Fertility Options For Same Sex Female Couples

This Pride month, we want to share what we're proud of. Sims IVF are proud to help same sex couples realise their dream of completing their family. It's important to us that all couples and individuals feel comfortable and supported by our staff.

We have a number of options to help same sex female couples on their journey to parenthood...

Donor Sperm

Our sperm donors come from Denmark and are ordinary, physically healthy men from a broad cross section of society who's ages range from 18-50. You will receive information like eye colour, hair colour, height, weight, type of build, race, peculiarities of appearance (eg. complexion), age, education/occupation, blood type, karyotyping, psychological profile, and infectious screening results.

Due to new legislation, donors must be identifiable. Using an identifiable donor does not mean that you as a parent will receive the donor's identifying information. However, any child born using an identifiable donor will, at the age of consent, be entitled to the donor's identifying information.  However, the donor is not allowed to receive information about the identity of the recipient couple or the child. The donor has no paternal rights to a child born because of treatment to an anonymous couple using his sperm.

What treatment options are available to us?

IUI- Intrauterine Insemination or artificial insemination is a treatment where the donor sperm is inserted at the neck of the womb during the time of ovulation. This is good for young women or those with no history of fertility issues.

IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) is a treatment where fertility medications are used to prompt a larger number of eggs to grow (usually 5-10). These eggs are collected from the ovaries and combined with the donated sperm in the laboratory via IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where an individual sperm is injected directly into the egg. The embryo develops in the laboratory for 2-5 days before being transferred back to the woman.

Shared Motherhood

Shared Motherhood or Reciprocal Donation is where the eggs of one partner are used in an IVF cycle to create embryos that are then transferred into the other partner, with the effect that one partner is the birth mother and the other partner is the genetic mother. The embryos are created using donor sperm.

For many couples this is a beautiful process that allows both parents to have a unique linkage to the child.

If you'd like to learn more about any of the above options, please get in touch with our team.