By Rut Gómez de Segura (Gynaecologist – Reg. No. 28/2908776).
One of the beliefs we uphold through the values established in IVF-Life is that sexual orientation should never be something that keeps a person away from their wish to have a family.
Therefore, on the occasion of International Lesbian Visibility Day, we want to send a message of support, respect and empathy to all those women and couples who today need to hear that their journey to motherhood can begin whenever they want to start it and that there are many ways to achieve it.
Thanks to scientific advances in the fertility sector and Spanish legislation, female couples have a wide range of possibilities in the field of assisted reproduction in order to become mothers, which are adapted to different medical circumstances and individual preferences.
As is well known, the ROPA Method (Reception of Oocytes from Partner), also known as reciprocal IVF, is an attractive option for sharing motherhood, as it is a type of in vitro fertilisation that allows both women to actively participate in the pregnancy. In this process, one of the women will provide her eggs and the other will gestate the baby.
When this technique cannot be performed – either due to medical advice or the patients’ decision-, other treatments may be chosen, such as artificial insemination, conventional in vitro fertilisation or embryo adoption, which, although less well known, has a high prognosis of success.
Whatever the case may be, IVF-Life’s specialists in reproductive medicine will find the most suitable sperm donor (or embryo) for each couple in their bank, and will make medical and emotional support a fundamental element in each step of the exciting experience of becoming mothers.
At IVF-Life, we care about your circumstances. We care about you. Our team’s ultimate goal is to help you achieve your aims, regardless of the reason that led you to us. According to our patients who, before coming to IVF-Life, sought reproductive advice at other centres, lesbian couples – or female couples – sometimes feel that the clinic they want to trust to expand their family does not fully take into account their reality or the decisions they have made regarding their maternity.
We do not allow this to be the case and we adapt our know-how to each case we are presented with and to each person who chooses us to carry out their project. At IVF-Life, we want to get to know you, to inform you rigorously at every step of your experience and to help you, thanks to our personalised processes and highly qualified specialists, to reach your goal.
Brandão P, Ceschin N.
Lesbian shared IVF: the ROPA method: a systematic review.
.
2023;
e202
Revisión de la literatura científica sobre el método ROPA (Recepción de Ovocitos de la Pareja), una técnica de reproducción asistida que permite a las parejas de mujeres compartir la maternidad biológica:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37152625/
Brandão P, Monseur B, Melo P, Gonçalves-Henriques M, Ceschin N, Reis-Soares S.
Shared IVF among female couples: clinical outcomes of the Reception of Oocytes from the Partner (ROPA) method.
.
2023;
103284
Estudio multicéntrico sobre los resultados clínicos del método ROPA en parejas de mujeres sometidas a tratamientos de reproducción asistida en España:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37542844/
Soares SR, Cruz M, Vergara V, Requena A, García-Velasco JA.
Donor IUI is equally effective for heterosexual couples, single women and lesbians, but autologous IUI does worse.
.
2019;
2184-2192
Estudio multicéntrico que compara los resultados de la inseminación intrauterina con semen de donante en parejas heterosexuales, mujeres sin pareja y parejas de mujeres:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31711203/
Kirubarajan A, Patel P, Leung S, Park B, Sierra S.
Cultural competence in fertility care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people: a systematic review of patient and provider perspectives.
.
2021;
1294-1301
Revisión sistemática sobre las experiencias de pacientes LGBTQ+ y profesionales sanitarios en los servicios de reproducción asistida:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33610322/