Being told we may never naturally have children was like being punched in the stomach.
When I married an incredible man who I knew would make an outstanding father in 2011, it became clear that we wanted to share our love with a family. So, we started trying, but 6 months went by and nothing. Then it dragged on for a year of tracking ovulation and scheduled intercourse with no luck. So, we went to the obligatory family doctor’s appointment and were subsequently referred to a fertility clinic.
We had a 2% chance of getting pregnant naturally. 2% - that number followed me around, taunted me, shattered my dreams. My chances were higher of becoming a millionaire or living to 100 than having a baby naturally. I remember feeling like the doctor must be talking to someone other than us and almost looking behind me to see who the poor, sad couple was that just received this heart-wrenching news.
There was good news: The male-factor infertility we experienced has a high success rate with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) in vitro fertilization (IVF). The process where doctors inject the sperm directly into the egg.
Going through the process of IVF is hard to explain and (for me at least) now seems surreal. Did I really spend thousands of dollars to be wheeled on a gurney into an operating room to have the eggs that the cocktail of drugs had made my ovaries produce removed from my body and then have a procedure to have the embryo put back in days later? Yep, it was me and after all of that and much more, we were finally pregnant!
Almost nine months later on October 1, 2014, after an incredibly fast birth that we barely made it to the hospital for, we had a beautiful baby girl, and she became our whole world.
Just over two years later, on June 1, 2017, we had a bouncing baby boy, using one of our eight remaining frozen embryos and our family was complete.
Everything we went through was worth it and we are more grateful than we can express. If we had children in any other way, they wouldn’t be our crazy, loud, endearing, sometimes frustrating, always adorable kiddos that were created out of love, hope and a little bit of science.
I know how lucky we are that this process worked for us. I recognize how fortunate we were to be able to borrow enough money to pay for this incredibly expensive solution. I know many families in Alberta (and beyond) are not as fortunate. This is one of the reasons Fertility Alberta aims to break down barriers to improve access and outcomes for all Albertans who require fertility care to build their families.