Genesis Fertility Clinic Blog
searching: “pride”
August 1, 2009
Happy Pride!
It’s Gay Pride weekend in Vancouver. Well, at a fertility clinic we really don’t have a big party this weekend but we do stop and think about all the families – gay or straight – we’ve helped to create. We were the first clinic in BC, indeed western Canada, to help gay couples conceive. Since we opened our doors 14 years ago we’ve helped lots of gay couples have children. Mostly we help lesbians as we just don’t get many requests from gay male couples as the process is much more complicated because they require a someone to donate use of their uterus and eggs. Sometimes both the uterus and eggs come from the same woman and sometimes it comes from two separate women. Plus Health Canada requires the gay partner whose sperm we are using to have it quarantined in a lab in Toronto for 6 months before we can use it. So, it’s not an simple process but it’s doable.
Helping lesbians is less complex as sperm is easier to obtain. We get it from a few different (reputable!) sperm banks. After the lesbian couple has some basic fertility testing and a counseling session we get going – putting sperm into the uterus (insemination) at the time of ovulation. For more info click here.
To all those families we’ve helped grow we hope you enjoy the weekend with your little ones a foot. For those we haven’t helped… come on over!
Dr. Beth Taylor, MD, FRCSC
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility