Crystal & Ron
Infertility Diagnosis
- Unexplained infertility
Treatment(s)
- Embryo Freezing
- Frozen embryo transfer (FET)
- In vitro Fertilization (IVF)
Location(s)
- Albany
Physician(s)
- Michael Grossman, MD
Crystal & Ron's Story:
My husband and I have been together for 16 years, married for 5. We were committed to each other long before we got married. He is my best friend and my rock.
Both of us are teachers. While we both have a lot of passion for educating young people, we couldn't help but think we were missing something in our lives. When we got married, we knew we wanted to start building our family as soon as possible, with me being 30 when we got married.
We tried for 3 years naturally with no luck. After the one-year mark, we started looking around for fertility clinics. We ran all the tests with a local clinic. All tests came back fine, so our infertility is unexplained. That was so frustrating not to have a specific reason to explain why we were having trouble.
We were going to move forward with IVF but had a terrible experience at the local clinic (plus COVID delayed us from moving forward as quickly).
We found another clinic in our area that we were more comfortable with, but were not able to afford IVF with them, as we were out of pocket. That's when we found CNY. Since our first consult, they made us feel heard and welcome. We are so grateful we found them!
We had our retrieval in June 2021. We were overjoyed when we heard that 7 of 12 eggs that were retrieved were successfully fertilized and made it to day 5.
We had a fresh transfer, but that didn't take. We were disheartened but determined to try again. Thankfully, our frozen transfer in July was successful!
It has been an emotional rollercoaster over the past few years, but we are so grateful to have our baby girl in our life finally!
Favorite Team Member at CNY:
All of the staff that we worked with were so kind and supportive. I truly felt pampered while at CNY.
Helpful resources Crystal & Ron found:
I joined several Facebook groups (one that I found through the Resolve website) for support. Knowing that other women were going through similar things helped me to overcome those tough days.
I started using a gratitude app about 2 years in. That really helped me center myself and gain some perspective.
I also attended several Zoom workshops that educated me about infertility, and gave me tips about what I could do in the mean time before conceiving. I am grateful for everyone who has dedicated there life to helping people with infertility.
Unique Moments:
Although scary at first, I was proud of myself for toughing out the shots, plus all the monitoring appointments.
One of my low points was the call after the beta for my first (failed) transfer. I had done all this work with medication and monitoring, just to have it fail.
Hope, Inspiration and Advice:
Get so much support, whether online or locally, or with family and friends. It really helps. You are not alone! The infertility community is a great resource!
