Our Commitment to LGBTQ+ Families

This LGBTQ+ History Month, we were thrilled to have a presence at a crucial event on fertility access for LGBTQ+ people, hosted by the Progress Educational Trust. Our Medical Director, Professor Nick Macklon, presented alongside an array of leading researchers and campaigners for LGBTQ+ parenthood and reproductive justice.

We are not just invested in talking about our role in LGBTQ+ history, in the UK and internationally. We are invested in how we are taking part in that history today, and how we can work with LGBTQ+ people to build the futures in fertility that every individual deserves.

Read on below for some reflections from Professor Macklon’s talk and beyond, on our rich past, present, and the futures we’re working to create. You can watch Professor Macklon's full talk on YouTube.

A Brief History of LGBTQ+ Advocacy at LWC

London Women’s Clinic was the first clinic in the UK to interpret the Welfare of the Child clause of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990) to include same-sex couples, leading the charge in donor insemination for primarily lesbian couples. This move, seen as controversial at the time, is now (happily) ‘routine’ in the UK, and part of the HFEA Code of Practice.

But we certainly did not start or stop there. Over decades of work with the Centre for Family Research, Cambridge, and its pioneering Director, Susan Golombok, LWC drove research behind the change that removed further discriminatory legislation, with the groundbreaking updates to the act in 2008. This meant widespread legal access for lesbian couples to donor conception with automatic parental recognition, new rights for gay men to conceive through surrogacy, and ‘important recognition for [LGBTQ+] parents who [had]… been left in a legal lacuna’.

And we’re proud to have been the clinic, at our Darlington branch, to first trial and establish ‘shared motherhood’. This is the method for same-sex couples famously dubbed ‘Her bun in my oven’, in research published jointly by our team. This reciprocal approach to IVF, in which a fertilised egg from one mother is implanted in the other mother’s uterus, is now widespread around the world, and a meaningful form of family creation for countless LGBTQ+ couples.

Donor Intrauterine Insemination (D-IUI): LWC’s Cornerstone of Equality

For many lesbian couples, D-IUI became the simpler, less invasive first step into fertility treatments. Over a 13-year period (2004–2016), 8,922 D-IUI cycles were performed at LWC, 43% of which were for same-sex couples. Our published research found:

- 11% live birth rate (LBR) per cycle, rising to 30% cumulatively if multiple cycles are pursued

- For patients under 35, 66% ultimately achieved a successful birth if they continued treatment

- After six cycles without success—especially for those over 40—we typically advise moving on to IVF

Today, D-IUI is a recognized mainstay, offering a lower-medication, lower-cost route to parenthood for individuals and couples who qualify.

Shared Motherhood: ‘Her Bun in My Oven’

At the heart of our services for same-sex female couples is shared motherhood, wherein one partner’s eggs are fertilized with donor sperm and implanted into the other partner’s uterus. This unique process was pioneered by LWC more than 15 years ago, has been used in over 1,000 treatments to date, and shows a 60% cumulative birth rate in recent internal studies.

Shared motherhood is a testament to how patient-led innovations—like wanting each partner to have a biological stake in the pregnancy—can become standard medical practice. For many couples, this approach enriches their bond and sense of mutual parenthood.

Surrogacy: Expanding Pathways for Male Couples and Beyond

In the early 2000s, legislative changes opened the door for gay men to build their families via surrogacy. Yet the legal framework remains intricate, requiring a Parental Order post-birth. Even so, LWC has advocated tirelessly for making the surrogacy journey more transparent and supported:

- 201 surrogates treated on behalf of 209 intended parents (2014–2024)

- Resulting in 141 babies

- 46% of LWC’s surrogacy cases involve LGBTQ+ intended parents

Surrogacy demands compassion and precision, and thanks to our integrated network of the London Egg Bank and London Sperm Bank, we can streamline donor selection for intended parents. Meanwhile, robust legal advice helps guide the complex path to formal parenthood.

Trans+ Fertility: Charting New Frontiers

We’ve extended our inclusive ethos to transgender and non-binary individuals, offering fertility preservation (egg or sperm freezing) and advanced pathways like IVF or surrogacy. A recent review of 20 IVF cycles by 13 couples of various transgender-cisgender configurations showed:

- 42 embryo transfers

- 87.5% cumulative clinical pregnancy rate

One remarkable case involved a transgender male who froze his eggs in 2015 and later returned with his transgender female partner to pursue surrogacy—resulting in two healthy births in consecutive years. These success stories demonstrate that with the right support and understanding, trans+ individuals need not compromise their transition journeys or their dreams of parenthood.

LGBTQ+ fertility today

We are proud to be known still as a safe destination for LGBTQ+ people seeking fertility treatments. Our data shows that one in four patients having IVF at London Women’s Clinic Harley Street between 2020 and 2023 were either single women or same-sex couples.

And over this period, the number of same-sex couple treatments grew by 86%, and by 45% for single women, in line above the growth described by the HFEA nationwide, below. We have also seen higher success rates in same-sex couples and single women than in heterosexual couples, with a birth rate of 73% per patient for same-sex couples, and 50% for single women, compared to 48% for heterosexual couples.

We have produced a steady output of influential research, documenting our work and sharing best practice – on success rates in donor insemination, shared motherhood, surrogacy, and most recently on a complex, successful treatment pathway for a trans+ couple. This paper was the first to document successful fertility treatments in a couple where both partners are trans+, and drew on a mixture of egg freezing, embryo freezing, and IVF in surrogacy, without disrupting ongoing experiences of gender affirmation treatment for the parents.

Futures in fertility access

The latest HFEA statistics for fertility treatment in Britain show that same-sex couples (and single women) today have the fastest rates of growth in fertility treatments, as well as the highest success rates of all groups.

But research from Stonewall and DIVA Magazine shows that up to 36% of LGBTQ+ couples face barriers or challenges when starting their families, including unfair practical difficulties and inequitable financial costs. And same-sex couples are still having to make headlines to fight for affordable, high-quality care.

Through Kind iVF and our partnership with London Sperm Bank, Kind Donor IVF, we are proud to be making donor sperm IVF financially accessible for same-sex couples who are likely to need simpler and lower-medication treatment pathways.

Through Egg Freezing at London Women’s Clinic and our You Do You community, we are proud to be expanding a safe, welcoming space for trans+ individuals to preserve their fertility before clinical gender affirmation processes, and to connect with others on the same journey.

And, excitingly, we are proud to be relaunching our seminal ‘Alternative Families Show’ and legendary ‘Inseminar’ programme, once crucial parts of the landscape of widening LGBTQ+ access to fertility and fertility information. On 10th May at the Hilton Doubletree, Brighton, we’ll be bringing together leading experts in LGBTQ+ fertility and parenthood for a free day of events, workshops and panels. This is The Familymakers Show: Raising Tomorrow. Tickets are now available, and we hope to see you there.