Episode 2 The Baby Makers

In the UK, an estimated one in seven couples

suffer fertility problems of some kind.

Every year,

thousands of these will seek help in the form of fertility treatment.

For some, this will be a success,

resulting in a much-longed-for child.

It's more than we ever thought it would be.

And to get two at the one time is double the bonus. It's just amazing.

And some women go to extraordinary lengths

to help others achieve their dream.

'I know it's not simple and straightforward.'

There is lot of work involved with being an egg donor,

but it's a small thing to do for giving someone something so huge.

This is the story of fertility in Northern Ireland

and the lengths that some couples and individuals must go to

to have a baby.

Mel is a 24-year-old mother of three

who has made the brave decision to donate her eggs

in the hope that someone experiencing fertility problems

may benefit.

'My friend asked me to donate eggs about two years ago,

'but I was too young to do it on the NHS.'

I've got a few other friends as well who've been through IVF

or have gone through IVF, got pregnant, had a baby who's died

and then are either considering

starting the journey again or having a life with no children.

But it's not just her friends' experiences that have inspired Mel.

'My first little boy with my partner was stillborn.'

And there wasn't very long in-between him dying

and our second son being born, and it was a new lease of life for me.

He didn't make everything OK,

but he brought a lot of happiness into our lives

that wouldn't have been there.

'I've moved on a great deal from where I was,

'but I don't think I'll ever be right again, you know?'

It's a damage that can't be undone.

And it's not even just that I miss him or that I'm grieving for him,

it's affected so many other parts of my life -

the way I treat my children. I probably do baby them too much.

This is my youngest, Amira, who's almost one.

She's a crazy little child.

But I wouldn't change you, with your craziness!

'I was very lucky that I got pregnant again quite quickly,

'but even in the space in-between

'it felt like it would never, ever happen for me.'

I got a glimpse into how it must feel to go through that

month after month after month,

and especially when people have a reason

and they know that it's highly unlikely to happen,

but they still just keep trying. To me, that is amazing strength.

Who are you laughing at?

Aww! Burped!

Today, Mel is attending Origin Fertility Care,

a private fertility clinic,

for the first step on her journey to donate her eggs.

Thanks for coming back again. It's great to see you.

The good news is that all the screening has been done

and all the results are fine.

And if you're still happy, then we'd be really glad to go ahead

and do a donation cycle with you.

We'd plan to start your first drug,

and that drug is an injection of Suprefact,

and it basically blocks the feedback pathway

that you normally have in your own system

between your brain and your ovaries.

And it's just a little injection in your tummy or your thigh.

So that's something you can do yourself.

Then you will start the stimulation,

and the Menopur, basically, is going to stimulate your ovaries

to produce more than the one egg that you naturally produce yourself.

It's just that cycle...

'I'm doing this - bottom line - to give someone a baby,

'hopefully to give two people a baby.'

And I think I have to keep a hold of the thought

that, yes, babies will come out of it,

I'd rather be disappointed than be negative the whole way along,

if you know what I mean.

I just want to be positive

and hope that there will be little babies come out of it at the end.

Jude and Brian from Belfast have been married for almost five years,

but their wish to have a child remains unfulfilled.

As time goes by, and maybe six months go by,

you do sort of start to read things, maybe, or just seek out...

I mean, the internet is a wonderful thing

and maybe not such a wonderful thing!

But you start to look it up, and everything says

"Wait a year" or "Try for a year".

'After a year, we went to the GP.

'They do a certain number of months' worth of tests.'

Then you're referred to the fertility clinic.

And that takes a little while to get your appointment,

and then they sort of repeat all the same tests again.

And then that's sort of two years.

Every couple in Northern Ireland

is entitled to one free fertility cycle on the NHS.

After a long wait, Jude and Brian have been told

that their fertility treatment

at the Regional Fertility Centre in Belfast is about to begin.

'We've had some tests and blood tests and some screenings.'

And next week we are going for our first, I think, appointment

that I think sets everything out for us,

what is going to happen in the next number of months.

'We'd love it to happen.

'But if it doesn't happen,

'we do have great nieces, nephews, friends.'

-There are other options.

-There are other options.

And we've been looking at fostering.

Obviously, then, the future of that is adoption.

But, you know, there's other things available for us

-if this doesn't happen.

-Mm-hm. Mm-hm.

'I'm really, really trying not to get my hopes up,

'but you have to balance that with being positive.'

We'll just start it, get through it.

-It's not going to be the worst thing in the world.

-No!

You know, there's plenty of worse things that people have to do.

And, you know, hopefully, hopefully it'll take and work.

At home, Mel has started administering her own injections.

These injections are designed to stop Mel's natural menstrual cycle

so that it can be artificially controlled.

This will enable Mel's egg production to be co-ordinated

with the women who are waiting to receive her eggs.

'It hasn't taken over my life, as I feared at the beginning it might do.

'You know, when we got to this stage

'it was going to be that my life would all be about egg donation.'

And it hasn't, it's just my life with something extra in it.

The catalyst for me coming forward to donate eggs was the death of our son,

and it seems a bit of an odd coincidence, maybe,

that I had to start injecting myself on the anniversary of his death.

Erm...so I don't know whether that's a sign that he's here,

that he's going to help me through it,

but it has been a kind of comfort,

it's given me something else to focus on

on the anniversary of his death and then his birthday.

The fact that it's all fallen in the same week

I think is a bit more than a coincidence. I don't know.

I read something the other day, actually.

It says grief does not get easier with time,

the only reason it feels easier

is that you become accustomed to the burden,

and I think it's true that I'm used to now feeling someone's missing.

I suppose it's better than actively grieving over him for six years,

because you can't physically do that, I don't think.

It'd just drain the life out of you.

But, yeah, we're getting there.

I think!

Mel's egg donation is totally anonymous,

and any children born as a result of the process

can only learn of her identity when they turn 18.

Until then, Mel's only communication with any potential child

is a brief written message.

'Part of the forms they've given me

'is the opportunity to write a goodwill message

'to any babies that are born from my donation

'and also to give a bit of a description about myself.

'It brings it home that this is something that will actually result

'in life being created.

'At the minute now, especially with all the injections'

and the actual harvesting itself looming over me,

it's still hard to think beyond medical procedure.

But this is, I suppose, a good way of, y'know,

coming to terms with the fact that, yes,

there may well be children created from what I'm going through now.

Egg donation is still relatively uncommon in Northern Ireland.

But a recent set of recommendations

by the HFEA, an organisation which regulates the fertility business,

may mean more donors coming forward.

The new scheme will allow egg donors to be paid

a fixed sum of £750 per donation.

So, really, the amount has tripled, which is very good news.

It certainly won't solve the problem of the shortage of egg donors,

but I believe it will greatly help,

because it will help to raise awareness.

Any positive step whatsoever will be very welcome

and will certainly help in the campaign to recruit egg donors.

As Mel is beginning her treatment,

these regulations have not yet become law.

This means she won't be compensated for her egg donation

except for expenses.

Today, she has reached another milestone on her journey

and is at the clinic for an important appointment.

This appointment is for a scan

to see whether or not we're ready to start the second drug.

So I'm a bit nervous, because if they tell me I am ready,

then that's kind of the beginning of the end, sort of the final step.

So, yeah, I'm nervous and excited.

This scan is to check

if her ovaries are responding well to the injections

and that there are no potential issues.

However, it soon becomes apparent that there is a problem,

as the scan shows Mel has cysts on her ovaries.

You've got a couple of cysts on that one as well.

So...we probably need to manage those before we can get going.

Not to worry. It's a pain for yourself.

That's the scan done.

Right...

Right, so we've done the scan,

and there are a couple of cysts on your ovaries.

The lining of the womb is thin,

which indicates they're non-functioning,

so they're just there.

So we'll take a blood test

to check whether or not the cysts are functioning,

-and if they're not, that we can go ahead and start the stimulation.

-OK.

All right?

Mel must now wait on blood-test results

that will show if the cysts are active.

Although she does not know who the egg recipients are,

she is worried that this will be a major setback for them.

I will be disappointed if it is going to cause a delay,

because now, today, I've found out

that both the recipients are ready to move on to the next stage.

Maybe I do expect too much from myself,

especially when it's something completely out of my control,

but I just don't want to hold them back

when I know how long they've probably waited for an egg donor,

and I don't want to leave them waiting any more than I have to.

Jude's treatment at the Regional Fertility Centre in Belfast

is under way,

and she's become accustomed to the drugs regime involved.

We went along to our appointment,

and we got our big package of medication,

and then we literally went in, saw the nurse,

and she went through our whole schedule.

It's a bit scary at the start.

I mean, I don't like needles as much as the next person.

But it's a really fine needle, and you just dial up your dose.

Mine was generally 150. And I sort of generally went into the tummy.

And it's not so good if you're running late

and you have to do that quickly,

because you want to give yourself a wee bit of time.

My egg collection is tomorrow morning,

and then three, four days after that I'll have egg transfer,

which hopefully, fingers crossed,

they will be putting fertilised embryos back in.

I'm looking forward to getting this week over.

Yeah, this week, and then you're just waiting to take a test.

And then you still can't jump for joy.

Even if that turns out to be OK, you sort of have to wait and see.

But you know, hopefully this time,

in, I don't know, a month, a month and a half,

we'll know. We'll know.

'I didn't really know what to expect,

'but I think that she's handled it so well.

'We had a few...weepy days, let's say.'

Nothing you can't handle when you consider what she's going through.

I think she's done really, really well, so I'm really proud of her.

'I'm nervous about tomorrow.

'I'm a bit nervous, but I just want it to be over.'

If we get to the stage that embryos are fertilised, brilliant,

that embryos transfer OK, brilliant,

and then just try and get my head down for two weeks

and not think constantly about "Am I pregnant? Am I pregnant?"

So it's exciting, but you just don't want to get your hopes up so much!

At the clinic, Mel's blood-test results

have shown that her cysts are active,

and she is about to undergo a procedure to drain them.

This is essential

before Mel starts drugs to stimulate her ovaries to grow more eggs.

If not dealt with, the cysts could obstruct the growth of her eggs.

Mel is under mild sedation but remains awake during the procedure.

OK, I'm going to scan you now.

This is the left ovary.

We can see there is a cyst there,

so on my three I'm going to give you a jab there,

so it's one, two, three.

'This one was a cyst aspiration.'

The reason why we done that is because it developed cysts.

So those, they take a space from the ovaries,

and sometimes the ovaries may not respond

to the stimulation of the drugs that we give.

So we felt that it's appropriate to aspirate the cyst

and then start the stimulation.

'In about ten days from today, ten to twelve days from today,

'she should have enough follicles'

to recover some nice eggs from there.

A successful pregnancy from IVF

is a dream come true for women who have fertility issues.

One, two, three!

Eilish from County Tyrone experienced this joy in 2010,

when her twins Michael and Niamh were born.

But this was only at the end of a long struggle

for Eilish and her husband Kieran.

'We got married in 2003,

'and we decided we would wait for about a year.'

After a year, nothing was happening, so we went to the doctor

and we were put on an NHS IVF waiting list.

We had donor treatment in the Royal,

our first round of IVF, and it actually was successful.

But it ended up in a miscarriage, which was devastating after...

Getting that first positive was great,

but sadly it wasn't meant to be.

It's Daddy!

'After we had the miscarriage, then we looked at all of our options,

'and we got the GCRM in Glasgow, and we called them.'

We decided we would go over there and see how that went.

'I went to Scotland on my own, never told anybody -'

Kieran was the only one who knew - and had the embryos put back.

'And I went back to work, told nobody,

'went to work for the whole week.'

And I ended up in it being a positive.

This time, Eilish had a successful pregnancy,

and in September 2010, her twins arrived.

'Michael came out first.'

They brought him over, and I just couldn't believe that he was ours.

He was just so tiny and snuggly.

So, they wrapped him up and gave him to Kieran.

And then Niamh came next. And she was just all pink and lovely.

And they brought her over, and, to be honest,

I couldn't see her for crying.

Sit down on Mummy's knee. Good boy.

Who's this?

Michael. Ahhh, give him a kiss!

'It's as if they've always been here now.

'Just definitely they're worth getting up in the morning now

'and worth the sleepless nights.'

I just feel complete now, just totally complete, that I have...

a boy and a girl and Kieran, and we're just a happy family now.

You know...if we had had one, we would have been more than happy,

but you probably would have wanted company, for another one.

But for God to give you two at the one time,

sure, what more could you ask for?

Mel is on her way to the clinic for another important scan.

Today, she will find out if she has produced enough follicles

and can therefore go ahead and donate her eggs.

After her previous setback, it's an anxious time for Mel.

I'm just worried that it hasn't worked. I don't know, I don't...

I think the journey so far, we've had a couple of setbacks,

and I think I'm just expecting the worst now.

I'm just expecting to go for a scan, for them to say, "There's no eggs,"

or, "There's not enough eggs to make it worth our while".

But I'm just hoping, really, really hoping, that that isn't the case.

However, once the scan begins, it becomes clear that the news is good.

Now, in total we've got 12, 13, 14, 15,

16 on that side.

Plenty. There are!

Now, we'd only expect to get mature eggs from the more mature follicles,

and we're not going to wait for them all to grow,

because that's obviously increasing the risk.

OK! So it all looks fine.

I'll let you get dressed, and then we'll go through the next bit.

'It went really well today,

'so we're expecting a really nice number of eggs,

'and on this occasion,'

she should have enough eggs for two recipients, which is wonderful news.

These are the ones that we consider to be mature,

the ones that are already at 17 and above.

Three, five, six, seven, eight, which is perfect.

But you've also got another two, three, four, five

which I'd kind of expect to carry on growing,

so that's a really nice number of eggs.

'The recipient herself will have been on drugs

'to make sure that her lining of her womb is ready.'

The sperm from the husband will be mixed with the egg from the donor

so that we can create embryos,

and the embryos will then be put back into the recipient

two or three days after the egg collection.

Brilliant. Well, I can say that we've got two very happy recipients

that will be delighted with what you've done, so thank you again.

-Happiness!

-Yes, exactly! It's good. Well done.

Really, really glad. Everything seems to be going well.

I'm just really, really hoping it all goes right

and we do get two pregnancies out of it. It'd be lovely.

Every year, thousands of people from the UK

travel abroad for fertility treatment,

a practice commonly referred to as "fertility tourism".

Egg and sperm donations

are much more commonplace and readily available

in other countries with different regulations.

In recent years, Spain has become a popular destination

for people from Northern Ireland who wish to undergo treatment.

As a managing director of a fertility clinic,

it is important that Jenny Hall is up to date on fertility trends.

Today, she has come to visit a Spanish clinic

to see how their regime operates.

'In Northern Ireland and in the UK as a whole,

'there is a shortage of donors.'

A lot of people need egg donation,

but there are not a lot of egg donors available.

'It's very difficult to recruit donors,

'because it is now possible

'that any child born from egg or sperm donation,

'when they reach the age of 18,'

can get the identifying information about the donor

and could possibly trace the donor.

'In Spain, the law is completely different,

'and donors remain anonymous.'

Therefore there is no possibility

of a donor-conceived child tracing their donor in the future.

Jenny hopes that in the future

she could possibly work in conjunction

with some of the clinics based in Europe.

'The purpose of today, really, was just to explore the options.

'I wanted to see the facility, meet the team'

and just get a general, overall impression of what was possible.

'I was genuinely very impressed by the whole experience.

'And when I talked to them, I heard the answers that I wanted to hear.'

You know, they didn't say anything that gave me

any cause for concern at all, so that was all very positive.

Back in Northern Ireland, it's the day of Mel's egg donation.

In a few hours, she will know if the treatment has worked

and if she has produced enough eggs

to help create a baby for someone else.

I'll be glad when it's over, just because I'm anxious about it.

But no, I'm not particularly...

I know it doesn't hurt and I know it doesn't take very long,

so it'll be fine, I think!

Mel is sedated for this procedure,

which involves the removal of the follicles from her ovaries.

The fluid content of the follicles is checked in the adjoining lab

and the eggs are then safely stored for fertilisation.

As the procedure concludes,

the results from the lab are very positive.

Has it all worked?

OK, that's it all over, Melanie.

'It's gone very well, we've got the 12 eggs there.'

So the great thing there is

from that one donor, we're able to treat two couples

who have been longing for donor eggs for a long time.

So the next stage for us

is obviously to add the sperm and eggs together.

Different ways of doing that.

We'll check them tomorrow morning

and then we'll phone the two couples.

'It's all over.

'It was a little bit more painful than the cyst aspiration'

but nothing unbearable.

But it's done now, and I feel normal and ready to go home.

And I guess that's it!

A couple of weeks after their first IVF cycle,

and Jude and Brian are reflecting on the outcome.

After the eggs were put back,

you have a date where you do a pregnancy test,

and it was about three or four days before that

we realised, "OK, it hasn't worked".

It was tough. It was tough. Y'know, I was quite emotional. I was sad.

Just at that moment where you realise it hasn't worked,

it is pretty devastating.

We are still young.

We don't have children,

and there's a lot of things that we can still enjoy together

that we wouldn't be able to do.

God, I mean, we would put having a child in front of anything, really,

but, erm, you just have to appreciate what you do have.

Several weeks after her egg donation,

Mel has been told the results of the process.

Out of the two recipients, one of them is pregnant

and one of them is not.

So it was a bit...

mixed emotions.

You know, I'm happy for the one that's pregnant

and disappointed for the one that isn't.

Mel must now face the possibility that in 18 years' time

she may be contacted by a child born from one of her donated eggs.

I tried to put as much into my letter as possible

so that they wouldn't need to look me up -

not for my sake but for their sake and their parents' sake,

because I imagine it must be a really difficult thing to do, to say...

"I love you, Mum and Dad, but I want to go and find my biological mother".

And if I can save them having to do that, then I will.

But if they still want to look me up, then fine, you know,

we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

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