Help Support Allie and Justin's IVF Journey

Hi guys, my name is Allie and my husband's name is Justin. We met in middle school and remained friends through high school and graduated from Brookwood together in 2013 but we did not reconnect until 2020. We have been married since June 11, 2022. Pretty shortly after getting married, we started trying to grow our family. Unfortunately the road has not been easy for us and has been full of roadblocks and disappointment. After one year of trying naturally, in 2023, we were referred to a fertility clinic by my regular OB/GYN but I was not going to give up that easily. Thankfully I work closely with one of the best surgeons in the state (in my opinion) and I began seeing him to see if he was willing to try other avenues before just going straight to a fertility clinic. I had an HSG (hysterosalpingogram- which is where dye is injected inside the uterus to check the patency of the fallopian tubes) in October of 2023 which showed tubal damage on both sides which unfortunately cannot be fixed nor treated. I was told this day that the likelihood of having to do IVF was pretty high, but again, I was not going down without a fight. I had laparoscopic surgery in December of 2023 which is where things took a turn. I learned during this surgery that I have endometriosis (I had no idea, literally had zero symptoms) but thankfully my surgeon was able to get all the spots off that he could. He decided after that surgery that I would take 3 months of a medication that basically put me through menopause. The goal was to lower my estrogen level enough so the endometriosis did not come back. Those 3 months were awful and now I really have a soft spot for women going through menopause. After those 3 months were up, we decided to try 3 months of medicated cycles with clomid to help with ovulation. I did ovulate all 3 months, but still no success. This was absolutely heartbreaking as I just KNEW clomid was going to be the answer for me, but the Lord had other plans for us. Unfortunately, this is where the road with my surgeon came to an end, as the only other option with him were IUIs (intrauterine insemination) which is not feasible given mine and my husband's work schedules and I am also not a great candidate due to the known tubal damage. This is where IVF comes into play. I am now with an infertility clinic in the Birmingham area who has quoted me $15k-20k. This is devastating because I do not know of one single person who has that kind of money to just throw out at one time.

Telling our story has been extremely hard as I am more of a private person (at least on the internet) and this feels like I am airing out my dirty laundry but I know that I would want to know the full story if I were to donate to someone else's cause.

If you know me, you know I hate asking for money or help, and likely will not unless the circumstances call for it. Unfortunately, this is where we are in our journey, and we need all the help we can get from our village. Justin is uninsured at the moment and my insurance through work does not cover an ounce of fertility treatments so we will have to pay for every little thing out of pocket. Of course you do not have to donate, but every little penny that is donated will go directly towards the fertility clinic and creating Baby Poole! I know reading this will come as a shock to many of you as we kept this to ourselves for the most part, and I am sorry to any of you who feel blindsided or left out.

If you are still reading, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read our story! We appreciate each and every one of you and hope to update with good news soon!