The Martorella’s IVF Journey
Donation protected
This isn’t an easy thing to let everyone in on as it is an incredibly personal and vulnerable situation.
Pete and I are asking our friends and family for support as we pursue IVF (in-vitro fertilization).
Pete and I have been married for 8 years and have been trying to conceive for 7. When we first moved to Japan, we got pregnant and unfortunately miscarried at 8.5 weeks. After that, we tried naturally for a year with no success. We then pursued fertility testing. As some of our friends know, the healthcare we had access to in Japan wasn’t very great. We had a lot of questions that had gone unanswered. Why can’t we get pregnant? What is causing the infertility? Why won’t God give us a child? This became insanely frustrating and started to wear on us emotionally. We contacted the military doctors and they set us up with appointments to hopefully get some answers. We had gone thru a bunch of testing; biopsies, lab work, and small procedures. Still no answers after 3 years at this point. After two moves and getting out of the army, we landed back in our hometown. We decided to keep trying naturally. We thought that maybe being home and around friends and family is what God has been waiting for. Maybe having that support system and comfort is what we needed. After a year, still nothing. Pete accepted a position at UPMC, which allowed us to have great health insurance and access to Magee Center for Fertility. We set up an appointment with them to discuss what our concerns were and why we haven’t been able to conceive. At this point, we are 6 years deep in our fertility journey. My doctors did a full work up for Pete and I. This included tons of appointments for blood work, ultrasounds, semen analysis, sonohysterogram and a hysterosalpingogram. In all of this testing, they discovered that I had hydrosalpinx in my left tube. A hydrosalpinx is a condition that occurs when the fallopian tube is blocked and fills with serous or clear fluid near the ovary (distal to the uterus). The blocked tube may become substantially distended giving the tube a retort-like shape. Unfortunately the end of my tube was so scarred down, there was no repairing it. On Christmas Eve of 2019, I underwent surgery to have my left tube clipped off as to not disrupt the viability of my right tube. Once I was cleared by my doctor, we started IUI (intrauterine insemenation). This was the next step to try and conceive before resorting to IVF, as IUI is mostly covered by our insurance. We have gone thru 7 IUI treatment cycles, consisting of dozens of appointments, with no success. Pete and I have gone back and forth on whether we want to move forward with IVF or adoption. We’ve decided that we would love to have a biological child, but with that comes a journey that is not at all covered by health insurance. So here we are...asking for your help to grow the family we’ve been trying to grow for 7 years. We appreciate you all being there for us over the years and supporting us. 2020 has been a bad year for a lot of us, so let’s bring a miracle into 2021.
Pete and I are asking our friends and family for support as we pursue IVF (in-vitro fertilization).
Pete and I have been married for 8 years and have been trying to conceive for 7. When we first moved to Japan, we got pregnant and unfortunately miscarried at 8.5 weeks. After that, we tried naturally for a year with no success. We then pursued fertility testing. As some of our friends know, the healthcare we had access to in Japan wasn’t very great. We had a lot of questions that had gone unanswered. Why can’t we get pregnant? What is causing the infertility? Why won’t God give us a child? This became insanely frustrating and started to wear on us emotionally. We contacted the military doctors and they set us up with appointments to hopefully get some answers. We had gone thru a bunch of testing; biopsies, lab work, and small procedures. Still no answers after 3 years at this point. After two moves and getting out of the army, we landed back in our hometown. We decided to keep trying naturally. We thought that maybe being home and around friends and family is what God has been waiting for. Maybe having that support system and comfort is what we needed. After a year, still nothing. Pete accepted a position at UPMC, which allowed us to have great health insurance and access to Magee Center for Fertility. We set up an appointment with them to discuss what our concerns were and why we haven’t been able to conceive. At this point, we are 6 years deep in our fertility journey. My doctors did a full work up for Pete and I. This included tons of appointments for blood work, ultrasounds, semen analysis, sonohysterogram and a hysterosalpingogram. In all of this testing, they discovered that I had hydrosalpinx in my left tube. A hydrosalpinx is a condition that occurs when the fallopian tube is blocked and fills with serous or clear fluid near the ovary (distal to the uterus). The blocked tube may become substantially distended giving the tube a retort-like shape. Unfortunately the end of my tube was so scarred down, there was no repairing it. On Christmas Eve of 2019, I underwent surgery to have my left tube clipped off as to not disrupt the viability of my right tube. Once I was cleared by my doctor, we started IUI (intrauterine insemenation). This was the next step to try and conceive before resorting to IVF, as IUI is mostly covered by our insurance. We have gone thru 7 IUI treatment cycles, consisting of dozens of appointments, with no success. Pete and I have gone back and forth on whether we want to move forward with IVF or adoption. We’ve decided that we would love to have a biological child, but with that comes a journey that is not at all covered by health insurance. So here we are...asking for your help to grow the family we’ve been trying to grow for 7 years. We appreciate you all being there for us over the years and supporting us. 2020 has been a bad year for a lot of us, so let’s bring a miracle into 2021.
Organizer
Courtney Martorella
Organizer
Bethel Park, PA