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.
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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 sweet Alyria, You are our miracle love. Here is the story of how we got to you. In October of 2022, I told dad that I was having really bad baby fever. Dad told me no. I know you find that surprising. Then in November, I told him again. I want to try to
My husband and I have known each other since we were in middle school and we started dating when we were 15 and 16. We got engaged at 19 and 20 and married at 20 and 21. I was still in college so we wanted to wait a little bit to start our family as
In this episode of Finding Hope After Loss, Michelle talks honestly about navigating recurrent miscarriage while parenting a living child and holding onto hope for a future rainbow baby. She also shares how humor has helped her cope during some of the darkest moments of infertility and pregnancy loss. Michelle shares her experience with infertility,
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My husband and I have dual-factor infertility, each with multiple diagnoses. Our journey through infertility was long, painful, and at times felt never-ending. After 4 medicated cycles, 4 IUIs, 4 egg retrievals, and 4 embryos transferred, we were blessed that our final embryo gave us our beautiful son, our miracle baby. After everything we had
After a 5 year male factor infertility journey we are overjoyed to share our miracle baby girls story… Let’s go back to where it all began. Our embryos were created and frozen in time in 2015. Starting in 2022 after an infertility diagnosis in 2021 we were in the midst of the adoption process. We
We were trying for a baby for almost two years without any luck. We decided after two years of trying it was time to seek out other treatments, and made our first appointment with Boston IVF in December of 2021. After initial testing, we met back with our doctor in February of 2022. At this
Our journey to parenthood has been filled with both heartbreak and hope. Autumn was conceived during our very first attempt at an IUI with a fertility clinic, and we were overjoyed — after three long years of trying, it finally felt like our time. Every milestone was filled with excitement and anticipation as we watched
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