Michele & Shanna

Michele & Shanna's Story:

At 26, I was considered young to start TTC but my wife was 39 and after being told I had mild PCOS we figured we would start shortly after our wedding. 3 failed IUIs with donor sperm at our local clinic led us to our first IVF cycle where 14 eggs were collected, but only 1 poor quality blast was transferred, the others all arrested on day 5. Test was negative, we were told IVF was a learning curve and that the next would be better. Off we went to a large fertility clinic in Toronto known for handling “difficult” cases and we had deja-vu. 29 eggs collected, we pushed for a day 3 transfer (negative) and another poor quality blast was frozen with ALL others arresting on day 5 again. We were heart broke and at 27 years old I was told to buy donor eggs.

The next year, we decided to try with my wife’s (older) eggs but couldn’t justify another $15,000 cycle. That’s when we found CNY through a simple google search. They seemed hopeful and willing to try more than we ever expected. Her cycle went well with 9 eggs collected and 6 great looking embryos on day 3. Dr Kiltz agreed to transfer 3 of them into me since we were travel clients and older eggs may not do so well in the lab. Sadly, it was negative and the FET of the other 3 was as well. It was heartbreaking but we knew it was a long shot.

After another 6 months, CNY suggested we try again with my eggs. They had a list of suggestions to up the quality and were confident they would have better success. Supplements, keto, HGH and a whole host of drugs later, we had our best cycle yet. 48 eggs collected meant fresh transfer was out of the question so we took our Christmas holidays to recover and we ended up with 28 embryos frozen! Amazing!

Christmas Eve I drove to buffalo for day 3 monitoring since everywhere local was closed. The staff was amazing and so happy to help, completely understanding the time constraints. January 8th we transferred our 2 best and 5 days later we had our first positive test in the 3+ years we spent trying.

We’re now 24 weeks along with a healthy baby girl and couldn’t be happier (or healthier!). We will likely be transferring another embryo a year after this little one is born (maybe with PGS to try for a boy) then we will be donating all of our extra embryos to people that need them.

CNY gave us hope when we thought there was none. We will try to give that hope to others as well.

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

Dr. Kiltz himself was amazing at every meeting. My wife’s retrieval, and all our transfers were with him and he let us feel at peace with it all. All the nurses were great but especially those working in Buffalo last Christmas Eve; I couldn’t have imagined a nicer group of people.

Helpful resources Michele & Shanna found:

The acupuncture being available on site in Syracuse was a great help to us. We did some rounds up here in Canada and were so happy to follow up before and after transfers.

Unique Moments:

In our treatments, we had mostly lows. Being so young and being told “we don’t know” so often, was heartbreaking. A specialist known for treating the most difficult cases was ready to turn her back on us.

CNY was a last resort but we couldn’t be happier that we went to meet them. This is the happiest we’ve been in 3+ years and can really appreciate every moment with our growing baby. She will know just how much she is loved.

We have spread the word of CNY to everyone we meet. Our local dr (that did travel monitoring) has been amazed seeing our process and has begun sharing them to clients who are at their wits end. My family dr has even taken down the info to contact other patients she knows that have given up hope. We never thought we’d be such a special case but here we are!

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

I wish I knew how hard it could be for some people. So many believe that IVF is a guarantee or even the “last step”. We had never heard about other options like embryo donation but now we know we want to donate ours after seeing and feeling the desperation of failed IVF.

I would like others starting TTC to find out all the info you can. Ask around for suggestions and input. Looking into all the different avenues can give hope no matter the outcome.

And most importantly, have your partner (or support person) be involved. It’s such a comfort having someone to bounce ideas off of, to cry to, to laugh to, to whine to.