6 Special Options To Consider If You Want Children But Can’t Have Them
Learning that you can’t, or are struggling to have children, can be a very difficult thing for a couple to process. If it’s your life goal to have a child, it can feel like everything’s collapsing around you, and you don’t know where to turn.
Thankfully, the modern world presents a wide variety of solutions for whatever issue you might be facing. It’s now the case that couples who would never have been able to have children in the past can, and in this article, you’ll learn of the best options available – both new and old.
Here are five special options to consider if you want children but can’t have them.
- In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)
If there are issues with your and your partner’s fertility that haven’t been able to be resolved through other means, In Vitro Fertilisation or IVF is one of your best options.
This involves taking the eggs from the ovaries, fertilising them with sperm outside the body within a lab-controlled environment, and then placing them back into the body to grow. These procedures have a great success rate, even for people with an undetermined reason for why they can’t get pregnant. You can also have multiple eggs frozen, so that in the event the first try doesn’t work, you try again.
- Adoption
For those who can’t have children on their own, adoption is a fantastic option. You’re taking a child who doesn’t have a family and giving them the life they deserve, and there are many different ways of going about it.
It all depends on what your timeline is and what you’re looking for, but there’s something for everyone.
- Egg or Sperm Donation
It’s usually the case that rather than both parents or one being infertile, the two are simply incompatible. For whatever reason, the combination of a given sperm and egg doesn’t compute.
When this is the case, the option of egg and sperm donation is a viable option. This is when the egg or sperm is used from a donor in order to complete the process via IVF; it has its own set of emotional considerations, but it’s a clear solution to the problem for many people.
- Surrogacy
Surrogacy is when another woman carries a pregnancy on someone else’s behalf.
Gestational surrogacy is a particularly popular option, as this is when IVF is first used to fertilise the egg, and then the embryo is transferred to a surrogate to develop – this is preferred when the couple can conceive, but the woman cannot manage the full pregnancy for whatever reason.
It’s certainly one of the more logistically complex options (and it can also cost a lot of money), but it’s the perfect solution to the right issue.
- Fostering
For those not ready to commit to adoption, there’s fostering. This is when you temporarily provide a young child with a home.
It provides them with a stable family life for a set time, after which they return to their care home.
It’s often the case that, eventually, the child’s foster family adopts them as their own child.
Fostering can be a lot of work, but there are plenty of benefits, and giving the gift of a loving home is always worth it.
- Embryo Adoption
And finally, there’s embryo adoption, which is rarer but becoming more popular year by year. This is when those who are struggling or unable to have a child adopt an embryo that’s been fertilised by another couple, usually when it has been determined unneeded via a successful round of IVF.
Rather than the embryo being terminated, it’s instead transferred to a new mother’s uterus to develop naturally. With it often being more affordable than traditional IVF, the embryo adoption method provides those on a lower budget access to the methods with the highest success rates, which they otherwise may not have been able to afford.
Of course, there are many ethical and legal considerations with embryo adoption, so if you’re interested, be sure to do plenty of research into the feasibility in your country.
Wrapping Up
You should now have a good idea about the most viable options available when you’re desperate to become parents but are struggling with the natural way.
No matter which route you choose, it’s going to be an emotional time, so lean on your support network for the love and care you need, and talk to the right healthcare professionals for guidance. Good luck!
