Jessica & Joseph

Jessica & Joseph's Story:

Our journey began after a few years of not being careful, but never getting pregnant. We were both young and otherwise healthy. Even though we weren’t actively trying to conceive, I began to question my fertility and brought my concerns to my OB who decided to at least do testing.

The sperm analysis, bloodwork and ultrasounds all came back good. My HSG test came back clear with the exception of one tube that my OB said may have been blocked, but he wasn’t 100% sure. He wasn’t overly concerned because you really only need one tube to get pregnant. Since all tests came back good for the most part and there was no obvious medical signs of infertility we moved on.

A year after we underwent testing we decided to really move forward with trying to conceive. After a few months of trying naturally and still nothing we went back to the OB where we did one round of clomid.

Even though I responded to the medication, the cycle failed and my ovaries swelled afterwards. Initially we were supposed to do six rounds of clomid before we would be referred to a specialist, but since I had the ovarian swelling after just one clomid cycle my OB opted to not continue that route and refer me to a specialist.

We were referred to CNY who we were familiar with because they were local and also the ones that ran my husbands sperm analysis previously.

We were fortunate enough to get an appointment pretty quickly and that’s when we met Dr. Grossman who went over our options with us.

Because of our unexplained diagnosis there was no defined path for us to take. We decided to try IUI with letrozole first. I responded well to the medication and had four mature follicles. The cycle was successful, but it ended up being a chemical pregnancy.

It was devastating because I didn’t even know that chemical pregnancies existed at the time. We decided to take a short break after that as our wedding was in just a few months and life was stressful enough.

I did decide to move forward with a hysterescopy and another HSG test a few months after our chemical to make sure everything was okay.

We scheduled those tests a week after we got back from our honeymoon. The tests came back clear, but I ended up experiencing some prolonged heavy bleeding afterwards. Turns out we had conceived naturally right before our honeymoon and I was having an early miscarriage. This loss took an even bigger toll on us and we decided to give ourselves a short break again.

We decided to try one more IUI before moving onto IVF. Our next IUI cycle didn’t produce as many follicles and it ended up failing so we moved on to IVF right away.

A little less than a month after retrieval we did a frozen transfer of a beautiful 5AA embryo who became our rainbow baby boy. We recently welcomed our son on October 10th.

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

I worked closely with Rebecca and Justine. They both really helped me with the IVF and transfer process. They listened to my concerns and tolerated my anxiety. I also worked closely with the girls on the OR side since I went in for intralipids weekly for 12 weeks. They were also awesome!

Helpful resources Jessica & Joseph found:

I had a massage before retrieval and before transfer. I also did the HCG wash before transfer as well as intralipids.

Unique Moments:

Right before transfer I was feeling pretty low. The process was a lot and every appointment I held my breath. It started taking a toll on me especially because I had just experienced two miscarriages. I remember being afraid to see my results after each appointment because I didn’t want anymore bad news.

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

The journey truly requires patience, strength and optimism. You have to be able to get up after you get knocked down and know that it truly is all worth it in the end. Also it’s honestly not as bad as it seems. IVF was my biggest fear before actually going through it. I didn’t think I could ever give myself shots or go through the emotional journey, but I did and i am so glad that I did it.