Nicola spent £40,000 on failed IVF then got 妊娠している 自然に. So was she 犠牲者 of a cruel 反対／詐欺?

By Helen 天候s for the Daily Mail

Published: 00:47 BST, 16 January 2013 | Updated: 00:47 BST, 16 January 2013

高くつく／犠牲の大きい: 物陰／風下d couple Karl and Nicola Medina, who have been together for 7 years, spent £40,000 on IVF 治療 and then Mrs Medina conceived 自然に on the couple's wedding night

Six months 妊娠している with her first child, Nicola Medina can’t stop marvelling at her growing baby bump ― as if she can’t やめる believe it really belongs to her.

She and husband Karl pore over the ざっと目を通すs of their unborn daughter, who they have already 指名するd Poppy-Aryanna, because they find it 安心させるing to clutch 有形の, 明白な proof of her 存在.

They’ve waited seven long years for this moment. Indeed, they thought it would never happen afte r five failed courses of IVF that left them £40,000 poorer and 全く drained, 肉体的に and emotionally.

Doctors had given them a いっそう少なく than one per cent chance of pregnancy ― even with the help of IVF ― so when Nicola, 30, a 顧客 relations 経営者／支配人, finally fell 妊娠している they were ecstatic.

‘It feels so surreal. I still can’t やめる believe I’m really 妊娠している and can’t wait to see our daughter when she is born in May. Only then, when she’s in my 武器, will I believe it,’ says Nicola, who lives with Karl in 物陰／風下d.

‘For years I couldn’t even look at baby 着せる／賦与するs or see a 妊娠している woman without wanting to cry, because I thought I’d never be a mother, so this, for me, is a 奇蹟.’

Karl, 40, who runs his own building 革新 会社／堅い, 追加するs: ‘I’m so excited, it’s just magical. I know £40,000 is a lot of money, but I’d have 喜んで paid hundreds of thousands of 続けざまに猛撃するs to help Nicola become a mum. We’re not rich people, but we would have 設立する a way to make it happen.’

Only Poppy-Aryanna is not a 奇蹟 of modern 薬／医学. She was conceived 自然に on August 11 last year, the very night of her parents’ church wedding when they had all but given up hope of ever having children together.

No wonder Nicola and Karl talk now about divine 介入. にもかかわらず their evident joy, however, they are left with this 乱すing question: did they needlessly waste £40,000 on 私的な IVF 治療 when nature did the 職業 rather better without 援助?

The Medinas, who met and fell in love seven years ago, are certainly living proof of the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の sacrifices ordinary couples will make ーするために realise 心にいだくd and, some might say, obsessive, dreams of parenthood.

Those dreams have now turned 私的な fertility 治療 into a 全世界の, 利益（をあげる）-hungry multi-million-続けざまに猛撃する 商売／仕事 which some have critics に例えるd to a ‘human life 産業’.

否定するd fertility 治療 on the NHS because Karl has two children, 老年の 24 and 17, from his first marriage, the Medinas had no 選択 but to 支払う／賃金 個人として. They 収容する／認める they probably would have paid thousands more had Nicola not conceived 自然に.

‘People assume that if you 支払う／賃金 for IVF, you must be 負担d with money, but nothing could be その上の from the truth,’ says Nicola. ‘We just worked very hard, saved every penny we had and went without because I’ve always 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be a mother.’

奇蹟: Nicola and husband Karl pore over the ざっと目を通すs of their unborn daughter, who they have already 指名するd Poppy-Aryanna, pictured, because they find it 安心させるing to clutch 有形の, 明白な proof of her 存在

And although their story has had a happy 結果, Nicola 収容する／認めるs she is angry with the 治療 they received. She says it was only after their third failed IVF 試みる／企てる ― having already spent more than £20,000 ― that she was 診断するd with a gynaecological problem which could have been 治療（薬）d much sooner on the NHS.

Indeed, she fell 妊娠している 自然に four months after an NHS laparoscopy to 除去する a cyst on a fallopian tube and （疑いを）晴らす scar tissue 原因（となる）d by endometriosis, which 原因（となる）s tissue 類似の to the lining to the womb to grow in other parts of the pelvis.

Up until that point, Nicola says, doctors thought the problems lay with Karl. He’d had a vasectomy f ollowing the births of his two children from his first marriage and paid £3,000 to have it 逆転するd すぐに after 落ちるing in love with Nicola. It was this 延期する in diagnosis that was to lead to 広大な expense ―and heartbreak.

‘[After the third IVF 試みる／企てる] we were told that we had a いっそう少なく than one per cent chance of pregnancy and should consider 採択 or IVF using an egg 寄贈者. I think that was one of the worst days of my life,’ 解任するs Nicola.

‘I went home and withdrew to my room for three weeks just crying. I couldn’t 直面する going out or seeing anyone. It was very painful for me to be with friends or 親族s with small children. I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to give up and hide myself away.

‘Now I いつかs ask myself, did I go through all that agony for nothing? Could they have identified all 可能性のある fertility problems in both of us before we spent all that money on IVF that was likely to fail?

Happy: Nicola conceived 自然に on the couple's wedding night in October last year

‘同様に as 存在 an emotional and physical 緊張する, it was a 抱擁する 財政上の drain on us. I’ll never forget the time we arrived at the clinic for my eggs to be harve sted for one IVF 試みる／企てる. Karl had forgotten his cheque 調書をとる／予約する, so they 辞退するd to carry out the 手続き until they had their money.?

‘He had to dash home to 選ぶ it up. It wasn’t as if we were strangers to them by this time. All our dreams were pinned on this, but it seemed it was 簡単に 商売／仕事 for them.

‘Even after it was 設立するd that I had fertility problems, too, I still wasn’t する権利を与えるd to NHS 基金ing. How can it be that 囚人s can 適用する for IVF on the NHS, but I am not 適格の にもかかわらず working since the age of 16?’

She has since written to 負かす／撃墜するing Street and her MP complaining about the ‘postcode 宝くじ’ of NHS fertility 治療, which is often rationed by health 信用s on the grounds of cost.

The Medinas’ 事例／患者 raises another question, though. Are some fertile couples 存在 支配するd to invasive and expensive infertility 治療 unnecessarily?

One 2012 熟考する／考慮する appears to 文書 this 現れるing 傾向. For more than? a １０年間, 研究員s from the University of Queensland 監視するd 600 women who had been given infertility 治療. Of those, almost half who said they had been trying to 達成する a pregnancy for at least a year subsequently 達成するd one without the help of fertility 治療.?

専門家s say that these women were sub-fertile, rather than 完全に infertile, and did not receive 治療 appropriate to their 条件.

The Medinas’ 戦う／戦い for a baby began in 2005. After failing to conceive 自然に after a year of trying, their GP referred them to a fertility 顧問 who recommended ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm 注射) after 実験（する）s on Karl 明らかにする／漏らすd poor sperm motility.

ICSI 伴う／関わるs injec ting one sperm 直接／まっすぐに into an egg ― 収穫d に引き続いて a course of 麻薬s ― before it is then implanted into the womb.

の近くに: The Medinas met and fell in love seven years ago

‘They do tell you there are no 保証（人）s, but because I was so young everyone seemed very 肯定的な that I would have good eggs and we’d be successful, so we were 極端に 希望に満ちた,’ says Nicola, who underwent a 決まりきった仕事 血 実験（する） before the first IVF 手続き was carried out in 2009. Her own underlying fertility problems remained undetected.

The same year, she underwent two その上の courses, which cost £5,000 each with the cost of fertility 麻薬s and ざっと目を通すs on 最高の，を越す. Nicola 苦しむd terrible mood swings from the ovary 刺激するing 麻薬s, but at the time considered it a price 価値（がある） 支払う／賃金ing.

‘Each time, four or five days after the embyros had been implanted, I would start to bleed and miscarry ― and each time we’d be 鎮圧するd, not understanding why it had failed,’ she says.

‘It wasn’t until after the third failed IVF cycle that I was finally 診断するd with endometriosis, after 捜し出すing a second opinion from a clinic in Manchester. I was later told by my 顧問 that my eggs were also of poor 質 because of ovarian 失敗.’

にもかかわらず the poor chances of success, Nicola went through a fourth 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of IVF in 物陰／風下d in 2010, after which the couple were advised to give up. They 辞退するd, still yearning for a child.

In their 追求（する），探索（する） to have a baby the Medinas have forsaken holidays, nights out, new 着せる／賦与するs and cars, and have almost 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd themselves financially.

Karl often worked seven-day weeks, leaving the house at 7am and not returning before 10pm.
Indeed, he was too busy to finish off their own kitchen 革新, which remained without tiles for two years, or to 取って代わる the unfashionable pink bath in their £90,000 two-bedroom Nineties townhouse.

‘I am a perfectionist in my work,’ he says ruefully, ‘but our home was a bit of mess because I was just too tired to do it. But it’s all done now.’

Nicola went for every 昇進／宣伝 to 上げる her 収入s, 持つ／拘留するing 負かす／撃墜する a succession of stressful 職業s while 耐えるing the emotional rollercoaster of fertility 麻薬s and the dark 炭坑，オーケストラ席 of 不景気 that …を伴ってd each IVF 失敗.

They 延期するd their wedding from one year to the next, 注ぐing every penny they earned into fertility 治療 ― always believing they’d get lucky the next time.

What they couldn’t save from their 共同の income of £45,000 a year, they borrowed from Nicola’s parents, Jenny and George. The Medinas are still 支払う／賃金ing off this 貸付金 ― around half of the £40,000 they spent on IVF.

This means they are unable to move from their house which they worry will be rather cramped when Poppy-Aryanna arrives in May. To 追加する to their woes, the 後退，不況 has 攻撃する，衝突する Karl’s 商売／仕事, which means he has to work twice as hard for smaller 利益（をあげる） 利ざやs.

Karl, whose 24-year-old son also lives with them, is にもかかわらず philosophical about the money they scrimped and borrowed to spend on IVF, 説 he is 簡単に 感謝する for their 予期しない good fortune.

‘Yes, we live in a tiny two-bedroom house and could have put that money に向かって a bigger home, but it would have felt empty without a child,’ he says.

‘We never forget that we are much more fortunate than a lot of other people, so I count our blessings.

‘The money wasn’t important to me, what really 傷つける was seeing Nicola 苦しむ so much. I was 激しく disappointed each time IVF failed and there were times when I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to run into a corner and cry, but I couldn’t let Nicola see that. I had to stay strong for her.

‘You read about couples breaking up under the 緊張する of fertility 治療, but we were lucky. We have always been best friends, and it just made us closer and stronger as a couple and my 職業 was to be the 肯定的な one. There were times when we bickered because of the 強調する／ストレス, but we never fell out.’

In 2011, after を受けるing the first of two NHS 操作／手術s to 扱う／治療する Nicola’s endometriosis, the Medinas decided to have one last IVF 試みる／企てる in Cyprus after 研究ing different 手続きs and success 率s in clinics abroad. This time it cost £7,000 and again it failed.

Nicola says: ‘I felt 完全に worn out. IVF had 全く taken over my life for four or five years and my 団体／死体 needed a break.

‘So Karl and I decided to 焦点（を合わせる） on our 関係 and 計画（する） the wedding we’d been putting off for years. By this time, I think we had both 受託するd we might never have children of our own.’

Karl bought Nicola a British bulldog called Bella, as a ‘baby 代用品，人’, and Nicola tried to put all the 失望 behind her. Their wedding at St John’s church in Moortown, followed by a 歓迎会 for 140 guests at the Queen’s Hotel in 物陰／風下d, was, they say, ‘perfect and beautiful’.

Nicola says: ‘A couple of weeks after the wedding I went to the GP to ask about going on the Pill to straighten out a hormone 不均衡, because my period was late. ‘My doctor was reading through my 公式文書，認めるs and my history of IVF and asked if I might be 妊娠している.

‘I told her that was impossible, but she 主張するd on doing a 実験（する） just in 事例／患者.

‘Then she put the results in 前線 of me and exclaimed: “Congratulations, you’re 妊娠している.” I was speechless with shock, I couldn’t believe it. I thought there must be some mistake. I was crying, then the doctor started crying, too, 説: “I’m so happy for you.”?’

Karl 解任するs the moment Nicola phoned him to tell him the good news: ‘She was crying, 説: “Karl, you’re going to be a dad.”?’

‘I replied: “What are you talking about?” and she 叫び声をあげるd: “Karl, I’m 妊娠している! We are going to have a baby.” I was in shock, and kept 説: “Are you joking?”

‘Then when the news 登録（する）d, I started crying, repeating “Oh my God” over and over again. My brother, who 作品 with me, thought someone had died because I went as pale as a sheet.

‘It still feels 全く surreal now, as if I can’t believe it’s really happening. Forget all the money and the heartache, this is what we’ve always 手配中の，お尋ね者, and for Nicola to conceive on our wedding day ― how magical is that?’

Karl puts the pregnancy 負かす／撃墜する to th e fact that after five years of grief, they were relaxed, happy and unstressed as they returned the 焦点（を合わせる） to their 関係 and 差し迫った marriage.?

As for Nicola, she is only just starting to enjoy her pregnancy, after an anxious first three months when she was struck 負かす／撃墜する by 厳しい morning sickness, followed by flu and a chest 感染.

‘We feel so elated, but are still in shock to think that we went through so much and spent so much money, only for us to have a baby 自然に after all,’ says Nicola. ‘I thought this day would never happen.’