Couple pleads with authorities to allow embryos into Victoria
After undergoing IVF treatment for four years, with endless heartache and no success, a Rowville couple decided to give their dreams one last go by looking overseas for an egg donor. Then COVID-19 closed the door on their plans.
VIC News
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A Melbourne couple longing to be parents are desperately searching for a way to fly their embryos into the country before it’s too late.
Estha Pyke, 41 and partner Lucas Gordon, 45, have been undergoing IVF treatment for four years.
After endless heartache and no success, the couple, from Rowville, decided to give their dreams one last go and look overseas for an egg donor.
But they have now been left devastated after COVID-19 restrictions rendered them unable to travel and retrieve five healthy embryos waiting for them at a clinic in South Africa.
“It just feels like we take one step forward and 20 steps back,” Ms Pyke told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“I’d given up (on being a mum) and was trying to get on with my life.
“But then we found a clinic in South Africa and a donor who just sounded amazing.
“Luke said to me I feel like we should give it one more shot. It was a very hard decision.”
The couple, elated they might finally become parents, flew to Port Elizabeth in South Africa where Mr Gordon underwent a procedure to extract sperm.
They then had an anxious wait to see if their embryos would survive, before finally receiving the happy news.
“They’re all beautiful high grade embryos,” Ms Pyke said.
“We were told it was all good to go and in a few days I would be able to have them transferred.
“Then it was found that my endometrial lining wasn’t thick enough — it has to be a certain thickness for them to transfer the embryos over there — and they told me we had to cancel.
“It was heartbreaking. I came home, empty belly.”
Heartbreakingly, prior to meeting Mr Gordon, Ms Pyke had been trying for a further six years to fall pregnant but to no avail.
Once back in Australia, the couple met with their fertility specialist, Dr Lynn Burmeister, who performed a hysteroscopy and said there would be “no issue” proceeding with the transfer.
That was when their final blow was dealt, with the global pandemic grounding international flights and making retrieving the embryos near impossible.
They are now pleading with health authorities, government and everyone in between to help fly their embryos to Australia before it is too late.
Ms Pyke has also written to IVF’s peak body, the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA), asking for a lifeline.
Under Victorian legislation, the couple’s donor is required to be put on a state register — but because South African donors are anonymous, it’s not guaranteed their donor will want to.
“It’s just a battle and for us we just feel so helpless,” Ms Pyke said.
“We don’t really know where to go. We’ve got one last crack at this.
“And time really feels like it’s running out.”
Dr Burmeister, a fertility specialist at No 1 Fertility, said “time is running out” for the couple.
“Literally every month counts for (Estha), and it’s heartbreaking to watch what she’s going through,” she said.
“There are many other women in the same situation right now.
“They can’t get overseas to access the embryos they’ve created, and they can’t find a donor here in Victoria. They’re trapped in limbo and getting more desperate every day.”
She said for many women, looking overseas was the only option and that more needed to be done to support Australian women undergoing IVF.
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