IVF Success Stories – Couples Share Their Experience
Today we are not going to dive into infertility cases and different treatment ways. Let`s overview some of the most inspirational IVF success stories instead. They will show us how couples with low ovarian reserve, endometriosis, PCOS, over 40 years old, with unexplained and male infertility factors. Their way was not easy but was worth it.
Most Inspirational IVF Success Stories
Not to make the short story long – here we have collected the most touching stories of 10 different people. The only thing they have in common is a strong will to have a baby and readiness to go through thick and thin to complete their goal. Let`s start with our first guest!
Sara Marie – from PCOS Infertility to Successful Pregnancy
Sara always knew it would be hard to get pregnant just because her cycles were irregular. After searching on Youtube she found out stories of other women having PCOS infertility, just like she did. Consequently, other peoples` journeys really helped and inspired her to start her own way to a dream baby. Sarah says that if they want another baby in the future, she will bravely go the same way.
Hormonal Treatment
Starting from the year 2014 they were married for almost a year and started trying. Sara went off her birth control and made constant ovulation tests, but pregnancy didn`t happen. After consulting a doctor and making an ultrasound, she discovered that she has PCOS. The diagnosis made her cry every day and increased the will to have a baby. That was really hard. She tried taking several cycles of hormonal infertility treatments, which didn`t work. The only way was to go to a fertility specialist.
Couple Tries IUI
Sara passed genetical tests and started another course of hormonal treatment and testing. To make sure the attempts would be successful, they`ve tried 2 IUI procedures. They run smoothly, but nothing happened! The doctor advised her to give it 3-4 months.
After the 3rd cycle, when she was almost desperate and decided to accept the situation, everything went wrong and the procedure was not going on as it should. But… hey, she got pregnant! The third try, IUI and hormonal treatment help her get pregnant with Macy. In total it took a year to get pregnant and become the happiest person ever.
Watch one of the most inspirational PCOS and IUI success stories on Sara`s Youtube channel.
April Overall – Diminished Ovarian Reserve IVF Success Stories
April`s story starts with a yearly preparation for the first IVF cycle. She had a low ovarian reserve, which was the biggest struggle on their way. With 8 follicles she decided to go for the IVF cycle. She used all possible supplements for a year to improve egg quality and increase pregnancy chances. Additionally, she was taking Ubiquinol, vitamin D, stopped drinking coffee and vine all through the IVF cycle and tried to keep the diet.
Before the procedure took place at the clinic, she needed to regulate the cycle and wait until the new period starts – that`s where the game began. She used her own eggs and needed to make the ovaries hyper ovulated before proceeding with the retrieval. Stimulation of ovaries was a bit uncomfortable but didn`t hurt at all, as April says. Therefore, the shot was the easiest part of the challenge 🙂
Retrieval Day
November 29th was retrieval day. April was nervous because it`s an intense procedure. She heard that it hurts, however, with the right local anesthesia the process went smooth and painless. After the extraction, which took around 45 minutes, she was transferred to the recovery room to have some rest after the procedure. They’ve got 6 eggs from 8 follicles.
The same day her husband has provided the sperm. The sperm was washed in a special machine to choose spermatozoa of the best quality. After that ICSI was used, which means that one sperm was introduced to one egg with a really small needle. Then, there were 5 days waiting. Four eggs out of five were mature and fertilized. That was a huge win. The 5-Day transfer was the best option because doctors could watch their development and pick the ones with the best quality.
Embryo Transfer
December 4th was the transfer day. 15 Minuted before the transfer the doctor said that 1 of the embryos has died, 2 were not good to go, and only one was excellent. The transfer was really emotional and watched by a doctor, embryologist, and nurses. The embryo was placed in a special tube. It didn`t hurt or anything. Then, April actually walked out to the recovery room and realized, that everything is over. They went home and had to do a two-week wait. When it was over, she took a test and saw a thin second line on a pregnancy test. That`s really the story behind April`s IVF journey, which was really intense and emotional and resulted in the birth of her adorable daughter, Nora.
P.S.: More than that, they`ve got one more good embryo and now have it frozen in case they decide to go for one more IVF in the future. Find April on Instagram for more stories and interesting facts.
It is worth mentioning that IVF, as well as the natural pregnancy success rate, decreases with the years. The chart below will help you understand how it works and what your chances could be.
Holly Casto – IVF Success Story after the First Try
1st IVF transfer in March 2017 resulted in a negative pregnancy test. They were ready to do the next one. There were two embryos and they decided to choose one and make the transfer. The second transfer was in September 2017 and it was positive! It`s a boy.
They have passed that rebelde way from fertility issues to successful IVF and pregnancy together. On June 8th, 2018, Holly gave birth to a cute baby-boy, Charlie, 8lbs, 11 oz, 20 inches of true love and happiness. Here is Holly`s Instagram where you can find images of their happy family.
Angela – from Unexplained Infertility to Getting Pregnant with Twins
Angela with her husband has gone through 3 IUIs and none of them worked. She has never experienced miscarriages, and all previous treatment attempts were incredibly difficult and emotional for their family.
They met with their fertility doctor and due to the unexplained infertility case decided to go ahead and do the IVF. Angela started to making injections and oral medications to get her to produce more follicles. On the egg retrieval, she had 10-12 follicles, which was even more than they expected. There were 9 mature eggs. They took the sperm material the same day, washed it, and put together with the eggs. On the day-3 report, they had 3-4 eggs that continued growth. Unfortunately, most of the embryos were not growing as they should and only 2 were available to transfer.
Importantly, Angela was not planning to make the transfer right after the eggs cultivating, they were planning to do that in a month or do. However, the situation prompted them to insert those two embryos right there. Angela was crying during the transfer and recovery, just like she knew it won`t work. She prayed for them to stick taking pregnancy tests every single day. Unfortunately, this didn’t work. It was a colossal failure – they had nothing frozen and got almost despair.
Embryo Adoption
After that, Angela started researching information about donor eggs and embryo adoption. They decided to go into it and the process was really quick. She took estrogen and kept it on her natural cycle. 5-6 days before the transfer she started taking progesterone. This time the things went differently, she was less stressed and worried about the outcome. This time they did the embryo transfer for the twins. They put in 2 and they were healthy 5-days blasts. They did a transfer, Angela laid for 15 minutes after the implantation and stayed relatively active to her normal active routine.
4 Days past transfer Angela took three different pregnancy tests and one of them showed a faint positive second line. That was just a slight sigh. However, she actually found out she was pregnant with twins in a Starbucks bathroom 🙂 One day after the digital test said ‘Pregnant.’
Now Angela feels like relaxing a little bit helped her go through that way and complete her lovely family of 9. Like their family photos and stories on the Instagram.
Chelsea and Eric – Frozen Embryo Transfer IVF Success
IVF was not an easy decision for Chelsea and Eric. They started the journey on the 23rd of January 2018.
The couple was really excited to get started because this decision was emotionally and financially hard. They didn’t have any issues or clear diagnoses, just normal reproductive organs. The pregnancy just didn`t occur for unexplained reasons after several years of tries.
Luckily, after all the procedures, they had 22 eggs going down to 8 embryos of good quality.
Chelsea and Eric opted for PGS testing. As a result, they`ve got 3 chromosomally perfect embryos, and all of them were girls. Yes, they could know the gender of their kid even before the embryo transfer. The couple took a couple of months to get ready for the frozen embryo transfer.
One of the common misconceptions is that doctors transfer all embryos at a time. However, twins are higher-risk pregnancies. They decided to only transfer one of the embryos. Chelsea shares interesting facts and statistics about single and multiple embryo transfers.
Transfering 1 embryo:
- 58% of pregnancy;
- 40% chance of no pregnancy;
- 2% chance of twins if the embryo splits.
Transfering 2 embryos:
- 34% of singleton pregnancy;
- 30% chance of no pregnancy;
- 36% chance of twins.
Their overview of what to expect will be really helpful for people who are about to start the IVF journey. This is one of the most detailed IVF success stories in our roundup. Find more on Chelsea’s Youtube channel and on her Instagram account.