My name is Mary-Susan, and this is why I wear the rainbow skirt. When people look at me, they don’t immediately see the years of pain, surgeries, grief, and loss that brought me here. They don’t see the little girl who started bleeding at 11 years old and never really got a break from it. […]
Mary Susan’s Story Read More »
My journey to motherhood started like many others, full of excitement and the assumption that it would just work out. Within three months of trying, we were pregnant. We were overjoyed. But that joy didn’t last long. Around five weeks, I miscarried. We were heartbroken, but we tried to stay hopeful. Then, the very next month, I was pregnant again. It felt like a miracle, like maybe the first loss had just been a terrible fluke. But at six weeks, we lost that pregnancy too. That was the moment I realized this wasn’t random. I went to the doctor looking for answers, but I kept hearing the same thing. Everything looks normal. Sometimes this just happens. Just keep trying. I never accepted that, because deep down it never felt right. Loss changes you. There is no way around it. When you lose a pregnancy, you don’t just lose a moment in time. You lose the dreams you had already started building. You imagine birthdays that will never happen, tiny hands you never got to hold, and a future that suddenly disappears. The grief is hard to explain unless you have lived through it. It is the grief that keeps on giving. Eventually I started digging deeper into my family’s medical history and pushing for more testing. At a fertility clinic, I had to advocate for myself more than I ever expected. I kept asking to be tested for a rare blood clotting disorder called PAI- 1 4G/5G. Doctors didn’t initially think it was necessary, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was being missed. After a lot of pushing, we finally got an answer. I did have the blood clotting disorder, which can cause recurrent early miscarriage. For the first time since this journey started, we felt like we had a real explanation. The plan seemed simple. The next time I got pregnant, I would start Lovenox and aspirin right away to prevent clotting issues. We thought we had finally solved the mystery. But then another challenge appeared. Almost a full year passed without a single positive pregnancy test. Despite trying everything we could, nothing was working. We eventually went to another fertility clinic and started a full round of testing. I had an HSG, hysteroscopy, and what felt like endless appointments. Nothing major showed up, so we decided to try IUI. Our first cycle failed. Our second cycle never even had a chance because polyps and cysts came back just six weeks after my hysteroscopy surgery. That’s when doctors started to suspect endometriosis. At that point we decided to move forward with IVF. I had laparoscopic surgery and two additional hysteroscopies. During those procedures, doctors confirmed endometriosis and removed polyps, fibroids, cysts, and endometriosis growths. Even with a low AMH, we moved forward with IVF and hoped for the best. Somehow, by what truly feels like a miracle, our first egg retrieval gave us two euploid embryos. After everything we had been through, that alone felt like an incredible gift. Before transfer, I completed two months of Lupron suppression for endometriosis. My protocol included Lovenox, aspirin, antihistamines, steroids, and everything we had learned about my body along the way. Endless patches,
My story starts at age 19 (in 2011) when I began having issues with ovarian cysts. This is also when I experienced my first miscarriage. At the time I thought it was just a really horrible horrendous period. It was scary as up until that point I had never experienced clotting or anything similar. It
We feel very privileged to be able to participate in the rainbow skirt project. I came across it on social media earlier in our journey at a time when I wasn’t sure we would ever be where we are today. My wife and I have been together almost 6 years. I’ve always known I wanted to
Kevin and Ashley began their fertility journey after their wedding in 2022. They were able to successfully get pregnant on the first try, but sadly lost their baby to miscarriage after seeing a heartbeat at 8 weeks. After 6 months of grieving, they got pregnant again, but lost this baby at 6 weeks. After this
Describe the process of getting pregnant. Was it easy for you? Was it hard? Did you have to go through fertility treatment? Getting pregnant was incredibly difficult. I told them at 16 that it would most likely be difficult due to my PCOS. I was put on birth control from 16 to about 20 when my
Two years ago we started IVF in my home country the Netherlands due to severe endometriosis. We were lucky enough to be able to transfer 6 embryos. The 1st one was positive but unfortunately became an early miscarriage on the same day. I was more relieved that I had my first pregnancy ever, proof that my body works
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
Since 2011, at 16 years old, I was told I would never have a chance to be a mother. Having endometriosis stage 4 and due to the severity of the scar tissue on the lining of my uterus was too great. In November 2016 this was confirmed and I had to process the fact I
My husband and I were trying for 8 months of tracking cycles and surges when the purchase of our fixer upper finally went through, with 2 weeks until our current lease was up. During the mad dash to get things mostly move in ready and move out of one place and move into another, I