Larissa & Dominique

My husband Dominique and I are high school sweethearts, been together since 2009. We got married in 2019 and knew we wanted children. Our journey began in 2020 shortly after we were married. A few months went by, and I hadn’t become pregnant, but didn’t think much of it.

I talked with my regular OB/GYN who said we should do some testing. A few days later, my world was flipped upside down when I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and was told it may be difficult to get pregnant. We tried Clomid and Letrozole with no luck and were referred to a fertility specialist.

Finding fertility care at SGF

This began our long journey to parenthood. We attempted multiple intrauterine inseminations (IUIs) with no success and the words in vitro fertilization (IVF) were starting to be the talk. I remember thinking how in the world can we do this?

Well life happened and then a pandemic and a few years went by. I transferred jobs and found out my insurance would cover IVF, so the planning began.

Everything was going great; the medications were working, and it was good news after good news.

It came time for transfer and the first one failed.

Cue the tears, but our faith in God remained. Let’s try again … fast forward and another big negative. At this point, I thought I would never be a mom.

More testing revealed I needed one more day of medications prior to transfer, so we tried again. Well .. another negative. We were heartbroken.

Adjusting our personalized treatment plan

My amazing doctor, Dr. Emily Evans-Hoeker, had no explanation but wasn’t giving up and suggested a new protocol with aspirin, a steroid, and an antibiotic prior to transfer. We agreed and prayed hard on it.

Fast forward to June 26th and I got my first positive! We were pregnant! Pregnancy went great and in February 2024, we had our miracle baby boy Donte.

I am so thankful for Dr. Evans-Hoeker and her staff who never gave up on us and encouraged us every step of the way. Our lives were forever changed because of them, and I’ll never have the words to thank them enough.