Today’s success story is about a woman named Claire. She didn’t meet her husband until she was 38 years old, and didn’t begin treatments until she was 41. Although she now suspects diminished ovarian reserve, her official diagnosis was unexplained infertility. Due to her age, she went straight to IVF, but after 3 failed cycles, she decided to give IUI a try. Unfortunately, those didn’t work either. Join us to hear how she eventually turned to donor eggs after initially rejecting the option altogether.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- Claire before infertility: fun-loving and carefree
- How Claire met her husband through a mutual friend at a destination wedding in Bali
- Playing with dolls and holding babies her whole life—longing for motherhood
- Putting fertility as a priority
- Advanced age and suspected problems with conceiving
- The first RE appointment: optimism
- Her diagnosis: unexplained infertility at age 41
- When Claire lost all hope: “This is never going to work.”
- Being tough, regrouping, and going after what she wanted
- The moment she found out she was pregnant with their son
- Trying the trends: acupuncture, royal jelly, timed intercourse, etc.
- Three rounds of IVF, three rounds of IUI, and donor eggs
- Soul-searching, donor eggs, and how a puppy changed Claire’s mind!
- Balancing work and fertility treatments
- Shared risk and financial sacrifice to finance treatment
- The birth of Claire’s son at 33 weeks: “Overjoyed doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
- Baby #2 is on the way, on the first try with another embryo from the same donor egg batch
- How has infertility changed Claire? “It’s made me want to pursue the things I want to do with more intensity.”
- Claire’s advice to herself, back then: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Don’t give up. Keep that hope alive. If you can dream it, then you can have it. You may have to try harder, but it will work out if you stick with it.”
