Real Patient Stories | Fertility Resources

Jul 20, 2018 | Real Patient Stories

Jessica & Jason

My husband and I were approached by our best friends Adam and Jay regarding being a surrogate for them several years ago. After we were done having our own children we agreed. They used donor eggs. The first cycle was disappointing, but the second cycle was a great success. Their son was born in 2017. They approached me again so they could expand their family one last time, and after working out the timing (I was in grad school) and talking with my family, we agreed to do it one last time. My kids absolutely love their first son (we call him their cousin), and they loved the idea of having another cousin.

I had horrible morning sickness leading up to our follow-up appointment after the transfer, and pretty sure there were twins because I had never had morning sickness with my other pregnancies. Turns out we were pregnant with triplets! Triplets come with their own risks and stress. You definitely have to be well informed and make decisions as a group. In the end, we kept all three and they managed to stay in until 34 weeks. Adam & Jay are amazing parents, and I know they will get through the stress of having four kids under the age of 2!

Jul 12, 2018 | Real Patient Stories

Kristen & Nathan

I will never forget the day my husband got the results of his semen anaysis. He texted me while at work saying we needed to talk later. Being as anxious as I am, told him that he couldn’t do that to me. I needed to know right then and there what was going on. Then the text came through. “It’s me. I’m the problem. There was nothing. Zero sperm.” I audibly gasped at lunch with my colleagues. I waited until I was alone to let the tears flow by myself at my desk. Even with this diagnosis, I knew we were meant to be parents. I immediately got in problem solving mode. I wanted more answers and a plan. That's when I called Dr. Kristen Wright’s office.

I got an appointment the next week and we were off on our journey! Another more thorough semen analysis revealed a small amount of sperm. Three thousand to be exact. That was the most wonderful news I had ever heard. Dr. Wright suggested my husband freeze several samples, have several tests to see if she could determine the cause and start me on the process toward an IVF cycle with ICSI. A biological child for us was still possible! After we both went through many tests it was determined that my husband had a y-chromosome Microdeletion that caused his sperm count to be very low and even non-existent at times. But there was hope.

I started my cycle the middle of May, 2017. I went in for my retrieval as my husband gave his fresh sample. We retrieved 15 eggs (not bad for a 34 year old), but Nathan’s sample was without sperm. After thawing the two vials of frozen sperm and a 6 hour search for sperm by the amazing Boston IVF embryologists, they found enough to fertilize 11 of them. 3 of which were successful. We scheduled a day 3 transfer of the two best quality embryos and prayed that the third embryo made it to blastocyst-level so that it could be frozen. 7 days later, on a Thursday, I saw the most amazing (and faint) second pink line on a pregnancy test. I was in shock and so thrilled! That Sunday I started spotting - and even though the following day my hcg levels were good I knew something was wrong. My hcg levels were over 100 on Monday and down to 10 by Wednesday. I was no longer pregnant.

Two weeks later I got the email from the embryology team that our last embryo had made it to a AA quality blastocyst and was frozen. On September 15th my husband went in for a testicular extraction procedure to see if we could get more sperm. The doctor searched for two hours and found nothing. We were putting all of our hope for a biological family on the one last embryo we had frozen. Four days later, I went in for my frozen transfer. I was hold the embryo thawed beautifully and my transfer was perfect! On May 19th, exactly 8 months later TO THE DAY, I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy! We are so grateful to everyone at Boston IVF for making our dream of a family come true!

Feb 28, 2018 | Real Patient Stories

Stacy & Nick

After 7 years of heartache we finally had a positive pregnancy test! We now have boy/girl twins!

Feb 16, 2018 | Real Patient Stories

Christiane & Joseph

We were told to relax and “let it happen". So much advice comes your way when trying to start a family. No matter what we did, nothing ever happened. After several years of trying we decided that help was necessary and a small problem had an “easy” solution...IVF! Declan was born in 2013 and the hormone injections, surgical interventions, tears, arguments and 14 hours of labor were all forgotten when he came into the world. Every day, we tell Declan how special he is and that is so so so loved! That's all he needs to know ❤️ Although it is still heart-wrenching to fully share in the joy of those around us who are on their second or third child - or who can simply sneeze and become pregnant - Declan is a constant and kind reminder of how kind the world can be. Share your story with a stranger; you never know who you will inspire.

Feb 06, 2018 | Real Patient Stories

Lisa & Marc

When we got married in the summer of 2015 we decided to try to start our family right away. After multiple attempts and constant negative pregnancy tests, we decided it was time to see a doctor. After meeting with Dr. Sneeringer and her team, we finally had hope! Once we received a diagnosis of male factor, we moved forward with a fresh cycle. Unfortunately, that cycle, we ended up having a chemical pregnancy. Lucky for us, we still had frozen embryos, so we decided to move forward with a frozen cycle. When that cycle failed, we decided to try another fresh cycle hoping for a better chance at conceiving. This time we had transferred 2 embryos. When that pregnancy test came back negative, it was so discouraging. We didn’t give up hope and neither did Dr. Sneeringer! We agreed to try another frozen cycle. Once again, we transferred 2 embryos. To our excitement, we received a positive pregnancy test and we welcomed our beautiful daughter Sophia on 9/22/17!

Feb 06, 2018 | Real Patient Stories

Sarah & Kyle

We had been under another doctors care for a year and had not received any results, or answers. I had scheduled a consultation with Dr. Brian Berger for March 16th, about a month in advance, not knowing that I would be mid ivf cycle. My consultation with Dr. Berger conveniently was 4 days past my egg retrieval. Meeting with him was immediately life-changing and eye opening going over my history, and my current IVF cycle results. We had planned to do PGS testing on our embryos, but meeting with Dr. Berger, and having only two promising embryos on day 4, it was advised we transfer the next day and skip PGS testing altogether!

We went in for a transfer the next day and transferred both of our day 5 embryos. Just a few days later, two beautiful pink lines appeared on a home pregnancy test. We were so excited, but so scared. This was our fourth pregnancy, the previous three ending in miscarriage. Around 7 weeks we had our first ultrasound and saw one beautiful, healthy heartbeat. We will forever be grateful for Dr. Berger for making this last-minute, life changing call!

Feb 06, 2018 | Real Patient Stories

Sarah & Brian

After our first FET attempt failed, it was a little disheartening, but we pulled ourselves together and had our sweet embryo #12 transferred in May of 2017. The embryologist who was in charge of our procedure even commented on what a beautiful hatching embryo we had - and something about this round of treatment just felt different. I tested faint positive 4 days later. Our precious miracle baby, Cohen, arrived on January 26, 2018 and he is everything we have hoped and prayed for.

Nov 07, 2017 | Real Patient Stories

Julie & Eric

After 3.5 years of trying to conceive, I scheduled a doctor appointment to see why my husband and I were not getting pregnant. We first went to my OBGYN who performed different tests on both myself and my husband. Both of our tests came back normal, so the doctor recommended proceeding with an IUI. We scheduled this procedure and continued to do so three times without any success. After the third failed IUI, our doctor referred us to a fertility clinic.

Of course, not knowing anything about fertility challenges and IVF, I started to do some research on my own as I patiently awaited our first appointment. We met with the doctor who explained the process. A few weeks later, I found myself standing in our kitchen every morning before work, icing and numbing my stomach, combining vials and poking myself with a needle. I remember driving to work and thinking to myself, what is going on? What am I doing? Why am I doing this? All I could think about is the end of the day, going home and having to do it all over again… like clockwork! I pulled out the meds from my new designated drawer in the fridge, take an ice pack out from the freezer, mix the vials and pull the syringe. For about 10 days, this was my morning and night routine. It was all I could think about (besides from the morning blood withdrawals, which occurred every morning at 6:30am on my way to work). Then came the phone call the day before the retrieval… the HCG "DA-DUM" shot!

In the beginning we weren’t sure of what to expect during the egg retrieval, but we learned quickly by round 3! My husband travels for work so if he happened to be away, there were times he booked a last minute flight or drove hours to be home for the retrieval. This continued for 5 rounds. At one point my doctor (at the time) even told us while sitting across from him at his desk, the words no women ever wants to hear, "you may want to consider an egg donor", since we have had five unsuccessful cycles. We sat in his office discussing what this would entail, the financial details, the process, etc. The emotions that I encountered at that moment, I cannot put into words. HEARTBROKEN does not even come close!

As a woman who has always loved children and could not imagine my life without them, I was destroyed by this suggestion. I don’t think there is anything wrong with an egg donor. It was just a shock that I wasn’t able to create MY OWN. Not to mention the financial burden and stress of going down that path. I went home and buried myself in my bed for two days. I wasn’t able to speak to family members, so my husband called them to update them of this new development. After taking a break from IVF, I was told about Dr. Cardone, a "miracle" doctor! Well, his office location was bit of a stretch from my home and office, but I made him and his visits my priority in life! And if no one was STILL providing me a scientific reason after test, after test, as to why I wasn’t conceiving, well, I WASN'T giving up!!

Dr. Cardone did a test on my ovaries which wasn’t performed in the past, and luckily it came back fine. We started a cycle which caused me to have over-hyper stimulation of the ovaries so I couldn’t do the egg retrieval. We then waited and did cycle #7, and IT WORKED!!!! As you can imagine, we were ecstatic! We held our breath for the next 13 weeks and cried tears of joy every day. Fast forward 36 weeks where baby Logan decided to arrive 4 weeks early! We spent Christmas morning 2014 at Newton Wellesley hospital and Logan arrived on December 26. He spent three weeks in the special care nursery where he was given the absolute BEST care in the world. I was there every day from 6:00 am until 11:00 pm just cuddling, loving and feeding my boy!

I praise Dr. Cardone and all of the nurses at Boston IVF and Newton Wellesley Hospital! Today, we are thankful and blessed to have a very spunky, healthy, beyond happy almost three year-old boy!

Jun 27, 2017 | Real Patient Stories

Nicole & Paul

It's the tale as old as time in the infertility world: My husband and I were trying for a while to get pregnant and had no success. We pursued testing to see the reasons behind the infertility (as my husband had an adult child from a previous marriage) so we were looking into all the options. That's when we met the amazing Dr. Steven Bayer! The "infertility" was deemed on my side (female factor) through diagnostic testing. It confirmed PCOS w/insulin resistance and hypothyroidism. Dr. Bayer worked with us for six years and we went through sixteen cycles together: 8 IUI & 8 IVF. At the end of that journey, we walked away with three beautiful, healthy, happy boys!! One singleton boy born in 2012 and fraternal twin boys born in 2014. We were beyond blessed with these wonderful children that we so desperately wanted.

Apr 13, 2017 | Real Patient Stories

Leigh & Brad

Brad and I discussed early on in our relationship that we wanted children. After dating for a year, we got engaged and six months later got married. We began trying for a family immediately. Month after month pregnancy tests came back negative. After 17 months of trying on our own, we finally made an appointment with Dr. Brian Berger. The moment we met Dr. Berger we were given hope. Hope that truthfully seemed to slip away with every negative pregnancy test. Dr. Berger explained how he would go about identifying any causes of infertility and that we would have a diagnosis and a treatment plan at our next visit, a month later.

After our initial diagnosis, we underwent two rounds of IUI which was mandated by insurance (thank you Massachusetts!). Both rounds were unsuccessful. We jumped right into an IVF cycle, which Dr. Berger explained in such understandable terms. Our fresh cycle failed and although we were a little sad, Dr. Berger was right there, getting us ready for our frozen transfer. We had a successful transfer in March of 2016. My husband and I are the incredibly proud and overwhelmingly grateful parents of a beautiful, baby girl.

Jan 26, 2017 | Real Patient Stories

Amanda & Brian

Our story to and through the IVF process is a little more uncommon than most. My husband and I found out after getting married in November, 2013 that he and I were both carriers of the Cystic Fibrosis gene mutation DF508. This is both the most common as well as most severe CF gene mutation. This meant if we tried and conceived naturally, we had a 1 in 4 chance that our child would have Cystic Fibrosis of the most severe type. I grew up knowing that both of my maternal aunts died from CF and that it is a disease that tore my family apart. After consulting with my OB, she recommended IVF with PGD to help us achieve a healthy pregnancy with the ultimate goal of a child that would have a greatly reduced chance of not having Cystic Fibrosis. I, at the time, had no idea such an option was even available.

My husband and I ultimately decided that the most incredible gift that we could ever gift our child with, would be the gift of a healthy life, free from CF. Through our faith, God and our incredible team at Boston IVF, we achieved just that and welcomed our healthy, Cystic Fibrosis free daughter, Addison Grace September 6, 2015.

Jan 26, 2017 | Real Patient Stories

Jamilyn & Andrew

Boston IVF was our second clinic. The first one we went to refused to do anything unless I lost 60 pounds. I lost 30 on my own and they still wouldn't do anything and charged us for every procedure, even a 10 minute phone call. We decided to leave after 2 years. When we met Dr. Lannon we felt like he really listened to us. We tried the first cycle in July 2014. Due to complications we retrieved 7 eggs, 4 fertilized and 2 made it to day 5. My hormones were incredibly high though and for safety, we decided to freeze the 2 embryos we had left. We did a frozen transfer in October, 2014 (it took until then for my body to go back to normal) but unfortunately it didn't work. That was one of the hardest days we'd been through.

We waited until June 2015 and tried another frozen transfer with our last embryo. Much to our surprise and excitement, it worked and we're blessed with our beautiful baby girl on March 23.