They met five years ago through Sian's brother. She had just given birth to Lewis with a previous partner. But that relationship ended, and the young couple are now looking at a life together and want to have a child of their own.

Two years ago, however, Sian had incredible abdominal pains. The pain was so intense that she could barely walk. She was eventually brought to a hospital and after a urine test was diagnosed as having Chlamydia.

The pain was from pelvic inflammatory disease - a common consequence of untreated Chlamydia. Sian's partner Neal also went for a test but he was negative. It must have been passed on by a former partner some time ago.

Health professionals cannot pinpoint the exact time when someone becomes infected with Chlamydia, but Pelvic Inflammatory Disease is a sign that Chlamydia had been present in the patient for a long time.

Sian is seeking help from her local hospital - the Royal Hallamshire in Sheffield. She is lucky - some of the UK's most skilled professionals in the field of STIs and fertility work there, and she is assigned to consultant Professor Bill Ledger. She is told that she must have a laparoscopy - an operation to find out how bad the scarring is in her fallopian tubes. That procedure will reveal if Sian can ever get pregnant naturally again.

In September, Sian went for her operation. She has slept barely two hours. Her partner Neal is working away. Her son Lewis is staying with relatives. Her Mum, Lorraine, calls round early in the morning to accompany her.

They make the nine mile journey to the hospital by bus. It takes them 45 minutes, and whilst they banter for most of the time, Sian is nervous. The tension is etched across her face. She says she feels sick.

"I didn't think I were bothered about going down to theatre", says Sian, "but I've realised today I am. I'm always thinking bad things anyway aren't I. Oh what if I don't come round. Normal things that people think about you know."

"You had your laporoscopy, no problems, all was straight forward and the womb and ovaries are pretty normal but you've got adhesions in your pelvis and also at the top of your tummy which will be from Chlamydia."

"And I can't get any dye to go through your tubes and we tried hard. So I think the reason you're not getting pregnant is because your tubes aren't working and the way around that is to put you through the IVF programme and we can do that."

"And we're good in Sheffield at IVF and we get good results and it's not as hard as people think but there's not a chance really with operations that we're going to get your tubes working again and get a pregnancy naturally, OK? But it doesn't mean you can't have more children."

"I'm still upset that I can't do it naturally. And my fears were more on you [Neal], weren't they, like what he'd think and how he'd react to it and whether he'd still want to be with me because I couldn't conceive naturally.

Neal, an electrician, is one of life's laid back characters. Whilst he admits being disappointed, he is also optimistic that the couple can still try IVF.

"I ain't got a clue about it. I just know it costs money. They say about £2,500, don't they? I've read things in the paper where people have paid up to, like, £100,000 trying to have kids."

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