Singer Ice Seguerra and wife Liza Diño are on their way to build their family and have taken the first steps to conceive ther first child through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The couple previously said that they have been saving up money because they want to undergo IVF for them to have a baby.
According to Mayo Clinic’s website, IVF is a complex series of procedures wherein “mature eggs are collected (retrieved) from a woman’s ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then the fertilized egg (embryo) or eggs are implanted in your uterus.” The said procedure is used to “treat fertility or genetic problems and assist with the conception of a child”.
In their case, they would conceive a baby using Seguerra’s egg cell and a sperm of a donor, which will then be carried by Diño.
Through a series of Instagram posts, Diño shared that they are now in the middle of undergoing the procedure and even posted a video before Seguerra underwent the harvesting process of her eggs.
“We are really doing it! And today marks the first phase in our journey to have a baby,” Diño said.
She added that Seguerra has been preparing for the said process since October last year.
“Since last year October, Ice has been preparing himself for this day. He started taking Estrogen pills to prepare his body for the process. Siya lang yata ang transman na nagte-take ng estrogen but he is determined,” Diño said.
“We are both determined that we’re going to try to fulfill our wish to have a new member sa family,” she added.
In a separate post, Diño shared Seguerra’s struggle during the preparation.
“It wasn’t easy actually. For the first 4 days, Ice’s eggs are not growing and his right ovary is not producing eggs significant enough to be harvested so natakot kami ng slight kasi baka hindi enough yung ma-harvest and for a time ako yung natatakot na baka hindi magrespond yung body niya sa meds,” she said.
But at the end, the doctors were able to harvest “three good eggs” from him.
“Successful procedure! Thank you Lord,” Diño wrote on a separate post.
According to an article by Smart Parenting back in 2016, IVF procedures can cost from P500,000 up to a million especially if couples would have it done abroad. However, some clinics in the Philippines can do one IVF cycle, which will include extraction, fertilization, and implantation, starting from P280,000 to P300,000.
The same source also quoted Virgilio M. Novero, Jr., M.D., head of CARMI and one of the pioneers of IVF practice in the Philippines, as saying “Our success rates are now at 35 to 50 percent for pregnancy, and 20 to 25 percent for live births. The success rates depend on the patient’s profile, the competence of the medical staff, the quality and standards of the IVF lab, and of course the use of cutting-edge technology.”
