Help Brittany and Neal Continue Their IVF Journey

Hi, My name is Brittany Anderson and my husband and I are both 34 years old. We met when we were freshman in college and just recently celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We have been trying to conceive since 2019, but due to a secondary infertility diagnosis, we were told it would be impossible for us to conceive naturally. Due to Covid, it took us a while to start our fertility journey. When clinics finally started to reopen later that year, we began our fertility journey with a round of IUI. That IUI was unfortunately canceled, due to a negative response from the medication, and we were therefore advised our only other option was IVF. Since I was 30 years old at the time, our doctor advised us not to genetically test the embryos. So following our first egg retrieval we were blessed with 4 viable embryos and freshly transferred one that August. That first embryo resulted in the birth of our now beautiful, wonderfully made 2.5 year old, Logan.

My husband and I have always wanted 2 children, so that we could give our son the wonderful experience of growing up with a sibling- someone to build forts with, someone to play in the backyard with, someone to share memories and experiences with, someone to confide in.

In 2022, my husband got laid off. His insurance helped provide the primary fertility benefits associated with our IVF journey. After months of searching for a new job, he was able to find a job at my company; however, the fertility benefits provided far less coverage than our previous insurance, and had a lifetime maximum.

Knowing that we wanted to try for another child, we made the decision later that fall to restart the IVF process in hopes of giving our son a sibling. After months of waiting to meet with our doctor and finally get our plan approved, we began hormone treatments and monitoring.

We were finally able to transfer one of our three frozen embryos this past January, and it resulted in a promising pregnancy. However, our happiness was unexpectedly cut short at our 10 week ultrasound when there was no heartbeat detected. We were gutted. We had been through several anxiety-filled months of bloodwork, labs, and dozens upon dozens of needles, only to be completely robbed, left feeling like someone took something from me without my permission.

I had surgery later that week and after the test results from the surgery came back normal, I was also informed that the baby would have been a girl. We named her Avery, because even though we will never get to hold her, or know the type of person she would grow up to be, she deserved a name.

We went on to transfer our second embryo in June that failed to result in a positive test, and our third and final embryo in August. Our third embryo successfully implanted, but it sadly resulted in a chemical miscarriage.

The grief of all of our losses continued to build, but the constant ache of wanting a second child pushed us to try one more time.

We made the difficult decision to go through a second egg retrieval process this past October, and after weeks of more medication, bi-daily and daily labs and ultrasounds, and dozens of more injections, we were given a transfer date in November. We also decided to do genetic testing this time on the embryos, due to my recurrent miscarriages.

My labs showed promising results for this retrieval, but only 6 eggs were able to be obtained. Of those 6 eggs, zero made it to viable blastocysts.

We were devastated. Numb. We never thought that after almost a year of frozen embryo transfers and a second egg retrieval that we would be left with 2 miscarriages and zero viable pregnancies.

We took some time to process all of this and even though we are so overcome with grief and sadness at how this past year has turned out, my husband has continued to renew my ever-depleting hope of having one more baby.

We set up a call with our doctor following the news of the failed embryo retrieval, and he laid out a plan for a third retrieval, should we decide to continue.

However, our insurance informed us that we had run out of money. If we decided to go through with this one final attempt, it would have to be completely out of pocket - all the medications, egg retrieval, genetic testing, cryopreservation, frozen transfer, monitoring and ultrasounds.

I know how blessed I am to have such a supportive and loving husband, who constantly reminds me to be grateful for our healthy and happy boy, and I don’t know what I would do without him during this exhausting and painful journey.

Being an older sister to my younger brother, I know first-hand how special and unbreakable the bond between siblings is, and all I want in this life is to give that to my Logan.

I hope that you can find it in your heart to help us with one more attempt at trying for another baby. I know that the holiday season is a difficult one financially, as well as emotionally. And if you are unable to contribute to our journey, I want to thank you for taking the time to read my story.