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Claudia's Story
Posted June 27,
2010
My husband and I were married for 4 years
before we gave any thought to having a baby. I was 33
and he was 45 when we really started trying. We had
not ever used birth control but I had never been pregnant.
I always had terrible pain with my periods and suspected
that I might have trouble getting pregnant. The first
clinic we went to (a large expensive fancy one) the
dr refused to do a lap (laparoscopy) to see if I had
endometriosis.
he said it did not matter - that we should do ivf
even though I ovulated and my tubes were open. I felt
like they just wanted our $15000. we chose instead to
do 3 iui's
with clomid with no success. After the clomid, my cycles
began to get even worse with heavier bleeding and pain.
I went to my regular ob after approx 1 year of trying
again on our own. she did a lap and found endometriosis
and adhesions on my bowel and bladder and that my left
tube was now blocked and she could not open it in surgery.
however my right tube was still open.
I was devastated with the news. she put
me on lupron for 6 months. when the 6 months was about
over, I went to see another fertility specialist at
a smaller clinic (who also happened to charge $5500
less for ivf). I had to go on meds to restart my period
and the next cycle we started ivf. I also started to
see an acupuncturist prior to ivf. I also ordered my
drugs from England and saved approx $3000. I figured
why not try everything that I possibly could. I think
the acupuncture decreased my stress level so much that
I never was upset or felt side effects from any meds
during ivf. When retrieval day was nearing my dr called
and told me I had not responded to meds like he thought
I might. I only had 4-5 follicles and my estrogen level
was low. I told him I wanted to continue with the cycle
because I had a very good feeling that it would be okay.
I went to see the acupuncturist and told him what was
going on. he did several treatments to help my ovaries
produce more follicles.
When retrieval day came, I had 7 follicles,
and 5 mature eggs retrieved. one follicle they could
not reach or I might have had one more mature egg. all
5 fertilized and made it to day 5. 2 perfect blasts
were transferred and 3 very good quality blasts (blastocysts
- a blastocyst is an embryonic stage reached approximately
5 days after fertilization) were frozen. I went to acupuncture
before transfer and immediately after. Within days I
began to feel weird twinges like pulled muscles in my
abdomen, had a funny taste in my mouth, and was belching
explosively. I very much suspected that I was pregnant.
At 9 days post transfer (14dpo) I took a hpt (home pregnancy
test) and I thought I had a very faint positive. the
next day I went for my blood test. My beta hcg was 72.
| After more than 4 years of waiting
my first ivf cycle was a success! I was so excited
because we had counted on doing ivf 2-3 fresh
cycles and we are self pay. At 12 weeks, while
on a trip to NYC, I began to have brown spotting
for 2-3 days. I flew home immediately and went
to the dr assuming I was going to lose the baby.
It turned out that it was my very
vascular cervix bleeding and the baby was fine.
I went on to carry the baby to 40 weeks and I
went into labor on his due date. I now have a
perfect son who is 7 months old. after all that
I went through I sometimes can't believe it is
real. I am now preparing to do a frozen
embryo transfer because I do not want my son
to be an only child. If that is not successful
I will look into tubal repair etc. It is so strange
that even after becoming a mother that the old
feelings of being infertile never go away. I think
that acupuncture greatly assisted with my successful
ivf as I felt NO stress during the whole process.
I plan on doing acupuncture with the frozen embryo
transfer. It is so hard not to give up hope when
everyone around you is having babies. everyone
saw my husband and I as having the perfect life.
We were older, financially secure, traveled whenever
we wanted and bought whatever we wanted. but nothing
can take the place of a child if you want one
but cannot have one.
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