Susan & Dave

My husband and I were high school sweethearts. We were married when we were 22 years old. We spent the first few years of our marriage enjoying each other, and at the age of 25, we decided we were ready to start our family.

My mother is one of nine children and I am one of three, so I was never really concerned about not getting pregnant. I wasn’t off birth control for more than a few months until I became pregnant. I was ecstatic!

However, the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at six weeks. I became pregnant four more times following the initial pregnancy… however, sadly, those pregnancies also ended in early miscarriage.

Finding answers

After having five miscarriages by the age of 27, I knew something was very wrong! That’s when we decided to go to Shady Grove Fertility. Our experience with Shady Grove Fertility was amazing! We scheduled an appointment with Dr. Osheroff, who was very positive that we would conceive a child. We started with a round of Clomid and soon learned that we were pregnant. However, we again suffered an early miscarriage.

Dr. Osheroff then suggested we go straight to in vitro fertilization (IVF) with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). We didn’t have insurance coverage for fertility treatment, so we decided to apply for the Shared Risk program. We were excited to learn we were accepted! So, we proceeded with our IVF with PGD cycle.

On the day of retrieval, we learned we had nine eggs retrieved. On day 2, we learned seven had fertilized. By day 3, only four were still progressing and we decided on a day 5 transfer.

The night before our transfer, we learned that three of the four embryos had been tested using PGD and that all of them were abnormal. We were devastated. I was sure the fourth embryo would be abnormal as well. On the morning of transfer we called and were told we were going to proceed with the transfer. The testing found the embryo was “normal” but had 20% fragmentation.

“And that, right there, is the heartbeat”

Then came the dreaded “two-week wait”! I went in for my blood test two weeks later. When the nurse called with my results of a positive test, I was cautiously excited. I had been through positive pregnancy tests four times prior. So the next few weeks were excruciating. At just around six weeks, my husband and I went in for our sonogram.

During the exam, I kept seeing this little “blip” on the screen. Finally, the doctor said, “And that, right there, is the heartbeat!”

That’s when everything hit me. My emotions got the best of me; we had never seen a heartbeat with any of my prior pregnancies. After eight weeks I graduated to my regular OB. I had a mostly normal pregnancy and delivered an 8lb 14oz. baby boy!

We now have an eight-year-old little “man”! We continued fertility treatment after our son. Sadly, after two spontaneous pregnancies that ended in early miscarriage and five IVF cycles ending in two early miscarriages, we decided to stop our journey to expand our family.

My advice to other patients

Miracles do happen! It is an extremely emotional and difficult process, but the result is totally worth it! While I wouldn’t wish on anyone what my husband and I went through, it certainly made us appreciate our son more than we would have if pregnancy had come “easily” for us!