Claire Coleman told the Daily Mail that it was the easiest decision she made to give up her job and concentrate on having a child, but she said it was not a choice she felt she should have had to make – and hoped that by talking about it it might change by the time her daughter came to having a family.
She said she spent months hiding appointments, scans, and blood tests from her work colleagues
She felt the process she was going through would not be seen as something her colleagues would be sympathetic towards and did not want to cause her management the ‘headache’ of maternity leave.
Little did she know that her first egg collection would cause a series of dangerous complications and she had to have more than a month off work, something that she would have to explain when she returned.
Claire suffered an internal haemorrhage, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome(OHSS) and pleurisy – quite a few things to explain away to her boss
The former financier said: “I took the sick note into work and had the conversation I had been dreading – they were one Google away from working it all out for themselves, so I thought I might as well fess up.
“Their immediate response was to tell me that they wanted me to work abroad. When I told them I did not want to go because I wanted to carry on doing IVF in the UK, their response was to tell me that I had a choice: IVF or my career.
“I wanted a career – of course I did – but more than that, I wanted to have a child. And so when I had to choose, I chose IVF, even if I didn’t tell my employers at the time.”
Claire is one of the thousands of women who get married in their 30s and expect to have a child without any complications
She had no reason to think there might be an issue. After initial investigations, the couple decided to go down the private IVF route. Despite its hefty cost, they felt they had the funds to go for it.
Amazingly, after the first embryo transfer, Claire became pregnant and set about taking her employers to a tribunal. She eventually settled with an out-of-court settlement. She got a lump sum and it meant she was able to stay home while pregnant and not have to worry about the bills too much.
She said it has taken her years to process the time of her life and it is only now – nine years later- that she feels able to talk about it without getting emotional.
Claire wanted to do something about what she had been through, so contacted MP Nickie Aiken about getting workplace discrimination during fertility treatment outlawed.
She pressed her to do something to help get the law overhauled
She said: “The law is out of step with women’s lives. Infertility affects one in couples in the UK and in about half of those cases, part of the problem lies with the man.
“The bill we are trying to get through parliament would give employees a statutory right to take time off to attend fertility clinic appointments and has its second reading in March.”
Claire has been helping to get companies to sign up for the workplace pledge, and so far it is proving popular. Firms such as NatWest, Channel 4, and Metro Bank already have.
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