Real conversation: Katrina Gorry and Anita Asante talk about IVF, donation of sperm and egg extraction

In 2021, Captain West Ham Katrina Gorry, who then played for Avaldsnes in Norway, entered the IVF clinic without telling her friends or family what she would do. A few weeks later, after choosing a sperm provider and she has IVF, she was pregnant.

“I tried not to think about what would happen. My menstruation was always observed on the day and on the day I went in, I got my period. I think it’s been about a week,” Gorry said Sky Sports News‘Podcast A real conversation.

At that time, Gorry was single, which was one of the main reasons he says she did not say anyone before she decided to start her IVF journey.

“When I talked to a doctor, he said,” We can start today. “I think it probably should have happened because I’m not able to really think about the process.

“I think a lot of people would have thought about it and would share them with me and I didn’t want them to change my mind.”

Now Gorry is engaged to Sweden football player Clara Markstedt, and the couple has a second child together.

In the UK, the number of single women with IVF or artificial fertilization treatment increased from 1,400 in 2012 to 4,800 in 2022.

Gorry decided that he wanted to start trying for a child after meeting with a life coach.

“Something was missing. I went to sleep thinking about the kids, the names I wanted, what kind of life with the baby in it. I didn’t think too much about football at all. Everything happened really fast, which I am really grateful for,” she said.

“I had a meeting with a life coach, he said,” What do you miss in your life? “And I said I wanted to be a mom.

But despite the increase in lesbian women who have babies – whether they are one or in pairs, this is something that is rarely talked about in the main media and when it is often homophobic abuse – as the world of women’s football testified through one of the most respected couples in the game last year.

In November 2024, teammates Gorry Kerr, with whom she played in the Australian national team at the age of 13, and Kristie Mewis, who plays at West Ham, has announced that they are pregnant.

While many quickly congratulated their marriage marriage, they faced what Chelsea described as “unacceptable and hated homophobic comments.”

Chelsea chief coach Sonia Bompastor gave her full support to Kerr and Mewis the next day, saying: “These comments are unacceptable, especially in our world 2024.

“It’s crazy to understand how people can react like that. We’re so happy about myself. I can’t wait to greet this little kid in our Chelsea family.”

Gorry said Sky Sports That she hoped her teammates would know “there would be more love than hatred through everything.”

“I don’t think it matters who your parents are. I feel like you have love in the family and you are lucky in the family, and then nothing else should be important,” she said. “The more people can show it, the better the world will be.”

Egg collecting, shopping and IVF shopping

Anita Asante played for Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa and won 71 hats for England. It was part of the historic Arsenal side of 2007, won four league titles and four FA Cups, and played both in the US and Sweden. And now she’s a mom.

At the time were Asante and her husband Beth Fisher, a former sports journalist and hockey player Wales, decided that they wanted to start trying for children, Asante was still playing at WSL Side Aston Vili.

“There were many more thoughts in terms of when we can do it in the year? Or how does it fit with football and my schedule?” Said Asante.

Asante was said to have been removed for the decision to decide on mutual motherhood, with her egg – with embryos that wore her husband – she would not be able to train for several weeks because of the drugs that would be prepared to prepare for egg extraction.

“It made sense to wait as a couple as I finished playing.”

After retiring, Asante, who is also a Pundit, joined the women’s team Bristol City as a coach, and the couple started their IVF trip.

“I started with injections and it was such a strange feeling. I felt different in my body. I felt harder because your ovaries were increasing, so it literally felt like I was wearing that massive eggs around,” Asante said.

“Physical activities that I used to working, such as moving goals, felt a little more challenging. Nothing can prepare you for that sense of physical changes, and probably hormonal changes.”

The couple wanted to have a child from a mixed heritate and decided to use an egg from Asante, who has a ganski heritage. “We both talked about how important it is that our child will know where that part of her heritage is,” Fisher said.

Asante and Fisher then selected the sperm provider based on their interests and values ​​of the European Sperm Bank.

“You can also hear their voice on the recording and you can see a childhood picture,” Anita explained.

“As we went through all these profiles, I think we went with the gut,” Fisher said. “We found those two donors, both from Denmark, but one was in stock. So we went for this one donor who was in stock.”

A few days after ordered sperm, Asante and Fisher were informed that their first choice donor had returned to stock. Fisher called the clinic and got an exchange to the previous sperm they bought, replacing for their first choice.

The couple got pregnant in their first attempt by IVF.

Katrina Gorry and Anita Asante talked about Sky Sports News Podcast Real Talk, with host Miriam Walker-Khan, joined the expert in this episode, Laura-Rose Thorogood, who is the lesbian mom four children and founder and executive director of the LGBT Mumi, an organization who gives the LGBTQ+ advice on people who hope to become parents and campaigns for equal access to fertivology.

Follow A real conversation on Sky Sports News’ digital and social channels and watch the extended interviews on Sky Sports NewsYouTube and on request.

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