S5:E13 -Gemma,Thomas & Henry - PCOS, Perinatal Loss & Pregnancy After Loss
About this episode
Gemma shares her journey through PCOS, IVF, and the profound grief of perinatal loss while navigating motherhood.
Trigger warning: This episode discusses perinatal loss, pregnancy after loss, premature birth. Some stories hold grief and joy in the same hands. Gemma's is one of them. Gemma is the youngest of three sisters, from one of those enormous, chaotic, deeply close families — her mum one of eleven, Gemma one of twenty-something first cousins, Christmases that required crowd control. Motherhood was never a question. The path to it just looked nothing like she expected. She started IVF at 40 through City Fertility with Dr David Wilkinson, following a PCOS diagnosis that had been quietly there for years, masked by the pill she'd been on since her teens for her skin. Her first cycle gave her three embryos. Her second transfer was successful. She was pregnant, and everything seemed fine — until the 20-week scan. Her first little boy, Thomas, had severe intrauterine growth restriction. He was measuring below the first percentile. She knew in her gut from that day that it wasn't going to end the way she hoped. A month of additional scans confirmed it — he was no longer going to survive. That weekend, while Gemma was at the beach with her mum and sister, Thomas quietly let go. She was induced…
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- S5:E14 - Maree & Ellena - From the very first appointment to the other side
- S5:E12 - Lucia & Gabe (part 2)
- S5:E11 - Lucia (part 1)
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