A woman who was herself conceived through IVF in the 1990s has now welcomed her own baby, also conceived via IVF, after enduring five years of multiple losses and fertility struggles.
Lauren Gadsby, 33, and her husband Jon, who reside in Derby, celebrated the arrival of their healthy daughter, Hollie, on 8 December 2025.
Their path to parenthood included the heartbreak of three lost pregnancies, alongside chemical pregnancies and abnormal smear test results.
Despite the emotional and physical toll of the process, Ms Gadsby drew significant hope from her own unique beginning. She explained that being an IVF baby herself instilled a "belief that it does work, because I am an example of that".
The couple first began trying for a family in 2022, soon after their wedding. However, after three years without success, medical tests ultimately revealed male factor infertility, indicating that natural conception was unlikely.
Upon hearing the news, they decided to try IVF, supported by supplements including Impryl® from Fertility Family, which is said to help optimise fertility and support a healthy pregnancy.
Since Ms Gadsby herself was the product of IVF, they felt confident in the process and were willing to do whatever they needed to have a baby of their own.
“It was very challenging,” Ms Gadsby told PA Real Life of the couple’s battle with infertility.
“My husband definitely struggled. I guess he felt a lot of guilt, even though, obviously, he shouldn’t. I think men don’t really talk about it, and because we were told it’s on the male side, I think he was thinking it was all him, and he just felt really guilty.
“It is quite hard on your relationship as well.”
In early 2024, the couple were told that they had qualified for IVF on the NHS. While processes differ across the country, where the Gadsbys are based they could access one round of IVF through the NHS, meaning they thankfully did not need to worry about the financial cost of private treatment.
In April 2024, Ms Gadsby had her egg collection procedure, and they were fortunate to get “quite a few embryos”.
However, it sadly was not plain sailing for the couple. Their first pregnancy was lost at eight weeks, and then Ms Gadsby had two chemical pregnancies – a very early pregnancy loss which usually happens just after the embryo implants, before or around five weeks – and they feared the round of IVF treatment might not work.
During this period of uncertainty, Ms Gadsby decided to document her journey on TikTok, sharing her story with the world in the hope that it would help others who were going through the same.
“I started it when I had the first loss,” she said.
“When I lost at eight weeks, I did a video of the journey so far. The whole time I’d been taking little clips and doing little videos but, to be honest, I was hoping that I would end it with, ‘I’m pregnant, and this is the baby’.
“Then, obviously, I went through miscarriage.
“I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got all this footage, and I’ve done all this, I want to put it out there’.”
After uploading her first video, Lauren said she was surprised to find she had “loads of comments, and loads of people messaging me”.
“It made me feel like I wasn’t alone,” she added.
“So then, I just started doing it, and it actually really helped me.”
Of course, Ms Gadsby could also lean on her parents for advice – they had been through IVF, too, so knew some of what she was going through.
In the middle of baby loss, Ms Gadsby had a regular smear test that returned abnormal results. About seven years ago, Ms Gadsby was diagnosed with HPV (Human Papillomavirus) following a routine cervical smear, and she needed to return for a smear test annually, rather than every five years.
She had her annual smear in the summer of 2024, shortly after losing her first baby. On the day she learned that she had had a chemical pregnancy, her results were returned and she was told they showed abnormal cells.
While an abnormal smear test result is not a cancer diagnosis, it indicates changes in cervical cells that need monitoring or treatment to prevent future cancer.
“I remember being really upset because, obviously, I’d just found out I’d had a chemical pregnancy as well,” Ms Gadsby said.
“It was a lot.”
Ms Gadsby was referred for a colposcopy, a magnified exam that takes a detailed look at the cervix and surrounding organs, which confirmed the presence of abnormal cells which required treatment. There and then, doctors were able to perform the LLETZ procedure – large loop excision of the transformation zone – which targets abnormal cells on the cervix using a heated wire loop under local anaesthetic, removing precancerous growths.
Thankfully, the procedure was successful – all of the abnormal cells were removed, and Ms Gadsby was told she no longer had HPV, either. However, she was instructed to wait six months before she could continue with IVF.
“In a weird way, I feel like everything happens for a reason, because it got rid of it before I then got pregnant with Hollie,” Ms Gadsby said.
“It would have been a bit of a nightmare if I’d found that out while I was pregnant. So, it worked out for the best but, at the time, it was very frustrating to have the delay.”
By April 2025, Ms Gadsby was able to continue with IVF and, shortly afterwards, Hollie was conceived.
The couple found it difficult to relax into the pregnancy after experiencing baby loss, and they paid for several private scans to confirm everything was progressing as it should.
By the time they reached 24 weeks, Ms Gadsby said she felt she could start buying things for the baby and getting their home ready to welcome their new addition, though she still had anxiety about the possibility of issues down the line.
The couple welcomed Hollie into the world on December 8 2025 – 16 days earlier than her due date of Christmas Eve. Ms Gadsby was induced after being diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication characterised by high blood pressure, and Hollie was born via emergency Caesarean section.
She continues to share her motherhood journey on social media.
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