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Dawn's Story
Posted April 3, 2006
When I was in college, I went for my yearly
exam and was told that I may have endometriosis. The
Dr. said not to worry but it could cause infertility
issues. At that time I didn't think a lot of it, but
four years later it changed my life.
My husband and I only waited about 6 months after our
wedding ('00) to decide to actively try to get pregnant
(we joke that we had unofficially been trying for five
years since we never used protection in college). I
made an appointment with my gynecologist and she immediate
started me on Clomid followed by blood work to check
my thyroid and pituitary gland.
When my blood work came back I received a call that
was slightly disturbing; my Dr. said my blood work indicated
a hyperactive pituitary gland which could indicate a
brain tumor. I had an MRI that week and found I did
not have a tumor, my pituitary gland just produced too
many hormones and it was keeping me from ovulating
I thought 'what a relief, now I know what the issue
is and I can fix it'. Well, it wasn't quite that easy.
After about 8 months on medication for my pituitary
gland and on clomid, my Dr. decided we needed more tests.
I had a dye test done to check if my tubes were open.
The good news was that they were open. The bad news
was there was a large cyst on my right ovary. So on
to surgery to remove the cyst.
During my laparoscopic surgery to remove the cyst,
my Dr. found severe damage from an extreme case of endometriosis.
The damage was so extensive that my bladder was adhered
to my ovary and my tubes were destroyed.
My gynecologist then referred us to an infertility
specialist. We met with the RE and were told our only
viable option was IVF.
By this time, I had been on clomid and other drugs for
over a year and felt completely devastated. We could
not afford the cost of IVF, so we decided to take a
break to think about our next steps.
The next day I started looking at my company's insurance
policies. I found one that covered 70% of IVF cost.
The issue now was that I had to wait until the next
enrollment period to sign up. We decided to stop all
of my medication and wait until I could change our insurance
and then try IVF.
In January of '03 we went back to the RE and set up
our first IVF attempt. My retrieval went well and 22
eggs were retrieved with 12 fertilizing. We had 2 transferred
and three made it to freezing.
The bad news is it didn't work.
I didn't want to give up and started another IVF cycle
as soon as possible. Once again I had 22 eggs retrieved
with 15 fertilized. We had three transferred. I then
got a call that none of the remaining embryos made it
to freezing and just knew the transfer would not work.
Two weeks later, the phone call came in and I made
my husband answer because I didn't think I could handle
the bad news. To my surprise, it was positive. I cried
for the next three hours.
At 6 weeks we had our sonogram (ultrasound) and found
there were two sacs but only one heartbeat. We were
both so thrilled that there was a heartbeat!! 32 weeks
later I gave birth to a very healthy 9lbs baby boy.
Three years from the time we had our first embryos
frozen we are back to give it a try. Surprisingly, all
three survived the thaw but we only transferred two.
I am patiently waiting for my beta test this Friday
to find out if we will experience the joy of having
another child.
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