“IVF may not be sexy, but it does provide a unique intimacy experience that you can’t have with your partner.”

The only way is Essex Star Georgia Kousourou Announced She’s pregnant with a ‘rainbow baby’ After undergoing IVF treatment.

Detox and Energy Expert Frankie JonesThe 36-year-old underwent the same gruelling fertility treatments before welcoming her five-year-old son Theo in 2019, and then fell ill with her two-year-old daughter Ottilie in 2021.

“It was a really stressful time, but I think I was really lucky in that I knew I wanted IVF when I was 16. I was born with a genetic condition called Primary Ciliary Dysfunction (PCD), which affects the cilia in the body, including the fallopian tubes. The cilia are what move the egg to where it needs to be fertilised. So I knew at 16 my doctor told my consultant that I’d probably need help to have children.

I was on financial support with my previous partner. We were doing 2 years of testing to get financial support but then we broke up. When I met Shane we knew we wanted children. We thought we had done all the testing but all my records were lost so we had to do it all again. That was a very stressful point and probably why we ended up turning to private medicine.

The first time, there wasn’t much time until the transfer, so I didn’t prepare at all. I thought, “I’m fine with it, so I don’t care what happens.” But it failed. The quality of the eggs is determined three months before the collection, but I didn’t prepare at all for that.

So after the first round, I detoxed and made sure my bowel movements were good. I found a book called “It Starts With the Egg” and used that as a guide for supplements. One of them was CoQ10, which is known to be a very powerful antioxidant that supports egg health. I took it for three months and I believe it made a huge difference in the quality of my eggs.

We first did a fresh embryo transfer, but it failed, and then we didn’t have any embryos to freeze, or so we call blastocysts. We were shocked. Everything had been building up to that moment. Also, we get very attached to the embryos because we’ve invested so much emotionally and financially.

Once the eggs have been collected, we know how many there are, they have been fertilised, and we receive daily updates on their condition and progress, so you literally feel like you are watching them grow like a little baby and you really want to root for them.

Physically, I had a ton of nasty side effects from the hormone injections, mainly the bloating that felt like I was overdosing on hormones, headaches, sensitivity to light (so much so I had to wear sunglasses a lot), and of course fatigue and constipation.

The second cycle was much more successful. We had seven blastocysts. One was implanted and six were put in the freezer. That was my son, Theo, born in February 2019.

The second transfer was a frozen embryo transfer, but it was actually a chemical pregnancy – the pregnancy test showed I was pregnant, but the line started to fade, meaning enough had implanted to raise my hormone levels, but then it didn’t take hold.

Then the lockdown happened and the world shut down.

Then a few years later we were able to have another transplant, our fourth, and our little girl, Ottilie, was born in March of 2022.

This is a very difficult time, but everyone is rooting for you and they want you to succeed just as much as you do.

Personally, Shane and I have been in perfect sync. I think for a lot of couples, it’s a real challenge. But we’ve found this really beautiful place where it’s our own intimate journey and it brings us closer to each other.

We were on the exact same page and he was fantastic.

IVF is not very sexy, but I think it’s that shared vulnerability that creates intimacy. You two are on a special journey together. It’s very medical and clinical and not very sexy, but emotionally, if you can be open and vulnerable with each other, you can find intimacy there.

There is a big question mark about the future, but since no one knows what will happen, I think it is so important to find joy in everyday life more than anything.

After that first failure, it really highlighted to me how important it is to build a life where we love, are happy, and find joy outside of dedicating all our happiness to having a family, which can be really hard when having a family is what you want more than anything.

Even if it’s the thing you want more than anything in the world, it’s not the end all be all.”