Claire Reid
A woman dumped her long-term partner and spent £50,000 on IVF to become a mum for the first time at 46.
Karen Owen says she always wanted children and had spoken openly about her desire to become a mum when she first started dating her boyfriend.
Despite him initially agreeing and saying he would also like to have kids, as their relationship went on, he changed his mind - leaving Karen feeling like she had been strung along.
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Karen, from York, North Yorkshire, said: "I was hoping he'd come around to having kids. I had that little grain of hope, but realistically I knew it wasn't going to happen.
"I was really upset and disappointed as I'd been with him for six years. I felt strung along."
After ending the relationship, social researcher Karen decided to take on motherhood solo.
She began her IVF journey in January 2020 and created embryos with an anonymous sperm donor.
Determined Karen ended up forking out nearly £50,000 on private fertility treatments, despite being told she had a less than five percent chance of getting pregnant.
Karen said: "I had a failed cycle and we went into lockdown. Then I was at the top of the clinic's list when they re-opened around June and was put on some different meds that worked better for me.
"All in all, I had six egg collections over those two years of covid. Four of the egg collections ended up in what looked to be viable embryos.
"I had four fresh embryos transfers - multiple embryos each time. One resulted in an early miscarriage and one resulted in a chemical pregnancy."
But two years on from starting IVF, Karen finally got the call she'd been waiting for and was told that she was pregnant again - and in October 2022 Karen welcomed her son Alex Owen in October 2022, who weighed a healthy 7lb 2oz.
Karen said: "I was so lucky because the chances were so slim. I remember when I went for my fertility MOT, I think they told me I had less than a five percent chance of getting pregnant.
"I totally have imposter syndrome sometimes. When I'm out in town, I'll see myself in the reflection of a shop window when Alex is in the pushchair and I'll go, 'that's me pushing a pushchair with a baby in it'.
"Even at home we stand in front of the mirror sometimes and I look at him and I look at me, and I pinch myself because he's mine."