Praying for a Miracle.. Our IVF Journey

Our Story,

Tyler and I began our fertility journey in January 2018 with high hopes to conceive thru IVF. We choose the “best of the best” fertility clinic in Markham and spent several months and many, many tanks of gas travelling back and forth for testing. These trips were sometimes 3-4 times per week. We put my body thru so much to prepare including daily injections, countless hormone pills, suppositories (yuck) and hormone patches.. in May we both went for our retrieval procedures and we were successful with 15 mature eggs!


The embryologist called every 2 days to update us on the progress of our little embabies! By Day 1 we had 11 eggs that had been successfully fertilized.. by Day 3 we had 12 (one embryo had split, they would have been identical twins if this happened in the womb!) and by Day 5 we had lost a few and were left with 8 that made it to the blastocyst stage.


We had our embryo transfer with a “top of the line” 4AA0 graded embryo! And by July 2018 it was all worth it when we were successful and got a positive pregnancy test! Yay! This was short lived and we experienced a miscarriage at about 6.5 weeks. :( This day changed our lives forever.. our world shattered and pulled us apart. I wish we would have handled it different but thru all the fertility information classes we went too and appointments with our fertility specialists, we were not informed or prepared with the “what if’s” and we were not mentally prepared to mourn the loss of an unborn child that we worked so hard to conceive.

Tyler and I took a break, the miscarriage changed us for the worst, we were mad, upset and angry (mostly me I think), we lived separate lives and it was awful.


A few months later we saw that we handled things wrong, we talked about what we would have done different and grew to love eachother again.. stronger then ever. We decided to give it another go, this time we were prepared, we researched all the “what if’s” and we were ready! So, we began the process again (minus the injections because we had 7 frozen embryos waiting)


On February 15th we went for our 2nd FET (frozen embryo transfer).. it was a happy day and we were hopeful that this would be it! Our embryo was graded a 4AB0 which is still excellent! Something didn’t feel right this time and I had a feeling this was going to be a failed attempt :(


After countless home pregnancy tests we had yet to see that second line. :(


We got the call from our fertility clinic to say “stop your medication, your pregnancy test was negative”. You can never really prepare yourself for those words but uring that phone call we all decided we should try again! I mean, my body was already full of hormones so why not?


Our third FET was scheduled for March 19.  We were determined this time it would work. The 2 week wait after an embryo transfer is harder then a kid at Christmas! It’s torture. We were sure this would be it and we were right! We were pregnant again!




At 4 weeks and 6 days I relived the same scare that I had during my first miscarriage. I went to the hospital and all was well on the ultrasound screen and I saw the gestational sac. My beta levels were slowly dropping but then at my follow up appointment they increased again? Strange. We were sent home with with the words “congratulations, your pregnant”


Of coarse we were happy but very confused..


A few days went by and sure enough, our worst nightmare became our reality. After 2 miscarriages and 1 failed attempt in less then 9 months, we were (and are) devastated. The emotional toll it takes on a woman, her husband and family is real.


Moving on..


We had our follow up appointment and we now have some options:

1. We can try again without any testing but chances are we will miscarry time and time again and relive the same nightmare.

2. We can give up and walk away from our IVF journey without a baby.

3. We can investigate the cause. With this comes a lot more testing, time and more expenses. One test is a immunological test thru Rosilind Franklin University in Chicago. They are the experts in recurrent pregnancy losses and infertility issues. Another test is to do a Chronic Endometritis screen that includes a uterine biopsy and some more blood tests that are not covered by OHIP including thrombophilia genetic panel.. Uggh..

We prefer to go with option 3 but neither Tyler or I have insurance coverage and up until last week the cost of my medication alone was roughly $45+ per day. Depending on the results of the tests, our medication costs could increase with treatment. We are emotionally and financially exhausted.


We are hesitant to post and ask for help but right now, without help we won’t be able to move forward on our fertility journey any time in the near future.