My husband and I have been together for 10 years, married going on four, and we’ve been trying to conceive for six and a half. When we decided to start trying, we thought it would happen pretty quickly after I went off my birth control, but a year later, we were going to the doctor to find out why we weren’t getting pregnant.
While we love where we live in northwestern Ontario, fertility care and treatment are not available. After some basic bloodwork and an ultrasound, we were then referred outside of our province, to a clinic in Winnipeg Manitoba.
Nine months later we finally had our first appointment and were soon referred for an HSG test, which came back normal. First, we tried medications to ovulate more (success in numbers), then moved on to meds and IUI, and eventually on to two rounds of IVF with a total of five embryos. Our very first embryo was a fresh transfer and started showing signs of a positive but unfortunately, we found out it failed on Christmas Eve of that year. That was heartbreaking.
Our next four frozen transfers, two of which from our second round of IVF, we’re all negatives, despite trying multiple different things.
Over the years, we did different tests, such as an ERA, added different protocols to each transfer, such as progesterone injections, and Intralipid infusions, and even did two rounds of Lupron injections. Once completing the second round of Lupron and going straight into prep for FET, an ultrasound revealed a few cysts. We cancelled that cycle and decided to do surgery. A few minor things were found there, but unfortunately still didn’t give us any real answers as to why our fertility troubles. After recovery, we proceeded with our last FET and sadly it did not take. My husband and I then made the hard decision to try IVF again with the intent of using a surrogate, but we were told by our clinic that they could not help us, as regulations had been recently changed by the government.
Unfortunately, many clinics across Canada were affected by this change and we now had to be referred to a clinic in Ontario, of which the closest for us, in our own province, is over 20 hours away.
Coming across Fertility Friends Foundation one night on Facebook was like a beacon in the night sky. I quickly got to apply for one of their grants, and I am so thankful to say that my husband and I have become recipients!
We are so grateful for the love and support of our family and friends and are overwhelmed by the generosity of the Fertility Friends Foundation. We couldn’t continue this journey without you and hope to share some wonderful news in the coming months!