For privacy, names and some identifying details have been omitted. This story is shared with the patient's permission and reflects one family's individual experience of fertility treatment. Every patient is different, and treatment options should always be discussed with a fertility specialist.

Our journey started long before IVF

My wife and I have been together for more than a decade. We met as students in Europe when we were around 20, and I supported her through her transition. We married in 2019 and, for a long time, we knew that we wanted to build a family together.

Because my wife is a trans woman and had been taking gender-affirming hormone treatment since her teens, we knew fertility might be complicated. Years before we came to Harley Street Fertility Clinic, she tried stopping her medication for three months so that we could see whether sperm production would return. Testing found no sperm, and the effect of stopping treatment on her wellbeing was extremely difficult.

Her personality changed. She became withdrawn and depressed, and she would look in the mirror and not recognise herself. I could not watch her suffer simply for the possibility of having a baby, so we stopped trying at that point. I was happy to be with her, and we put the idea of having children aside for a while.

But the wish to have a family never disappeared. When we decided to try again, we knew it could be a long process. By the time we first came to HSFC, my wife had already been off her medication for six months. She then remained off it for another six months while we went through investigations and treatment with the clinic. In total, she stopped her medication for around a year. It was an incredibly long and difficult journey for her.

Finding a clinic that felt safe

I am the kind of person who researches everything. I searched Google and Google Maps for LGBTQ+ friendly fertility clinics in London, made a spreadsheet of clinics and phone numbers, and planned to compare them one by one.

Harley Street Fertility Clinic was the first clinic I called. I cannot remember exactly who answered the phone, but I remember how I felt. The person I spoke to was warm, understanding and completely unfazed by our circumstances. I had expected to call several clinics, but after that conversation I thought: I am not looking any further. I booked an initial consultation.

That first impression mattered more than people might realise. My wife and I had experienced transphobia in healthcare before. In a previous country in Europe, I was usually the one who collected her medication from the pharmacy, and on one occasion a pharmacist made an openly transphobic comment about her in public. It was deeply hurtful.

After experiences like that, I became very protective. Even now, I tend to organise most of our medical appointments because I do not want my wife to be put in a position where she is judged or humiliated again.

When you are looking for fertility care as a couple with a trans partner, it is not enough for one doctor to be accepting. You worry about every person you might encounter: reception, nursing, pharmacy, laboratory staff, everyone. Fertility treatment already asks you to make yourself incredibly vulnerable. I did not want us to have to explain or defend who we were at the same time.

From our first contact with HSFC, we felt welcome.

Meeting Dr Venkat and refusing to assume the answer was no

Our first consultation was with Dr Geetha Venkat. I still remember walking into her office and seeing the wall of thank-you cards and baby photographs. She was positive, open and completely focused on what might be possible for us.

At that point my wife had already stopped her medication for six months, but testing still did not show sperm. Over the months that followed, she stayed off treatment while we worked with Dr Venkat to explore our options. The physical and emotional effects were very real, including changes to her body that she found extremely distressing.

What I appreciated was that we could have a completely honest conversation with Dr Venkat. There was no pretending that our situation was simple, but there was also no sense that we had reached the end of the road.

I was researching constantly too. I found a 2023 study in Cell Reports Medicine that followed nine transgender women who stopped gender-affirming hormone therapy for reproductive purposes. Viable sperm returned in all nine, although the timing varied considerably. For me, that was important because it showed that suppression of sperm production after hormone therapy was not necessarily permanent.

I emailed the paper to Dr Venkat. By the next day, she had read it. I remember being genuinely surprised. We discussed the research together and what it might mean in our individual circumstances.

That moment says a lot about why I trusted her. I never felt that we were being put through a standard pathway. She was willing to read, research and think about our case in detail. It was not one-size-fits-all.

Trying PRP and seeing the first sign of hope

One of the options Dr Venkat explored with us was platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, treatment. PRP is prepared from a patient's own blood and contains a higher concentration of platelets and growth factors. It is used in several areas of medicine, and its possible role in male fertility is still an emerging area of research rather than an established treatment with guaranteed results.

For us, however, it became an important part of the journey. After the first PRP treatment, we received a report showing two immotile sperm.

I will never forget that moment. To anybody else, two immotile sperm might not sound like something to celebrate. To me, after months of seeing nothing at all, it meant there was hope. I was on the Tube when I read the report and started crying. People around me were looking at me as though something terrible had happened, and I wanted to tell them: I am happy. There is hope now.

We continued treatment, including a second PRP procedure. Dr Venkat also suggested surgical sperm retrieval so that any sperm obtained could be frozen. After further treatment, we were able to obtain and store sperm, including sperm retrieved surgically.

I cannot say from one person's experience exactly what caused sperm production to return. What I can say is that the first evidence of recovery appeared after we had begun this treatment, and that Dr Venkat kept looking for a route forward when our situation was extremely difficult.

Starting IVF

Once sperm had been secured, I could begin treatment on my side.

I underwent two egg retrieval cycles. The first resulted in one embryo. I remember thinking that one was still one, and I wanted to keep going.

I decided to start a second cycle almost immediately. The two cycles were back-to-back, with barely a month between them. That second cycle was physically much harder and I developed severe ovarian hyperstimulation. At one point I was lying on the floor at home, struggling to move and breathe. I had a friend nearby who had a key to our house, and I sent her instructions that if I called and could not speak, she should call an ambulance and come straight over.

It was frightening, but the second cycle resulted in five embryos. After everything that had come before, that felt extraordinary.

I gave my body two or three months to recover before moving forward. The physical side of treatment had been difficult, but the emotional side had been heavy too. During the period when my wife was still off her medication and we did not know whether sperm production would return, I started seeing a psychologist. I needed that support. There was so much uncertainty and so much pressure on both of us.

Our first pregnancy and becoming parents

The treatment eventually led to a successful pregnancy.

The first three months involved a medicated cycle, and I remember the injections very clearly. I bruised badly and counted the days until I could stop. After that, though, the rest of the pregnancy was largely smooth.

My waters broke at 35 weeks and our son was born at 35 weeks and four days, weighing 2.2kg. The birth itself was quite an adventure. Because my waters had broken early, I was given antibiotics and stayed in hospital while the team tried to keep the pregnancy going safely. A few days later I developed a fever and an emergency Caesarean was being prepared.

Then, very quickly, everything changed. My contractions accelerated, I became fully dilated and I ended up delivering vaginally instead. Our baby did not need neonatal intensive care. We stayed in hospital for five days while antibiotics were completed, and he had some jaundice afterwards, but he was healthy.

He is now a happy, sociable little boy who loves nursery. After such a long and uncertain route to becoming parents, watching him grow has been incredible.

Coming back for our second child

We had always planned to have two children, so when we were ready, I went back to Dr Venkat.

At the consultation, I happened to be at exactly the right point in my cycle. We were discussing when treatment could begin and the answer became: today. The team arranged everything so that I could start immediately.

This cycle felt completely different from my first experience. The medication protocol was much lighter. I had become so used to fertility treatment meaning pain and intensity that I actually became convinced it was not going to work because it felt too easy.

But it worked.

At the time I spoke to the clinic for this story, I was seven weeks pregnant with our second child. After everything we went through to have our first baby, returning to the same clinic and reaching this point again feels incredibly special.

Why I wanted to share this beyond the trans community

There are people in our lives who know that we went through IVF but do not know the full story, including that my wife is transgender. That is why we have chosen to share our experience anonymously.

But I did want to share it, and not only with other trans people and their partners.

Our story happens to involve gender-affirming hormone treatment, which can have a major effect on sperm production. But the wider message I want people to take from it is this: if you are going through hormonal treatment, or have taken medication that may affect fertility, do not automatically assume that your chance of having a biological child has disappeared.

Different hormonal treatments affect fertility in different ways, and our experience cannot predict anyone else's outcome. The research we found was specifically about transgender women stopping gender-affirming hormone therapy, so it should not be applied to every type of hormone treatment. But it showed us why individual assessment, enough time and specialist advice matter.

I think many people are frightened to ask because they think the answer will automatically be no. Our experience showed us that sometimes the answer is more complicated than that. There may still be options worth exploring.

What made HSFC different for us

For me, the most important part of this story is not that we found a clinic with luxurious surroundings or extra touches. What made the difference was expertise.

Dr Venkat went above and beyond for us. She listened, she researched, she read the academic paper I sent her, she considered treatments outside a standard pathway and she kept adapting our plan as the situation changed. When we had no sperm, she did not simply treat that result as the end of the conversation.

That expertise was matched by the openness and warmth of the whole team. We never felt judged. We never felt that our family needed to be explained. The people around us made an emotionally difficult process feel safe enough to keep going.

I cannot know what would have happened if we had chosen another clinic, and I would never pretend that any clinic can guarantee an outcome. But I genuinely believe that Dr Venkat's determination, clinical curiosity and willingness to treat our case individually were central to our journey. The warmth of the wider HSFC team made it possible for us to go through that journey without carrying an additional fear of being judged.

That combination, real expertise and genuine human care, is what I believe made the difference for us.

My advice: don't wait

When I was asked what advice I would give to other people worried about fertility after hormonal treatment, my answer was immediate: don't wait.

I have seen so many people wait for the perfect moment. They wait until work is quieter, until their career is in a different place, until life feels more settled or until next year seems easier.

There is no perfect moment. There will always be something happening.

That does not mean rushing into treatment. It means getting information. If you know that medication or hormone treatment may affect your fertility, ask about it early. If you have already been through treatment and are worried that your fertility may have been affected, do not assume there is nothing to discuss. Speak to a specialist who can look at your individual circumstances and explain what may or may not be possible.

For us, that conversation led to a very long road. My wife was off her medication for around a year. There were months with no sperm, difficult treatments, two rounds of egg retrieval, ovarian hyperstimulation and enormous emotional pressure. None of it was quick or guaranteed.

But we now have our son and a second pregnancy. When I look back, what I remember most is not a single procedure. It is Dr Venkat continuing to search for possibilities, and the whole HSFC team making us feel welcome while she did it.

So my message is simple: if fertility matters to you, do not write off your options before you have explored them. Ask the question. Get specialist advice. And do not wait for life to become perfect before you start the conversation.

Research referenced in this story

Research referenced in this story: de Nie I, van Mello NM, Vlahakis E, et al. “Successful restoration of spermatogenesis following gender-affirming hormone therapy in transgender women.” Cell Reports Medicine. 2023;4(1):100858. The study followed nine transgender women who ceased gender-affirming hormone therapy for reproductive purposes and reported recovery of viable spermatozoa in all nine. The authors described the findings as preliminary and stated that larger studies are needed. Read the study

Clinical context: PRP in male fertility remains an emerging area. Recent systematic reviews describe promising early findings, but also emphasise the limited number and quality of human studies and the need for further research before efficacy can be established. Read a 2026 systematic review