How much roughly do I need

[Babiesandalesbian]

Hi,

I’m nearly 27 and planning in 3-5 years to have a baby. As I am a lesbian this will definitely be through donor conception. Whether it will be with a partner or not I’m not sure, I am trying to find someone but I don’t even know whether I want a partner and I certainly don’t know whether I will actually find someone suitable. But I do know I want children. I have great family support so that’s not an issue.

That’s the background. Now obviously the price will vary, due to location and how quickly it works and whether it continues to work. But can anyone give me a rough idea? I live in the middle of nowhere so I’ll have to travel as well, not fussed whether it’s in Europe or the uk.

Obviously I plan to save as much as I can, but I’m planning on starting my own business next year which will eat into my savings. But once I start my business and hopefully it goes okay, I will be able to save more than I can at the moment.

Thanks fir any help.

For donor conception if you yourself are healthy and have no issues, I'd budget £2-5k. It depends a lot on where you go and where you get the sperm from.

Of course, that's a drop in the ocean compared to the costs of actually raising a child!

I did ivf (with frozen embryos) and it is about £10k all in.

Friends have just done IUI - this worked first time but will have still cost £6k.

Excellent thanks guys. Now I have a rough goal to save for. I’ve got more than that amount at the moment but vans are expensive lol. I need a van for my business.

Hey OP. Actually expense will depend a great deal on how long it'll take you to fall pregnant. Normal healthy couples may need up to a year to fall pregnant naturally. Obviously IUI or IVF is a bit more precise and has higher success rates but you really can't know whether you'll need one, or three, or five cycles to get there.

I did unmedicated IUI. Lower chances of success but much less invasive. Each attempt cost me roughly 2500€ :

• 1300€ for open ID sperm donor (from Denmark)
• 650€ for the procedure (unmedicated IUI in Denmark)
• 300€-500€ for the plane tickets (I lived in another country at the time)

I was incredibly successful with this and I had 2 kids with 6 cycles, that is to say overall my two boys cost me 15.000 euros. And I had a 50% pregnancy rate (had 1 miscarriage but out of 6 attempts I got pregnant every second time). My point is, this is expensive even if you're fertile.

You may be luckier, or more successful. Or less. It also depends on whether you want one or more kids. But I'd budget a minimum of 10k-20k, and more if you can.

IVF is more costly than IUI, and more invasive, but also more successful. Personally I'd think it worth it to give IUI a few shots before bringing out the heavy artillery but obviously that depends on how you feel about it.