Matt & Tori’s IVF Journey After Cancer Diagnosis

In January of 2023, Matt had an ultrasound of a lump we had noticed a few months back. After that, his PCP assured him that although he had a tumor in his testicle, it was benign, which eased our minds knowing that he did not have cancer. (That did not end up being the case.) The next step was a CT scan and a referral to a urologist. On February 17th, Matt went for a CT scan. Soon after, he received a phone call that they would like to see him in the office as soon as possible. That day, it felt like our worlds were turned upside down as he received the diagnosis of testicular cancer. On March 15, 2023, Matt underwent surgery to remove his testicle. All seemed to go well until that night when he woke me up and said something isn’t right; we need to go back to the hospital. He ended up having internal bleeding and needed emergency surgery to get control of it. Recovery was rough for him after this. We had to wait a couple of weeks for the biopsy to come back to find out what stage cancer it was and what the next steps would be. It came back as stage 2, and he was referred to an oncologist for radiation treatment. At this point in time, neither of us felt very confident in his doctor given everything that went down with the surgeries. We both decided it would be best to get a second opinion. We were able to get him into the Cleveland Clinic and see an oncologist in early April. They reviewed everything and came back with a stage 1 diagnosis, and radiation was not recommended. They recommended a 5-year surveillance plan, involving blood work, chest X-rays, CT scans, and appointments every 3-6 months over a 5-year period. Thankfully, over the last 2 years, everything has been great, he is in remission, and we could not be happier with the care he has received through the Cleveland Clinic.

Fast forward to May 2024, we started trying to get pregnant after our wedding. We were told there would be no issues conceiving naturally. After not being able to conceive for about 6 months, Matt and I both had some testing done to see if there were any issues. Unfortunately, we were told we are unable to conceive naturally and our only option is IVF. We had our consultations with our reproductive endocrinologists and have had all of our preliminary testing done, just waiting on a couple of results before we can get the process started. As of now, early May is when I will have my egg retrieval and Matt will have a procedure to go in and extract the sperm from his testicle. As you can imagine, all of this is very expensive, on top of still making payments to pay off the emergency surgery from 2023 and the testing that has been done since then, as insurance did not cover much of his emergency surgery. We hate to ask for donations; however, we would love to have another child and give Kinsley a sibling that she has been begging for. Unfortunately, our insurance does not cover any costs associated with IVF, including office visits, lab work, ultrasounds, etc.

Here is just a glimpse into the estimated costs of IVF:

Matt’s surgery - $8,900

Egg Retrieval/Transfer - $14,000

Medications - $2,500+

Office Visits/Testing for both of us - $2,000+

Thank you for reading this far. If you’re able to help us out with a donation, we would appreciate it more than you know. If you aren’t, we completely understand and would love it if you could just share this to help get the word out.

The Taylor Family ♥️