❤ June 2016: Let’s make a baby!
❤ July 2016: I make an appointment for a standard fertility workup, where my OBGYN checks ovarian reserve and hormone levels. Everything comes back perfectly normal. Whoohoo! Baby making should be a cinch! While I’m there, I also do blood work for standard genetic testing.
😦 August 2016: The results of the genetic testing yield that I am a carrier of a genetic mutation of an inheritable disease that could be passed onto our child ONLY IF my husband is a carrier as well. We test my husband.
😦 September 2016: My husband is indeed a carrier of the exact same genetic mutation, which means a 1 in 4 chance of passing it down to our future child. Our hearts are broken. We make the decision to jump straight into IVF with PGD testing.
Read: A One-in-a-Million Match: Our Story
Read: This New Journey.
❤ October 2016: We start IVF Round 1 – a “freeze all” cycle in order to “bank embryos” for genetic screening.
- 6 eggs retrieved
- 5 mature
- 4 fertilized
- 4 make it to blastocyst stage and are sent for PGD testing.
- 3 embryos come back genetic mutation FREE! We send them for chromosome testing via PGS.
- 1 embryo is chromosomally normal and frozen for a future transfer.
❤ January 2017: We start IVF Round 2 – a “freeze all” cycle in order to “bank embryos” for genetic screening.
- 9 mature eggs retrieved
- 7 fertilized
- 3 make it to blastocyst stage and are sent for PGD testing.
- 3 embryos come back genetic mutation FREE!
- 2 embryos are chromosomally normal, making a total of THREE embryos frozen for a future transfer.
❤ March 2017: We transfer one genetically normal embryo via a “natural” frozen embryo transfer.
Read: Preparing for Our First Embryo Transfer
Read: The Bun is in the Oven
😦 March 2017: Pregnancy results are negative; 1st frozen embryo transfer fails.
Read: The Two Week Wait: Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms
❤ April 2017: We transfer one genetically normal embryo via “natural” frozen embryo transfer.
Read: Here We Go Again
😦 April 2017: Pregnancy results are negative; 2nd frozen embryo transfer fails.
Read: When IVF Fails: A Closer Look at Loss
Read: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Keeping the Faith When All Else Fails
❤ June 2017: We transfer one genetically normal embryo via a “medicated/programmed” frozen embryo transfer.
Read: One Last Shot: Preparing for Transfer # 3
❤ June 2017: HPT tests are positive on 6dp5dt and 7dp5dt.
😦 Beta results are ultimately negative; 3rd frozen embryo transfer fails / deemed “chemical pregnancy.”
Read: A Tale of Two Lines
❤ Summer 2017: We take a break from IVF and decide to try Intrauterine Insemination (IUIs)
😦 July & August 2017: Two back to back IUIs are unsuccessful
Read: Our Sexy Summer of IUIs
❤ October 2017: We decide to do a third round of IVF and not do PGD or PGS testing.
Read: Nevertheless She Persisted: The Article that Changed Everything
- 11 eggs are retrieved
- 8 are mature
- 8 fertilized
- 3 make it to “day 3” stage
- 2 are transferred in fresh embryo transfer
- The remaining 1 is frozen at blastocyst stage for later use
- No PGD or PGS testing is performed
❤ October 2017: We transfer two non-tested embryos via a “fresh” embryo transfer.
❤ October 2017: HPT tests are positive starting on 6dp3dt. Very early positive hCG beta of 21 on 9dp3dt
😦 Beta results on 11dp3dt drop to 16
😦 4th embryo transfer fails / deemed “chemical pregnancy.”
Read: The Dark Waters of Slowly Sinking Betas
❤ December 2017: We transfer one, non-tested embryo via a medicated frozen embryo transfer.
❤ December 2017: HPT tests are positive starting on 6dp5dt.
❤ December 2017: Pregnancy beta blood test is positive at 200+. ❤
Read: IVF Success Stories: How I Got Pregnant After Multiple Rounds of IVF
😦 January 2018: Since the embryo that resulted in pregnancy was untested, it is unknown if it is affected by the genetic disease we tried to avoid. It has a 1 in 4 chance of being affected. I undergo the early diagnostic test of Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) at 10-weeks of pregnancy to find out.
❤ February 2018: Approximately 3-weeks after the CVS test, we receive the results that the developing baby is not affected nor is it even a carrier of the genetic marker!
Read: CVS Test Risks & Results: How One Test Saved My Pregnancy
❤ Baby Boy born August 28, 2018 ❤
❤ Baby Boy born October 22, 2020 ❤