Dr. Mary Wingfield:

There are also people who start off by thinking that they will never need surrogacy. The start off on an IVF process. We had one woman who developed a uterine condition. She started off coming to us for a standard IVF. Yet, as time went on she developed a condition whereby her womb became unsuitable to carry a pregnancy. She ended up needing surrogacy. The couple had embryos frozen with us. However, when they were freezing those embryos, they did not know that they would end up needing surrogacy. One of the indications for surrogacy, which is becoming more of an indication, is for couples who have IVF. They have really good quality embryos and they keep having embryos transfers. Yet, they either do not get pregnant or they miscarry. This has to be monitored by medical professionals because there is a genuine need for it. A couple can start off thinking that they are going to have straightforward IVF, with just the two of them, and they suddenly realise that while they have beautiful embryos, the woman’s uterus is just not accepting them. They then end up needing surrogacy, but they did not realise that they would when they started out. There are other people who can end up with embryos frozen with us or frozen in Ireland who subsequently end up needing to ship them abroad if they cannot get surrogacy here.