Barren woman conceives after being put on a special diet of egg yolks and soya

Birmingham, England:  A couple, who spent £20,000 on fertility treatment, finally conceiving their beloved son on a special diet of egg yolks and soya, are getting married – with their newborn as guest of honour.

Cathy Garvey, 43, and Dan Bowley, 42, of Kings Norton, Birmingham, spent a heartbreaking six years trying for a baby which included four rounds of failed IVF treatment.

But scientists at CARE Fertility, finally cracked it on their fifth attempt by drip-feeding the new mum egg yolk and soya oil to fight killer cells that were destroying her chances.

And thanks to the unusual treatment, Cathy and Dan, a retail manager, are now the proud parents to baby Joseph who was born on July 8, weighing 7lbs 14oz, reports the Birmingham Mail.

Now the couple can start saving for the wedding they dreamed of.

“It was worth every penny because we got Joseph in the end,” said Cathy, 43, a recruitment adminstrator.

“We did have to put off our wedding because we couldn’t afford it after spending so much money on fertility treatment.

“But Joseph is perfect.

"He’ll be the guest of honour at our wedding.”

Cathy struggled to get pregnant naturally for two years but had expected to have problems after previously being told she had blocked fallopian tubes.

The couple went on to have two free rounds of IVF which all resulted in negative pregnancy tests.

On the third treatment, they were delighted to find out Cathy was pregnant – but she sadly miscarried at five weeks.

It was only when the couple, who got engaged on Cathy’s 40th birthday, visited CARE in January last year, that they discovered she had Natural Killer Cells, which were attacking any embryos placed inside her.

“The cells were rejecting the embryos every time we tried IVF,” said Cathy.

“We’ve both got nieces and nephews and we idolise them.

"It was heartbreaking for us when we couldn’t get pregnant.

"We really wanted a baby and that’s why we went through extremes of having IVF.

“When I would see other pregnant women I would be very envious of them and think that would never me.”

Finally in November last year, they started the rigorous process again, but this time, scientists decided to combat the Natural Killer Cells by giving Cathy two Intralipid infusions of egg yolk and soya oil, once when the fertilised embryos were put back inside her, and again when she had a positive pregnancy test.

“This was the last time we were going to have IVF and I just had a very positive feeling about it from the beginning.

"The clinic showed us a little video of the embryos being placed back into me, and we even got a picture.

"I said to Dan ‘I think it is going to work this time’.

“We kept our fingers crossed and two weeks later we had a positive test.

“When we went for the early scan to check everything was OK, we were petrified yet over the moon.

"We saw the picture and Dan asked what the flashing was on the screen, and we were told it was the heart beat.

“We both just burst into tears.

"We hadn’t even got that far with the other pregnancy.”

She added: “ While I was pregnant with Joseph I never moaned about anything.

"And it was amazing when I felt him kicking inside me.

“Having a baby was our priority.

"We’ve now started saving for our wedding and Joseph gets to be guest of honour.”