In 2021, the captain of West Ham Ham, Katrina Gorry, who was then playing for Avaldsnes in Norway, entered an IVF clinic without telling friends or family what he would do. A few weeks later, after choosing a sperm donor and had IVF, she was pregnant.
“I tried not to really think about what was going to happen. My period is always in place on the day and the day I went inside, I took my period. I think it was about a week ago,” Gory said Sky Sports News‘Podcast Real conversation.
At that time, Gorry was single, which was one of the main reasons she says she did not tell anyone before deciding to start her journey to IVF.
“When I spoke to the doctor, he said” We can start today. “I think it was meant to happen because I was unable to really think about the process.
“I think a lot of people would have thoughts about it and they would have shared them with me and I didn’t want them to change their minds.”
Now, Gorry is engaged to Swedish footballer Clara Marstedt, and the couple have a second child together.
In the UK, the number of single women who have IVF or artificial insemination treatment increased from 1,400 in 2012 to 4,800 to 2022.
Gorry decided she wanted to start trying a baby after meeting a life coach.
“There was only something missing. I went to sleep thinking about the children, the names I wanted, what would be life with a child in it.
“I had a meeting with a life coach, he said” What is missing in your life? “And I said I want to be a mother.
But despite the growth of lesbian women who have babies – whether single or in pairs, it is something that is rarely spoken in the main media, and when it is, homophobic abuse often follows – as the world of women’s football proves through one of the top couples last year.
In November 2024, Gorry’s teammates Sam Kerr, who she played on the Australian national team for 13 years, and Kristie Mewis, who plays in West Ham, announced that they were pregnant.
While many were quick to congratulate the couple, they faced what Chelsea described as “Homophobic comments unacceptable and hate.”
Chelsea coach leader Sonia Bommaster offered her full support to Kerr and Mewis the next day, saying: “These comments are unacceptable, especially in our world in 2024.
“Crazy crazy understand how people can react like this. We’re very happy to Sam. I can’t wait to welcome this little baby to our Chelsea family.”
GORRY said Heavenly That she hoped her teammates know “will have more love than hatred through all.”
“I don’t think it should matter who your parents are. I feel like you have love in a family and you have happiness in a family, then nothing else should matter,” she said. “The more people who can show that, the better the world will be.”
Egg collection, buying sperm and IVF
Anita Asante played for Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa and won 71 hats for England. She was part of Arsenal’s four-win-winning historic team, won four league titles and four Armed Forces and also played in Sh.BA and Sweden. And now, she is also a mother.
At a time when Asante and her wife Beth Fisher, a former sports reporter and hockey player in Wales, decided they wanted to start trying for children, Asante was still playing on WSL Aston Villa side.
“There were many more thoughts involved in terms when we can do it per year? Or how does it fit with my football and schedule?” Said Asante.
Asante was said that due to the choice of common motherhood, by which her egg was extracted – with the embryo carried by her wife – she would not be able to train for several weeks due to the medication she would get to prepare for egg extraction.
“It made sense for us as a couple to wait until I was done playing.”
After retiring, Assante, who is also an expert, joined Bristol City’s women’s team as a coach, and the couple began their journey to IVF.
“I started with injections and it was such a strange feeling. I felt different in my body. I felt heavier because your ovaries expand, so it was literally kept these massive eggs around,” Asante said.
“The physical activities I was used to doing, like moving the goals around, I felt a little more challenging. Nothing can prepare you for that feeling of physical changes, and perhaps hormonal changes as well.”
Coupleifti wanted to have a child with mixed inheritance and decided to use an egg from Asante, which has the Ghanian Heritage. “We both talked about how important it was for our child to know where that part of her heritage was,” Fisher said.
Assante and Fisher then chose a sperm donor based on his interests and values from the European Sperm Bank.
“You can also listen to their voice in a recording and you can see a picture of childhood,” Anita explained.
“While we were selling through all these profiles, I think we went with our gut,” Fisher said. “We found these two donors, both from Denmark, but one was out of stock. So we went to this a donor in stock.”
A few days after ordering the sperm, Assante and Fisher were informed that their first choice donor was again in stock. Fisher called the clinic and received an exchange in the previous sperm they had bought, exchanging for their first choice.
Coupleifi became pregnant in their first attempt at IVF.
Katrina Gorry and Anita Asante were talking in Sky Sports News Podcast Real Talk, with host Miriam Walker-Khan, was also joined by the expert of this episode, Laura-Rose Thorogood, who is a lesbian mother of four children and the founders and CEO of LGBT Mummies, an organization that gives advice to LGBTQ+ people and campaigns.
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