A New York couple is suing an upstate fertility clinic for implanting a male embryo instead of a female one as requested by them during an IVF treatment.

Robin(Robbie) Routenberg-Wilhelm and her wife Heather Wilhelm-Routenberg from Buffalo approached the CNY fertility clinic in Latham for an IVF treatment to have a baby daughter. The couple was very particular about having a girl as Heather was traumatized by the idea of having a male child after being sexually assaulted on two different occasions in her younger days, according to an interview given by them to the NY Post.

The clinic reportedly told the couple that they could determine the sex of the embryo formed out of an egg from Robbie and donor sperm and promised they would only implant a female embryo into Heather.

However, when Heather was 15 weeks pregnant, she found out that she was having a baby boy. The news triggered traumatic memories from her sexual assaults and put Heather into a deep depression.

Heather felt her body was taken hostage and even believed the clinic has wrongly implanted someone else's embryo in her.

"This can’t be happening! Not only was the baby in my body not ours, but the baby in my body was male, and he was put there against my will, just like rape," Heather recollected her emotions when she was told it was a baby boy during an appointment with her OB-GYN.

Although Heather's doctor offered to abort the embryo, she did not take up the option believing that she was carrying someone else's embryo.

"I was hoping beyond hope someone would have our baby and we would switch after birth and it would be this happy story," Heather said. Heather did not make any connection with the baby during this time thinking that she would have to switch the child after birth. "I figured I would be giving it away to its real parents. I tried not to think about being pregnant," she said.

Meanwhile, the clinic conducted an investigation into the incident and seven weeks later, they confirmed that the embryo belonged to the couple itself, as reported by the Post Millenial. "It was indeed male, and it was indeed related to Robbie. No one else had our baby: There was no female baby coming," Heather said, adding that the news revived devastating memories of the first miscarriage they had while Robbie was carrying the couple's child.

The couple said they chose CNY because the clinic had agreed that they would be able to select female embryos. "After their son’s birth in December 2020, Heather became suicidal and wasn’t able to bond with the baby," the couple's lawyer told NY Post. They are suing the clinic on 11 counts, including breach of contract, medical malpractice and battery.

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