It’s been five years since the launch of Rainbow Fertility, Australia’s first dedicated IVF service for the LGBTQ+ community by IVF provider City Fertility. Over the last five years, the service has witnessed a steady increase in patient numbers, received overwhelmingly positive feedback from patients for the service, and helped achieve over 450 babies, hence giving them plenty of reasons to celebrate.
Sydney fertility specialist Dr Natasha Andreadis said demand from the LGBTQ+ community for fertility services has been constantly increasing over the past five years, with a 116 per cent increase in patients from this group across all of City Fertility’s services, for the period.
“We have had the joy of helping so many achieve their parenting dreams, including a gay surrogacy couple who became parents with the egg donated by one sister, and the pregnancy carried by another sister; Insta-famous Jessi and Millie, a couple of committed eco-warriors and beach lovers, who are now expecting a baby; and we are now also helping singer, songwriter and entertainer Brihony Dawson and wife Shae Dawson on their fertility journey too,” Dr Natasha Andreadis said.
Just over 10 per cent of Australians may have a diverse sexual orientation, sex or gender identity according to The Australian Human Rights Commission[i].
The Rainbow Fertility service delivers tailored advice on family options specifically for the LGBTQ+ community. We welcome and support people of all sexes, sexualities and genders to realise their dream of building a family.
Dr Andreadis said our patients can be confident in the knowledge that all Rainbow Fertility specialists and staff believe in the clinic’s philosophy, that everyone should be free to experience the joys of parenthood if they wish to.
“We understand that rainbow families can sometimes encounter confusion and misunderstanding from others, sometimes even from medical professionals and hence our aim is to bridge this gap, by providing inclusive fertility care, easy access to qualified counsellors, information and support services tailored to their needs,” Dr Andreadis said.
Rainbow Fertility’s treatment options include fertility assessments, investigations and fertility health checks, donor insemination, IVF, partner IVF, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), donor egg and sperm programs, fertility preservation (egg and sperm freezing) and surrogacy services.
Dr Andreadis said at Rainbow Fertility, patients will choose their own specialist, who will get to know them and be with them throughout their journey, ensuring continuity of care.
Rainbow Fertility is a service of City Fertility also launched Australia’s first-ever dedicated sperm donor app of registered donors. The Addam app caters for those who need the help of a sperm donor to try and fulfil their dream of parenthood and delivers a faster solution to selecting a donor in just a few swipes.
To celebrate Rainbow Fertility’s fifth birthday, below are a few patient stories for five happy years of service. Enjoy!
Surrogacy patients’ Stanley and Marco worked closely with Rainbow Fertility specialist Dr Andy Stamatiou to achieve their goal to become parents. Stanley’s family united to help their dream be realised with Stanley’s younger sister, Amanda, providing the egg that was then fertilised in-vitro by Stanley’s husband Marco’s sperm, and Louise, another sister of Stanley’s, was the surrogate who carried the embryo that was implanted into her womb. The result of their fertility journey is baby Annabelle who is the most beautiful outcome for this wonderful family.
Singer, songwriter and entertainer Brihony Dawson and wife Shae Dawson initially spoke about starting a family together in the first few moments they fell in love! Now, three years on, they have done just that and started their pregnancy journey with Rainbow Fertility. They admit they had not actually planned to start so soon, but when COVID-19 took over they felt so many things in their lives were up in the air and decided to take control, so instead of planning the family around work-life, they decided to plan their life around starting a family. Shae and Brihony have chosen to do partner IVF where Brihony provides the eggs to be fertilised by donor sperm and Shae carries the embryo. Like many IVF journey’s there hasn’t been a quick success for them and they are still in their journey to become parents. With their determination, there is hope everywhere and we’ve got everything crossed for them. @ladyhoodmusic
Jessi and Millie are Insta-famous committed eco-warriors and beach lovers living in Sydney’s northern beaches, who decided they wanted to start their own family after being temporary foster parents for two years. But like many, their fertility journey has taken some time and had its ups and downs. The exciting news is that once they started their treatment with Rainbow Fertility and Dr Devora Lieberman it was smooth sailing and they are now expecting in Early November 2021. Millie said while they are both maternal, she had always wanted to carry a pregnancy, so they both agreed Millie would use her own egg and carry the pregnancy, while Jessi would be the pillar of strength to lean on. We look forward to the birth of their first child soon. @jessi_and_millie
[i] https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/education/face-facts-lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans-and-intersex-people
