Ive been pretty torn on opening up about this the last few weeks. Some of you know that Brandan and I posted our story a few weeks back in an attempt to ask for help and support in regards to IVF. Unfortunately we had some VERY negative comments made towards us which made me not want to publicly talk about this AT ALL. Even some of my own family was not as supportive as I would have hoped – and therefor I shut down from sharing anything and everything in regards to our story openly and on social media.
However, after searching and reading others stories online the last few weeks, I feel like its something I should be able to talk about openly as I do feel sharing our experience may be able to help others who have been struggling in the same manner. So here it goes (again).
To back up a bit, I will fill you in on the story of our infertility up to this point.
As many of you know, Brandan and I (Amber) were married a year and a half ago. Since the day we met we both knew we wanted children and that desire has only been increased with the growth of our relationship and bond.
As we are both in the fitness industry, we had our reservations on the potential issues we may face when it came to trying to conceive. We were diligent in working with the best hormone doctors in setting ourselves up to be as healthy as possible for what we had hoped would happen in the near future.
After a few months of properly balancing our hormones we decided to contact our local fertility specialist and have some testing done, plus just gather information on where we stood with our chances to conceive. We wanted to be proactive in whichever way we could to have the best possible outcome. After many labs, tests and lots of money (our insurance does not cover fertility as most dont) we were told by our specialist that we should be able to conceive on our own within 6 months of diligently trying.
After 6 months passed and lots of let downs, we decided to take things a bit further and try a procedure called IUI (Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a fertility treatment that involves placing sperm inside a woman’s uterus to facilitate fertilization. The goal of IUI is to increase the number of sperm that reach the fallopian tubes and subsequently increase the chance of fertilization.)
We were determined to get pregnant and hopeful that this procedure would help. When that procedure failed, we weren’t ready to give up. Unfortunately two more procedures later we were still at a loss as to why we hadnt been able to concieve. The other unfortunate factor was after those three rounds of IUI we had already drained most of any reserves we had financially, as we spent about $10,000 on the labs, testing, and the three procedures.
Looking back, I almost wished we would have just went straight to IVF (In vitro fertilization is a process by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body. The process involves monitoring and stimulating a woman’s ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the woman’s ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a liquid in a laboratory. The fertilised egg is cultured for 2–6 days in a growth medium and is then implanted in the same or another woman’s uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy)as it was the more expensive option with a higher success rate we put our faith in the less expensive IUI procedure. Unfortunately, It would have been impossible to tell almost a year later we would still be in the same position with no child to show for our efforts or money spent.
As this subject is very sensitive and personal, both Brandan and I found ourselves depressed and needing to focus on other things. We got back into preparing for some of our fitness endeveurs during summer although we never stopped trying, we just figured we would focus on our careers for a few months and then come back to putting all of our energy into trying to concieve.
Some of you know that last year we went as far as getting a nursery set up in our home, something that for a long time upset me – seeing an empty crib for months and feeling stupid for being so hopeful it would have happened for us by now.
(Our Nursery Room)
After lots of re-strategizing and with the help of others generosity we have been able to start the IVF process. We are currently three weeks into the beginning stage of IVF for the sake of having our first baby- the one thing we have yet been able to accomplish that we both want so badly. I plan to share my experiences with IVF and the things others dont want to talk about on my blog and Instagram in hopes of helping others who may have struggled or be struggling with unexplained infertility.
(My baby Nephew Caden who I adore)
