Dear Barbara

Apologies for the late reply which has in part been due to our recent rollercoaster ride of emotions and also not wanting to tempt fate.

In short, i went to carlisle infirmary to provide a sample this summer, the results of which my gp said were positive. He recommended though that due to Claire's age we consider looking at the ivf / assisted route before she reaches the nhs cutoff age. On a visit to the hospital to discuss this i was told that i was infertile (and that we didn't qualify for nhs treatment given that i have two children from a previous relationship). That, as you can imagine, came as a massive shock and emotions hit a real low for both of us.

Once we had had time to digest this we decided that we would look into ivf via a private means. This led us to visiting MFS for checks at the end of August and a follow-up meeting a week later with the consultant to discuss the best way forward given our results.

We went geared up to be told that Claire would be starting an ivf cycle within a couple of months. Instead we were told that we were both perfectly normal!!! My jaw was on the floor for an absolute age. To go from being told by Carlisle Infirmary that antibody production leaves me with no viable sperm, to being given the news that all the figures returned from the sample provided to MFS were within normal ranges is probably the biggest and nicest shock i've ever had flung at me.  We were then told that no treatment was being recommended and to simply continue with our "homework" (!). Cannot even start to tell you of the relief we both felt. Even so, doubts still persisted with me as to who was telling us the truth.

Claire is now 6 weeks pregnant!! Very early on i know and part of me didn't want to email until later on but i'm starting to believe what will be will be. Obviously super super chuffed and hope to be sending you amazing news in the not too distant future.

Kind regards

Graeme