Successful IVF After Stage 3 Endometriosis (and ANOTHER baby on the way!)
Endometriosis — “a condition in which tissue similar to the lining inside the uterus (called ‘the endometrium’), is found outside the uterus, where it induces a chronic inflammatory reaction that may result in scar tissue” — affects roughly 1 in 10 women during their reproductive years.
This can impact fertility in several ways:
scar tissue on fallopian tubes (leading to increased risk of ectopic pregnancy as fertilized egg struggles to travel through blockage in fallopian tubes),
scar tissue in ovaries potentially impairing egg quality,
inflammation in the pelvis,
pain during intercourse,
difficulty in embryo implantation on uterus at onset of pregnancy, and
a variety of potential immune system impairments as well.
BUT, there’s good news. For the 176 million women with this diagnosis, it’s important to remember that endometriosis is not synonymous with infertility.
So today I’m going to share a hopeful story from a local family with a success story after an unexpected endometriosis diagnosis. Jessica and Kristine are IVF mammas to sweet Jameson — who just turned two-years-old on October 4th. The happy family is overjoyed to be welcoming baby girl Elliot in January!
Here is their story — full of uncertainty, setbacks, struggle, hope, triumph, success, and a whole lot of love. Without further ado, meet Jessica (carrier mamma) and the story or her family’s journey to baby (and ongoing journey to BABIES).👩👩👧👦
I’m in a same sex marriage and always assumed getting pregnant would be easy since we would need medical intervention. I passed all the genetic screening tests and naturally had several egg follicles without medication, so we decided to move forward with IUI with donor sperm.
First time didn’t take. Tried again, had several large follicles again, didn’t work again. Tried a third time, and nothing. I then decided to have a hysteroscopy (a procedure where a doctor looks at your uterus to investigate, diagnose, and treat causes of abnormal bleeding or other potential reproductive issues) and found out I had stage 3 endometriosis which probably contributed to the failure of the IUIs. The reproductive endocrinologist removed the endometriosis.
With this diagnosis, my insurance company approved IVF. I took the medications to stimulate egg growth, had my first egg retrieval and not one fertilized embryo made it to the optimal transfer day (day five). They all arrested — stopped growing. We tried again. Same thing. And again, same thing. By this point I thought a second opinion would be worth exploring.
My wife and I made an appointment with Shady Grove in the beginning of December. We went through a few more tests and found out I had low AMH (anti-mullerian hormone), which correlates to how many viable eggs you have on reserve. I took supplements until March.
We tried different medication and I had my 4th egg retrieval but first with Shady Grove. We got 15 eggs, 13 fertilized, and 9 grew until day five! Five of them were graded “excellent” and the remaining four were discarded.
I had a fresh embryo transfer and got pregnant with a baby boy. I carried him until 35 weeks 5 days when I started experiencing severe pain. After two days of being hospitalized and getting tested for everything, I had a cat-scan. It showed that he kicked me so hard my intestines became blocked, so I had an emergency C-section less than an hour later at exactly 36 weeks!
He had some fluid in his lungs and pretty severe hypoglycemia but after five days he was healthy and we came home! He just turned two on Sunday, October 4… and we are currently 23 weeks pregnant with a baby girl due in January! She was a frozen embryo transfer from the same “batch” our son is and I got pregnant without a hitch, first try!
Words of Encouragement from Jessica
