In April this year (2005) I will celebrate my 41^st birthday. In May, I look forward to delivering my first baby. I am enjoying every aspect of this pregnancy, even the killer ligament pains, the morning sickness and the heartburn, because I never imagined I would ever reach this magical stage.

My partner and I have been together for 19 years, but as she is a woman, conceiving for me was never going to be straightforward. Finding a sperm donor was our first hurdle, but I also had to battle many reproductive health issues along the way. In 2000, I went to my GP for food poisoning. As he pressed my tummy, he asked, “Do you have fibroids?”. I didn’t even know what fibroids were! He sent me to a specialist, who found that I had five fibroids, the largest of which was 12x8 cm, the largest fibroid my surgeon had ever encountered personally. My abdomen was distended to the size of a four-month pregnancy. I underwent two laparoscopic surgeries in 2000 and 2001 to remove these as well as an ovarian cyst. Thankfully, the surgeon saved my uterus, but he had also found moderate endometriosis during the surgeries.

I had severe doubts as to whether this battered old uterus would ever carry a baby. All my life I had dreamt of a family. It must be part of our genetic make-up to want to nurture and feed and protect our young. It’s probably built into every little girl who pushes her doll around in a pram. My life choices and my health were making this hope slimmer and slimmer.

I decided to give this my best shot before it was too late. In 2002, I underwent my first IVF cycle. I didn’t pay special attention to my diet or lifestyle. Working in a high-pressure job as head of a communications unit, I subsisted on coffee, vast unhealthy business lunches and short, fitful nights of sleep, not to mention three hours of Tube commuting every day. IVF failed. I remember the day I started bleeding, all my hopes were dashed, not to mention several thousands of pounds.