Making Baby Wells: The Sequel

You know how some people are just destined to be something? Like a doctor or firefighter or teacher? Well Mark and I were destined to be parents. Life is just making us work a little harder to get there.

 

When Mark and I said "I Do" at the end of 2016, the idea of becoming parents felt as natural as breathing. We had hoped to bring back our own little souvenir from a trip to Mexico a few months later, but came back empty-handed so to speak. And for 5 long years now, we've been turning up empty-handed every month.

 

As many of you know from already following our Journey to Parenthood, we began to see a fertility doctor in July 2018. After months and months of cycle monitoring, blood work, ultra sounds and physicals it turned out Mark had low sperm count and motility and the quality of my eggs were that of someone in their late 30's (in the Fertility World, that's not a good thing). Mark was able to have surgery which fixed the underlying problem for his sperm count and we saw a drastic change in his numbers within 3 months. I on the otherhand - well unfortunately there is not much that can be done to improve the quality of eggs and we were told our best chance to have a child would be through In-vitro Fertilization, or IVF.

 

After navigating through the wave of emotions that come with being told you will never conceive naturally, we decided to not take the leap into IVF right away and try something called Intra-Uterine Insemination, or IUI. This is a much less invasive process than IVF as it just gives the sperm and egg a better chance of meeting up in the uterus and fertilizing naturally, whereas with IVF the egg is surgically removed from the body and fertilization takes place in a petri dish (this is where the term Test Tube Baby comes from!). We are so lucky to live in Ontario as OHIP covers unlimited rounds of IUI, but the medication bill came out of our pocket. We tried two rounds of IUI and spent about $10,000 on the hormonal medication, but just like every month before then, we came up empty handed. We had no other choice. IVF was our next step.

 

Just like IUI, IVF is covered through OHIP except for the hormonal medication (which for IVF runs between $6,000 and $7,000 per round). But unlike IUI where there's unlimited rounds covered, with IVF you get ONE round. No matter your diagnosis, no matter your odds of success or how many eggs you retrieve, you get ONE round and ONE round only. Talk about literally putting all your eggs in one basket...In March of 2021 we started our round of IVF. And in April of 2021 our one and only round of IVF failed. And we grieved for what we never had.

 

After taking many months to ourselves, to get our heads right, that spark in Mark and I that is our dream to create life together, reignited with a fury we never felt before. We remembered we are fighters and we are resiliant and we put ourselves back in the ring. We want to do IVF Round 2. But that comes with an even heftier price tag then our previous treatments.....

 

For this second round we need to pay out of pocket for everything. Upfront. And a round of IVF in Ontario runs anywhere from $15,000 - $25,000 - Which is why we need your help. This cost covers routine bloodwork and ultrasounds (which happen every two to three days per round), egg retrieval surgery, sperm preparation, insemination and the hormonal medications needed (two days of medication will cost about $1,000 but needs to be administered for roughly 15 days). 

 

We have such great feelings for this second round though. On March 2, 2022 we will be seeing a new doctor at a new clinic - Dr. Glass at the Create Fertility Clinic in Toronto, which is an internationally renowned fertility clinic with groundbreaking research and cutting-edge science to help make Family Dreams come true. I highly recommend you check out their website to see some of the amazing work they do. They also helped to bring one of our nephews into this world!

 

Asking for help is not easy, and neither is letting go of our dream to be parents. Please donate and help us fulfill our destiny of Making Baby Wells.