I wanted to share with you a bit more in depth about our infertility journey prior to us deciding to proceed with IVF.

In December of 2015, we made our visit to our first infertility clinic after over 2 years of trying to conceive. During this meeting, the doctor explained how we would both have to undergo testing to determine our health. The test included your typical blood work, the glucose testing, biopsy of my uterus lining, etc. We came back in February 2016 to discuss the results. We were diagnosed with “unexplained” infertility. The doctor drafted a treatment plan starting with “timed intercourse” as our first steps. Our first round of this treatment was on July 2016. You had to come in for blood work and an ultrasound on the 2nd to 3rd day of your menstrual cycle. Once the results were analyzed, you had to begin taking Clomid for a certain amount of days and then I was to administer a trigger shot. Approximately a week later, I would head to the doctor’s office for a progesterone level test (blood test). I received a call later that Monday, which stated that I had an increased levels of progesterone and I had to return to the office in two days to assure that the levels were doubling. I was very excited to hear this news, however, I wanted to keep this to myself. Wednesday came, I went to the doctor for the blood work to find out if the levels were increasing. The call came later on that day stating that the levels had not increased and I should be expecting my menstrual cycle soon. I was heartbroken but optimistic because we had a great result with the round of “timed intercourse”.

With great hopes were tried the “timed intercourse” for an additional round. This round was unsuccessful. We met with our doctor again to discuss our next option. At this time the doctor recommended that we try Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). This procedure is similar to the “timed intercourse” but with an additional step. We both had to go to the doctor’s office a day or two after the trigger was administered to then have the nurse complete the intrauterine insemination. The first round of IUI was conducted in September of 2016 and was unsuccessful. We tried another round in October of 2016, which was also unsuccessful.

During this time, we decided to seek a second opinion. We met with the other doctor in November 2016. This doctor ran all the exams again: blood work, biopsy, etc. This doctor came to the same conclusion, undiagnosed infertility with possible mild endometriosis. He recommended to begin IVF since we have tried every other possible treatment. During this time in our personal lives, I was entering the last year of my graduate program and did not think it would be wise to begin IVF.

Fast forward to February of 2018, I had started to have food aversions and feeling nauseous. I decided to take a pregnancy test just to see. I did a total of four and all four there was a light second line. I did not know how to feel or react. My husband was away and I did not know what to do. My pregnancy tests were expired and I wasn’t sure if that could have something to do with it. I wanted to wait a bit longer to see if the second line would darken. My menstrual cycle was about a week late and I decided to check again. This time there was no second line. My menstrual cycle appeared a few days later. That is when I decided that I was not going to wait until it happened on it’s own and I was tired of waiting.

We were not completely satisfied with the second doctor we had. Therefore, we changed to the current doctor we have now. We met with this doctor due to a recommendation from a very dear person. Our appointment was in July of 2018. Our consult was at 3:00 pm and only scheduled to be 40 minutes. We did not leave her office until 5:30 pm. She did not rush during our consult, she took her time to read and explain to us all the steps and procedures we were going to encounter during the IVF process. SHE IS INCREDIBLE! We couldn’t be happier with her.

They say things happen for a reason and when they are meant to happen.