This week we are discussing Surrogacy, both in the UK and abroad. Our first guest is Anna Buxton, mum of three children through two different surrogates. Anna talks us through her decision of how they reached surrogacy after a long and painful gynaecological history and was told Surrogacy was her only hope as she would never carry. Not carrying you…

Here's a bonus mid-week episode continuing the focus that other fellow poddies have been giving to your stories about cancelled treatment as well as the brilliant open letter @definingmum shared on her insta. We chatted with the lovely Jen @ivfpineapple who had her donor treatment cancelled and we know that there is a lot of anxiety and unease abou…

Meet Francesca Steyn, Head of Nursing at the CRGH - Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health in London. Francesca is involved with the Sperm, Egg and Embryo Donation (SEED) Trust and she spoke to Kate and I about the ‘minefield’ that is surrogacy and how patients considering this option can get the information, guidance and support they need. Whe…

Would you fly around the world to meet your sperm donor? Adam Hooper contacted me via Facebook after I shared an episode about Unregulated Sperm donation websites in the UK, with Dr Larissa Corda. You can listen to this episode here Adam wanted to talk on the podcast and give his perspective rather than as he put it ' talking non-fictional garbage …

Want to know more about donating your eggs? Altrui was set up in 2010 to meet the overwhelming need in the UK for egg donors. Its founder Alison Bagshaw who I spoke to in a previous episode here felt UK couples needed more practical help when it came to finding an egg donor and that women who wanted to donate their eggs needed to be properly looked…

Our routes to motherhood can be extremely varied, all with complex emotions involved. Meet Mel Johnson, Solo Mum and founder of The Stork and I which you can hear all about here in our previous episode In this chat, Mel and I caught up on the reality of being solo motherhood - the journey and the rollercoaster Mel talked about loneliness and how sh…

What you need to know about family law... Meet Lois My guest Lois Langton is Head of Family Law at Howard Kennedy and she specializes in all aspects of Family Law including divorce, financial remedy, civil partnerships, pre-/post-nuptial agreements, cohabitation, separation, and child-related work (including adoption and surrogacy). Paperwork In th…

My guest Jo and her partner Jane decided they were going to start trying for a baby. Jo was 38 and the pair went to an open evening at a clinic to find out more. Jo was invited to have an AMH blood test and to her 'horror' was told she had low fertility. They decided to go to Manchester Fertility for their treatment. They started off choosing a spe…

My Guest Robin Newman talked about dealing with Unexplained infertility and how it changed her life. Robin shared with me how she spent seventeen years trying to get pregnant and was diagnosed with unexplained infertility, which is so hard to deal with. She spent every penny and was told she had 'Idiopathic infertility' this meant everything perfec…

Michael and Wes run TwoDads.U.K documenting their journey to become Dads and working hard to raise awareness of surrogacy in the UK. Michael speaks at National Fertility events about their journey to become Dads, and the treatment of Intended Parents in the NHS - which still has a long way to go from an equality perspective as well as documenting t…

Jana M. Rupnow, MA, LPC, is a licensed professional counsellor and consultant specializing in fertility and family building. Jana has helped hundreds of people facing the challenges of infertility as well as those preparing for third-party family building and adoption. Jana works independently in private practice in Dallas, Texas. She has built rel…

Have you been told you need to consider an egg donor in order to get pregnant? I met Sarah Esdaile at Fertility Fest 2018 when she took part in the Fertility Fight club sharing her story and this is the video we shared via Facebook live for you to check out. You can hear Sarah at approx 36 minutes. Talking about egg donation Sarah and I met in at S…

Donor Concierge finds egg donors and surrogates and helps people with all that comes with it. I wanted to hear from Gail Sexton Anderson about how the 12-year organization works and it's pretty special the lengths they go to to find a match. Gail talked to me about how when she first started working with Intended Parents (IP's) she could see how it…

Pride Angel is a membership site helping single, same-sex and heterosexual couples have families. I spoke to co-founder Erika Tranfield about her reasons behind creating the site. Erika wanted her child to know their father's identity and be involved in their life, the amount of contact would depend on many factors, such as do we agree on similar p…

Have you wondered about egg donation and been put off by the sensationalized newspaper articles or just not really understood how it all works? My latest episode hears from an egg donor. A lovely lady called Amelia has donated 29 eggs. Amelia shares her story of her husband's cystic fibrosis and her own gynecological problems which meant that start…

Welcome to National Fertility Awareness Week 2015 and Monday's episode. To help raise awareness of the week, I'm releasing a podcast every day starting with Carmen in Mexico.. now you might ask why I've chosen to leave the UK on day 1, but I want to highlight how there are people all over the world going through a similar struggle to start a family…

This special episode isn't me, well you'll hear me at the start but it's a poddy take over by the lovely Cat Strawbridge aka @tryingyears Cat now has her own podcast called Finally Pregnant, however, she started her presenting journey with a series of brilliant Instagram lives, talking about topics ranging from How to Choose a Clinic, Making Diffic…

In this series you will hear conversations about routes to parenthood from same sex couples, solo parents as well as people navigating donor conception. You can learn about surrogacy around the world, the legalities involved and also we discuss adoption and childlessness not by choice.Par NatChat Productions Ltd