Veronica & Michael

We had always known we wanted to be parents and after being married for a few years we felt ready to build our family. After trying for over half a year with no success, I decided to check in with my regular OB/GYN office. The examination with them looked totally normal, so we decided that at the year mark we would seek out more information about why we were having so much trouble getting pregnant. After a year, we still hadn’t gotten pregnant. My period would be late, and I would feel a glimmer of hope that maybe this time it was really happening, but that time never came.

Finding care at SGF with Dr. Chason

When it was time to schedule our appointment with Shady Grove Fertility, I was so excited to hopefully get some answers… but also, a little nervous. What if something was really wrong? What if we couldn’t have kids at all? What if the treatments weren’t covered by our insurance? What if, what if, what if?

Just about all of my “what ifs” were eased after talking to Dr. Chason. We met with her via telehealth for our first appointment. She was so informative but in such a way that me and my husband, who have no medical backgrounds, could understand our next steps and options.

We started testing shortly after that. The waiting between the tests and getting the results was difficult. I was so hopeful that nothing was wrong, but – in a way – wanted to know the “why” behind us having so much trouble getting pregnant. We were eventually diagnosed with unexplained infertility, which means exactly what it says: we don’t really know why this isn’t working out for you. I was both relieved that we didn’t have underlying health concerns, but I was also confused. After all that testing, we didn’t really have any answers. Fortunately, our medical team had a plan.

A personalized treatment plan

Shortly after getting our results, we started our first intrauterine insemination (IUI). We live in a more rural area and the closest SGF office to us is 45 minutes away. So, many early mornings before work were spent driving to SGF for blood draws and sonograms to monitor our progress. While we got so much support from everyone at SGF, the first IUI was the hardest. I felt like we were learning this new language! Even though things were being explained to us, having an explanation and living through something can be VERY different.

I remember sitting in the sonogram room in tears after the nurse came in. The medicines made me so emotional, and I was exhausted from waking up early to drive so far to my appointments. Our first IUI didn’t work. It was sad, but we went into our second IUI much more knowledgeable and ready to keep trying! We did five rounds of IUIs with no success. It was then that we discussed in vitro fertilization (IVF) with Dr. Chason.

I remember the day when all of the medicines for our IVF cycle arrived at our front door. I opened up everything and organized it and I suddenly felt the enormity of what we were doing. I was SO overwhelmed by all of it: injections, procedures with anesthesia, side effects. Through all of it I kept reminding myself that someday I would be holding our baby looking back on this time knowing it was all worth it. I knew I would be able to tell our children how much we prayed for them, how much we fought for them even before they existed, how incredibly loved they were from before the start, how much our friends and families rallied behind as we tried to build our family, and how amazingly good our God has been and will always be.

IVF was difficult but it felt like the IUIs we had done were like training for this more intense treatment. Everything was going according to plan. I was getting good at giving myself injections. I felt like I handled all the shots well without crazy side effects for the most part. From the retrieval, we got 13 mature eggs, 8 of which were fertilized. The embryo transfer was a few days later and we were able to transfer one AA grade embryo and freeze two other embryos. Seeing a picture of this little embryo and watching it be transferred on the monitor was beautiful. Not many people can say that they knew the exact moment their little family officially formed.

Best phone call ever

A few days before I was supposed to take my pregnancy test, I was feeling a lot of intense pain. I couldn’t eat and it hurt to move. I called our nurse and she reassured me I would be okay and had me come into the office early the next morning. They did a vaginal sonogram and the nurses called in the doctor. He explained my ovaries were filled with fluid from a reaction to the hormones and I would need an emergency procedure BUT THAT IT LIKELY MEANT I WAS PREGNANT!!! Luckily, I felt immediate relief after the procedure and it was a quick recovery. And a pregnancy blood test later in the day confirmed it – we were indeed pregnant! Best phone call ever!

Pure bliss

We welcomed our little bundle of joy in May of 2024, and it’s been pure bliss ever since. We are truly blessed.

My advice for any future patients would be to document your experience. Take lots of videos, pictures, and write down everything. Someday you will look back at yourself administering an injection into your stomach and be able to say, “this is what got us our sweet, amazing, wonderful miracle baby”. It will also remind you how incredibly strong and capable you are of doing hard things. I journaled letters to “Future Baby” and after almost every fertility appointment wrote down what was happening in the process and how I was feeling. Now I have this log of all we did to get to this amazing point in our lives.

Professional photos by Starrella Photography by Aprilynn