Fertility Treatment for Single Women
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IVI offers a range of treatments for single women who wish to start a family using assisted reproduction. The most common treatments are intrauterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilisation (IVF) using a sperm sample from a donor. It is also common for donated eggs, or embryos, to be used.
Whether you’re new to fertility treatment or have had experience before, our clinic teams are here to guide you through your options and provide support at every stage of the process.
When we match you with a suitable donor, we can provide only non-identifiable information. This includes:
If you go on to have a baby using the donated gametes, your child will have the legal right to request information about their donor, including contact information, at the age of 18. At the age of 16, they will also have access to non-identifiable information about their donor.
If you wish to have a fertility treatment using a donated sperm sample from someone you know (a known donor), this is possible. If you undergo this process with a licensed clinic, it will be nearly identical as an ‘unknown’ donor in terms of the safety and effectiveness of the procedure.
If you are considering using a donated sperm sample from a known donor, we strongly recommend that you contact a licensed clinic to assist you. The HFEA, the UK’s regulator of fertility clinics, warns against home insemination using donated sperm for safety reasons. It can also lead to a number of issues relating to the legal parenthood of the donor-conceived child. If you would like more information, read the HFEA’s guidance about legal parenthood and why it’s important.
If undergoing treatment with a licensed clinic, a known donor will go through the same compatibility and screening procedures as all donors, reducing the risk of offspring inheriting any serious diseases.
If you give birth to a child, you are considered by law to be his or her legal mother automatically. This is the case even if you have had a fertility treatment involving donated eggs or embryos. The donor(s) involved in your treatment has no legal rights or responsibilities towards your child.
Before undergoing treatment, it is important that you understand the legal aspects of using donated eggs, sperm or embryos. In the UK, any child conceived using donated gametes has a legal right at the age of 16 to access the non-identifiable information about their donor(s). When the child reaches 18, they can request the contact information of their donor. This request is managed and overseen by the HFEA. If the child chooses to contact their donor, it does not change the legal status of the donor.
If you have a fertility treatment using donated eggs, sperm or embryos in a licensed clinic, all donations are screened, tested and strictly regulated by the HFEA. These regulations also provide a clear legal position for all parties, so there is no possibility of proceeding with treatment without understanding and consenting to its legal implications.
If you are thinking about having more than one baby and would like them to share the same biological father, please let us know in advance so we can consider this as we begin the donor-matching process. Although it is possible, some sperm donors put restrictions on the number of times their sperm can be used.