Louise Thompson gives a fertility update as she shares sweet gesture from fiancé Ryan Libbey amid IVF and surrogacy journey

Louise Thompson has issued a fertility update as she shared a sweet gesture from her fiancé Ryan Libbey.

The TV personality, 35, has been documenting her experience on social media after revealing her plans to expand her family, after almost dying while giving birth to her son Leo in 2021 following an emergency caesarean. 

After Leo's birth, Louise went on to suffer with PTSD and post-natal anxiety due to her near-death experience and has since been diagnosed with Lupus, Asherman's syndrome, suffered a second haemorrhage, and has also had a stoma bag fitted.

But earlier this year the former Made In Chelsea star revealed her hope to welcome a second child via surrogacy.

Taking to Instagram on Friday, Louise shared an update on her fertility journey as she announced herself and Ryan have one embryo 'in the freezer' after undergoing IVF. 

Sharing the news, Louise posted a picture of a bouquet of flowers Ryan gave her with the message: 'You did it. One in the freezer for safe keeps x.'

She captioned the picture: 'One in the freezer for safe keepy's. ✨ Inside that sentence is a universe. If you've listened to the latest episode of our podcast then you might already know what this stands for.

'For those of you that haven't - Ryan isn't always comfortable communicating about this fertility stuff at home… sometimes he'll even threaten that it's too much for him to handle, but this bunch of flowers was all I needed to reassure me that we're reading from the same hymn sheet. And he is VERY good at using words when it's really needed. 

'This was NEEDED. You can imagine how much this bunch of flowers meant to me… even when exchanged in silence at the end of a very long grey working day.'

Louise continued: 'In truth those words hold years of planning, weeks of needles (years including the biologic-jak inhabitor-biologic switch), scans, waiting rooms, clenched jaws, forced optimism, and tears, lots of tears. 

'It's the kind of bravery nobody gives you a medal for - and why would they because we're chosen to pay to go through this process when we could just… not. We could just accept the cards we've been dealt. But I don't want our past trauma to dictate our future.

'For those who know this road well, it needs no explanation. Staring at wee sticks. Counting follicles like prayer beads. Tracking bloods meticulously. Learning a whole new language in the hope that it will help us edge closer to our goal.

'By educating I thought I could control the outcome. But this isn't predictable like other areas of my life. There is no playbook.'

Detailing their IVF journey, Louise added: 'From our first cycle we went from seeing 20+ gooood looking follicles on the scan, to getting 8 eggs retrieved to holding onto hope that many of them would make it to day 5. 

'I did a lot of research and looked at many many stats for people in a similar situation to me (and us), but every case is SO individual and we ended up with just one. One embryo. One possibility. Not the perfect outcome. Especially with an amh averaging 25.

'It makes me wonder if something else is wrong. Not enough to say "we're done". But a chapter where something worked. And that feels like an ok place to start. So we're letting ourselves process that.

'One in the freezer. One in our hearts x.'

It comes after speaking on Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast, Louise explained that while she is trying to have another baby, there are 'a lot of things that make me feel less whole and human'.

She said: 'We have reached a point where my partner and I would like to give Leo a sibling because we are really close with our siblings.

'And I have been left with some fertility, so I don't have a period, and there are a lot of things that make me feel less whole and human than I used to be before.

'It's not going to be an easy journey. 

'I have decided to try and freeze some fertility while we try to continue to work on our mental space.'

Louise then explained that while she has been working through recovery for PTSD, Ryan has more worries than she about having another baby and is 'clinging on to any stability'.

'This has affected Ryan more than it has affected me, especially when it comes to growing our family', she explained.

'For him he is just like ''why would we risk anything, I cannot go through that again, I cannot be the sole parent again, I can't afford to have some big shift that means that I am going to regress and be scary again and not know who I am or where I am and have panic attacks all the time''. So for him, he is clinging on to any stability.'

'We're so lucky because I survived, I'm here and I do have a good standard of living, I've also got the most amazing child, he's so beautiful. But growing our family is our legacy and our right.

'I should have been given the right to a safe and dignified birth, which would have allowed me to leave procreation to chance, where I could have sex with my partner and maybe have another baby.

'We're not alone in this infertility journey, our chances are just really different due to the scarring I've been left with.'