What it's like to... Have IVF treatment

But the road to this blissful happiness hasn't been an easy one.

It took the Walsall couple 10 years, £40,000 and a handful of gruelling IVF attempts to conceive their beautiful twin daughters Chloe and Sophie, now four months old. We sit down with Amy to find out just what it's like to go through IVF.

The 35-year-old practice nurse and her 38-year-old principle engineer husband have been together for 15 years. They got married in 2009, but had been trying for a baby for years before their big day, with no luck.

Amy remembers: "My gynaecologist did some tests and discovered that I'd got polycystic ovaries and that's what was stopping us from getting pregnant. The doctor said that if that was the only problem, then IVF would be pretty straightforward for us and referred me to a local fertility clinic. He said because I wasn't overweight that it should be easy for us to conceive, so I went into it thinking that we'd just have one try and we'd be pregnant."

But it wasn't the case. The process overstimulated Amy's ovaries and left her very poorly. They managed to fertilise one egg of the 22 harvested, but she was so unwell that it couldn't be trasferred. It was frozen, for a future attempt. "To not even get an egg transferred after all that discomfort and agony. . . it was just soul destroying. It was enough to put you off IVF altogether," Amy recalls.

"We were entitled to two NHS attempts, so after that we decided to go back as we had that frozen embryo. We thought that it'd be straightforward, that they'd just transfer that one frozen embryo. But they told us that when they take embryos out of the freezer, it doesn't always thaw properly, so we had to have another complete cycle of IVF.

"To go through it all again was a daunting prospect, but we had to look at what we could get at the end of it – we really wanted a baby, and we thought it was bound to work for us this time. The second time it was a slightly better cycle – we had fewer eggs but they were better quality, and we did get to transfer some and freeze some. I got a positive pregnancy test on the Tuesday, but by the Friday I was bleeding."

And so the couple tried for a third time, paying for the treatment themselves.

"The third time was slightly easier as we had frozen embryos, but it was unsuccessful again." Amy had six months off from trying – to gather her emotions and get her cycle back on track.

"We had a period of about six months where we thought 'we've got a nice lifestyle and go on nice holidays', just telling ourselves we were alright when really, the desire to have children was going to rear its head again."

It was then that tragedy struck. "Both of my grandparents died suddenly within three months of each other. I nursed both of them through ill health, and so we needed to take some time out and reevaluate things."

After her grandparents' death, Amy received an inheritance, which meant she could travel to a new clinic in London to attempt IVF one last time. It would cost them £40,000. "It's the kind of money where if it works, it's worth it, but for something that's not guaranteed, it's an awful lot of money to invest."

Within a week of attending the new clinic, doctors found that Amy had raised cytokines, which meant her body was rejecting implanted embryos. So before she started the last round, she was treated for that problem. After four months, and three different treatments to lower her cytokines, Amy was ready for her final round of IVF.

"They harvested 19 eggs of good quality, and most of them fertilised, so we ended up with seven to freeze and two really good quality ones to transfer back," Amy tells us.

"They rang to tell me I was pregnant, and it was fantastic. Mark was adamant it was twins, but I was sceptical."

The couple couldn't celebrate yet. "I was on bed rest for ten weeks and had severe morning sickness from six weeks until I had them. We found out it was twins at six weeks. Immediately you're ecstatic, but when you leave the scan room, you start thinking that there's a high chance it won't work out.

"The day my waters broke was the day of the doctors strike. I was waiting at Walsall Manor Hospital for 12 hours before they moved me to New Cross in an ambulance, blue lights flashing. I was supposed to have a C-section and was so scared, even then, that something would go wrong. You just think, after ten years, that maybe you're not destined to be a mum.

"It wasn't until they lifted Sophie out of me and she cried that it was real. I looked at Mark and thought 'oh my gosh, this is really happening. That's our daughter that's crying! Are we really going to be parents?'"

Sophie was 4lb 6ozs and Chloe was 5lb 4ozs.

"It's still so surreal. I just wanted to wrap them in cotton wool – nothing is too good for them. We spend every penny we've got on them, but I really don't care after what it's all cost. People make jokes when they see them like 'oh, they're buy-one-get-one-free!' and I think 'yes, they really were after what we've spent on them!' They say that money can't buy happiness, but seeing their little faces makes me the happiest person on earth."

By Kirsty Bosley