Month: July 2015

One Daughter, Another on the Way

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For four years, Carrie and Steve tried to conceive both naturally and with Clomid. Realizing they needed a fertility specialist, they followed a friend’s advice and decided to work with HRC and Dr. Jane Frederick.

Though previous infertility testing for both Carrie and Steve had come back normal, Dr. Frederick decided to take a second look. She discovered that Steve’s male infertility diagnosis was the problem.

“Dr. Frederick suggested both IUI and IVF, but said that IVF was probably the only way to get pregnant based on the issues we had to overcome,” explained Carrie.

The couple decided to do IVF.  Carrie’s harvested eggs resulted in seven embryos, six of which were viable for transfer. They did a fresh embryo transfer with their first cycle, but did not become pregnant.

Six months later, with four embryos left, the couple did a second round of IVF with two of the frozen embryos. Carrie became pregnant on Easter weekend and the couple now has an 18-month-old daughter Kenzie born right before Christmas last year.

But Carrie and Steve wanted more children,  so they decided to do a third round of IVF.

“We didn’t look at the calendar, but it just so happened that I was on bed rest after the last transfer and it was again over Easter weekend–and we became pregnant,” she said.

The couple is now 16 weeks pregnant again with their second little girl, and her due date is two days after Kenzie’s birthday.

“With Dr. Frederick’s help, we never lost hope,” said Carrie.

If You Don’t Like Your Clinic, Find One You Do

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L and A (couple wishes to remain anonymous) didn’t start their fertility journey with HRC. In fact, they didn’t even know HRC or Dr. Robert Boostanfar existed when they started trying to conceive.

“We started this journey with another clinic that was more like a mill,” L recalled. “It seemed like there were extra tests that weren’t really necessary. Also, they didn’t really share information with us. We’re pretty well educated, so it’s not like we didn’t understand the medical terminology. But it was like pulling teeth to get information out of them. It seemed like all they wanted to do was take our money.”

One of the couple’s biggest frustrations was the communication between the clinic and the couple regarding their case. She described how the first clinic wouldn’t even tell them why they should do a specific test.

“It was like, ‘you need to do this, this and this’ with no reasons given. After doing our own research, we discovered those tests weren’t even necessary. It was just another way of getting money,  an even bigger financial burden.”

The couple knew it was time to find another clinic, and discovered HRC. Once they became patients at HRC, they felt they were much better informed, even when the news wasn’t good.

On their first cycle, they chose to quit halfway through because Laura’s ovaries weren’t preparing enough eggs for the cycle.

After a couple of months, they started a second IVF cycle. Seven eggs were successfully retrieved and they ended up with three viable embryos. L and A needed to decided on how many to transfer. They learned that there were pros and cons to either transferring too few or too many embryos.

The important thing was that they knew all of their options. Part of the reason L and A felt comfortable making their decision is that they felt HRC was very informative, giving them both the best and worst case scenarios. Also, Dr Boostanfar was great at mapping out all the possibilities so they could make the best decision possible.

“We were very happy with HRC the entire time,” said L. “We knew all the possibilities and we ended up with the best case scenario–beautiful twins.”

The Emotional Journey of Infertility Treatment

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Michelle and Trevor, like most couples undergoing fertility treatment, had both an emotional and physical journey.

The couple went to their OBGYN after trying for a year on their won. Michelle suffered from PCOS, a hormonal imbalance and common condition for women in their childbearing years. The doctor started them on Clomid to try to stimulate regular ovulation and facilitate conception. Michelle described how she felt throughout her treatment.

“I had a meltdown each time the Clomid didn’t work, and every day it seemed like another one of my friends was pregnant–on Facebook, in public, everywhere. And then I would hate those people for no good reason.”

It’s not uncommon for patients undergoing fertility treatment to feel frustrated by their lack of control. “I felt like a failure,” she recalled. “I blamed myself and cried a lot.”

Still, Michelle never wanted to quit, in part because she doesn’t think she tried long enough to get pregnant to reach that level of discouragement.

“When I found out I had PCOS, I knew getting pregnant was going to be a challenge for me,” she said. “I decided to approach treatment knowing it was going to be an uphill battle instead of being surprised by it.”

After their doctor suggested infertility treatment, Michelle and Trevor moved to HRC and Dr. Alison Peck with the goal of intrauterine insemination (IUI). After getting pregnant and quickly miscarrying, Michelle received the biggest surprise of all: getting pregnant before their second IUI.

Their baby Jackson was born in March 2015–proof that there’s a great view at the top of the hill.