advantage of something society offered her. But I think it shows that we need to have a bit more respect for nature, which seems to know how hard it is to look after a child when you are older. There is a very good reason the menopause comes when it does. IVF and egg-donating are creating a lot of unnatural situations.

‘As a society, we have to start to look at all of these issues from the perspective of the child and ask what is best for them. ‘The ideal situation for a child is to be with a two parents who are young and healthy enough to look after them.’

Article: 7th November 2011 www.dailymail.co.uk

Read more about IVF and egg donation.

Lesbian mom can seek custody of son shared with birth-mom

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Although the law kept her from adopting her son, a woman involved in a 20-year, same-sex relationship has the right to seek custody and visitation rights for a child born to her now-estranged partner, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled. The Court ruled she has the right to argue she became a parent through her parenting of a boy born to her partner, Susan Schwerdtfeger, in 2001 through IVF. The case marks the first time the state court has provided guidance in the polarizing area of custody and visitation rights of same-sex couples parents. Teri Latham of Omaha could not adopt the boy born to her partner or claim legal standing as a parent because the state doesn’t recognize same-sex unions.

[via Omaha.com]