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Reciprocal IVF at abc ivf

Reciprocal IVF (also known as ‘Shared Motherhood IVF’, ‘Intra-partner egg donation’ or ‘Partner IVF’) allows both partners in a same sex female couple to play a vital role in the conception, gestation and birth of their child. It is a relatively new but well-known method, used worldwide.

Over the years we’ve supported many lesbian couples trying for a baby, if you have any questions about Reciprocal IVF at abc or how to start treatment please contact our experienced team who will be happy to help.

Both female partners will need to have an ultrasound scan to assess their fertility and have a joint consultation to discuss the results and their best treatment options so please call us to book.

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What is Reciprocal IVF/Shared motherhood?

Reciprocal IVF/Shared motherhood is an assisted fertility process where one partner (the ‘biological mother’) undergoes an IVF cycle with fertility medication, in order to collect her eggs and donate them to her partner. Once these donated eggs are fertilised with donor sperm to create embryos, the other partner (the ‘birth mother’) then undergoes an embryo transfer with one of these donated embryos, in order to carry the pregnancy.

The partner donating her eggs must have a good egg reserve, and the partner receiving the embryo should have a healthy uterus and ovaries to ensure good implantation. Your scan results and best options for success will be discussed during your initial consultation.

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Is Reciprocal IVF suitable for us?

At the start of your Reciprocal IVF journey, you will both be offered an initial medical consultation and detailed pelvic scan to ensure that this treatment is right for you.

The detailed pelvic ultrasound scan offered by ABC will provide helpful information regarding egg reserve and the health of the uterus and ovaries.

To have the best chance of success it is important that the partner donating her eggs has a good egg reserve and that the partner receiving the embryo has a healthy uterus. The results of these scans and the best options for success will be discussed with you in detail at your initial consultation.

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Are we eligible for treatment at abc ivf?

We believe that our treatments are suitable for the majority of patients. However, we want to keep your journey simple, safe and effective so we have some criteria which our patients need to meet:

39 Be no older than 39 years old

We can provide treatment to women up to & including 39 years old.

Bmi 32 BMI under 32

Both females undergoing treatment need a BMI no higher than 32 for a consultation then needs to be 30 or under to start treatment.
Calculate BMI.

good-ovarian-reserve.svg Good ovarian reserve

Both females undergoing treatment need a 'normal' or 'good' ovarian reserve, an AMH above 10 is a good indicator.

If you meet the three entry criteria we are able to book you in for your initial consultation and assessment. There are a number of complex medical conditions that could mean you are not eligible for treatment at abc ivf due to our simplified process and protocols. Eligibility for actual treatment will be decided by your clinician after the scan and consultation has taken place.

How much does Reciprocal IVF cost?

Our affordable Reciprocal IVF package is designed not only to offer our patients high quality and successful IVF, but also to make your journey as easy and stress-free as possible.

sperm-egg.svg abc Reciprocal IVF cycle
medication.svg Cycle medication*
egg-freezing.svg Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET)

abc Reciprocal IVF package £6,441*

Reciprocal IVF treatment is also available from as little as £123 per month with our payment plan options*.
For more details visit our payment plans page.

*What's included in our Reciprocal IVF package?

Our abc Reciprocal IVF package is a comprehensive and affordable fertility package which includes:

  • Treatment consultation
  • Screening tests for both partners (Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C & HIV)
  • Monitoring scans & blood tests (Oestradiol & Luteinizing Hormone)
  • HFEA fee
  • Ovarian stimulation & trigger medication
  • Medication for frozen embryo transfer
  • Expert clinical advice
  • Counselling (elective)
  • Egg collection & sedation
  • Embryo freezing & 2 years storage
  • Thawing & further embryo culture
  • Frozen embryo transfer
  • Up to 3 weeks luteal support
  • Early pregnancy scan
  • Follow up consultation
See full details of estimated total treatment costs, package inclusions and exclusions here

Frequently asked questions

Egg collection procedures and embryo transfer procedures are both done in time with a women’s cycle. It is very unlikely that both patients’ cycles will match up perfectly to allow for a fresh embryo cycle. Therefore, the egg collection will be timed with the egg donating partners cycle, then embryo will be fertilised and frozen, ready for when the embryo receiver’s uterus is ready for the embryo transfer procedure.

We work with only recognised and licensed donor banks to provide the best quality sperm. All sperm donors have to be in good health and are screened for sexually transmitted diseases and some genetic disorders. The sperm is assessed as high quality before being approved for donation.

CREATE Fertility Sperm Bank offer international sperm and provide FREE shipping between our clinics.

We also work in partnership with the Cryos International Sperm Bank and the European Sperm Bank where you can access their donor bank and order sperm direct with them.

Generally, there isn’t a waiting list, but it depends on your situation because there is currently a shortage of sperm from BAME communities.

The information you will be able to find out is:

  • a physical description (height, weight, eye and hair colour)
  • the year and country of birth
  • their ethnicity
  • whether they had any children at the time of donation, how many and their gender
  • their marital status
  • their medical history
  • a personal description and goodwill message to any potential children (if they chose to write one at the time of their donation).

You won’t be able to find out any information that might reveal who the donor is.

If a child is conceived via the sperm donation, they have the option to contact the clinic when they turn 18 for information on the identity of the donor.

What we mean by ‘Low Cost’

abc IVF are a provider of high quality, ‘low cost’ fertility treatment. We define ‘low cost’ as meaning that our prices are at least 25% lower than the average cost of a cycle of IVF in the UK. We have determined the average cost of one cycle of IVF in the UK as being £5,000 as reported by the Competition and Markets Authority and the Human Fertility Embryo Authority (HFEA), the UK’s fertility sector regulator in September 2022 <link>. It is our aim to continue to be a ‘low cost’ IVF provider and keep our costs below other providers in the UK.

What we mean by ‘High Quality’

abc IVF are a provider of ‘high quality’, low cost fertility treatment. We define our treatment as 'high quality' based on a number of key measures and processes:

1. That our licensed centres achieve inspection ratings of 4 or 5 out of 5 by the Human Fertility Embryo Authority (HFEA), the UK Fertility regulator.

2. That our clinics have fully trained GMC and NMC registered Nurses, Doctors and Consultants supporting them.

3. That our facilities are modern and fully compliant with the current clinical guidelines.

4. That we use modern technology and equipment from leading manufactures.

What we mean by ‘Excellent Success’

abc IVF deliver ‘excellent success’ for our patients. We know that clinic’s success and success rates play an important roles in patients decision on which clinic to choose for their treatment, so we aim to be clear and transparent about how we define 'excellent success'.

The Human Fertility Embryo Authority (HFEA), the fertility sector regulator, displays on their website the verified data for clinical pregnancies and live births for every licensed clinic in the UK for the last few years. They provide a number of points of analysis for each clinic to show the key success measures for broad and specific age groups. abc ivf is a satellite clinic of the HFEA licensed clinic - Create Fertility, whose results can be found on the HFEA website (LINK). abc patients have their egg collection and embryo transfer procedures at the CREATE Fertility licensed centre, by Create Fertility clinicians, and as such the success rates noted for abc IVF clinics are those of  the licenced Create Fertility centre where treatment takes place.

We define “excellent” as exceeding national average success performance for live births per embryo transferred for all ages for the majority of clinics within the group, as shown on the latest verified year of data displayed on the HFEA website. Full details and further data can be found here.

We can help with Donor Sperm

If you require donor sperm, our partnership with CREATE Fertility allows our patients access to a selection of donors.

CREATE only accept the highest quality of sperm from donors who have passed a strict HFEA screening process. This is to ensure that we offer our patients the best possible success rates.

We will work with both partners to ensure we find a donor to match the couple’s specific characteristics. We have details of skin, eye and hair colour as well as education and medical history.

If we can’t find you a match, we can also accept known donors or donor sperm from some external sperm banks but this will occur an additional charge.

Donor Sperm additional £1,100
Donor Sperm additional £1,100
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What our patients say

The Reciprocal IVF journey, step by step

  1. Advanced Ultrasound Scan & Consultation – both female partners will have an ultrasound scan to assess their fertility and have a joint consultation to discuss the results and their best treatment options. This will include options for donor sperm. Counselling will be offered.
  2. Treatment consultation – The Nurse will go through the consent forms and show how to administer medication. They will discuss arrangements for donor sperm if needed.
  3. Sperm ordered from the CREATE Sperm Bank if needed.

Partner donating eggs 

  1. Call on day 1 of cycle to book scan.
  2. Start taking medication on day 2.
  3. Come into clinic for scans and blood tests to assess follicle growth.
  4. When appropriate you will be prepared for your egg collection procedure.
  5. Come into the clinic to have donor blood tests and egg collection procedure under sedation.
  6. Eggs are then fertilised with donor sperm and embryo development is monitored by embryologists. 
  7. Embryos frozen. 

Partner receiving embryo

  1. Call on day 1 of cycle to book scan in 7-9 days.
  2. Take medication to prepare womb lining from day 2.
  3. Scan to check development of womb lining on day 7-9.
  4. Once the lining of the womb is ready, receiving partner commences progesterone pessaries.
  5. Frozen embryo transfer – the best embryo is transferred into the uterus.
  6. Pregnancy test around 12 days following embryo transfer.
  7. Pregnancy scan at 6 weeks of pregnancy.

*£123 payment plan is based on our Reciprocal IVF package with a 50% deposit, paid over 36 months with an interest rate of 9.9% APR fixed. Payment plans provided by third party humm financial services, eligibility criteria apply, application process required.