'Turkey basters don't work': Queensland lesbian couple use horse syringe to fall pregnant using gay friend's sperm
A lesbian couple from Queensland has revealed how they managed to fall pregnant without spending the big dollars of in vitro fertilisation treatment.
The Daily Mail reports Jade Richards, 36, and her partner Ann Gard asked friend Jarrad Evans for help 14 months before they successfully fell pregnant.
The couple collected sperm samples from Mr Evans every month and deposited them using a syringe intended for the insemination of horses.
"We went into it blindly because we didn't know anyone else who had done it,” Ms Richards told Daily Mail.
"Turkey basters don't work.
"Ann and I bought one at first but then Jarrad told us they don't actually hold liquid so we used something you inseminate horses with – it is a syringe with a long tube attached to it.”
According to Ms Richards, Mr Evans would visit once a month to produce a sample, which was deposited into the horse syringe. The would-be parents would then immediately retreat to the bedroom for the next stage of the 'do-it-yourself' fertility treatment.
Ms Richards said conventional IVF treatment included long delays when couples brought their own sperm donors. Mr Evans, who is also gay, was their donor of choice.
The 36-year-old said she wanted to become a mother as soon as possible so she and Ms Gard eschewed the traditional path and turned to the internet for tips and ideas on taking matters into their own hands.
On New Year’s Eve the couple received the news they had been waiting for – their efforts had succeeded and Jade was pregnant.
And they've already decided on repeating the process for another child but this time Ms Gard will bear the family’s new addition.
Mr Evans’s help will be enlisted again but Ms Richards and Ms Gard say they are not concerned about a confusing or fractious relationship with the donor dad.
“He also agrees we are the parents, and make the decisions and will need our own time together – so I don't see how it will be a problem,” Ms Richards told Daily Mail.
