Joanie & Matt’s Fertility Journey
Donation protected
Matt and I met through the online dating site, Match.com 6 years ago this past October. We had always talked of the family we wanted from the first months we were together. We both wanted nothing more than have beautiful children to share our love with but never knew what a struggle that would be.
Our fertility journey started about 4 years ago after we got married in September. We decided the time was right to start trying for a family. To our knowledge, both of us were healthy and should have no issues getting pregnant. Fast forward 6 months I was starting to get worried that we hadn’t gotten pregnant yet. After having a conversation with my OB/GYN, he said not to worry and 80% of women will get pregnant in a years time of trying. Unfortunately, we were in the other 20% that didn’t.
In January 2016, we met our first fertility doctor at Midwest Fertility. We did many tests on both Matt and I and was told it was more of an issue with Matt’s numbers and he needed to see a urologist. In the meantime we did 2 rounds of IUI (intrauterine insemination) which failed. April of 2016, Matt’s urologist told him he needed surgery to fix a varicocele. We thought that was the answer to why we hadn’t gotten pregnant. June 2016, he had surgery and recovered well. He started taking medications to improve his numbers and still takes those to this day. October 2016, we tried another IUI with the use of Clomid in hopes that his improved numbers would increase our chances of it working. Sadly, it didn’t work. We were encouraged by our doctor to do IVF but that came with a price tag of $16,000 and we just weren’t ready for that. We continued trying for another 6 months.
We went to Indiana Fertility Institute for a 2nd opinion. After a consultation with Dr. Jarrett, we were told that I probably had endometriosis and he suggested an exploratory laparoscopy. September 2017, I had the surgery and he did find I had mild endometriosis and removed it. He said he thought another IUI would be worth a try. So October 2017 we did another IUI, that failed again. We then decided to give ourselves more time to try naturally since we were in the process of building our house and moving in before the end of the year.
March 2018, we went back to Dr. Jarrett and were urged to consider IVF. This time it was $16,000-20,000. We had no idea where we were going to come up with the money for this but knew that IVF was probably our only option to get pregnant. One friend hosted a jewelry fundraiser for us and many friends and family donated items for a fundraising garage sale! It was incredible to see that support! We raised about $5,000 towards our goal!
June 2018, we heard of a clinic that offered mini IVF with the use of a device called an Invocell. This was a much less expensive option but still used fertility meds and monitoring to produce embryos. We went for a consultation and were told we were good candidates for this new procedure. We decided this was our best option at the time considering it was 1/2 the price and had over 50% success rate. We spent over $10,000 (our fundraising money and savings) in July/August for the mini IVF procedure. We were told after already in the middle of the process, that my AMH level was low and it was going to take more medication to try to get enough eggs. Had they tested my AMH at the beginning, they would’ve known we weren’t great candidates and we would’ve done traditional IVF then. It’s so frustrating. We only got 2 viable embryos to transfer and decided it was worth it to put both in. We found out devastating news in mid August that neither egg implanted. We were lost.
We started researching other clinics in the area and looked for the highest success rates nearby. We found Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago had the highest success rates along with the specific genetic testing we need to improve our chances of it working. This now comes with a $25,000 price tag which includes medications, monitoring, procedure, and the 10-14 day stay in Chicago during this process. We are in the process of the consultation and planning of our next cycle. Our hopes are to do IVF in January 2019.
It’s been 4 years since we started trying to start a family and now I’m 35 years old. My chances of getting pregnant naturally or through IVF are getting smaller the more time that passes by. We are not ever the ones who ask for help but at this point we are pretty close to desperate. We’ve been encouraged by friends and family to start a go fund me page to try to raise money towards our next IVF cycle. We are now relying on the goodness of other people to help fund the most important thing in our lives. We’ve said many prayers asking God to make it happen when the timing is right. Praying our struggle is close to being over and we will welcome a baby to our family soon. Thank you for taking the time to read about our journey and we thank you in advance for your donation and prayers! God Bless.
Our fertility journey started about 4 years ago after we got married in September. We decided the time was right to start trying for a family. To our knowledge, both of us were healthy and should have no issues getting pregnant. Fast forward 6 months I was starting to get worried that we hadn’t gotten pregnant yet. After having a conversation with my OB/GYN, he said not to worry and 80% of women will get pregnant in a years time of trying. Unfortunately, we were in the other 20% that didn’t.
In January 2016, we met our first fertility doctor at Midwest Fertility. We did many tests on both Matt and I and was told it was more of an issue with Matt’s numbers and he needed to see a urologist. In the meantime we did 2 rounds of IUI (intrauterine insemination) which failed. April of 2016, Matt’s urologist told him he needed surgery to fix a varicocele. We thought that was the answer to why we hadn’t gotten pregnant. June 2016, he had surgery and recovered well. He started taking medications to improve his numbers and still takes those to this day. October 2016, we tried another IUI with the use of Clomid in hopes that his improved numbers would increase our chances of it working. Sadly, it didn’t work. We were encouraged by our doctor to do IVF but that came with a price tag of $16,000 and we just weren’t ready for that. We continued trying for another 6 months.
We went to Indiana Fertility Institute for a 2nd opinion. After a consultation with Dr. Jarrett, we were told that I probably had endometriosis and he suggested an exploratory laparoscopy. September 2017, I had the surgery and he did find I had mild endometriosis and removed it. He said he thought another IUI would be worth a try. So October 2017 we did another IUI, that failed again. We then decided to give ourselves more time to try naturally since we were in the process of building our house and moving in before the end of the year.
March 2018, we went back to Dr. Jarrett and were urged to consider IVF. This time it was $16,000-20,000. We had no idea where we were going to come up with the money for this but knew that IVF was probably our only option to get pregnant. One friend hosted a jewelry fundraiser for us and many friends and family donated items for a fundraising garage sale! It was incredible to see that support! We raised about $5,000 towards our goal!
June 2018, we heard of a clinic that offered mini IVF with the use of a device called an Invocell. This was a much less expensive option but still used fertility meds and monitoring to produce embryos. We went for a consultation and were told we were good candidates for this new procedure. We decided this was our best option at the time considering it was 1/2 the price and had over 50% success rate. We spent over $10,000 (our fundraising money and savings) in July/August for the mini IVF procedure. We were told after already in the middle of the process, that my AMH level was low and it was going to take more medication to try to get enough eggs. Had they tested my AMH at the beginning, they would’ve known we weren’t great candidates and we would’ve done traditional IVF then. It’s so frustrating. We only got 2 viable embryos to transfer and decided it was worth it to put both in. We found out devastating news in mid August that neither egg implanted. We were lost.
We started researching other clinics in the area and looked for the highest success rates nearby. We found Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago had the highest success rates along with the specific genetic testing we need to improve our chances of it working. This now comes with a $25,000 price tag which includes medications, monitoring, procedure, and the 10-14 day stay in Chicago during this process. We are in the process of the consultation and planning of our next cycle. Our hopes are to do IVF in January 2019.
It’s been 4 years since we started trying to start a family and now I’m 35 years old. My chances of getting pregnant naturally or through IVF are getting smaller the more time that passes by. We are not ever the ones who ask for help but at this point we are pretty close to desperate. We’ve been encouraged by friends and family to start a go fund me page to try to raise money towards our next IVF cycle. We are now relying on the goodness of other people to help fund the most important thing in our lives. We’ve said many prayers asking God to make it happen when the timing is right. Praying our struggle is close to being over and we will welcome a baby to our family soon. Thank you for taking the time to read about our journey and we thank you in advance for your donation and prayers! God Bless.
Organizer
Joanie Lemerick
Organizer
Greenfield, IN
