If you are single or in a LGBT relationship and you want to try for a baby, there are several routes to parenthood that you can consider.
Modern medical practices offer many effective solutions to help single or lesbian women achieve parenthood. The first step for these women is to decide whether they want to preserve their fertility and try for a baby in the future, or begin their treatment now.
Read on below for some fertility treatment options that can help you to have a baby if you don’t have a male partner…
Donor sperm
Donor sperm can help you to become a parent, regardless of your sexuality or whether you are in a relationship. The donor sperm is usually sourced online from a sperm bank but can also be obtained from a friend.
Donor insemination should take place at a fertility clinic so that the sperm can be carefully screened for sexually transmitted diseases or genetic disorders. This also means that the genetic father will have no access rights to the child and no financial responsibilities for its upkeep. Some people may try doing-it-themselves with sperm from a friend. However, in this case they risk exposure to the aforementioned viruses and genetic disorders and the genetic father will be the legal father of the child, with the associated access and financial factors.
The two donor sperm fertility treatments are intra-uterine insemination (IUI), also known as artificial insemination, and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
IUI – Involves carefully monitoring a woman’s menstrual cycle and then introducing donor sperm through a catheter directly into the uterus around the time of ovulation. This method gives similar pregnancy chances to trying naturally with a healthy male.
IVF – With IVF, a woman’s eggs are fertilised using donor sperm in a laboratory, and then the resulting embryos are grown in an incubator, outside of the body for up to 5 or 6 days. The embryo is then transferred back into the womb, in the hope that it will grow and develop into a successful pregnancy.
Egg freezing
Egg freezing is an ideal option for women who haven’t found the right partner or who are not looking to start a family right now. Egg freezing allows a woman to preserve her fertility for the future.
The egg freezing process involves collecting a woman’s eggs and freezing them to use in future fertility treatment. It does not reduce her remaining egg reserve. Fertility usually starts declining from the age of 35 to 37 and the fertility success rate from the eggs is linked to the mother’s age at the date they were frozen rather than the date they are thawed and used.
