“Young mother” at 48 and after menopause. The real story of Fiona and Darren McCluskey is about how difficult it is sometimes for children to be given, and about how important the support of a partner is. It has a happy ending – after 15 years of trying, their family found their treasure.
Scottish Fiona and Darren McCluskey started a family back in 2004. They were both in their early 30s. They really wanted to be the most ordinary family with a bunch of children, a dog, and canaries. The newlyweds had high hopes for a honeymoon in the tropics, but something went wrong. Pregnancy did not occur within 2 years. The couple decided to get tested.
The situation turned out to be difficult: Fiona was found to have a very small supply of eggs. This is a direct indication for IVF. The couple made two attempts one after another, alas, to no avail. In 2010, Fiona tried to plant a sperm directly into the egg. But even this expensive procedure was not successful.
Both spouses lost their jobs in 2011. Financial difficulties prevented Fiona from undergoing IVF for four years. In 2014, when funds appeared, they made another attempt, which ended tragically. The pregnancy turned out to be ectopic. Fiona took this event hard. But it didn’t get any easier: at the end of the year, she had a false pregnancy – a manifestation of hormone therapy.
That same year, the McCluskeys attended a fertility conference in Glasgow. There they met the chief physician of a private clinic in Barcelona. The clinic specialized specifically in the treatment of complex cases of infertility, and our heroes received an invitation to IVF in Spain.
At the beginning of 2015, an IVF attempt (fifth) also ended in failure. In 2016, Fiona developed menopausal symptoms. She was 45. As Fiona herself recalls, then she had the thought that it was all over. It was hard for them to watch friends, relatives and colleagues have children. But the couple tried to be positive – not to give up, to hope for the best. Darren supported his wife all this time.
The McCluskeys never abandoned their dream of becoming parents. Therefore, they agreed to the sixth IVF attempt in Barcelona, despite the onset of menopause. The Spanish clinic has developed an individual treatment protocol to reverse the changes in the body. At the end of 2018, the patient underwent IVF. 14 days of painful waiting. And the test showed that Fiona is pregnant.
It was such a joy for the spouses, but there was a lot of unrest. Throughout her pregnancy, Fiona tried not to worry. To distract herself from obsessive thoughts, she listened to the audio files she received from the hypnotherapist. They helped the woman fall asleep when she was especially overcome by fears. In May 2019, the long-awaited child was born in the capital of Catalonia. The girl was named Ella Jane. Her mom was 48. “And we are so grateful and happy that we met a doctor from a Spanish clinic. We couldn’t wait to get Ella Jane in our arms,” says Darren.
