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Elizabeth's Story
Posted Nov 4,
2008
After 3 yrs of marriage and trying to
conceive all of that time and having never used birth
control, my husband and I sought advice from my OB/GYN
who referred me to a fertility specialist. We went through
all of the standard tests. I also had a laparoscopy
performed and a hysterosalpingogram.
We were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. I was
actually hoping for explained infertility but oh well.
After several failed inseminations, we tried IVF.
Went through the IVF injections and the whole bit and
mid-way through the cycle, I developed some kind of
infection and my dr canceled the cycle. It was devastating
to say the least.
| We forged on and decided to change clinics
to a very well known and successful clinic in
NYC. After studying my file, the dr in NY informed
me that he would not have canceled my cycle as
the other dr had; antibiotics could have been
administered and the cycle could have gone on.
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He also diagnosed my husband with a sperm deficiency
and me with endometriosis. In June 2003, we were successful
with our first IVF/ICSI try at
this NY clinic. We had implanted 2 embryos and 1 took.
We cried and thanked God for this wonderful blessing.
We had 3 embryos left from this cycle and chose of course
to freeze them for the future. We had a healthy 6lb
11 oz baby boy in Feb 2004.
In December 20005 we went back to the NY clinic and
went through a Frozen
Embryo Transfer. As others have said, not nearly
as stressful or hard and much less expensive. Although
our dr wanted us to transfer all 3 embryos remaining,
we chose to transfer 2 and continue to freeze the 3rd
for the future. Well, 1 of the 2 embryos took and in
Sept 2006, we gave birth to a 9lb healthy baby boy!
He did have hypospadias, which I believe was caused
by the fertility drugs, but surgery at 7 months corrected
it and he is perfect. The warning labels on the drugs
actually mention a high incidence of hypospadias. I
saw this in advance, along with many other warnings,
but still went ahead. So we now have 1 remaining embryo
and will hopefully try for child #3 sometime this year
or next. If it doesn't work, we will just try on our
own and if that doesn't work, we're still so happy with
our 2 boys.
I do have some advice though that was not given to
me. Before going through with IVF, please think clear
and hard (with your head, not just your heart). There
are serious ethical issues involved and I feel fortunate
that they didn't affect me because I was able to use
the few embryos that remained. But many people overstimulate
from the drugs and as a result, have MANY embryos remaining,
too many in some cases to realistically ever use. Please,
think about the fact that you might have a lot of embryos
remaining and whether this is really the best decision
for you. I know it sounds selfish for me to say this
since I went through it and was successful and do not
need to worry about it since I only have 1 left which
I will try for. But I feel I wasn't counseled thoroughly
enough about the consequences. Sure, there is a ton
of legal paperwork the clinics make you complete in
which you discuss what you plan to do with any remaining
embryos. But when you are as emotional and even irrational,
as many people (including myself) are when going through,
you are not really concentrating on the paperwork, you
are only thinking about the baby that you want so bad.
So just please remember that the embryos that might
result from your IVF are real as science has proven
that life begins at conception. To have unused embryos
discarded or "used for research" as the paperwork
will offer as an option, is really the destruction of
life. I know some people may not agree with this, but
please study this part and research it before you go
through with IVF and possibly create more embryos than
you are able to implant.
I pray every night for people who are trying to conceive
because I understand how awful it is. God bless you
and know that He is with you through all of this.
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