[Palenaki]

I’d love to hear from our members who have a successful infertility story. What treatments did you use? What was successful for you? How long did it take for you to become pregnant?

[TMorris]

I have a child who just turned 6 years old and is healthy and happy -- so I guess I have a success story to tell! But I'll try to abbreviate it...

Took birth control pills for most of my young adult life, then decided in 1994 to stop, in hopes that my body would begin preparing for pregnancy. A year later, no pregnancy, and I started looking for reasons. Found out that I didn't know all that I thought I did re: getting pregnant, learned to predict my ovulation and, lo and behold, conceived in January 1996 (about 6 months after monitoring my ovulation through temp charts and body symptoms.)

Lost that first pregnancy within the first 8 weeks, spontaneously. Horrendous experience. Found out that 1st trimester miscarriage is a relatively common phenomenon as people started coming out of the woodwork to share their previous experiences with me, in an effort to soothe my guilt and pain.
Started exploring even further into infertility and miscarriage as topics on the Internet.

Talked to a maternal fetal medicine doc who referred me to a local reproductive endocrinologist. Since I conceived that first time sans assistance, we didn't treat. Conceived again, right on time as planned, in 6 months. Another 1st trimester spontaneous loss. At that point, I'd learned of some possible causes that might be tested for, requested those tests from my RE, got them, and turned up "slightly positive" for antithyroid antibody (makes sense, as I have treated thyroid disease).

Even though there was no definitive cause of my previous 2 losses (the antibody situation was just a big 'maybe'), we treated the next pregnancy (6 months later, as attempted) with heparin injections, twice daily from the time of known conception until -- yet another loss. This time, not spontaneous. Saw a heartbeat at around 8 weeks and then none at 11 weeks. Chose to have a D&C and to have the fetal tissue tested. Good idea -- turned out to be a male with Trisomy 15, an always fatal trisomy.

Took several months off to get my head on straight and heart in line. Conceived again in January '98, boosted along by clomiphene citrate to just speed things up -- identical situation to the immediately previous loss. Trisomy 15, male. Blood karyotypes of both my then-husband and me turned up normal, so the recurrent Trisomy 15 was a big mystery.

At that point, I was 37 years old, had been trying for 4 years and had 4 losses in that time. I was tired, we had no infertility insurance coverage, and no extra money or resources. I was starting to seriously consider the child-free option, deciding that if I hadn't had a child by age 40, I'd quit trying. It was hard to fully land on that decision, though, because I knew that preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and IVF might be our answer -- but we couldn't afford it. PGD was very new at the time, so our best hope was to keep our eyes out for a research trial that might take us, while we continued to conceive naturally.

One final round of clomiphene later ('final' because I'd had vision problems during this cycle, which is a warning sign), and I conceived again, in late August '98. My pregnancy was relatively smooth -- I experienced 5 months of nausea (but not vomiting) and extreme amounts of anxiety, had a cerclage (cervical stitch) put in around the 15th week, had an amniocentesis that told us the baby was fine, and my son arrived about 4 weeks early (pre-term, but not premature and with nary a health problem) in April '99.

During 1998-99, I published my journal entries online at About.com, where I worked. The journal is now here at Infertilitycentral.com

My son means the world to me.

[einstein]

My Dh and I started ttc around Oct 1999. After about a year with no success, I went to my gyn and had the systematic round of tests: b/w, hsg, uterine biopsy, the works. Nothing came up abnormal. DH went for S/A and learned he had low motility. In Oct 2001, we went to an RE. I had two rounds of IUI (one with no drugs, one with clomid). No luck. DH was then tested for antisperm antibodies. It came back positive. We then moved immediately to IVF. I did IVF with ICSI in March 2002 and got pg with twins after transferring 3 embies. My boys, Connor and Aaron, were born Nov 12, 2002. I feel exceptionally blessed to have been so fortunate to conceive on my first round with IVF and to have healthy, beautiful babies.

[ababyforshelly]

yes. we tried for 3 1/2 years, and then after 1 round of clomid/iui, we have a 2 3/4 month old daughter, and are going au-natural again, seeing if we can concieve if not, then after a year of this, we will go that route again. nothing was found to be wrong, but that doesn't help, when you are trying, and hurtng. iam glad to have my little girl, but would be very sad, if i couldn't have another. iam 30 and dh is 43, so we don't have all the time in the world, but still a bit. good luck to you.

[AnxietyButerfly]

Our story is different than many. We were trying to conceive for 3 years. After our first year, we started seeing a fertility Dr. We went through all of the "pre-testing" and found that our problem, or so we were told, is his morphology (shape of sperm). We were told that we have a .01% chance to conceive on our own and that IVF was our only answer. We went through a few more tests and asked for referrals of other patients who succeeded IVF the first time (in our same situation). In the meantime, our Dr ordered our hormones ect. to prepare for the IVF. No-one called as a referral - we became nervous. Besides shooting myself up with all kinds of hormones, we heard no first time success stories of IVF...we did hear of 2nd and 3rd time success stories though. One week prior to IVF, we called and cancelled. Our Dr. behaved unprofessionally, telling us he would have definite referrals call by that following Monday so that we could start the next IVF program. Again, no-one called. After the billing dept. called to ask where our payment was and I explained that since no-one called as a referral, we backed out and already spoke with the Dr. The billing dept. had one woman call with a totally different situation than ours. Their problem was HER not HIM (totally opposite than us) and that was the only person who called us with a first time success story. We decided that "if it is meant to be, it will happen," and opted out of IVF (Due to too many cpls saying the 2nd & 3rd times worked-we didn't want to "gamble" and keep dishing out all of that money and controlling my body with hormones, unnaturally, with a only 33% chance of conception w/ IVF). In December, 2005, we both got it out of our minds - we both focused on our careers. In Jan, 2006, we had a quantitative blood test done (2 days late w/ period) and it was positive - naturally!! When we called our fertility Dr. w/ the news, they did NOT congratulate us and when we asked to have his sperm re-tested, just to see since our percentage of getting pregnant naturally were soooo low, the office rejected us and said to "worry about the one you have now." Our Fertility Dr. is well known and lectures across the country. His wife is also a medical doctor who advises on our local tv station. I certainly do not want to offend others, but I must say that we feel that we were in some way lied to and by-the-way, during our testing, a polyp was found and when he did a small outpatient procedure to remove the "polyp" the Dr. "Forgot" that he couldn't turn the camera machine off (to save the pic) in which he took a supposed picture of the polyp/findings to show me; Therfore, I had a 5000.00 procedure done w/ no evidence of what he removed - due to "forgetting" to not turn the camrera off. So, a well known doctor who "forgets" to save my pic from procedure is supposed to be trusted to get us through, successfully, a first time IVF???? LMAO. I just want women/couples to know that no matter how low your odds are, it IS possible naturally - just may take time. If not? One must consider that maybe it was not meant to be - look at all of those who make themselves sick, anxious/stressed, and broke just to complete IVF cycles that do not often work.

Thanks for listening and good luck to all of you!!!!!

[BrandyHagz]

It IS possible naturally - just may take time. If not? One must consider that maybe it was not meant to be.

I agree, sorta.

Yes, it is possible, heck anything is possible But I don't think its "not meant to be" if you can't get pregnant.

My husband and I have dealt with fertility issues for six years...we did have a freak pregnancy last summer, I say freak because we'd been trying for so long, and I was at the end of Chemo when it happened - in the end, we miscarried. So, yes, it can happen...

Like you, we went to a fertility specialist who pushed and pushed and pushed IVF - going as far as saying that doing an IUI was a waste of money and then getting a kind of dirty look on his face when we asked about donor sperm.

What did we decide - we decided that maybe having a child thru biology wasn't in the cards for us...which we were both ok with.

With over 134,000 kids legally free for adoption in the foster care system, we decided to go that route, and are currently working towards getting our license.

So yes, it may not be meant to be for folks to have a biological child (for whatever reason) but that doesn't mean you aren't meant to be parents!

[chantalTTC]

Brandy, you were much kinder in your reponse than I can muster...

Although I am happy to hear you were successful naturally, I do sincerely hope that you have never said "- just may take time. If not? One must consider that maybe it was not meant to be - look at all of those who make themselves sick, anxious/stressed, and broke just to complete IVF cycles that do not often work." to ANYONE who is suffering through IF. Some of us would gladly be sick, anxious/stressed and broke if only we could be so fortunate as you to have a child naturally. Did it not occur to you that this posting is probably visited more than any other post by those of us still on the IF rollercoaster who are looking to restore a modicum of hope from these success stories? I feel like I let down my guard and was socked in the face by a friend. I guess I'll just leave it at 'we all deal with IF differently'.

My .02 cents...

[beaglenutty]

I have to agree with Chantal. I get mabye its not meant to be ALL THE TIME from what I call regular people. That is people who have never gone through if. I wish I could just make time and it would happen naturally...

[Just~A~]

I have a success story, I'm happy to report! But first, I really don't want to come off rude or condescending so hopefully I can state this appropriately re: "we didn't want to "gamble" and keep dishing out all of that money and controlling my body with hormones, unnaturally, with a only 33% chance of conception w/ IVF" -- I completely understand the hesitation to spend all that money with no guarantees. But the reality is that there is no way to guaranty IVF or IUI on the first try. Science is not that precise. These treatments try to bring us up to NORMAL odds of conception; not 'better than' odds.

That said -- We started ttc in early 1996 (after about 9 yrs on BCP, and 5 yrs of marriage). After a year of no luck, I talked to my GP (who was also an OB) and he did a pre-pg blood work up for hormones and checked for measles or whatever... Did clomid for about 6 months (was devel. follicles on both ovaries) with no luck.
Was then referred to another ob/gyn who had some kind of training in IF. What a **** (insert curse word). He did NOTHING for us. I went to someone else who ordered the HSG, and when that came back clear, he recommended IUI. I regret my decision now, but I just wasn't ready to give up on conceiving like everyone else! I esp. regret it cuz I had INSURANCE that covered all this!!! I assumed we'd have coverage wherever we moved in a few years (after dh finished his PhD). Boy, was I naive!

FAst forward to 1999. We move and I realize we have no insurance coverage. We "tried" off and on to conceive (most by counting cycle days cuz I had discovered already that I was regular thru BBT), tried supplements of all kinds... nothing.

2004: AF is a week late right before my b-day. I finally buy a hpt and it's BFP!! My first ever! I was so excited. 3 days later - start to spot. 7 days later - I officially lost it. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. I don't have 8 more years to wait to get pg again!!

late 2005 -- STarted ttc again (consciously, that is). Decided that if it doesn't work by Feb., we'll have saved up enough money for a few rounds of IUI (already knew we needed that cuz it just wasn't happening on our own!!).

Since clomid didn't really work before, and probably cuz I'm 37, the doc recommended injectibles (after she had done a lap and cleaned up the endo in me). She said we could just do the BD w/o IUI the first month. We said, what???!! We're spending $1500 on drugs! We'll spend an extra $400 on the IUI. Dang.

So, Round 2 worked!! I'm doing okay so far but I still get freaked out to read of m/c at 8, 10 and 12 wks on these sites. I'm hopeful, though. I feel good.

Best wishes to you all!!!

~Angie
sorry this is long

[sunny72]

I'll try and make it short because I could go on and on...

We tried for 36 months. We went to about three infertility specialists due to our moving countries etc... we were told that my husband sperm count/morphology everthing was low. I only had one functioning tube so our odds were low of naturally conceiving.

I was put on Clomid and we tried one IUI that failed. My husband got sick due to being a closet alcoholic and probably related to his sperm count. After three months we conceived naturally. We'll never know if the Clomid triggered something or whether we got lucky after three years.

We have been trying for our second for about a year now and we're still holding hopes.

[kangl32]

me and my husband were very lucky and i think gods hands had a little help in it to we got pregnant with our first try with ivf we have a little guy named gavin he is 2 years old i thought for sure that it was not going to work but it did and i thank god everyday for my little angel he makes everthing that i went through to have him worth everthing and i would do it all again to which i want to try for one more .. i have one thing to say to whoever is going thru infertility dont give up everthing has its time and it will happen when it time i am not saying its easy but you can never give up if i did my angel from god would not be here

[kristyr41982]

My DH and I struggled for years to conceive our son. At only 23 years old we assumed that it was something minor. So after finding out that I only had a 5-10% chance of conceiving we turned to fertility drugs. We conceived on our very 1st IUI. But that wasn't the end.

We never realized what a miracle our son was until we tried for over a year with alot of fertility treatments (see signature) to conceive a 2nd child. Now, I'm given a 1% natural and less than 20% with fertility drugs chance of ever conceiving. We are adopting to complete our family but I am forever grateful for my miracle boy!