[Small clarifying edit: the goal amount may adjust as we go along as it's a feature GFM has called "Automated Goal Setting". It makes the full $15000 feel less daunting with smaller benchmarks to reach! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at any point.]

FERTILITY STORY

Hello everyone! Thank you for taking a little time from your day to visit my GoFundMe to read about our story. We are Kristin and Joseph Speerschneider, a couple having been together for over 17 years, and married for 9. We’ve both dreamed of having children one day, but it’s been quite difficult. The aim of this GoFundMe is to raise funds to reduce the financial burden for infertility treatments I have been receiving. I have done a GoFundMe in the past, so some of this information may be familiar to you, but it’s ever more important now that we need your help for this next step in our journey.

Below you will find the following topics (in case you want to skip around):

-Our Story

-The Fertility Journey

-Our Request (the $15000 Financial Breakdown)

-Conclusion

-OUR STORY-

We first met at the Green Bay Wildlife Sanctuary during our freshman year in high school. We both were participating in the Halloween Event hosted by the sanctuary to complete community service hours required by our respective schools. We didn’t know it then but found out a few years later we were meant to be.

We dated for 8 years, several of them long distance while I completed college, before eventually tying the knot October 13th, 2016. Naturally during that span of time, talks of our futures together came up regularly. Where would we like to live? Would we have any pets? How many kids do we want? Early in our dating, the running joke with Joseph’s family was that he needed to have 10 kids, but realistically we settled for trying to have 3.

Unfortunately, trying to have one child at this point has proven difficult. We tried naturally on and off for about 5 years, with no success. In October of 2022, I finally sought the help of the fertility team at Bellin Health Generations.

-THE FERTILITY JOURNEY-

(This is the condensed version, but I can provide more specific information upon request)

To better understand our plight, and be as transparent as possible, we’d like to share with you a summary of what we’ve done already on this fertility journey these past 3+ years.

My first round of fertility treatments was through Bellin Generations from October 2022 until September 2024. I tried two rounds of Clomid with natural cycles, but my body reacted too strongly to the medication. I ended up with large cysts 2 out of the 3 cycles we tried it with. Each time I needed an additional cycle for my body to heal and monitor the cysts.

IUI was determined to be needed since it seemed my body was having a hard time with naturally conceiving. The first one was done August of 2023 and included a trigger shot for ovulation due to my history of cysts. Triggering ovulation would reduce the chances of this happening. I also needed to be on Letrozole so the follicles would grow to the appropriate size needed for the procedure.

Between August of 2023 and September 2024, we tried 5 IUIs. Every single one of them were essentially determined to be “chemical pregnancies” because there was raised hcg, but the numbers fell after 3 days. During this time, we tried several different things after each failed IUI. There was an HSG test in November 2023 to determine if there were any blocks in my fallopian/uterine tubes (there was not); we added dexamethasone for one of the IUIs; we tried suppository progesterone for I think 2, if not 3 of them as well.

All of this to say that Bellin told me I was no longer a candidate for IUIs with them and needed to look into IVF. I made an appointment with Aurora for January 2025 to do my IVF consultation. I was a little defeated after said consultation due to the incredible costs. At this point Joe and I were not in a good position to even think about it. I cancelled my sonohysterogram appointment and we decided to take a break from trying for awhile. I started my new job back in September of 2024 and he was getting busy at work as well, so I wanted to get into a better swing of things.

Spring of 2025, I made the decision to make an appointment with Dr. Guevara at St. Gianna’s Clinic to see if maybe we could delve deeper into why I’m having such problems with infertility. The appointment was supposed to be for August 20th, 2025. It ended up being cancelled and moved to October 29th. I wasn’t happy about that, so I switched to making an appointment with Dr. Coussons and was able to get in for August 13th. I’m very happy I made that change.

With Dr. Coussons, we went over my history, he looked into all the past medical tests and procedures we did and strongly suggested I go through with a laparoscopy to officially determine if I had endometriosis. That surgery occurred October 24th. There was one spot of endometriosis for sure determined (of the two that were excised). Due to this, he started me on a prescription of Low Dose Naltrexone (with the goal of working up to 4.5mg).

Since then, we have tried 2 additional IUIs. One on December 15th, 2025, and another January 11th, 2026. Both of which have failed. Our next and only step we have available to us is doing IVF.

-OUR REQUEST (& the financial breakdown)-

We’re reaching out to our friends, family, and any other kind-hearted individuals that come across this GoFundMe, who are willing to support our parenthood journey. Through my work, we have fairly good benefits and coverage, but IVF is not cheap. The deductible is $6700, and infertility treatments will only be covered up to $10,000. We also have a Garner benefit that will reimburse any out-of-pocket expenses up to $10,000 after we’ve paid at least $3400 of the deductible

Major Expenses We’re Expecting:

Breakdown for the $15,000 requested

-CONCLUSION-

Throughout much of our relationship, we’ve dreamed of becoming parents. We appreciate any sort of support you are able to give us to achieve this dream, whether that is through financial means, or sharing our story. It’s been quite the emotional roller coaster of emotions while on this journey, and we thank all our friends and family that have offered their prayers and encouraging words of support.

Thank you so so much for taking the time to read this. We love you all and do not take this generosity for granted.

Much Love,

Kristin & Joseph

P.S. If you’d rather commission me for art instead of just a donation through GoFundMe, I have them open through my vgen right now. If you’d like something not listed, please feel free to message me.

https://vgen.co/alizarinastacrimson