MY heart sank this week when a report revealed that the number of women choosing to have a child via a sperm donor has tripled in ten years.
Not because they’re giving up waiting for Mr Right to become a mother – good for them – but because they may have opted for IVF, thinking it’s the guaranteed easy route to get there. maternity.
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I know the painful heartbreak that many women face when they go the IVF routeCredit: Alamy 
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With each failed round, my age, disappointment and raging hormones escalated, over the moving new Netflix film JoyCredit: PA
But that is not the case. I know that because IVF broke me financially and emotionally.
It’s sad that we now have a generation of women who delay their attempts to become parents until they reach their 40s because they think they can always rely on that easy golden ticket.
Because I know the painful heartache that many face.
This was the norm in the 1970s babies when fertility was at its peak, families lived close together to help out, there were less financial worries and also less pressure on women to work.
But when my time came in the early 2000s, I found myself in a career where babies and work didn’t mix.
Now there are rights and advantages that women can have children at any age.
Many still choose to wait, but it is a dangerous mistake that could cost them their dream of having a family, if they so choose.
The average age of women who opt for sperm donor IVF is 36 – when they are likely to be financially secure and tired of waiting for that elusive partner. dating app to show his face.
I was around that age when I had to start IVF, thinking I would get pregnant quickly thanks to the wonders of science. I was so wrong.
My husband and I ended up spending tens of thousands of pounds on treatment and having to remortgage our house.
I was £50,000 in debt after my wife underwent nine rounds of IVF… so I did something drastic
We were luckier than some: the Geordie and I had two rounds clear on the NHS.
But when they both failed, the private clinic merry-go-round sprang into action.
Failure after failure led to an obsessive determination fueled by false promises.
I was sold injections and infusions, medicationstests and procedures that I’m still not sure if I need – or if I was just being waylaid because of my obvious desperation.
But that one expensive “extra” that could finally provide the solution is difficult to reject.
One doctor promised us twins, another lost my papers and one even gave me the wrong medicine.
‘All part of the journey’
When we went the donor route, another gynecologist took £2,000 from us before revealing that the eggs he would use did not come from Britain but from vulnerable women in Ukraine.
When I immediately stopped the treatment out of disgust, he refused to give a cent back.
These fancy clinics boasted amazing results. In retrospect, you realize that this was often due to customers repeating the process until they hit the jackpot and were seen as 100 percent success stories.
With each failed round, my age, disappointment, and raging hormones escalated.
After six years I finally became a mother, but it happened without the help of the doctors who took my money.
Only then was my GP had the heart to admit, “I never thought IVF would work for you.”
He was the first doctor in years who talked sense to me. And the only one who didn’t want mine money.
We all know that IVF is a wonderful invention.
You just have to look at the moving news Netflix film Joy, who tells how three pioneering British scientists in the 1960s and 1970s developed IVF to make this a reality.
And I know so many women who have had babies after one round of IVF on the NHS and may see the procedure in a very different way.
But the overall statistics are dismal.
For young people under 35, the chance of success is only 32 percent. That is only 25 percent between the ages of 35 and 37.
Basic math means that 75 percent of those women did not become mothers through IVF.
And even if women freeze their eggs at the peak of fertility, the numbers are still not great.
I don’t live with regrets. I can’t. It was all part of the journey I was on to become a mother.
I would urge those young women who desperately want a child now but plan to wait for that magical IVF doctor to work miracles when they turn 40 to reconsider their plans.
Because if they go ahead with it now, it might cost them less money and, more importantly, less anxiety in the long run.
Gregg ‘a bad penny’
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Penny Lancaster plans to support a misconduct investigation against Gregg WallaceCredit: BBC
SIR Rod Stewart has accused Greg Wallace of being a “fat, bald, ill-mannered bully” and “humiliating” his wife Penny Lancaster when she appeared Celebrity Master chef.
It comes after Wallace resigned as presenter following an investigation into his alleged misconduct over a number of years.
Rod said: “Good riddance Wallace. . . You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you cut that bit out, didn’t you?’
The singer is clearly furious and deserves praise for standing up for his wife. But I find it baffling that it took him so long to do it.
And that Police Officer Penny – who is now reportedly willing to talk to the “authorities” – has said nothing herself.
WHEN I read about John the cat, who got stuck in a drainpipe and needed anesthesia to be freed, I thought of my first pet: a cat named Willy.
Not because Willy ended up in a drainpipe, but because my cat, like John, was a girl.
I imagine John is called John because he is a modern cat. Willy was called Willy because of a dick.
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Fish and chip lover John Tinniswood has died aged 112Credit: PA
The world’s oldest man, John Tinniswood, has died at his care home in Southport at the age of 112.
And I bet I’m not the only one whose first thought was, “How did he live so long?”
Well, John above says he only enjoyed fish and chips on Fridays because: “if you drink too much, eat too much or walk too much; if you do too much of anything, you will eventually suffer.”
What brilliant advice. It worked for him. RIP John.
A Prince-themed action toy? Go figure
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Prince William looked like an action figure in his army uniform this weekCredit: Splash
ROUGH beard – check mark. Broad shoulders – check mark. Full army uniform – check.
However, despite the similarity, this is not Action Man, but ours Prince William.
He joined soldiers from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards for a live-fire exercise on Salisbury Plain Wiltshire Tuesday, with one adoring fan saying: “Prince William is aging like a fine wine!”
Isn’t he normal? Like the bosses Hasbro If they had their skates on, they could get Action Prince out in time Christmas.
A date with Kate
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Kate Moss proves she’s still got it with a dazzling new modeling shoot for ZaraCredit: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
JUST like rockers Oasis, Kate Moss Yesterday it turned out that she is still hungry current when her new range with Zara went on sale.
From 8:45am the alarms on my phone went off telling me to log in online at 9am, which I dutifully did.
Seconds later, the sparkly dress I had my eye on was gone and the red sandals were no longer on sale. Stripped.
But a friend was in a real Zara store on the High Street, full of song and dance.
They told me the dress was sold out – which is probably just as well, mutton and lamb and all – but I am now the very proud owner of the shoes.
And I also got a life lesson.
If Kate does another collection, I’ll actually drag myself to the stores.
Warns rival madness
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A trigger warning for a series based on the Disney+ show Rivals is downright ridiculousCredit: Sanne Gault
THESE trigger warnings are getting out of hand. The latest stupidity is about the movie Wicked.
Viewers are warned that the green-faced witch is “mocked, bullied and humiliated because of her skin color.”
My personal favorite, however, comes at the beginning of TV series Rivalswith delicate viewers being warned that images of sex, drugs and tobacco may be shown.
This is a Jilly Cooper bonkbuster from the eighties. If that hadn’t been the case, something would have gone very wrong.