Transitioning? Have a chat about fertility preservation

Infertility was an unexpected hurdle

The couple moved in together and started trying for a baby in earnest – assuming that as they were still in their mid-twenties that they wouldn’t have any difficulties conceiving naturally.

“I had been on the mini-pill for a number of years,” explains Sami, now aged 30, “and when I came off it my periods were really irregular. It hadn’t occurred to me that we would have fertility problems, we were both devastated that I wasn’t getting pregnant.”

The couple went to their GP and were referred for hospital tests which revealed that there were issues with both of them which could be affecting their fertility. They were told that they would be eligible for fertility treatment.

A new baby and new beginnings

The couple were delighted when their IVF treatment worked first time and Sami vividly remembers their first scan at Bourn Hall. “We saw his little heart fluttering on the screen and we both cried,” she says.

In April 2018 Sami and Jamie welcomed their son Toby in to the world and, with one embryo and the units of sperm in frozen storage at Bourn Hall, Jamie could begin her transition journey in the knowledge that they still had options if they wanted more children.

After attending a gender clinic in London Jamie was referred to a hormone specialist and has been taking hormone tablets for more than two years.

“I am at a really happy stage in my transition now,” says Jamie, aged 31. “The hormone tablets are really working. They change where the body fat is stored so my body shape is now more female, the hair on my head is much thicker and I have now got breasts.”

Fertility options for trans people

Jamie and Sami were fortunate in that the issue of fertility preservation was addressed early on and they were able to have sperm and their remaining embryo frozen at Bourn Hall should they want to have more children down the line. Jamie feels strongly that fertility preservation is something which people seeking to change gender should consider at an early stage – as once hormonal or surgical treatment has begun fertility is impacted.

“I think the best time for the issue of fertility preservation to be broached is once you have seen the psychiatrist or therapist and before you go to the gender clinic,” Jamie says. “By the time you get to the gender clinic you just want to get on with taking the hormones and having to make a rushed decision about freezing sperm or eggs would just cause a delay and hold you back. That conversation needs to be had earlier.

“Trans people, especially if they don’t currently have a partner, will be thinking in the ‘here and now’ which might be ‘oh I might not want a child’ but they should consider how they might feel about having a child in ten or twenty years from now.

“I know that once someone has made the decision to change gender they may want to act quickly to get to be who they truly are but all I would say is slow down and think about whether you might want children in the future, this is especially important for teenagers going through the process. Freezing your eggs or sperm won’t hold you up too much in the long run and it keeps the option of having your own biological child in the future open.”

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