Our journey started almost exactly 5 years ago, when we realized we weren’t getting pregnant after a year of tracking my ovulation. After a series of tests, we found that we were dealing with severe male factor infertility.
After many more tests and lots of waiting and thinking about the next steps, we decided to pursue IVF. Little did we know that this was only the beginning of our long journey!
Our first round of IVF did not turn out the way we had hoped, and we only ended up with 2 embryos. We transferred our first embryo and she stuck! We were thrilled that our first transfer was successful and we were so excited for our baby girl. At 9 weeks pregnant, we found out that I had a missed miscarriage. We were absolutely devastated and heartbroken.
After several more months, we were able to pick ourselves up and try again. We were cautiously hopeful that our second (and last) embryo would be our rainbow baby. However, that transfer failed.
Since IVF is so draining emotionally, physically, and financially, we decided to wait for several months before attempting another round of IVF. We had higher hopes for this round and everything was looking amazing during monitoring for our retrieval. However, we ended up doing a last minute retrieval when they found out that I had somehow started ovulating through the meds that were supposed to prevent me from ovulating. Somehow, we again ended up with 2 embryos.
We decided to transfer both embryos this time. We thought for sure that at least one embryo would stick. This transfer ended in a chemical pregnancy and we were devastated again. We were again at square one with no embryos left.
We were very discouraged and didn’t feel like another retrieval would have better results for us.
We looked into other options and came across embryo donation. We started researching this, finding out how it worked, and reading about everyone’s experiences with this. We decided to post our story and see if we made any connections. We were able to match with our donor family within a few weeks! We were able to adopt 2 tested embryos and 3 untested embryos. We felt like we had hope again!
We did our 4th transfer, which was our first donor embryo transfer. This unfortunately ended in another failed transfer. We were crushed. We had so much hope that this transfer would work.
We did some more intensive testing to see if we were missing anything else. We decided to go all out and be put under for a hysteroscopy and a laparoscopy. It turned out that I had silent endometriosis. We did suppression for the endometriosis and I was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroid disease. We did our 5th transfer with our 2nd donor embryo. This was unfortunately another failed transfer.
At this point, we were so confused and frustrated with why we had done so many transfers and had not been successful so far. We ended up researching different clinics and switched clinics to a doctor that we really liked and trusted. At this time, we also found out that I had a MTHFR homozygous gene mutation. I also started seeing a functional medicine doctor who found leaky gut issues as well as “a lot of inflammation” in my body. I started following a strict low carb meal plan and took herbal supplements he prescribed. I also started seeing an endocrinologist to more closely treat my Hashimoto’s as well. I really took a few months to exercise daily, follow a diet, and get “healthy” again.
After we were ready to start the protocol for our 6th transfer, we were very impressed with our new clinic. We had a very thorough protocol that involved several meds I had never been on before for a transfer. I was the most nervous I had ever been for a transfer (even though I had done 5 before!). We felt like we were close to the end of our journey if this transfer didn’t take, since we were feeling so drained by almost 3 years of IVF.
We were so overjoyed and SHOCKED to find out that our 6th transfer STUCK! We were even more amazed when we found out that BOTH embryos had stuck and we were pregnant with TWINS!
It was definitely a very long and difficult journey, but we are so happy to say that we didn’t give up hope. We are so grateful every single day that our miracle baby boys are on their way!
Photos taken by Lae Lo Photography.
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