Online Reviews

1st IVF with Egg Donation and I was pregnant!

Hans: My wife is a doctor and knows the German medical system from inside. First of all, the German national health system is totally hostile towards ivf. Before 2009 a fertility patient was entitled to three ivf tries with a minimal participation in the cost of ivf treatments. As of 2009 even those three ivf attempts are not granted by the German nhs, so we have to pay everything out of our pockets, and fertility treatments are too expensive in Germany. This is preposterous. The average German cannot afford any fertility treatment. Even IVF drugs are so much more expensive here than in Greece.

The second barrier is German legislation banning egg donation. I’m not judging that. I’m just saying there is absolutely no way you can have donor egg ivf in Germany. And that’s that. Your hope of parenthood is cut off. Notice, I’m saying “parenthood” and not conception. In Germany you can’t even adopt a child if you are over 40 or something. That restriction goes for either one of would-be parents.

Then we come to the level of quality of German doctors, which is unacceptable, to say the least. And I know what I’m talking about. As I said, my wife is herself a doctor, and I’m a university graduate. The German national health system forces doctors to spend more time in paperwork than treating their patients. So when it comes to fertility treatments, they prove worthless. Back in 2006 when we started, the law gave us 3 ivf treatments. We lost all three of them due to their incompetence. To be more specific, we lost all three attempts with my wife’s own eggs because the doctors were not available for oocyte retrieval during her ovulation. They failed to schedule the tests and the whole procedure properly. We don’t live in Heidelberg. We’re kilometers away. But we had to travel to Heidelberg just to be seen by the gynecologist for 10 minutes. He said the next appointment should be in 4 days. We said “ovulation is in 2 days.” But the doctor wanted to go home for the weekend.

Christa: “Look at my hormones! Ovulation is on its way!” I said to him.

“Sorry, we’re closed for the weekend.”

That’s a crime! Come Monday morning, we call him and he says, “We lost it.”

I was desperate. It was so unfair. With mistakes like that you not only lose your 3 ivf chances, you lose your chance to have a baby with your own eggs as time goes by.

Then they made me miss my two other fertility treatments experimenting foolishly with iui on me. They didn’t really examine my case. They didn’t run the right blood and hormonal tests. All they did was keep trying with intra uterine insemination until they realized it was a dead end. Then we had to go all over the excruciating red tape with the insurance system, which took time for the expenditure to be approved. Problem is, time works against our fertility. The number of your eggs decreases dramatically with age.

No one took my problem seriously in Germany. That’s heartbreaking, you know. Especially when you’ve been trying to have a baby for years. The toll is great for the whole family.

We knew fertility specialist Thanos Paraschos in Greece, so when we realized something was going seriously wrong with the doctors in Germany, we started consulting him at each and every step from some point onwards. We couldn’t trust them anymore. So we would send test results and he would say “How did they ever come with such values?” (headslap) Nothing made sense. All they did was miss my ovulations. And I was definitely not getting any younger.

Hans: All three times they failed to get even a single egg of my wife’s, while Dr Paraschos managed to get her own eggs the first time we tried with him!

Christa: The German doctor will never say “Your case is different, so we will follow a different protocol.” One protocol for all, no matter what.

Another thing is that German legislation forbids embryo transfers of more than two embryos at a time. Their explanation is that triplets are a risk for abortions or during labor.

Hans: Her gynecologist in Germany is a very good man, but has no ivf experience. So he said she should go abroad to get pregnant. Dr. Thanos Paraschos has proved an excellent choice. Now we’re trying for our second baby with him, this time with donor eggs.

Amazing Success with Donor Eggs!

It was an amazing success. We had been through so many ivf tries. Now, first time with egg donation, and I was pregnant! It was something that made us delirious with happiness. It was incredible!

Mother at 50 with Egg Donation in Athens

"The babies are so beautiful... I guess a mixture of three makes them smart and funny, too!"

If you are thinking about that you might be too old to have a child, or if you for some reason do not have own eggs that work for IVF, it is for you I would like to tell my story. Everyone is welcome to read my story, of course, but the focus is addressed to you who are a bit older.

We all know that sometimes time just flies and one day you find out that your biolocial clock has ticked on way too far, and you sit there knowing that there is something missing in your life, something that most people consider as the most important of all: To have a child. Good thing though, today we have ways of solving that problem, even for those who otherwise would end up childless. Knowledge and technology is there, but in our country, Sweden, the age of the woman is limited for IVF. If you are over 40 years old, there is no clinic who will help you even if it is not illegal in our country, but it is not ethically recommended.

I was over 50 years old when I realized that it wasn't too late after all.

I had children before, but my husband did not, and I knew that to become a father was something he had been longing for, for a long time. So, I started to read about IVF, egg donation and surrogacy on the internet. I read through website after website, both Swedish and abroad and learned that many women, especially in the UK and USA were able to have children very late in life due to IVF. I made contact with clinics all over the world, India, UK, USA, the Eastern blocks and finally Greece. I found out that the price for donor egg IVF differed very much between the different clinics and most of them showed very high rates of pregnancies and babies born. What should I believe in? When I finally read about EMBIO Medical Center in Athens, I knew that I had found the right clinic. The service and attention I got was unbeatable. One might think they worked 24/7, just for us. We decided that EMBIO was the clinic we would use. They had no long waiting lists and the prices were not higher than anywhere else.

In Sweden it is very hard to find a doctor who is willing to take the tests needed for IVF, if you are older than 39-40 years. Luckily I found one who took the tests, but she was not willing to prescribe the hormones that I needed. Again, it was not ethically right! EMBIO Clinic helped me to find a clinic in Stockholm, though, who could give me the medication, but I preferred to order it directly from EMBIO, since they knew exactly what kind of medication I needed. The clinic in Stockholm helped me with the ultrasounds etc. I still had my own eggs I could have tried for the IVF, but we chose to use donated eggs since the risks were bigger with my eggs. I had also read about egg donations and knew how much the ”carrying mother” affected the baby after all. That was enough for me.

I and EMBIO Clinic made plans and after only a few weeks I was ready to start the treatment. We got to choose the donor and we also sent a photo of me to the clinic so they could find me a suitable match. I had the medication sent to me to Sweden by DHL, who dropped them off at my door, and the treament started. I had been on birthcontrol pills a couple of months earlier just to avoid that my own period would disturb the treatment. The donor and I started the hormone treatment simultaneously, and we hoped for many great eggs from the donor.

We booked a hotel in the central parts of Athens, just to be able to enjoy our trip a little more as tourists.We also thought that if the treatment didn't work, at least we had had a great vacation. We chose to stay 3-4 nights which is enough to get everything done. Directly when we landed we took a Taxi to the clinc to leave the sperm sample and two days later we went back to do the transfer. I rested a day at the hotel and the next day we flew home.

The embryo transfer procedure was very simple and painless and the wonderful crue at the clinic made sure we felt safe and well treated. The atmosphere at the clinic was very happy and warm and everything went fine without any delays. You decide together with Dr Paraschos how many eggs you will use. The chance to get pregnant increases with more than one embryo, also the risk of having twins or triplets, but that is for everyone to decide.

When we got home I continued with the medication and already after nine days we took the test, which was positive. Unfortunately I misscarried in week five, but it didn't feel too bad, since we now knew I could get pregnant. We tried two more times, the second time I didn't get pregnant but the third I did, with twins.

My pregnancy was absolutely great, even if the doctors in Sweden were a bit sceptical. A twin pregnancy is often a risk pregnancy, and my age could give even more risks, but I was lucky. I felt morning sickness for 17 weeks, and had some heartburn through the whole pregnancy, but that was all. All tests on both I and the babies were 100% good so I worked untill week 33 and I was delivered as planned week 38. The doctors wanted me to go on sick leave already week 25 just in case, but I felt great and didn't see any reason for it. I got to choose whether I would give birth normally or by caesarean section, we chose the latter. We didn't want to risk anything when everything else had gone so well.

The babies, a boy 3000g and a girl 2500g, both beautiful and healthy, three months today, are keeping us busy all the time. Two babies are a handful, but the time goes fast and we are trying to enjoy the babies even if it is hard sometimes.

So, if any of you readers are thinking about having a child and feeling that you are too old, think again. Today ”fifty is the new forty” as the commercial for a beauty cream says, and actually that is how it is. Besides, a womb does not have an ”age” as eggs do.

I also know that we, especially Swedes, often have preconceived ideas about health care in southern european countries, but it really doesn't have to be like that. Even though Greece has economical problems today which affects their health care system, EMBIO Medical Center is operating very well as usual, and I truly recommend the clinic to everyone who is thinking about having a baby, at any age.

If you have any questions or would like to have some help with plans for the trip, please do not hesitate to contact me trough EMBIO, I will be happy to help you.