Hi Guys,

We're lurkers on here but reading everyone's posts have been so helpful to us in the past that we thought we'd see if anything we've picked up along the way might prove helpful to you guys.

We talked about getting pregnant for soooo long and spent for ever reading and getting as much information as possible but in the end what turned out to be the most helpful was starting the whole process, contacting the clinic and asking them an extraordinary amount of questions about the whole process.

We used an unknown donor (from the states) and went though a clinic in Sydney (so not sure how much all this differs to WA). To start with K (tummy mummy) had a heap of blood tests and a scan to check everything was in good working order. Then we had a consult with the clinic's psychologist to talk about some of the issues that can occur with using unknown/known donors, she asked us about male influences in our lives and our support networks etc. We had to travel down to NSW from the NT for the IUI insemination (no one ever mentioned home insemination to us so not sure about that one). So, we had to ring the clinic on day 1 of K's period and they then tell you what to do when. We had to go to the clinic several days before ovulation for scans to check the eggs were growing/good size etc and then when they told us to I had to inject K with a trigger shot of something called pregnyl which helps trigger ovulation, exactly 24 hours after that shot we were in having the insemination which K states was totally painless and easy (we sat together watching fish in a tank thinking swimming thoughts:-).

Then there was another 3 shots in the days after which help keep the uterus lining nice and plump and we got on a plane back to the NT. That was our first go and amazingly it worked and the sprout is now due to arrive in just under 8 weeks!

Cost wise....I think we paid approx $900 for the sperm donation (one straw) and maybe $1500 for all other tests and proceedures. WE'd reached the medicare safety net so got about 80% of that back (not including sperm costs as that's not covered I don't think).

As for donor choice, the clinic we used gets donations from a place in the states so they gave us their website and we paid about $150 to get 3 months full access to view all their donors (you get to see an AMAZING amount of info!) we spent so much time in the run up thinking about donors and trying to choose and then when it came down to it it's got more to do with what's available on the day of the insemination (we couldn't pre-stock up on sperm from a specific donor until there was a confirmed pregnancy), things change so quickly with donors so although it was a nice part of the process thinking about what aspects we'd like to choose when it came down to it there was actually only about 3 or 4 to choose from (luckily our 2nd choice was available on the day)

WE found it to be an amazing process and the staff at the clinic were great. Hope some of that is helpful to you guys. Good luck on your baby journey, it's amazing!

H&K