Our Infertility Journey

Hunter and I married in 2017 after being together for 5 years. We had wanted to start a family together for as long as we could remember. We always talked about what our family would look like and we imagined what our children would become. The excitement was unreal so we began trying for a baby as soon as we could!! In March of 2018, I had this weird feeling that something was wrong. I scheduled an appointment for both of us to check on our fertility health with an OBGYN and a urologist. Our fears were confirmed - we were going to have a long journey to start a family. We were told the best option for us would be to reach out to a reproductive endocrinologist or a fertility specialist. We did some research and ended up with Dr. Weitzman at Nashville Fertility Center in October of 2018.

 

We had a consult with Dr. Weitzman and all I could remember was shaking and the knot stuck in my throat. I felt like the odds were against us and I was terrified. We were called back and introduced to Dr. Weitzman and immediately felt at ease. He wanted to do some testing of his own. He checked my ovarian reserve and took a sperm sample from Hunter. He told us that IUIs were not going to be helpful for our infertility diagnosis and that our best odds were going to be with IVF. Although this isn’t really the news we wanted, we knew this meant something could be done and we could be helped and that was all I needed to hear. He gave us 74% chance of success with an IVF plan tailored to us. We did further testing to make sure we were set. We took a class on IVF and learned all of the ins and outs and what to expect. We knew this was going to be absolutely exhausting - mentally, physically, emotionally and of course financially. We prepared ourselves as best as we could. At the end of December, my cycle started and we hit the ground rolling!

 

First was egg retrieval. The whole month of January was spent on the road traveling to Nashville (2.5 hour drive there and back) 2-3 times a week for ultrasounds and blood draws as well as fitting in oral medications and 3 injections daily. IVF is a very rigorous treatment and must be monitored intently. During egg retrieval, you are giving your body medications to stimulate follicles to grow more eggs in your ovaries and make them grow as big as possible so they have more of a chance of retrieving mature follicles which are needed to make healthy embryos. We had to continue with this a little longer than expected. Finally at the end of January, we were scheduled for our egg retrieval procedure! I was sedated and they went in vaginally with a catheter and a needle to retrieve the eggs from my ovaries. When I woke up they told us they had retrieved 10 eggs from my ovaries! They told us to expect 5 to fertilize with the sperm Hunter left in the lab. Because of the specific diagnosis we were given, the ICSI method was used. Typically during IVF, they take the egg and sperm and put it in the Petri dish and let fertilization happen. With ICSI, they take a needle with the sperm inside and inject it directly into the egg for fertilization. The next day the lab called and told us 8 had fertilized with the ICSI method. Our embryologist watched them over the next few days and on day 5, she called to let us know 6 had made it to the day 5 blastocyst stage and had been frozen and their cells were sent off for PGS testing! (Preimplantation genetic screening testing) This would not only tell us the genders of the embryos but also if these embryos had normal, abnormal or mosaic (normal and abnormal cells).

 

2 weeks later we got the call that we had 2 completely abnormal embryos, 2 mosaic embryos and 2 NORMAL embryos! We had 3 boys and 3 girls, 2 of each. We were over the moon. We were unable to use the abnormal embryos so we were left with two normal and two mosaic.

 

We chose the best embryo to be transferred which was our baby boy. We started the transfer process as soon as we could in March! I had to continue oral medications and 2 injections daily. I had a few appointments back and forth to Nashville for the transfer process consisting of ultrasounds and blood draws. A few short weeks later we went in for transfer and I was pregnant until proven otherwise!

 

We had the 2 week wait and went back in for the HCG blood test. 45 minutes after leaving the clinic, my IVF nurse Andie called me as we sat in Buy Buy Baby parking lot and told us we were PREGNANT! With teary filled eyes, our hearts were bursting with excitement!

 

Skip forward 9 months later on December 10, 2019…. we have a 8 lb 2 oz baby boy who has not stopped filling our hearts with joy! Today, that little boy is 2 years old. We have loved every minute of being that little boy’s parents!

 

In the summer of 2021, we decided it was time to add to our family! We called and set up an appointment with Dr. Weitzman to prepare for the transfer of the second normal embryo we had in storage. It was a female and we were sure this little embaby would complete our family! When we went for our appointment, we were told our wonderful IVF nurse from our first cycle would not be there as she was on leave. I felt a terrible feeling but we decided to continue on with the transfer. We did some testing and got ready to begin the cycle. Many things went wrong during the cycle with the nurses and I just never got a feeling of ease. I had some weird reactions to the medications that I had not had before. We went in for transfer and remained positive and hopeful. We waited the 2 week wait and I went in for my HCG check up. In the midst of my two week wait, I got very sick with the stomach virus. Despite that, my HCG was rising and we were in fact PREGNANT! I went back for my second blood test and the nurse called to let me know that instead of doubling like it was supposed to, my levels dropped and she was not hopeful and felt I was having a miscarriage. I went in on Friday for my third blood test and later got the call that I was having a miscarriage. Hunter and I were devastated and heartbroken.

 

We felt like peace would come eventually and we would feel done with trying to grow our family. We had no desire to go through another cycle. Months had passed and we just couldn’t shake this feeling that we still had mosaic embryos sitting in the freezer and we knew nothing about them. We knew we had a female and we felt like maybe that was a sign. I called my IVF nurse from the first cycle after she got back from leave and after our conversation, she felt we needed to meet with the genetic counselor to see what this was all about. We had a phone call with the genetic counselor who had very specific information on our embryos in storage and she had nothing but bad news. The two mosaic embryos in storage had chromosomal abnormalities that could lead to severe disabilities not compatible with life. The female embryo was very likely to have seizures, heart abnormalities, blindness, deafness and other very scary circumstances. The male’s disorder was so rare there was no research to go off of. She advised strongly against us transferring these embryos. We sat on the couch and just cried and we looked at each other and just knew what we had to do.

 

We are not done growing our family. We refuse to let infertility beat us. We have beat it before and our God is BIGGER. We believe God will see us through this cycle if it is His will and we believe this has been placed on hearts because it is His will. It is not going to be easy. It is going to be very very hard. IVF is hard. It is emotional, it is painful, it is expensive, it is a roller coaster and it is not guaranteed.

 

The cost of our treatment plan - IVF with ICSI and PGS testing and transfer - is roughly $23,000 which doesn’t include some medications. For the previous 2 cycles we have spent roughly $30,000 out of pocket in treatment, medications and embryo storage to store what we had left from the first cycle over the years. We were very blessed to have been able to do this without asking for help. But this time, we are asking for help. For something that comes so easy for others, it is very hard for us to come to terms with the financial burden infertility has left on us. We are asking that you please pray and give what you feel lead to give. If you are not able to give, please pray for us in the months to come. We plan to start our IVF cycle this summer and we are praying to end this year in a healthy pregnancy.

 

Brady cannot wait to experience being a big brother! As for us, parenthood has been the very best experience of our lives and we hope to be able to continue that journey with new life and another baby Whitby to love.

 

With love,

The Whitby Family