Hello ladies,
After reading many of your heart-rending posts I thought I would share my IVF story with you in the hope it may offer some comfort and hope.
At the age of 46 I am now 8 weeks pregnant after an IVF journey spanning 15 years, two husbands and three continents.
Like many young girls I took the BCP, but after developing a DVE and Pulmonary Embolism that almost killed me aged 18, I persuaded my GP to give me an IUD. Little did we know, I had an undiagnosed uterine septum. The IUD didn't work and I had not one, but two ruptured ectopic pregnancies, losing one tube at 21 years of age and the second a year later. This was in the 1980s when IVF was in its infancy. I moved from Australia to England, married, and waited 7 years for my first IVF appointment at Hammersmith. We had one fresh cycle and it failed, and back then the NHS didn't routinely offer a second go. Years went by, my friends all had kids, my marriage collapsed and career took off. I married again and we moved home to Sydney, and started again. Three rounds of IVF with FET failed, and my doctor said it was time to look for donor eggs, as I was then, 41. My girlfriend offered hers and ten embryos resulted but just as we were about to try again, my husband was transferred to Latin America for his work. It took a year fighting bureaucracy to import our embryos to Argentina, and we tried again in May, with no success. I'd been so sure my donated eggs would do the trick, the grief of failure was just devastating and we decided to try with a surrogate next time. We packed our bags and went on holiday, back to England and Australia, and partied. I spent two weeks with my 43 year old sister's newborn, which was bittersweet to say the least. Not 24 hours after arriving home in BA, in August, my husband took me to see my doctor and between them they persuaded me to give it one last shot. I didn't want to, I was so frightened of having to go through yet another disappointment. Every other time I'd treated my body like a temple, taken loads of green tea, meditated, lit candles etc, but this time I was still grieving and couldn't help it, and the truth is I was just sadly going through the motions. To our absolute astonishment and joy, it worked. My oldest friend, the same age as me, who has had the same IVF disappointments for 15 years, called me last week and she is also pregnant, 8 weeks along. I'm so grateful for my girlfriends gift of her eggs, and so grateful that my husband wouldn't let me give up. It is a numbers game and there is always hope. I wish you all success.
After reading many of your heart-rending posts I thought I would share my IVF story with you in the hope it may offer some comfort and hope.
At the age of 46 I am now 8 weeks pregnant after an IVF journey spanning 15 years, two husbands and three continents.
Like many young girls I took the BCP, but after developing a DVE and Pulmonary Embolism that almost killed me aged 18, I persuaded my GP to give me an IUD. Little did we know, I had an undiagnosed uterine septum. The IUD didn't work and I had not one, but two ruptured ectopic pregnancies, losing one tube at 21 years of age and the second a year later. This was in the 1980s when IVF was in its infancy. I moved from Australia to England, married, and waited 7 years for my first IVF appointment at Hammersmith. We had one fresh cycle and it failed, and back then the NHS didn't routinely offer a second go. Years went by, my friends all had kids, my marriage collapsed and career took off. I married again and we moved home to Sydney, and started again. Three rounds of IVF with FET failed, and my doctor said it was time to look for donor eggs, as I was then, 41. My girlfriend offered hers and ten embryos resulted but just as we were about to try again, my husband was transferred to Latin America for his work. It took a year fighting bureaucracy to import our embryos to Argentina, and we tried again in May, with no success. I'd been so sure my donated eggs would do the trick, the grief of failure was just devastating and we decided to try with a surrogate next time. We packed our bags and went on holiday, back to England and Australia, and partied. I spent two weeks with my 43 year old sister's newborn, which was bittersweet to say the least. Not 24 hours after arriving home in BA, in August, my husband took me to see my doctor and between them they persuaded me to give it one last shot. I didn't want to, I was so frightened of having to go through yet another disappointment. Every other time I'd treated my body like a temple, taken loads of green tea, meditated, lit candles etc, but this time I was still grieving and couldn't help it, and the truth is I was just sadly going through the motions. To our absolute astonishment and joy, it worked. My oldest friend, the same age as me, who has had the same IVF disappointments for 15 years, called me last week and she is also pregnant, 8 weeks along. I'm so grateful for my girlfriends gift of her eggs, and so grateful that my husband wouldn't let me give up. It is a numbers game and there is always hope. I wish you all success.
