One Couple’s Journey on the Bumpy Road of Infertility

By: Christine Kahan and Aaron Kahan

Photo Source: iStock Photos

Did you ever think you’d end up being a human pin cushion science experiment? No? Well, neither did I until it seemed like it would be the only way I’d ever be a mom. So like the other 7.3 million American women and every 1 in 8 couples, my husband and I embarked on the IVF destination on our already bumpy infertility road.

As a sequential person, the IVF process seemed easy enough. Five steps: stimulation of ovaries through multiple medications, egg retrieval of ovaries, fertilization of eggs, embryo maturation, and the transfer of the embryo to the uterus.

Even after reviewing the timeline of the steps that would come to be my guide, I wasn’t intimidated. The process seemed like a welcomed progression of knowing what was next after our ordeal through the broken foster care system where we had attempted to adopt.

A mountain of infertility medications

A mountain of medications arrived. Then my days began to consist of being poked with a needle for blood work, prodded with a speculum for an ultrasound and injected with three different medicines each night.

Each night, after rereading the directions for each medication and making sure he had the right needle, my husband would go through the draining process of injecting me. We were encouraged as it seemed my ovaries were successfully responding.

Finally, after four years of trying, we got 15 eggs from our first egg retrieval. We were elated. But most of the embryos fizzled out overnight. We, then, had to go through a two-day embryo transfer instead of a five-day blastocyst. Never had I researched embryos so much in my life.

The second round of IVF

Did you know on the average only 25% of embryos actually go on to develop and become kids? Neither did I. So after our failed first attempt, we continued on with the second round of IVF. We had to go through the whole process again as we did not have any high-quality embryos to freeze.

This time my specialists were armed with more knowledge of my body. This led to a change in the stimulation protocol. Because I have a retroverted uterus…