After a bit of disruption and delay, Dunedin has its first purpose-built fertility clinic.
The clinic, in Burns House, is public-private because the Southern District Health Board outsourced its service to Fertility Associates.
Last year, the clinic in Dunedin Hospital was taken over by Fertility Associates, but the clinic needed a new home this year, as the SDHB required the hospital space. For a couple of months some patients had to travel to Christchurch because of a delay building the new clinic.
Fertility specialist Dr Kate van Harselaar, an obstetrician/gynaecologist, said it was a relief to be in the new clinic with its new laboratory and procedure room.
It opened to patients in August, but its official opening is on Monday.
Having a public-private clinic made sense because many people funded their own IVF cycles when they no longer qualified for funding. The cut-off age for women was 40, and she urged couples to think about their fertility several years before, and not leave it until they were 38 or 39.
"They need time to get on the public wait list, but meanwhile their reserve of eggs is dropping each month.
"Time and time again people come through my door and they’ve left it too late.
"And you’re just gutted. It’s fine if you’ve got the money [for private procedures]— if you’ve got the money you’re OK."
A big consideration was the "rapid decline" in fertility from the age of 39.
"I love it. You are just changing people’s lives and supporting people on a daily basis," Dr van Harselaar said.
For women needing an egg donor, things were getting a bit easier. It was becoming more common for women to donate eggs, even to people they did not know.
Egg donor Danielle Hannagan, of Dunedin, said the process was much more taxing than she had expected, but she was thinking of doing it again.
"Everybody who wants to be a mum or a dad should be given the opportunity to do that.‘‘I feel really sad for these people who would be great parents and struggle for years and years."
Mrs Hannagan said the process took six to nine months, usually. In her case it was about a year because of the clinic shifting.
She became a donor after seeing an online post from someone she did not know. Dunedin couple Sally and Andrew Marr did not need an egg or sperm donation, but have had several rounds of IVF to have a family. Their first child, Leo, was conceived with IVF, and Mrs Marr (42) is expecting a second IVF-conceived child in about three weeks. It was "incredibly" stressful, but had worked well for them.
Her advice to others was to find someone who had been through IVF and speak to them. It was more common than most people thought, she added.
Mr Marr said the hardest thing was getting a negative result from the procedure, and there being no medical explanation.
It was important to keep things in perspective, as hard as that was in practice, Mrs Marr said.
"Remember, you only need one embryo," she said.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei will officially open the clinic on Monday.
