IVF family reveal they spent £30,000 to have FIVE children including two sets of twins

A couple who spent more than £30,000 on fertility treatment in order to have their five children have said that it was ‘worth every penny’.

All five of the Neugebauer children have been conceived using IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) after Anja, 35, and her husband Stuart, 48, a plasterer from Stevenage, Kent, spent nearly three years trying to start a family naturally, before seeking medical help.

Their daughter Torance, now seven, was born first, followed by four-year-old twins Boston and Breeze, and their second set of twins Ever and Rain were born just two months ago.

Stuart and Anja Neugebauer have spent £30,000 on IVF treatment in order to have their five children, Torance, 7 (left) four-year-old twins Boston and Breeze (centre) and twins Ever and Rain, three months (with Anja)

Experts claim they have never before heard of an entire family created by using IVF.

Anja, a pre-school assistant, said: ‘We had been trying for nearly three years and nothing was happening. I wasn’t falling pregnant and it was heartbreaking.

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‘We were desperate to become parents, but as the months and years went by, we were beginning to doubt that it would ever happen. 

‘Our family has been worth every penny. When I look at them all, I feel like the luckiest mum in the world.’ 

Anja spent nearly three years trying to start a family with Stuart before seeking medical help

Anja and Stuart visited the Harley Street Fertility Clinic, which later merged with the London Fertility Centre, for a course of IVF treatment. It was successful and Anja fell pregnant with their daughter Torance, now seven

After spending years trying to fall pregnant naturally, they decided to visit Harley Street Fertility Clinic, which later merged with the London Fertility Centre, for a course of IVF treatment.

It was successful and Anja fell pregnant with their daughter Torance, now seven.

She said: ‘We were so thrilled when our daughter was finally born after years of heartbreak. To be a mum was the most wonderful feeling in the world.’ 

The couple then decided to try for a sibling, so they had attempt using frozen embryos from their previous cycle, but that didn’t work. Then they had another attempt using a fresh cycle of embryos, but that failed too. 

Anja said: ‘We were beginning to think that we would never be able to give Torance a brother or sister, but we decided that have another attempt.’

This time doctors decided that a previous embryo they had stored in the freezer from a previous cycle of treatment was of better quality than some of the embryos Anja had produced in this cycle of IVF treatment. 

The couple have just invested in an extension on their house and a people carrier to help cope with their bumper sized family

So they decided to defrost and use that embryo, together with one freshly created embryo.

She said: ‘We were desperate to try anything that would work. Even though the clinic said that they had never done it before, we were willing to see what happened. 

‘We knew that our frozen embryo from three years previously was of better quality, so we didn’t want that one to go to waste. 

GETTING IVF ON THE NHS 

In the UK, guidelines from the health watchdog National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommend IVF should be offered to women under 43 years of age.

The treatment is given to women who have been trying to get pregnant through regular unprotected sex for two years, or who have had 12 cycles of artificial insemination.

And while NICE guidelines also state that Clinical Commissioning Groups, who fund IVF treatment in hospitals, should offer women three cycles, not all CCGs do.

In England, over 80 per cent of CCGs do not commission the recommended three full cycles of IVF, according to the charity Fertility Fairness. 

‘So it was defrosted and doctors put it back into my womb, together with a fresh embryo that had just been fertilsed, and we had to sit back and wait to see what happened.’ 

Amazingly Anja fell pregnant, and when she went for her scan, it showed two little heartbeats. She said: ‘It was amazing to think that I was pregnant with twins. I never thought that would happen.’

The pregnancy went smoothly and twins Boston and Breeze were born healthily. The couple decided to try for one more baby three years later, and twins Ever and Rain were born two months ago. 

Anja said: ‘It was a shock when they told me I was pregnant with twins yet again – but at least these two had been conceived at the same time.

‘So now we have two sets of twins and a daughter, making five children in total, who were all born through IVF.

‘People are shocked when they see I have two sets of twins and ask me how on earth I cope, but I’m a very organised mother. 

‘We have just had an extension on our house and we have a people carrier, in order to transport everyone about. 

‘Our family has been worth every penny. When I look at them all, I feel like the luckiest mum in the world.’ 

A spokeswoman for CARE Fertility, a UK wide fertility clinic, said: ‘We have never heard of such a case before.’