“I wish I had come to The Reproductive Medicine Group sooner. I could have saved myself 6 months at least. EVERY day matters – your fertility doesn’t get better”.
At first, Jessica was just not getting pregnant, or so she thought. Later, she conceived but had two “bio chemical pregnancies” or early miscarriages. She and her husband initially tried to get pregnant on their own for about a year. Jessica never stopped to think about why she wasn’t getting pregnant or that she might be experiencing infertility. It wasn’t until her doctor sent Jessica to The Reproductive Medicine Group for an HSG that she even considered that there might be a problem.
Once the results came back to her doctor, she learned that she had a blocked fallopian tube and was referred to The Reproductive Medicine Group as a patient.
Jessica clearly remembers her first visit with Dr. Goodman, which she recalls was very informative. Dr. Goodman advised her on a progressive treatment plan. Together, they reviewed all of her options, and with that first consultation, everything started to “click”. She began to understand the pieces of her own fertility puzzle. Her biggest regret, is not knowing more about infertility, or what a Reproductive Endocrinologist does before finding Dr. Goodman and The Reproductive Medicine Group.
First, Jessica decided to have a laparoscopy with Dr. Goodman to try to open her blocked fallopian tube. After she recovered, they made a plan to attempt IUIs (Intrauterine Insemination) as the least invasive measure, and one most affordable with her insurance coverage. After two unsuccessful attempts, Dr. Goodman advised Jessica to consider IVF to improve her chances for achieving a pregnancy.
With her first stimulation cycle, Jessica was more excited than nervous; for her, she was taking steps to overcome her infertility and was really counting on this to work. Unfortunately, the one embryo that was transferred resulted in a biochemical pregnancy. Jessica’s bloodwork showed pregnancy counts that went up and then declined. Afterwards she was absolutely devastated. She reached out to our support partner, Kathy Fountain LMHC, for help.
Jessica decided to sign up for the Mind Body course that Kathy offers. During this time, Jessica conceived on her own but once again the pregnancy ended in miscarriage. She decided to try another IVF cycle with pre-implantation genetic screening of the embryos. While attending the Mind Body class, Jessica had her second IVF stimulation cycle which resulted in four viable, chromosomally normal embryos. She underwent a frozen embryo transfer of one embryo, and became pregnant with her son.
What Jessica wants you to know is this:
“The pain of infertility is never forgotten, but once you have your baby there is no room for it. The love you have for your child is stronger than any pain you experienced with infertility. Building a family for us is different; you can’t time it. You won’t dwell on the past.”
Jessica now has 3 remaining cryopreserved embryos “on ice” and has plans to expand her family soon. Jessica feels so much less stress heading into another transfer. Thrilled with her current family, she feels that the opportunity to have another child will be a wonderful bonus.
Jessica credits her peer support, the Mind Body class, and her husband with providing the strength she needed to continue her fertility journey when it was hard. She is now a mentor to other women who are new to infertility and/or IVF, which allows her to help other women who struggle with infertility.