Creating our family through our IVF journey

Pat and Monica here and we are going to share a little about our journey with you.

We have been married since August of 2016 surrounded by all our family and friends. We started trying to expand our family approximately a year after that without much success for a couple of years. We finally decided it was time to visit a fertility specialist in 2019 so we did a lot of research and chose an establishment that was highly recommended. We had numerous tests and visits hoping to get some answers. Needless to say the process was not the easiest and very expensive as many things are not covered by typical employer insurances. Unfortunately, shortly after Pat lost his job due to being laid off and we had to stop for financial reasons. When Pat started employment some time after we were struggling while working on a reduced household salary and had to continue to put family plans on hold which is when COVID hit the world. With everything closed for so long and not feeling comfortable we continued to do as much research around ovulation testing and healthy living in hopes that we wouldn't need to go back to fertility specialists.

In 2022 we finally took our frustrations and concern to a new specialist recommended to me by my wonderful doctors. Not only did this office and staff make us feel comfortable but they took ownership in making it an easy and quick process for us to get answers. The answers were not what we wanted... I needed to have surgery as it was found that there were factors within my uterus and tubes that were inhibiting me from conceiving. The surgery took place in March of 2022. Findings from the surgery were not great as one of my tubes needed to be removed due to damage and the other, although still present, not connected in a way that will allow us to conceive naturally. This left us with only the possibility of IVF. However there was another obstacle. For us to qualify for the IVF I needed to lose approximately 40-50 pounds to get under a certain BMI for egg retrieval. Weight loss has been a struggle all my life. Through hard work, doctor recommendations, and limiting food intake I have finally hit the 40 pounds I needed to lose and am working to take off the last few in the event IVF medications cause any type of weight gain. Such a huge accomplishment for me but even more than that the satisfaction that I can finally start this process.

For those of you that are or are not familiar, IVF is an extremely costly process, one that is not covered by most insurances. We attempted to research all options but unfortunately there just aren't many options for financial help with IVF. It is our dream to just add one addition to our family through IVF and it is with so much love in our hearts that we ask for any help that you may be able to provide. We would forever be grateful to all of you and our family and friends that have helped us through this trying journey. Please consider helping us raise money for the family we have always dreamed of by donating and/or sharing our story with those who may want to help.

Pat & Monica Borja