By Wendy Tuohy
Aimee Welton believed she had plenty of time to consider her journey to potential parenthood, knowing her mother had the last of five daughters at age 43.
Welton, then 35, assumed that her fertility was likely to be so reliable that her first contact with a fertility clinic was as the devoted friend of a woman struggling to conceive, to whom Aimee intended to donate eggs.
Aimee Welton believed at age 35 that she had eggs enough to spare to give some to a friend struggling with fertility, only to discover she would need donor eggs herself.Credit: Justin McManus
“Through exploring that, I realised I was of an age in which there was a decline happening with my own eggs,” says Welton, a prep teacher.
Her friend decided early into the investigation she wasn’t ready to accept donor eggs, but Welton, now curious, decided to keep examining the idea of starting a family for, and by, herself.
Both women were teachers and of a similar age, and “Mr Right certainly wasn’t knocking down my door”, says Welton.
She had no way of knowing then, in 2019, that it would take 11 rounds of fertility treatment with her own eggs and donor sperm, and then one round with an egg donated by her sister, before Welton could realise her dream of motherhood.
Aimee Welton wants other women to know that even if they need to use donor eggs to conceive their baby, they will feel as strong a bond to the child as any.Credit: Justin McManus
Welton had identical twin daughters, Winnie and Dulcie, in 2024. She wants other women who need donor eggs to know the bond with the babies that result from it is as deep as any.
“Motherhood is the hardest job I have ever loved,” says Welton. “I know in myself that I wouldn’t feel complete if it were not for this; I adore them, and they’re 100 per cent my babies.”
She is among what Melbourne IVF says is a significant jump (15.3 per cent) in numbers of women going solo to start families between 2020 and 2023. Demand for donor eggs for use by couples also increased two-fold in the last five years, clinic statistics show.
Specialist Dr Daniel Lantsberg said factors including couples starting families later and modern lifestyle factors that may be affecting people’s fertility are two reasons more people may be needing to seek help to conceive.
Australia’s fertility rates hit an all-time low in 2020, at 1.58 babies per woman, and the median age for first-time mothers increased to 31.6 years. At the same time, Victoria experienced a “sperm drought” exacerbated by the pandemic.
Lantsberg describes demand for eggs was “vast”. Waiting times for them at the clinic, where donors are recruited for patients who do not have a donor among family or friends, have fluctuated between 18 months and two-and-a-half years.
This can cause a great deal of anxiety for couples and individuals who have already spent time coming to the realisation that they need fertility support. “The additional delay can be quite devastating,” he said.
But recent changes in Victoria’s assisted reproduction regulation may help to reduce the long delay before those needing sperm and eggs – known as gametes – often receive them.
One regulatory step in the process of gaining permission to import donor eggs and sperm has been removed, allowing fertility clinics to have individual international donors approved, rather than whole sperm and egg banks requiring approval before any gametes from them can be brought in.
“By certifying each donor individually, the process becomes much more efficient and means we can work directly with overseas providers without the lengthy bank-level approval,” says Lantsberg.
Following the change, he said Melbourne IVF will explore importing eggs for patients from the United States.
He stressed that all requirements that exist for Victorian egg donors, including limits to the number of children their gametes can be used to create, and that no payment can be made for eggs or sperm, remain unchanged.
Eggs will be able to be sourced directly from overseas altruistic donors following regulatory changes in Victoria.Credit: Istock
Single women and same-sex couples are among the biggest drivers of demand for gametes in Australia’s first public egg and sperm bank, the Royal Women’s Hospital Public Fertility Care centre.
Medical director, Associate Professor Wan Tinn Teh, said that in the two years since it was established, demand well outstripped supply, despite expressions of interest in donating being strong.
“We are adding six new patients [needing donor gametes] a week … the waiting list is growing,” she said. It is believed the three-year wait quoted to Welton has not been reduced in the public system, due to lack of donors – yet.
Teh says is it promising more women with frozen eggs are indicating they intend to go on to donate those they do not need. Egg freezing rates among women in their 20s and 30s have increased dramatically in the last few years, which should mean pressure on egg supplies is relieved.
While sperm donation requires no medical intervention, she said egg donation, with its requisite two weeks of hormone stimulation, and then collection under sedation, is “a bit of an ask”. “We admire these people because they’re so generous,” she said.
Rebecca Kerner, chair of the Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors’ Association, said timing of fertility treatment can be critically important, especially to women who have already waited to try to conceive naturally, but been unable to do so.
“Wait times can be incredibly challenging for people,” she said. “Often women are doing [fertility treatment] at a point where they’ve been hoping to have a partner, and have already delayed hoping one might come along,” she said.
This weekend, the state government will launch a three-month advertising campaign to alert Victorians of the need for sperm and egg donation, to help people on the public waiting list.
“For too long and for too many Victorians, fertility treatments like IVF have been financially out of reach,” Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said. “Since launching Australia’s first public fertility care service 18 months ago, we have supported thousands of Victorians to begin their fertility journey.”
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