After spending over $200,000 and six failed rounds on IVF, Luise Hoehn gave birth to her first baby at the age of 52 and is already thinking of having another child.
The 52-year-old from Lowell, Massachusetts, gave birth to her son, Stellan, on Christmas Day after a long battle of six years using donor eggs and IV therapies.
According to the Daily Mail, “Luise, who will be 53 in May, spent $75,000 on donor eggs, following six disappointing failed rounds using her own eggs – costing more than $115,000.”
She met her partner, Dean Biele, who is five years younger than her, in 2007 – the couple first met in 2007 when Luise was 37 and he was 32.
They moved in together in 2012. After trying to conceive naturally for years, the couple started their fertility treatment in 2016.
“But at 46, Luise was already over the cut-off age for many clinics, and when the couple did find a specialist, they discovered their insurance would not cover most of the treatment cost because of Luise’s age.”
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the first-time mother said she never wanted to have a family of her own before meeting her husband, Biele.
“Before meeting Dean, I’d never met someone I wanted to start a family with. I had a fulfilling job as a nanny, helping to raise other people’s children, and simply thought I would meet the right person and one day have my own.”
She added that once she entered her forties, she started worrying about her fertility and whether she could conceive naturally.
“When I was 42, my doctor asked if I wanted to talk to an IVF specialist,” she said. “It had never occurred to me to freeze my eggs, and I believed it would happen naturally, so I said no.”
At the age of 46, Luise stopped having her period for two months, and her doctor told her that she was going through menopause. She was also advised to decide as soon as possible if she wanted to have a baby.
“Thankfully, it wasn’t the start of menopause, but the scare made me stop waiting for something to happen naturally,” said Luise. “We had our first IVF consultation in January 2016, and the doctors recommended opting for donor eggs.”
She added, “I was very disappointed.” “The doctor said I would have more success with donor eggs because I was past the ideal age for trying with my own eggs, but I decided to try with them anyway.”
In 2017, Luise married Dean in February and underwent her first IVF cycle in March.
But it failed. So, the couple decided to undergo two more cycles after discussing them with a local doctor. Neither of them was successful.
So, they moved to a clinic in Manhattan to undergo three more cycles.
“My husband’s insurance paid for the first round and half the second round,” she told the Daily Mail.
“After that, we were fortunate that Dean had a job that afforded us the opportunity to keep trying more IVF cycles, and we had to keep trying because it was what we both wanted.”
After multiple failed attempts, Luise and Dean eventually decided to go for a donor egg.
“My last IVF attempt with my eggs was in 2018, but we didn’t confirm our donor until 2021. I found our donor in 2019, but my husband wasn’t convinced that I had searched enough,” she said.
“He asked me to keep searching other agencies.”
Speaking about her donor, the Massachusetts native said,
“I am over the moon with the donor, she matches me perfectly. Ethnically, she could be my sibling, but also her personality and characteristics meant she was an ideal match for what I was looking for as my stand-in for my genetic half.”
“It was important that I find someone who represents me, and I went through several agencies.”
Finally, in May 2022, Luise found out that she was expecting eight days after transferring their first embryo.
“I didn’t make a big announcement on social media because I was unsure how I would handle the pregnancy and I didn’t want to attract lots of questions.”
The new mother said she thinks she would be a wiser mother to her son than she would have been at a younger age.
“Some of my friends are grandparents. We are just starting, but there’s something to be said for life experience. I am confident in what I can do and our choices in how we will raise a child.”
