Help Taylor & Corbin Get Their Family

When Corbin and I got married, it was important to us to have children, but there were also other things that were important to us. It was very important to me to finish school, to be a role model for our children about how important education is. Once I graduated though, we began prepping for a baby. Three years ago we decided we were ready to start our family. I went off birth control, knowing that after being on it for so long, it might take some time to get pregnant. We started stock piling baby supplies, buying a little every paycheck so we’d have enough by the time baby came along. We had money saved and were excited for this new phase of life. After 6 months of trying and nothing happening, we were slightly discouraged, but knew that we needed to give it more time. At a year, we were starting to feel frustrated and the lack of any progress towards a baby was disheartening. Every month it didn’t happen got harder and harder. We’d each take turns being sad or frustrated and there were lots of conversations through tears and heartache. We kept moving forward with the attitude that it’d happen when it was time, when we were more ready, etc etc. But it never happened. 

During this we had bought a business and a baby got unintentionally put on hold. It was stressful and time consuming and took everything we had. The business ended up failing and we were left with nothing. We were devastated financially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. When the dust began to settle, and life began to calm back down, we began thinking again about the baby we both still wanted. We were finally in a position to really start doing something about it. We had insurance, we were ready for answers. We scheduled our first appointment with a fertility specialist last November and were hopeful for answers after 2+ years of trying to get pregnant with no luck.

We got some answers, but we were left with even more questions. If everything looked normal, why weren’t we getting pregnant? Corbin had a great sperm count, but extremely low motility. His sperm weren’t moving well enough to get anywhere. I had low ovarian reserve, meaning I didn’t have as many eggs left as I should, but all my hormones and menstrual cycle were normal. The doctor basically said “Weird. Let’s try IUI” (basically artificial insemination). We didn’t feel good about it though.We had more questions with no answers being given. We’d call and call and never have anyone call us back. We were so disheartened and just wanted to start our family, but with so much at stake, including wasted money, it didn’t feel right to just “try” the IUI with so many unanswered things left hanging.

We were so discouraged and turned off by the lack of communication from the other clinic that it seemed best to talk to someone else. So, we scheduled an appointment to talk with a different clinic in May. That’s when we met Dr. Moore. We told him of our history, our infertility experience so far and our lack of communication from the other clinic. He essentially told us that we were his priority and talked with us in our consultation for over an hour. He answeredall our questions, going over all our options and reassuring us that we could have the family we wanted so badly, and he would do all he could to get us there.

After looking at our charts and tests, seeing that there were causes for concern with infertility on both our parts, he ordered more tests for Corbin to determine better what could be the issue or cause, something the other clinic didn’t even talk about when they should have given his strange results. He also talked with us about how time isof the essence for us with my extremely low ovarian reserve (I basically have very few eggs left compared to the average woman my age for my reproductive years)and that he didn’t want to waste any time trying different things if it meant my chances would get lower and lower the more time passed. In looking at all our factors, he was straight forward in telling us that he thought we’d most likely have to do IVF. But before jumping to the most financially difficult option, he still wanted to attempt a round of IUI after more tests and more answers, as long as the results seemed positive. Otherwise, we’d move forward with IVF. We were so thankful to have a doctor who cared, wanted what was best for us financially and emotionally, and didn’t want to waste time or money trying to experiment. We were past that point and now was the time for action.

We began the prep for our first treatments. We were ready and excited to try, hoping that it would prove successful and be our way to begin our family. The day of the procedure, we were hopeful and nervous. This was our first chance. As we were about to leave for the doctor’soffice, we got a call from Dr. Moore. He said that Corbin’s counts and motility were not where he’d hoped that they would be and that he didn’t feel good about us moving forward with the IUI. We had less then 1% chance that it would result in a pregnancy. He didn’t want us to waste our money doing a procedure he believed would not be successful. Nothing we could do would increase those chances except to do IVF. We were devastated. We were so hoping that this could be our way. We were just so ready to have a baby. That day was hard, as well as the days following. Our chance had come, and it had gone. We felt like it was so far out of grasp when all we wanted was to hold a sweet baby in our arms. 

The following days in talking with Dr. Moore and his nursing staff, we were given more info about IVF and about its success rates, especially in cases like ours. Essentially every infertility issue we are facing is easily overcome through IVF. Our chances increase even more through a procedure called ICSI, where one good, healthy sperm is injected directly into each egg, basically guaranteeing that each egg is fertilized. Where my egg reserve is so low, this is crucial in order to not lose any precious eggs, which in turn will hopefully turn into little embryos and then a baby.

But with all this, it comes at a cost. We have hope, but it still seems so far off because now we have to come up with money we weren’t planning for. It’s taken us more than a year to recoup from the loss of our business, barely now getting to a point where our heads are above water. We’ve finally been able to start saving but its so small compared to the amount we need to be given a chance to start our family. The procedure alone for one attempted round is $15,000. But we are determined to come up with a way, whether it means selling off everything we can, taking extra jobs, penny pinching anywhere we can. Everything we do and everything we can do, we know it will all be worth it to have a sweet baby in our arms. Because of our time limit and being told that we need to act now if we want this, we are asking for help. The longer we wait, the lower our chances are that we will ever be able to have a baby of our own. After 3 years of trying to start our family, we feel that this is our chance. This is our time and we know that because of everything we’ve been through, we are ready and so hopeful for the chance to start our family.