Re: Infertility Success Stories

We got married in 2004 and started trying that summer by ourselves. After a few months, I went to my OB who put me on Clomid and told me to chart my cycles. After three months of this, he looked over my charts and said that although I was ovulating he thought I should see an RE for further treatment.
I was 39 at the time.
I went to the recommended RE and they immediately set me up for IUI's - I did 12 IUI's with this RE and when I asked for further testing, they told me I didn't need it as I was a classic case of PCOS and I wasn't getting PG due to my age.
I then consulted with a couple RE's and found one I liked. He did a few tests and found I had blocked tubes...we immediately started doing IVF. I did my first IVF cycle in January 2007 at 41 years old. I got PG in September of 2007 on a FET from my second IVF cycle. We lost that baby in March of 2008 due to incompetent cervix.
In June of 2008 I started doing IVF again and in December of 2008 we got pregnant again on an FET...I am currently 25 weeks pregnant at 43 years old....
and if that's not a "miracle" I don't know what is...

Re: Infertility Success Stories

This is a great thread and I know how truly fortunate I am to be able to contribute to it. Here is my story...

DH and I were married in March 2005 and started TTC the following December. We tried unsuccessfully for a year and started fertility testing at the 13 month mark. We were diagnosed with PCOS and a motility problem. We were told that it would be impossible to conceive on our own. While we waited to get on the HSG schedule for my following cycle, we conceived naturally in January 2007. We went for our first sono at 8+ weeks only to learn that the pregnancy was not in my uterus and they saw only a 9cm ovarian cyst. We were told that the pregnancy was likely ectopic and they performed some additional tests. We learned the next day that the pregnancy was growing strong, but they didn't know where. I was raced to the hospital, where they removed the cyst and found the embryo in my fallopian tube. They also discovered that I had severe internal bleeding and estimated that had this not been caught when it was, that I would likely have been dead within 48 hours. I lost the pregnancy and my right fallopian tube. 1 in 11 people die from ectopic pregnancies - I know now that I was very lucky, though it certainly didn't feel like it at the time. The experience took a toll on our faith, lives and our marriage for a while.

While we healed, physically and emotionally, we took some time off from TTC and we instructed to try again for 6 months before seeking help. No luck.

In May of 2008, we started seeing an RE (RSNY - Dr. Stelling). My PCOS was gone (they think the pregnancy hormones fixed me) but, we still had three issues to be dealt with - DH's motility, my irregular ovulation and my lack of a tube. We tried Clomid for 2 cycles, but it did little to help me ovulate and moved onto injectables (Follistim). We proceeded with 6 IUIs. (My insurance company required 6 failed IUIs before paying for IVF.) In January/February of this year we had our first complete IVF cycle and were shocked to learn on February 16th that IT WORKED!!!! I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and due on October 25th.

It took us:
6 IUIs
5 IUI cycles on Follistim
4 years of marriage
3 years of ttc
2 years since my ectopic
and
1 IVF cycle to get our miracle.

I thank God every day for this pregnancy and I continue to pray for the wonderful women on this board. May our children live in a world where boards like this are unnecessary.

UPDATE 12-10-2009: I am the proud (yet exhausted) mother of an 8 week old. On October 12th I gave birth to a 7 lb. 2.5 oz. baby girl by c-section. Just this morning I dropped of a large basket of goodies to the RE office as a thank you. I brought them a birth announcement and wrote a heartfelt thank you note.

God bless anyone who reads this. May your stories all have the happy ending mine did.

Message edited 12/10/2009 11:01:25 AM.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

DH and I started TTC right before getting married in May 2007. We tried every trick in the book for 6 months with no success. We started seeing Dr. Brenner at LI IVF in October 2008 and after a ton of tests we were diagnosed unexplained IF. We ended up doing a total of 5 IUI's (1 natural, 2 with Clomid, and 2 with Follistim). The result was 1 chemical pregnancy, OHSS for me, lots of cysts, and months of forced breaks because of medication side effects. Then on a break cycle, I had a second chemical pregnancy and went for more testing to determine the cause of my repeat losses. Once again, everything came back normal. In the beginning of July 2008 we started the IVF process and by the end of August we found out we were pregnant after a single embryo 5dt. We are expecting our little girl any day now!

Best of luck to all the ladies on this board. I found so much support and information here when going through my IF journey.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I went off the pill in Feb of 07. We were just letting whatever happen happen. When nothing happened after a few months we started paying attention to my cycle by the summer I was temping still nothing. We both went for physicals in August and discussed our concerns with our PCP. She suggested that since my cycles were regular and I was ovulating that DH do a Semen analysis. We found out we were dealing w/ MF IF. DH had a varicocele repair in October and we decided to give it 6 more months to see if that would work.
In April 08 we decided to see Dr. Brenner at LI IVF. He was great! We did one natural IUI which didn't work and then we did 2 cycles w/ clomid. The 2nd one did result in something but my numbers did not get above 10. We decided at that point to move on to IVF. We put back 2 eggs and I just gave birth to our son Matthew on 4/20/09. It was a journey that made my marriage stronger and we appreciate every day w/ our little guy that much more!

Good luck to all on this board. It's a difficult path to have to take, and I pray that they will all have happy endings! Everyone on this board was wonderful and supportive!

Re: Infertility Success Stories

This is a great idea.. I don't post much, but all of the ladies on this board really helped me w/ my secondary infertility issues.. I feel i have to share my success story..
We got pregnant w/our DS after trying for about 18 months. We figured when we started trying for #2 that we were pros w/ timing and we would just try it on our own..Well 1 year later my doctor convinced me to go for a HSG, it showed a blocked left tube-- i then had a laproscopy done to try and open the tube, but nothing worked..( When i was 18 i had a tumor removed from my right ovary and was told that would not hinder my chances of becoming pregnant) yeah right! I then went to ECF was told IVF was my only chance, so we went ahead with a cycle, only to get 2embryos, place back 1 5 day and freeze the other.. I did get pregnant , only to have a D&C after weeks of emotionally draining sonos to keep telling me the pregnancy wasn't progressing.. I was beyond devastated.. We went ahead w/ a FET and that failed.. My friend convinced me to switch RE's , I started seeing Dr. Brenner and immediatley felt at ease..
I finally was going to have another baby. I delivered my in February and remember holding her in the delivery room saying i've waited sooo long for you.. I HTH good luck to you all, it is truly worth every ounce of pain we endured on our journey w/ IF.

Message edited 5/3/2009 12:03:25 PM.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I am copying my "story" from the baby blog I started for my family once I got pregnant. We didnt tell anyone we were even trying so they didnt know all we went through until after;

.......After our wedding I stopped the pill and never got AF again.....

Turns out after several blood tests and sonograms that I had what was called PCOS or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Basically, my body does not produce a dominant mature egg each month and instead of ovulating, the tiny follicle that is supposed to release the egg, remains on my ovary. "Ok. No problem....We'll just give you some medication to make you ovulate." Haha.. If only it were so simple!

We decided to wait a while as it was December of 06 when we found this out, and we were only married about 6 months. During the next few months, I continued to see the DR. and be monitored to figure out if I was ovulating AT ALL (I wasn't). In June, it was suggested that we try out the clomid to see how I would respond to it, and we felt like we were ready to start doing something. They started me at 50mg. No luck. 100mgs. No Luck. 150mgs. FINALLY some progress after almost 4 months of hot flashes , insane mood swings and acne. Rob was seriously enjoying the hot flashes as I was begging for the AC instead of bundling up in sweat pants and socks before bed. He was NOT seriously enjoying my new borderline psychotic emotions. I was just miserable in that I spent my days going for sonograms, blood tests and waiting for a "happy face" ....

Ovulation predictor kits are perhaps the most sadistic invention created. I never thought I would spend so much time and energy staring at something that I just peed on. There are two types, one type causes you to go nearly blind analyzing the lightness or darkness of two lines. Apparently when the "test" line is the same color as, or darker than, the "control" line, you will ovulate within 24-36 hours late. Those things drove me nearly insane and I quickly upgraded to a even more expensive stick to pee on. This type is "digital". It's a really wonderful thing; you pee on the stick and it flashes a little hour glass until it finally produces the magical, and much anticipated HAPPY FACE or the more commonly seen BLANK CIRCLE. On the days were I was even more crazy than normal, I would make promises to the stick that I would be extra nice to it if it just SMILED at me. That only happened once... and yes, of COURSE I took a picture!

Whoo hooo! Happy face means I'm going to get pregnant, right? Not so much. Once I got the magical happy face, I immediately called the Dr. Turns out after the next slew of tests, which I will spare you the details of, that I have "hostile" cervical mucous. In case you didn't know, this is NOT a compliment. Not only do I not ovulate, but now I find out that my body is KILLING sperm. More irony! Not only was I using TWO forms of birth control for all these years, but my body actually KILLS the sperm anyway...Gotta love it!

Next Step
The magical happy face did NOT produce a pregnancy and now I had my ******-off mucous to deal with. The Dr. assured me that we could do IUI (intra-uterine inseminations) to bypass the hostile-ness and avoid the mass murder of sperm. "First," they say, "Let's send your husband for a Semen Analysis, and you for a Hysterosalpingogram."(sounds fun, right?...WRONG). Rob's analysis came back abnormal. Apparently his sperm was misshapen(in technical terms..he had less than 4% morphology). More irony... even if we managed to mess up BOTH types of birth control and his sperm got past my very angry mucous, the poor guys wouldn't be able to fertilize the non-existent egg anyway.

While all this was going on I went for the infamous HSG at a radiology lab. Without being too graphic, they were going to shoot dye through my fallopian tubes to make sure they were not blocked. "It's no big deallll," they say with a smile, "They basically inflate a little balloon inside your uterus and then shoot the dye through." Sounds cute, huh? What they don't tell you before hand is that when the balloon inflates your uterus, which is the size of walnut (I'm full of fun facts, aren't I?), it produces a cramp the size of a small country. Oh, and WHILE you are experiencing this monster cramp, they are going to make you move around on a table and get X-rayed so they can see the dye. Yea. I don't know where these people got the definition of FUN, but it certainly wasn't from any dictionary I've ever seen. Thankfully, I did not go through all that for more bad news, and for my fallopian tubes got an A+.

Well, that would have been all well and good, except that the urologist (that was a fun trip, but I shall spare the details for the sake of my husband) told us that basically with my issues and his, we have almost no chance of getting pregnant without severe interventions.

LI-IVF Dr. Kenigsberg,RE (Reproductive Endochronologist)
So I called and had to wait the grueling three weeks for an appointment with Dr. Kenigsberg. My appointment was right after Christmas of 07, an entire year after our initial consult with my regular OBGYN diagnosing my PCOS. During three weeks, I found myself a little lost. For the first time in a year, I had nothing to pee on, no appointments to schedule and I wasn't an emotional lunatic due to whatever drug I was on. I also read Dr. Kenigsberg's book, "The Baby Solution," and was trying to be optimistic. Because I am anal and a planner, I researched all of our issues and decided in my head that I could not do any more drugs to try and get myself to ovulate, because even if they DID work, there would be minimal chance of fertilization due to Rob's issues. I was terrified that Dr. K would make me try more drugs or different protocols before moving on to IVF. I also verified with our insurance, for now I've paid a good couple thousand in co-pays and pee-sticks, that we would be covered for In-Vitro. I went to the meeting with an open mind and, THANKFULLY, Dr. K agreed with me, and wanted to take the more aggressive route instead of putting me through months of heavy-duty drugs with such a low percentage.

IVF here we come.... "Oh, but first you have to..."

*See a Social Worker
*Get 847395494 viles of blood drawn for screening
*Go to an injection class
*Get a Water Sonogram
*Complete presurgical paperwork
*Go to an IVF "interview"
*etc. etc. etc. etc.

Seriously, if getting a Master's was that difficult, I wouldn't have one.

THE DRUGS
AHHH! I got these babies via Fed-ex on one fine Saturday and promptly opened everything and gawked at the needles for hours. I must have organized that box 20 times.



Inside was an overwhelming amount of syringes and needles and ENDLESS medications. I started the cycle on February 6th. I was instructed to inject 3 viles of Menapur subcutaneously (.5 inch needle in the tummy). "Ok..no big deal," I thought. Well, I think that little needle was mocking me, cause no matter what I did I couldn't stick the sucker in. I made Rob go downstairs because I knew I needed to do this on my own the first time or I never would. Beads of sweat were pouring down my forehead as I was squeezing a chunk of skin with one hand and holding the needle with the other. After probably about 15 minutes, I finally just did it and seriously, I have had paper cuts worse than that. The injection thing actually became very commonplace for me. I refused to let this IVF cycle interrupt my normal activities, so I had a grand old time finding places to "shoot up" when I was out and about on Friday nights. It was entertaining to say the least. After six days on the Menapur, I added Ganerelix to the mix to prevent ovulation until they were ready to do the surgery. At this point I was going to the Dr. at 630am before work every other day for blood work and sonograms to check my follicle growth. Between the syringes in my pocketbook and the track marks on my arms from the constant blood work, I definitely could have been easily mistaken for a junky!

On February 16th I got the call to "trigger." This was my first Intra-muscular injection (1.5inches in the butt..YIKES). This shot would trigger ovulation 36 hours later. Rob was psyched at the idea of doing this (must be a boy thing?). It had to be done at a very specific time and actually, it wasn't as bad as I expected, but this needle was INSANE!

Monday, February 18th, 2006---Retrieval Day
Oh man, I was a nervous wreck. We were instructed to be at Mather hospital at 7am and since I had off that week it really worked our perfectly. I had never had ANY type of surgery before and was terrified of the IV and anesthesia. Once they called me in, I got to change into my lovely hospital gown and get all checked out. I was excited about the socks...they had little grippy's on the bottom and were very comfy. Even better, they had a blanket WARMER and the blankets were just so cozy! My blood pressure was through the roof because I was so nervous, but before I knew it, they were wheeling me into the operating room. I remember laying on the table and the anesthesiologist asking if I was OK and the next thing I knew they were wheeling me into recovery!

13 eggs! Whoo hoo!
I was realized rather quickly and was sent home to rest and drink lots of fluids. The next day they called me bright and early to tell me that 10/13 fertilized and that my transfer would be on Thursday the 21st.

Transfer Day
So on my instructions it says I need a "comfortably full" bladder. I got news for you----there is no such thing!(again...irony!) I was dying by the time I was back at the hospital and in my lovely hospital outfit. They wheeled me in and I talked to the embryologist. He gave Dr. K my two "perfect" embryos through the window that separated the embryology lab and the operating room. At this point a very nice nurse was pushing down VERY hard on my "comfortably full" bladder to get a good sono picture so that Dr. K could place the little suckers in the right spot. Damn her. I swore I would pee right on poor Dr. K's face(sorry, that was kind of graphic). Yeesh. But I was distracted because I got to watch what he was doing on the screen. So cool! You see little flashes of light when the embryos pass through! So it was done in the matter of ten minutes and the dreaded TWO WEEK WAIT began. I had to start a SLEW of new meds:

Progesterone Suppositories 4x a day
Medrol 4x a day
Doxycycline 2x a day
Baby Aspirin 1x a day
Estrace 2x a day
Metformin x3 a day
Prenatal Vitamins x1 a day
I swear, first I got the experience of being addicted to heroine, now I became a pill-popper!

March 5-Pregnancy Test
The two weeks were torturous and I hated every second of the waiting. My body was tired and I was an emotional mess. I started my ritualistic peeing-on-expensive-stick routine 8 days after my transfer and got many negatives. By the time my blood test came, I was positive it would be negative and wasn't all that surprised when it was---but of course--- since my body hates me, my HCG level came back a 5 which is "slightly" pregnant so I had to remain on my meds for two more days until it went back to zero.

Now what?
I made a follow-up appointment with Dr. K and wanted to set up a frozen embryo transfer (FET) asap. Unfortunately, Dr. K decided he wanted to do an endometrial biopsy and give me a month break. The LAST thing I wanted was to deal with another test and worst of all-WAIT. Dr. K was very positive, so I sucked it up and scheduled yet another invasive test. The biopsy SUCKED. They basically scraped the walls of my uterus....and yes, it was as painful as it sounds. Thankfully it came back normal and I was given the green light to start preparing for my FET. After I got my period again, I started estrace pills twice a day to thicken up my uterine lining. I was on FAR less drugs and it was much less stress as it was a once a week trip to the Dr. instead of almost every day.

April 25-Transfer number 2
This was one of the first transfers at their new state of the art facility that was built in Melville. We arrived at 11 am with another "comfortably full" bladder. They had even COOLER socks here. The grippy's on the bottom were in the shape of a smiley face and were a cool color green! I was very happy about this. I was a little disappointed because the two embryos that they thawed were a few less cells than the first two. I thought that if "perfect" ones didn't work, there was no way these would!

22 pills a day again...

more waiting...

it sucked just as much as before...

7 days later, I could resist and HAD to pee on a stick. To my surprise, if I held the test at a 35 degree angle under a specific light and squinted there was SOMETHING there. OMG! What do I do now?!!! Of course....go buy more expensive pee sticks!

The next few days.....


"Oh Crap! I need to tell Rob."

So I ran to target on Sunday (had my first hint of a line on Friday night) and bought him the new Grand Theft Auto for his PS3 and a card. When I got home, I sent Rob a text message with the "Pregnant" picture above. He came running upstairs and was so happy and gave me a big hug. I handed him his gift and said something along the lines of, "You have 9 months to beat this..."

My official blood test was that Wednesday and my HCG came back 145! YAY... it was on the high side and I started immediately wondering 1 or 2!?!?! One week later I went back and my levels were a pretty perfect 934. I was nervous and paranoid and couldn't stand the waiting. I got through Mother's day without slipping and was getting more anxious by the minute.
May 19-First sonogram!

We saw the Sac and the Yolk. Basically a black space with a teeny white dot in it. I was 5 weeks 6 days at this point.


Memorial Day Weekend-Told the parents!

Lots of fun, but was a little weird that everyone was SO excited and we were still trying to figure out if it was real or not. I felt absolutely fine and it wasn't hitting me yet!!!

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I'lll make it *pretty* brief:

Married in 2005, started trying on our own in Feb of 06. After 6 months I went to an RE at the recommendation of my gyno (I was 37 at the time).

Found that we had slight MF issues, with morphology at only 2%.

Tried 5 iuis. Three on clomid, nothing. Two injectables, with the last one a successful pg that resulted with the birth of DS in Feb of 08.

Currently trying for #2 since December of 08.

I just have to say these success stories give me hope to keep trying for baby #2.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I want to say that I'm hoping that I'm an IF success story, although this cervix issue I'm having right now is scaring me. But I'll be positive and say HEY, I'm success story

I got married in November 2003. We wanted to wait a bit before TTC, I was still getting my MBA and I wanted to try to finish before we started. I was going to graduate in December 2004, so I figured we'd start trying in the summer of 2004. So we did. I got pg after 5 months of trying in November 2004. I made it to 36 weeks with my son and had him stillborn due to a congenital heart defect that he had. During that pregnancy I did an amnio and found out that I had a balanced translocation and with that I found out that I would have IF.

After losing my son, I TTC for about a year then went to go see Dr. Michael Lydic. I did a couple of Clomid IUIs with him, he missed me ovulation one cycle and once cycle I got pg with a chemical. I decided to move on to IVF and thought I would switch to a clinic where I didn't have to pay copays so I went to LI IVF. I was in the middle of stimming for an IUI cycle when I went to LI IVF so they just did the IUI for me. I got pg during that IUI cycle and ended up having a miscarriage and subsequent D&C at 9 weeks. After that I moved on to IVF. I did two IVF cycles with LI IVF. One ended in a chemical and the other I had no normal embryos (I did PGD). After that I decided to continue with the IUIs. I did a total of 10 IUIs with LI IVF and got pregnant about 60% of the time. I had 7-8 biochemicals and in August of 08 I ended up having to do another D&C at 8.5 weeks.

During my time at LI IVF I switched doctors from Kenigsberg to Brenner. After my last chemical in November I asked Dr. Brenner if I could do another IUI cycle he said, well, whatever you want, it doesn't matter. I think your chances of getting a normal egg are dismal. That's when I knew it was time to make a change. He didn't believe he could get me pregnant.

I switched to Dr. Braverman and saw him for the first time in December 2008. I wasn't stimming that month for another IUI because I had large cysts. So, Dr. Braverman did a bunch of tests on me and found that I had auto immune issues, natural killer cell issues, some DQ Alpha thing and some 4.1 match thing. I honestly don't even remember what they all are, but I had all the forces in the world working against me. He put me on BCP when I got AF in January, and we went through a protocol which involved prednisone, intralips and Lovenox. I started stimming in February. During subsequent IVF cycles, they got 12 and 14 eggs. Dr. Braverman got 25!! Most of them mature, and all that were mature actually fertilized. Since I wasn't doing PGD, he was only going to do a 5dt of blasts...so I had 3 blasts that he transferred and we froze 3 blasts.

I'm now 12 weeks pregnant with twins. This is the furthest I've gotten since my stillborn son...all thanks to Dr. B!

If you have any questions, please ask...I am so full of information at this point!

Best of luck to you

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I really don't know what I'am at this point but I spent a lot of time on this IF board and do think I was a success story once, but I have a strange story....

I didnt have issues getting PG at first. 11 yrs ago I had a stillborn daughter at 6 months PG due to an infection. almost 3 yr's later I lost another baby at 10 weeks ( no known cause).
Then I met my husband. We started TTC about 4 months before our wedding, we just couldnt wait ....As I had not had trouble getting PG before, after 6 months of charting, I knew something was up.

We went to an OB who ran some tests, all normal. Ater another month I saw an RE ...

The RE diagnosed us with male factor ( DH has VERY VERY low morph), semi High FSH ( was 29yrs old and it was above 11) , hypothyroid ( undisagnosed previosuly), severe cervical scarring ( later found out my cervix was scarred shut) .

We had a whole bunch of IUI's and tests done and nothing and the clinic wouldnt see me anymore without IVF but I had not had ANY medicated IUIS ( well besides clomid) and I was not sure, no one was...how I would respond to medications and I was paying IVF out of my pocket, and didnt want to take that chance as we could afford ONE cycle only.

We switched to NSUH and started new protocols. Im glad b/c I was a semi bad responder to meds and we had to adjust them every time. After a total of 13 iuis combined with both clinics, we decided to do the IVF.

We got 15 eggs, only 5 fertilized and only 2 were of good quality. We implanted those two and one took...and after two plus years of trying...We got PG....I'm beyond blessed to have the most beautiful almost 2 yr old boy in the world now.

Our story hasnt ended....we actually surprisingly got PG naturally last summer without trying, but lost a little baby girl at 13 weeks due to a chromosonal issue Turners Syndrome.

We waited the obligated time after my D & C and my Dr. gave me one round of clomid. That month was a bust and we decided to stop trying for a while. Just not ready among other personal issues we were having......Well I never got a period and tested and found out once again, Naturally By surprise I was PG again. And this time with twins! ( although Im just shy of 14 weeks PG, with cervical issues still and its a very risky PG)

We dont know how it happened. If my Labor with my son opened my Cervix enough to help us get PG, or if that one month of Clomid did something, or what.....But I would say Im a prime example of anything can happen.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

My husband and I were married in October 1998. I went off the pill immediately with the hopes of becoming pregnant right away (I was 24 at the time). Since I was young, as each year passed without result, I didn’t really start to panic. In January 2003, I found out I was finally pregnant! I was over the moon and didn’t even think about the possibility of miscarriage… until I lost the baby. It was very early… around 8 weeks, but I was beyond devastated. It is amazing the things you can plan and how your life can change in just a few weeks. It was then that I was diagnosed with PCOS and Type 2 Diabetes. My OB started me on Clomid and although it seemed to help with ovulation, I did not become pregnant on the drug and my OB was less than supportive, so I decided to switch doctors.

A good friend referred me to Dr. David, OB GYN at the end of 2004. He told me we would do whatever it took to get me pregnant before sending me to an RE. We continued on Clomid for months, but to no avail. The prospect of becoming pregnant again was looking pretty bleak so my husband and I decided to adopt a baby from Korea. Please know that it was not only the fact that we couldn’t get pregnant that led us to adoption, it was something we had always known we would do and it was the BEST decision we have ever made. In July 2006, our beautiful daughter came home to us at 4 ½ months old. The experience was like nothing we ever could have imagined and we hope to do it again!!

During this time, Dr. David had started me on Metformin for my PCOS/Diabetes. Anyway, I’m sure you have all heard this before…Out of NOWHERE in April 2007, I found out I was pregnant again. I couldn’t believe it. Even though we felt complete with our beautiful daughter, we were elated (and completely terrified) about the pregnancy. The thought of a sibling for our daughter and the experience of carrying a child had me thrilled. Sadly, at 10 weeks, we lost the baby. Again, the emotional roller coaster began. In July 2007, just a couple of months after my miscarriage, I got pregnant again. I was terrified and completely convinced that a miscarriage was imminent. Fortunately, in March 2008 our beautiful, healthy little boy was born! Our miracle child!!

Six months after Thomas was born, I got pregnant again. Apparently, the miscarriage in April ’07 and subsequent birth of my son made me fertile (after 8+ years). I am now 34 weeks pregnant with another little boy and am thankful EVERY MINUTE for my children. Maybe the timing just wasn’t right earlier?? Maybe my daughter wouldn’t be with us if things had been different… I’m so glad things turned out for the best and I wish for all of you struggling with IF that things turn out just as well for you. My thoughts and prayers are with you all!

Re: Infertility Success Stories

Congratulations, Lauren! I am sooo thrilled for you and Nick!!!

Re: Infertility Success Stories

WE got married in 2004. 2 months later we found that we were pregnant, but later was told that it was an ectopic. It was actually a questionable ectopic b/c they never found the embryo and pathology was negative. Fast forward, I was later told that I had one hydrosalphinx (block tube),PCOS (mild), hypothyroidism (hashimotos) and fibroids. I was contemplating having a myomectomy (removal of fibroids) because of the scar tissue. I immediately wanted to do IVF but at the time we had no insurance and financially, couldn't afford it. IN the mean time, I got all the diagnostics out of the way, which is when I found out about my PCOS, Hashimotos and Hydrosalphinx. I also did auto-immune testing through sirm in dallas and thankfully, everything was fine with the exception of my thyroid. InDec 2006 is when I decided to undergo the myomectomy. They removed 8 orange sized fibroids. It was a long recovery. In 2007, we moved back to NY and my new job had the coverage for Ivf. In december 2007, i had my fresh cycle and it failed. In 2008, I did a fet and transferred 3 and it was a bfn. So about this time last year, we did another fet (transferred 3) and ended up with a bfp!!!!!! Igave birth to a healthy girl in January. This journey was definitely a rollercoaster ride. I had a lot of dark days, but this board was so supportive and helped me hold onto hope. I dont know where i'd be without you girls. I wish each and every one of youall the best!!!

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I've really enjoyed reading all of these success stories.

Can anyone with Unexplained IF post your success story? I need some hope this week!

Re: Infertility Success Stories

Re: Infertility Success Stories

Not my story, but one that is truly inspiring . . .

Brother's g/f - the two dated for @ 11 years. She got pregnant more than once, and miscarried each and every time. He refused to commit, she dumped him. She met Mr. Right and got married. Again, she got pg more than once, and again miscarried.

After 5 miscarriages (between my bro & her DH) she gave birth to naturally conceived twins.

After 6 more years of marriage, 6 more miscarriages, at 39 she had another baby.

I know there were lots and lots of MD appointments in there, but not all the details. At one point her RE told her that the twins were the exception and it was unlikely she would ever carry another pregnancy to term.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

Re: Infertility Success Stories

Wanted to bump this for Hayley and for all the other recent successes and to help anyone who is feeling down. I know it helped me back when i first did this post to see all the people who have come out on the other end. It gave me hope when i had none and i hope it does the same for you.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

Re: Infertility Success Stories

DH and I were married in Sept 08 but had secretly been trying for about 4-5 months before that. Somehow, I had a feeling that I would have trouble getting pregnant. Last December, DH got a SA done and although the results weren't terrible, we decided to go to an RE. I was 33; DH was 37. We were given the daunting diagnosis of Unexplained IF. We did 4 IUI (unmedicated cycles). 3 were BFN; 1 resulted in a chemical pregnancy that lasted less than 2 days. I had a cycle or two cancelled for various reasons (very frustrating) and had to have surgery to have a polyp removed.

I was definitely scared to jump to IVF. Silly as it sounds, it was the disease testing that scared me the most. (Hey, u never know, right?) Once I got past that, I was ready for IVF.

I had the polyp surgery on 7/13. We closed on our house on 7/30. 1st anniversary on 9/7. Started stimming on 9/18. Moved into our house on 9/26. Retrieval 9/29. 15 eggs; 9 fert. ER on 10/2. Transferred 2 and froze 7. BFP on 10/6.

Due with twins on 6/23.

It was a crazy time. Very stressful, mentally and physically exhausting, depressing....U name it!

Trust me...there were days, weeks, months when I definitely thought I would NEVER have a child. It's hard to stay positive sometimes but I guess u just have to have faith that your time WILL come.

Instead of freaking out over the whole process, I tried to just deal with things as they came up. My 1st failed IUI was probably the worst day I've had in years. But I got through it.

Nobody WANTS to go through IF. BUT...going through this process, you'll learn that u r a much stronger person than u think!

I don't think I would have stayed so positive w/out the love, support and friendship from everyone on this board.

to see many more BFP's here!

Re: Infertility Success Stories

Oh, still can't believe I get to add to this thread! Mine is similar to Jen2999's. In fact, her story on this thread inspired me to go for IVF because I knew it was what worked for her.

I got AF when I was 14 and didn't get it again for months. This continued all through high school and college, I would get AF maybe 5 times a year. I once went a whole summer without it! Every gyno I had said not to worry about it and never did any testing to see if there was any issues. I went on the pill when I was 21 and started dating my DH and was on that until 28, when I went off it to start trying to have a baby with my DH. I went off the pill at the end of March 2008 and did not get my period until the beginning of August 2008. I bought a 20 pack of OPK's and started using them in August. I got a + towards the end of August but did not get AF until the beginning of October. This is when I called the RE- we'd been trying for 6 months and I only got 2 AF's, so I knew my chances of getting pregnant on my own were near impossible.

Had my first appointment with RMA of NY on Nov. 13th and my RE, Dr. Grunfeld, diagnosed me with PCOS because I had irregular periods and because I had alot of eggs in my ovaries. Now, I actually don't believe I have PCOS because I only have one of the symptoms- irregular periods. But I think my RE just went with this because the treatment is basically the same whether it's PCOS or anovulatory. My DH was told he has low morphology (2%). However, his counts were high do the RE didn't think it was an issue.

I was prescribed provera to start AF and began my first clomid cycle at the end of Nov. They started me on 50mg of clomid, which produced no follicles, I than began taking 100 mg. that same cycle and still nothing so they cancelled my cycle- totally disappointing! In Dec. and Jan. I did 2 clomid cycle with trigger and timed intercourse- no pregnancy.

In Feb we decided to move onto injectables + IUI. I believe we had 2 follicles and 200 million post wash sperm for our first IUI- and not pregnant. In fact, my AF came 11 days after the trigger, so I was furious thinking they should have put me on progesterone supplements. I did another injectable + IUI and progesterone in March and had around 2 or 3 follicles- not pregnant. Did my final IUI in April and it did not work- I had around 6 follicles and still nothing. This was our last covered IUI, so we decided we would take a break and think about what to do next.

I charted for another month and was taking natural fertitlity supplements. No + OPK's or AF. I had begun to train for the NYC marathon around this time. I was just going to stop treatments and focus on that but the desire to have a baby was still so strong for us and we felt so defeated.

We went to an IVF class to learn about the process and after much discussion we decided to just go for it. Thankfully, my DH's insurance covers 3 IVF's. We started BCP's in June and began our IVF cycle in July. I started freaking out at the thought of the first cycle not working and decided to do acupuncture in order to increase my chances. I began treatments the week before I started stimming and I went a few times before the ER and twice on the day of transfer. They retrieved 14 eggs and 13 were mature and all 13 fertilized with ICSI. We were thrilled since we were going to limit the eggs fertilized to 15 since we did not want to many left over embies. Of the 13 fertilized, we had all 13 on day 3, so we were pushed to a 5 day transfer. On day 5, we had 7 embies and transferred 2. We lost one embie after that and froze 4 on day 6. The week between ER and ET as well as the week after was so hard. I was a mess- I had crazy anxiety and was just so nervous about everything. I never have anxiety, so this was especially hard to deal with. I was worried about the embies not making it, about if I was going to hell for doing IVf, about it not working and having gone through surgery and everything else for it to not work. It was very difficult. But 7 days after the transfer we got our BFP! Everything subsided and we were beyond excited and shocked, it was really hard to believe- still is! I continued going to acupuncture 2x's a week for 13 weeks from the ER. We are now 5 months pregnant and so thrilled!

I constantly think about my other embies and pray they all make it one day. We plan to do a FET in the summer of 2011.

I don't know how I would have gone through this process without this board. It was immensely helpful in figuring everything out and keeping my emotions in check. I'm always around ladies if you ever have any questions. And I'm always checking up on your progresses. Good luck to all of you, you all deserve this amazing blessing so much and I know it will happen for each of you!

Message edited 12/9/2009 1:28:17 PM.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I was 12 when I got AF for the first time and she came like clockwork since day 1. Spent about 12 yrs on and off BCP's. When DH and I got married in Sept 2005 I was about to be 31 so I decided to stop the pill right away. The month we married was the last month I took bcp. We decided we'd not try but not be careful either I knew nothing about ovulating timing etc, but much to our surprise on 11/25/05 we got a BFP! I had a great pregnancy from start to finish and gave birth to my sweet boy on 7/27/06. Fast forward to 5/08 we decided it was a good time to try for #2. Never thinking we'd have a problem I procrastinated a couple months. Aug we tried and instead of Af in Sept we got a BFP, but I miscarried between 5 and 6 weeks. We kept trying and in Mar we got another BFP, but again miscarried between 5 and 6 weeks. We were completely devestated. We went to see the wonderful and amazing Dr Braverman and did all the testing, much to my surprise I had a laundry list of things going on. Hypothyroidism, a 3" fibroid, elevated natural killers cells and a blood clotting disorder. Ery over whelming, but I knew I was in good hands. We had a plan....I took femera, got 3 good follies, triggered and had timed "relations" but bfn. The next 3 cycles were a mess.
Once we missed ovulation somehow, by like a day and twice my crazy body made eggs from the time I ovulated til I got my period which is backwards. So Dr Braverman came up with a new plan. This time it was Ganirelix to suppress egg development at the wrong time followed by follistim and menopur, triggered and had times relations (this time by my schedule) and got a bfp! I was also taking prednisone and lovenox on and off during those mos. Now here I am at 23 wks, awaiting the arrival of our precious miracle baby hoping and praying everyday that things continue to go smoothly.
There is hope, I know my struggle may not have been as long as others, but everyones trials are their own and we each had to overcome a lot of pain and disappointment to get where we are. The only advice I have isn't advice bc it may not work for everyone and it may be the most annoying vial thing to hear when you are hurting, but for me it was important to stay as positive as I could and keep hoping and having faith. I pray each and every person that ends up on this God forskaen, but truely wonderful board get the baby they are longing for in one way or another.

Message edited 12/9/2009 3:27:13 PM.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

congrats and thanks ladies for the constant encouragement

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I was married in 2008 at 37. I always assumed when I was ready to get pregnant it would happen. I had been on the pill for years, but as soon as I stopped it, AF came like clockwork. It may sound silly, but before joining LIF I really had no clue how much timing was involved- again I just assumed. DH and I got it down pat after 2-3 months but nothing was happening. We tried for about 4 months before I met with an RE. My first visit freaked me out because I felt like a broken failure. We tried on our own again for about 2 months and nothing and then I realized we really needed some assistance. So back to the RE in June for some tests and when all was said and done I was diagnosis with unexplained female infertility. My levels were fine and I was regularly ovulating and DH's number's were fine, so who knows. We started with IUI with clomid and ovidrel and luckily, we got pregnant on the first one. I am happy and blessed to say that I am currently 19w5d pregnant with a perfect little . It is a rollercoaster and you definately have good and bad days, but always try to remember it isn't about the journey just the prize at the end. Good luck to you all.

Re: Infertility Success Stories

I marred DH in 2006 at the age of 35. We enjoyed married life for a year, then started TTC. It never even crossed my mind that there would be problems and we couldn't get PG right away....After about 8 months, I went to see an RE just to check things out and make sure everything was OK......

He said I had "bad eggs" and a small amount of them....DH also tested for low count and low motility. Since my insurance covered it, and I wanted to be as aggressive as possible (I was 37 at that point), we went with IVF......the first round, I was a medical marvel....I have about 12 follies, but no eggs in them. The doc said that was the first time he ever heard of that happening. Naturally, I was a wreck and thought I was a freak.......

Meds were changed and Cycle #2 ended with only 2 or 3 follies, so it was converted to an IUI.....Negative

Cycle #3, meds changed one more time.....had only 4 follies, but doc said give it 1 more day on the Follistim and see how it goes....I prayed harder than I ever did and when I went to the RE the next day, I have 8 follies......They were able to put back 5 fertilized eggs and 2 of them took, and now I have beautiful twin boys, Nicholas and Christopher.

I want to add that in Cycle #3, I added accupuncture (during the whole cycle, and on the transfer day, I had them come to the RE office), supplements, and those relaxation CDs specially for infertility (I forget the name....Anji, maybe?). DH is skeptical, but I think in my heart that it all contributed...

Re: Infertility Success Stories

here goes my story!!
DH and I got married in Dec. of 07.
that January of 08 we got pregnant right away. I was 16 weeks when we lost our precious baby due to a weakened cervix we believe. (still not 100% sure)
after that we started trying again and again. Finally after 6 months we got pregnant yet again, but lost that one due to a chemical pregnancy.
by this time it was Dec of 08 and DH and I decided enough is enough, we need to figure out what is wrong. so we started seeing Dr. Braverman He did all the bloodwork , and tests to rule out everything. Basically I had boderline egg quality, and i have some blood clotting issues.
so we moved on to IUI's. after 4 with no success we decided to then move onto IVF. We knew we wanted to push forward and not wait .
so by Aug of 09 we started our first cycle.
along with this IVF cycle I was on maxi greens to help egg quality.
so low and behold, we got pregnant through IVF! and with Twins!!
i am almost 17 weeks now, with a cerclage, and seeing my perinatologist every 2 weeks to make sure the babies are doing well !