Disclosure: This post is part of a paid sponsorship by Ferring Pharmaceuticals. All opinions are my own.
Thanks to in vitro fertilization (IVF), my twin boys turned seven last week. In celebration of National Infertility Awareness Week I’m here to share my story of how I was able to conceive over 40.
My husband and I went through IVF after we tried to conceive naturally for almost a year. You see, when we first met I was in my late thirties. At the time I was trying to reset and restart my life. I was not ready for a relationship let alone kids.
I didn’t know I really wanted to be a mom until I met my husband. Before then I was so caught up with my career that I didn’t realize my biological clock was ticking away. At the same time I was dealing with a bad relationship. Obviously, it was not the right time to start anything.
Being a woman, I never once thought I would not be able to get pregnant naturally. I felt that if I wanted to get pregnant I should be able to. My mom has 5 kids after all. However, I was wrong. Very wrong.
A year into our relationship, we decided to get pregnant. I went through blood and hormone tests but there were no indications that I would not be able to get pregnant naturally. Maybe I was too stressed out?!
However, there was one test left. While my doctor was performing Myomectomy, a procedure to remove fibroids in my uterus, she also performed a hysterosalpingogram (HSG), a procedure that uses an X-ray to look at fallopian tubes and uterus.
That test found the culprit all along. Both of my fallopian tubes were completely blocked with fibroids. So the chances of getting pregnant was less than zero.
IVF was our only option. We were excited and scared at the same time about this procedure. We knew nothing about IVF…yes, heard about it but never really understood how the entire process worked. That night and the next few days we lived and breathed IVF.
We met with a few reproductive endocrinologists she had recommended and chose the doctor that we both felt comfortable with not just because of her success rate but her experience, and most of all her warm personality. She made us feel like we were not on the IVF journey alone.
Keep in mind I was turning 40 at the time and the chances of getting pregnant via IVF for me at that age was less than 5 percent. Yes, that hard factual data was really hard for me to swallow and comprehend. We took a leap of faith anyway and decided we would do this together. Our thought process was…if we don’t try we will never know.
On our first round my doctor was able to retrieve 6 eggs but only 2 were in good quality. After weeks of needle poking and vaginal ultrasounds there was hope. So we told the entire world about it and shared the embryo transfer date. My family came to town to stay with us and also went to the clinic to be part of this exciting process.
Two weeks later, I went in to get a blood test. The next day we got a call that the embryos did not attach to my uterus. Sadly, I was not pregnant. We felt defeated and discouraged. We were so emotionally drained and tired that we didn’t want to do another round.
We decided to take a break and started to plan our lives living without kids. We had NYC in mind and started the process of putting our home in the rental market while house hunting in another city to implant our lives.
A month later, while driving on the freeway passing our IVF clinic, hubby turned to me and asked if we wanted to try again. I said let’s do it but we have to do it differently this time. Let’s not tell a soul that we are doing another round. Whenever my family/friends asked we would shrug it off that we’re taking it easy and would decide later.
On our second round, we just took one step at a time and tried not to get ahead of ourselves and set timelines and goals. I still remember the night of the trigger injection for egg collection. You have to time it right so that the eggs are fully mature and ready for retrieval on a particular time/day. Hubby was performing a show on the Last Vegas strip at the time and in between his performances he came out to the parking lot to perform the injection…it’s a bigger needle and I couldn’t administer the injection myself. Try to visualize a woman sitting in the back-seat of a car in a Las Vegas parking lot prepping some needles…one can argue that I looked like a druggie at a glance. So with 5 minutes in between shows hubby marched to the car dressed in top hat and tux and perform the injection exactly at 8:30pm.
One process after another, it was a success. This time we got three quality eggs out of nine and they were all ready for the transfer.
Two weeks later we were told that we were pregnant. That was unexpected because during the two weeks after the transfer, I didn’t have any pregnancy symptoms. The only symptom that I experienced was that my favorite denim no longer fit me. I thought I was bloating.
During the ultrasound we found out we were very pregnant…with twins! My doctor immediately recommended a couple high-risk Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists to monitor my pregnancy.
It was very emotional for us…I was pregnant with twins right before I turned 41. I had a 5 percent success rate and we did it!
The entire IVF process was filled with pain, sweat, and tears but it was so worth it. Fast forward eight years later we have two beautiful healthy boys that we could never imagined living without.
If you are over 35 and have been trying for over 6 months or are under 35 and have been trying for 1 year or more, go and see a reproductive endocrinologist sooner rather than later. I was lucky that my OB-GYN happened to have just conceived a baby via IVF herself and was able to help us look for a reproductive endocrinologist to start the process, but many OB-GYNs do not have that knowledge to help.
Places like My Fertility Navigator are designed to help women and couples navigate the rocky road of fertility by offering resources and direction to find answers to the questions you’re afraid to ask, while also offering guidance along your unique fertility journey. Visit MyFertilityNav.com/contest to share your fertility story for a chance to win an all-inclusive weekend getaway for two to Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa.
If you know a friend or a family member who is trying to start a family you can help increase awareness by posting with #TalkAboutTrying on social media. For every social media post shared with #TalkAboutTrying, Ferring Pharmaceuticals will donate $1 to RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association.
