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We started our journey 7

LN • Tue, Jun 07

We started our journey 7.5 years ago. Many months (10) of trying to concieve on our own got us pregnant with our first. Unfortunately we lost that baby to miscarriage at 8 weeks the day before our first obgyn appointment, so I'll never know for sure what happened. After our loss we continued to try and try to conceive. We elevated our efforts to include clomid with timed intercourse. Then started going to a reproductive endocrinologist. I only wish I would have gone to him much sooner! The RE is amazing and gave us hope. It wasn't immediate that we got good results but we had a plan and plan B and plan C...so that helped us stay focused and moving forward.

<a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IUI</a> is the first assisted technology we tried. The medications we used were Femara for ovulation induction, metformin for increasing hormone sensitivity and decreasing miscarriage risk, and baby aspirin to increase implantation success and prevent possible miscarriage due to micro blood clots. A couple of times we used ovidrel trigger shot when my eggs were taking too long to ovulate on their own. No success.

We advanced to <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a>. We used Gonal-F, Ganirelix, and Menopur. Also our trigger shot was HCG. I stayed on the metformin, aspirin and of course prenatal vitamins too. With <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a>, the big portion of it is just two intense weeks.

Day 1 you start your period. Day 2 you start you shots. You will have these daily hormone shots for two weeks. Day 6-12 you have daily ultrasound appointments to monitor your egg development. The goal is to mature all the eggs you can in that two weeks. A good number of eggs to develop would be between 12-32 ( I think). After two weeks of shots and many ultrasounds you will have the retrival surgery. They then fertilize all the eggs. The best quality ones were fertilized using ICSI (where they inject one sperm into an egg to bypass any penetration barriers). The remaining ones were put in a pertidish with the rest of the sperm and they just see what happens. During the retrival, you are mildly sedated (sleeping but not intubated!) and wake up a little sore/crampy in your abdomen. But the next day or two you are 100% back to normal. Five days after the retrival we went back to have one of

our embryos transferred into my womb. This embryo did not implant so we did not get pregnant. My RE said that is common with fresh transfers because your hormone levels are so high and out of balance with all the hormone shots I was on just days earlier. My advice to others is to just freeze all the embryos you create and wait a month to let your ovaries heal then go on for a frozen transfer. It will cost a couple of thousands dollars more, but you will have higher success rates and if you've already made it this far the money just is a drop in the bucket relatively. And very worth it to maximize your chance of success.

We waited a month (on birth control) to let my ovaries and remaining cysts heal. Also we did a uterine biopsy to maximize my chances of immolation success. Then day 19 of the following cycle went in had had two embryos thawed and transferred into me. It worked! One embryo implanted and my now four year old son is the healthiest, sweetest child we could have ever dreamed about.

One year and a few months later we went back to our RE to thaw and transfer (frozen embryo transfer or FET) another one of our embryos! This was proceeded by another uterine biopsy. When one protocol worked perfectly, you repeat it exactly! Our daughter was born two years and three weeks after we had our son. What a beauty and smart child she is. Her adorably curly hair and strong willed personality bring such a joy and excitement to our family.

Due to a job change and insurance change, we discovered we had coverage for <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IUI</a> now. We wanted to grow our family a little more so we started up the <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IUI</a> process. Three IUIs later and no pregnancy we decided it was time to do <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a> again. Our insurance covered most of it this time so for $7,500 we could do a fresh <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a> cycle and create a couple more embryos (our hope).

After being an infertile couple our whole marriage, you better believe that in between infertility treatments, we are always "trying" with ovulation tracking and timed intercourse. Well after getting insurance approval and paying our $7,500 deductible and copayments for the procedure and medications, we were looking to start with my next period. The one that was due today. But miraculously instead of my period I got a positive pregnancy test!!! I am stuck with $5,000 worth of medications but I will get my procedure deposit back from my RE! So I'm still celebrating!