In late January 2022, 27-year-old Cora* and her wife walked into a fertility clinic hoping to start their in vitro fertilization (IVF) journey.

At first, the couple had tried the adoption route. But the long and intrusive process coupled by the multiple hoops imposed by the adoption facilities deterred them from following through with it. Eventually, they settled on IVF, but what they didn’t know was that that too would come with its own set of challenges.   

“When we first visited the fertility clinic, we thought the whole process would be a breeze,” Cora recounts. “We imagined that we'd immediately be set up with a donor and begin the process with charges catered by the National Health Service (NHS) but that wasn’t the case.”