Our fertility journey began 5 years ago and it has not been an easy road to navigate, as society would have you believe. Growing up I was always told that unprotected sex would lead to pregnancy. If only it were that easy. Well maybe it is for some, but as I’m learning that is not the case for most.
We never thought we would become a statistic, yet here we are. Our first pregnancy came after almost a year of trying and ended in a miscarriage. Our second pregnancy came 2 months after that. We made it through the first trimester and were hopeful. We took pregnancy/birthing/parenting classes and they gloss over the possibility of a stillbirth. We didn’t think much of it at the time. Who thinks that’s ever going to happen to them? Well it happened to us. We had a 36 week stillbirth. The silence that comes with not hearing a heartbeat on an ultrasound or not hearing your baby cry after delivery is deafening.
While grieving the loss of our baby I was diagnosed with Graves Disease that required surgery. We were told that conceiving naturally while waiting for surgery was very low and not suggested, so we stopped trying. We waited 8 months before surgery was scheduled and then waited another 4 months before we were green lit to start trying again. We spent the next year diligently tracking everything and trying anything we could think of and were continuously unsuccessful. We were eventually referred to a fertility specialist, where we were told that we had unexplained fertility. We were given all the options – Ovulation medication, IUI and IVF. We decided to start with the simplest option and go from there. That took us down yet another path with more roadblocks. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis, including large ovarian cysts on both ovaries. This diagnosis took away all our previous options, except one – IVF. However, before we are even able to begin that journey I require yet another surgery.
We are eager and cautiously hopeful about starting our IVF journey. Being given this grant is a small beacon of hope in the darkness that is infertility.