Greg Jenner has opened up about his incredibly difficult journey to becoming a father. Taking to Twitter on Monday night, the popular Historian and author, who is best known for his work on Horrible Histories, revealed he had just become a father after five years of pain.
"You may have noticed I’ve had a lot of down days on here. In 2014, I married my wonderful wife, after a decade together, and we began trying to get pregnant. It didn't go as we'd hoped. First, 2 years of nothing. Then in 2016, 2 miscarriages...," he started telling his followers.
"Then in early 2017, an ectopic miscarriage. I can't tell you how devastating it was to feel hope then despair on a loop. The next step was IVF. NHS criteria at the time, in Surrey, required we wait 3 years, all the while our natural fertility decreased. It's a catch 22."
The 37-year-old then went on to detail how they were soon funded two rounds of IVF on the NHS, which sadly failed. After looking into adoption, the couple decided to "gamble our life savings" on four more private rounds of IVF in 2018, which coincided with Greg's lowest-earning year in his 15-year career.
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Thankfully, their last round worked: "We did 4 private rounds of IVF in 2018. The doctors kept tinkering with the medicine. Eventually, the last one worked. We were pregnant! But immediately we began fearing another loss; 4 years of grief conditions you to constantly expect bad news. Every growth scan was terrifying But we didn't get bad news. This was a viable pregnancy. But there was still a sting in the tail. My long-suffering wife got landed with nature's least-funny joke: hyperemesis (pregnancy sickness from hell)."
After 20 weeks of vomiting and being hospitalised twice for dangerous dehydration, Greg and his wife finally welcomed their first child last week.
"On Thursday night, thanks to my wife's incredible courage — and the kind support of friends, family & medical staff — and, after 15 years together, and 5 years of pain, we finally held our baby. She's called Esmé, she has a ridiculous amount of hair, and she's amazing."
READ: 5 things you should know about IVF
Greg confessed to his followers that he had decided to share their tough journey to parenthood because "infertility is an agony often felt in private. People rarely knew how to talk to us. It sometimes made me angry there wasn't more awareness. But I get why that is because I kept it hidden. I was scared. And I still don't want to talk about it now."
The new dad’s tweets have been met with an overwhelming response, and Greg has since revealed his fan's replies have left him "bawling my eyes out in the lounge".