1 in 8 Go Through Infertility. These Are Our Stories

27 Apr 1 in 8 Go Through Infertility. These Are Our Stories

Posted at 06:00h in Fertility by Caroline 1 Comment

To finish up National Infertility Awareness Week I am sharing a collaborative post that includes input from many inspiring bloggers. Most of these women are from the Moms in the Making blogger group and some are friends I have connected with over the years. We are 1 in 8 and we want to share our stories.

It’s an honor to team up with these ladies on a topic that is so relevant for us all, infertility. Infertility looks so different for each person; no two stories are the same. The purpose of this post is to highlight the many facets of infertility: how long people wait, the many various diagnosis one can receive, the path couples take, etc. Below, each woman has briefly shared their personal diagnosis, their length of wait, and their journey. As you can see, some are on the other side {mom made} which is amazing and some are still in the wait.

We hope this post sheds light on how different the journey can be for all. Even though it can look so different for each woman, I am so thankful that ladies from all over the world can still come together to support one another in love and encouragement.

1 in 8 Go Through Infertility. These Are Our Stories.

Jessica | Grace While We Wait | Endometriosis + Male Factor | Mom Made via Adoption + Still Waiting for Biological {8 Yrs} – When my husband and I started trying to grow our family we never dreamed our story would unfold as it has. Month after month of negative pregnancy tests we started to question if God was really going to make us parents. The pain and hiddenness of infertility was like nothing we had ever experienced. But the Father never ends a story with pain, only beauty. Through a series of miraculous events, someone had given us a $10,000 check as we started pursuing adoption. We brought home two miracle babies that grew in our hearts. They are truly dreams that have come true. We are currently believing Him for a miracle again, babies that will grow in my belly.

Meredith | It’s Positive Living | PCOS | Still Waiting {5 yrs} – After our two “failed” IUIs, we planned to take a couple months break to relieve ourselves from the exhausting turmoil of trying to conceive. That break turned into a few years! We have seen the Lord grow us in unforeseen ways in our break — and now, we are going to press in and continue following his leading — which is to be still. Never did I imagine that I would feel so much freedom and joy in such a horrific circumstance. Our hope and prayer is that the Lord will fulfill the desires of our heart with a child; but if the answer is “no,” we won’t stop proclaiming his goodness to all who will listen.

Lauren | Grow My Family | Male Factor + Diminished Ovarian Reserve | Still Waiting {4 yrs} – Our story is one of disappointment and heartbreak- but also one of strength, resilience, and faith. We have gone through several years of medical treatments including 3 rounds of clomid, 3 IUIs, 6 IVF retrieval cycles, and 4 IVF transfers. My husband has been fully engaged in the process and underwent two invasive procedures himself. Although we have faced difficult seasons, this is not how our story will end. We have several embryos frozen in storage, but we are currently taking a break from IVF to focus on our health- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When the time is right, we’ll take a step of faith and God will give us the strength to try again.

Lauren | I am Fruitful | Unexplained | Mom Made – We don’t understand why we haven’t conceived without a procedure. But we are SO thankful to God for allowing us to conceive with the help of IUI. We have 3 babies in Heaven and 2 on earth, and we have gone through years of tests, procedures, bad news, diagnosis, healing, crying, grieving, laughing, pregnancies, parenthood, loss. More tests, some answers, no answers. And FAITH. lots and lots of faith. What I’ve learned through it all is this- God is faithful. No matter what I see. No matter how bad my situation looks. His program hasn’t malfunctioned. He’s GOOD. And He’s FAITHFUL. And through my problems and my grief and my experience, He’s written this BEAUTIFUL story and birthed this amazing ministry where I can now share His goodness with our community!

LaTonya | Abba Interprets Time | Male factor | Still Waiting {9 yrs} – My husband and I have been married for over 10 years and have wanted kids since we got married. I have learned a lot on our journey of waiting. The fact that it is all out of my control has been hard, but has allowed me to focus and depend on God. He is the one who is the giver of life! I trust that He will do what He promised. I take this journey one day at a time, keeping my focus on Him. Infertility has helped me see the treasures in waiting on God’s timing. Waiting has given me strength, courage, wisdom, pursuit, and most importantly, a closer relationship with God. Even though waiting can be hard, waiting is necessary! So, I choose to wait! We have been told that we should do IVF since our 2 IUIs failed. So, we are praying and asking God to guide us into whatever the decision should be for our journey.

Meghan | Mrs. Griff | Unexplained | Still Waiting {4 yrs} – Hope! That is how I’d describe my journey. After a miscarriage & being told some hurtful things by those close to us, Jesus showed me that He is it! This led me on an 9 month journey of pursing Jesus like never before! Through that time, Jesus showed me His faithfulness, His goodness, His hope! I’m still waiting on my miracle baby(ies), but I’m more sure than ever that if a baby never comes, Jesus is still good & faithful! That is my hope – the thing in which I cling!

Abby | Impatiently Waiting for Our Miracle | Diminished Ovarian Reserve | Still Waiting {4 yrs} – During our first two and a half years of trying, my husband and I experienced an ectopic pregnancy and two miscarriages – all conceived naturally – in our wait for a baby. Both miscarriages were due to chromosome abnormalities with the babies. Six months after our third loss we decided, with the advice of our RE, that IVF was going to be the next step for us. In the last several months we have done two egg retrievals via IVF, both of which resulted in all abnormal embryos. We are going into our next round of IVF in the next month. We are hoping and praying this will be our time!

Christine | Our Beautiful Hope | Male Factor | Mom Made after {2 yrs} – Our beautiful hope was born many years after our infertility journey started. After two surgeries, (no IUI’s – it wasn’t an option for us), an amazing support group, lots of ups and downs, and many, many tests, we started our first IVF cycle on January 1, 2016. We received a call on Day 3 and they asked us to transfer our only remaining 2 embryos. We waited until Day 5 instead and transferred one healthy blastocyst on January 31, 2016. After the dreaded two week wait, the doctor called to tell us – it was a BFP! Alexander William was born on October 26, 2016, and he is our miracle baby (in more ways than one)!

Karena | Karena Burgess | Endometriosis + Male Factor | Mom Made after {10 yrs} – We tried various remedies, potions, positions, surgeries, even had 4 failed adoptions with the bills to show and no baby to hold. We continued to believe God would make a way. After 10 years of waiting, we are finally parents. The wait seemed endless, but God created a miracle. Through this we have learned to love others, love others deeply even when hurtful things are said, but most of all to grow closer to Christ our Savior.

Chelsea | Trials Bring Joy | PCOS | Mom Made after {10 yrs} – After being diagnosed with PCOS, I went through nearly 10 years of infertility, 3 miscarriages, multiple IUI’s and IVF’s cycle and finally, became a mom to twins Kirsten and Logan on our 5th IVF transfer. God is good!

Anna | To Make a Mommy | High FSH + Low AMH + Diminished Ovarian Reserve + Endometriosis + Repeated Early Loss + MTHFR | Mom Made after {2 yrs} – I was a mess when the doctors told me my own eggs were no good, and that was why I was having miscarriages. They said they would give me one shot at IVF before moving to donor eggs, but I was too emotionally broken to try. I went down the rabbit hole of self-pity and misery, and climbed out months later through intensive mind-body work and prayer. In the end I was one of the lucky ones- through diet, lifestyle changes, prayer, and mind-body work, and above all, the work of God, I was able to stun the doctors and get pregnant naturally. We have been blessed again and are expecting our second. I am grateful everyday for our miracles.

Cati | Bottles and Blankets | Male Factor | Still Waiting {3 yrs} – Three weeks after I threw away my final pack of birth control pills I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It took over a year for my cycle to regulate. My OBGYN to put me through months of medicated cycles; she assumed it was female factor infertility. Then at the end of a family dinner my mother-in-law mentioned that my husband had surgery when he was six months old, she wondered if that might be a contributing factor. We sought out the foremost expert in our area who eventually attempted reconstructive surgery; it was male factor infertility. The surgery wasn’t successful. We now wait, clinging to the hope that IVF will bring us our children.

Melissa | Borderless | PCOS | Still Waiting {6.5 Yrs} – My husband and I have been married for 10.5 years. At the start of our journey, I was diagnosed with PCOS. After a year of tracking and timed intercourse, we saw an RE in 2013. Three cycles of fertility drugs later, we learned we were pregnant, however we lost the baby. After our loss, we felt the Lord say be still. For us, that meant no treatments or tracking – just trusting God’s timing. We have been working on hormone health and trusting God with the rest ever sense. In 2017, we got pregnant naturally, however we miscarried. We continue to wait confidently on the Lord and believe He will do it again!

Lisa | Amateur Nester | Endometriosis + Luteal phase defect + Male factor | Mom Made after {3 yrs} – It took 4 failed IUI attempts and 3 IVF cycles over two years to conceive our first daughter in 2015. I am currently pregnant with a surprise, miracle, naturally-conceived girl due in June.

Elizabeth | Elizabeth Hagan | Male Factor + Female Chromosome | Mom Made after {8 yrs} – In our journey to have children, my husband and I tried almost everything! IUI, IVF, donor sperm, donor egg and adoption. Nothing worked. But God had other plans. A heart for orphan ministry was birthed out our longings. I started a foundation to help kids growing up in international orphanages be able to go to high school or college (as many countries are closed to international adoption). And while we were busy doing this work, a little girl found her way to us through domestic adoption. I know have more kids than I could have ever imagined (when I was praying for just one!).

Myriah | Plans to Prosper Us | Blocked Fallopian tubes | Mom Made – Since I was a little girl I have wanted to be a mama. My husband and I were married about two years when we started to try to conceive, we soon learned it wasn’t working, we sought help from doctors and fertility specialists. After a couple years of working at it, we decided to take a break from infertility stuff. God called us to the mission field in Budapest, Hungary and 4 years into being here He gave us our greatest blessing, Agnes Maria our little Hungarian princess. We still ask God to heal and help us to get pregnant if it’s in His will, but we also plan to adopt again when He leads and provides!

Jessi | Life Abundant | PCOS + Secondary Infertility | Still Waiting for #2 {6 yrs} – My husband and I began our journey with infertility 10 years ago in 2008. Our daughter was conceived in 2009 with fertility treatment and born in 2010. She is now 8 years old. We started TTC #2 when she turned two. After 5+ years of TTC and a lost count of failed treatment cycles, we ended up conceiving naturally in 2017 and miscarried. We’re now in year #6 of trying to grow our family again and learning to navigate through infertility and loss as parents, with a child who desperately wants to be a big sister.

Erin | Our Journey to Three | PCOS. NK cells. MTHFR. Recurrent miscarriage | Currently Pregnant {after 6 yrs} – Trying for family since 2012. Went through nine ivf transfers & five egg retrievals. We had six miscarriages. Our surrogate (my best friend) is currently 14w2d with our baby girl.

Tedi | Running With Infertility | Low Ovarian Reserve + Endometriosis + Male factor | Mom Made {after 7.5 yrs} – A few years into trying we were told our only option would be IVF, which was EXPENSIVE! We were broke, and didn’t want to go into debt for IVF. A couple years later, while training for a marathon, I said if I could run a marathon I could do IVF. I ran the Dopey Challenge in 2016 while starting injections for IVF. After our cycle failed we saved for 4 months and paid CASH for IVF! While saving we started a nonprofit, The Hope for Fertility Foundation, to help couples offset the cost of fertility treatments. Shortly after our cycle failed, we found out we were pregnant and had our son June 2017. Looking back, I can see why we had to wait so long, but it’s hard in the midst of infertility.

Tiffany | Tiffany Jo Baker | Gestational Carrier/Surrogate – I have helped 3 families in the wait as a surrogate.

Sarah | Sarah Drinks the Water | PCOS | Still Waiting {5 yrs} – I’ve been trying to become a mother since 2010. I was diagnosed with PCOS by my OBGYN in January 2017 after 1 chemical pregnancy and a sister getting diagnosed with PCOS. Between January and November of 2017, I did several rounds of Medicated rounds and had another chemical pregnancy. Between November and March, I had 2 IUIs, one timed cycle, lots of medication, and 1 chemical pregnancy. As of this post, we are currently trying to pinpoint any issues that may cause a chemical pregnancy and holding off until June before trying another IUI.

Tanya Jo | Tanya Jo | Unexplained | Mom Made {after 5 yrs} – I always wanted to be mom. I had my whole life planned out. College, marriage, teaching careers, house, and children. That’s not exactly how it worked out. God knew that through Unexplained Infertility I was going to learn how to really trust HIM. After several years of Infertility and a failed IUI, I laid down my plans for our lives. I found the REAL Jesus. I’m forever grateful that infertility brought me to Him. Today we have a 5-year-old daughter from IVF and a 2-year-old son naturally. Psalm 27:13-14, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Shannon | Embrace Bravery | Endometriosis + PCOS + Hypothyroidism + Pelvic Dysfunction | Still Waiting {15 yrs} – I have experienced excruciating pain during intimacy and my cycles. It took 7 years to get properly diagnosed with the majority of my conditions, but even worse is that the severity of her pain and what was causing it still remained unknown. I was falsely misdiagnosed, had an unnecessary surgery and was back to the drawing board again. Finally after 13 years I received the final diagnosis which finally gave my answers. I am now on the path to healing and recovery through meds, physical therapy and God’s healing power. It has been a long and excruciating wait, but I am confident in God’s plan for my future miracle children.

Lillian | Lillian Day | Undiagnosed | Mom Made {after 7 yrs} – I never knew that TTC would be so hard but years passed and I grew bitter, angry, and resentful. I knew God provided life and I was barren. In desperation I realized I can’t do this alone anymore. I needed the Lord. When I surrendered my ways for His, I finally began to live out my faith. I found peace as we waited. I felt loved by the God who I thought forgot about me. As my relationship was restored, He answered our prayers! God showed me love through infertility in a way I never would have felt it otherwise and I am honored to share our story of hope because God answers prayers, He is faithful!

Julia | Capturing Jewels | Endometriosis | Still Waiting {5 yrs} – When we first began ttc I had no idea how extensive our journey would be. It was the worst, loneliest feeling ever. But thru isolation from the world, it drew my husband & I into even deeper soulmates & the strongest marriage. So many times I would lift my hands to God and beg for answers.. Instead of answers, God showed me who He really IS. That He is GOOD even when things around me are not. Infertility is not from Him but when I place it into His hands He can REDEEM it into something GOOD. One of those redemptions was pursuing our passion for kids through foster care.

Ashley | Lessons and Lemons | Unexplained + Low ovarian reserve | Still Waiting {3 yrs} – My fertility story is started in early 2015. Since then, there have been meltdowns, tears, doubt, anxiety, and despair. There has also been an endless supply of heart to hearts, hugs, forehead kisses, and chances to connect. Doctors have recommended IVF and possibly egg donation. Aside from one failed IUI, my gut told me to explore holistic measures through diet first. Soon, I found myself only eating meat, greens, and sweet potatoes. This wasn’t emotionally healthy or sustainable. I’ve learned that these efforts at controlling the uncontrollable lead to more tension and anxiety. So now the pendulum is evening out. I even ate black cherry pie on my 5 year anniversary!

Ashley | Be Still Waiting Heart | PCOS | Still Waiting {2 yrs} – Six months into our marriage, I unexpectedly – and miraculously, as we would later learn – got pregnant, but lost our first baby to miscarriage at 6 weeks. The PCOS diagnosis followed soon after. At the beginning of our journey to become parents, we drew our personal boundary line at inseminations, but we tried 5 rounds of fertility medications, plus multiple herbs, vitamins, and dietary changes. Just shy of the 2-year mark, we started talking more seriously about adoption. We felt we were more ready to be parents than to be pregnant, and God was clear in His leading. Now we are on the adoption road and waiting to be matched with our baby.

Sharayah | We Are Seen | Unexplained | Still Waiting {3 yrs} – Being a stay-at-home wife and mom has been my ultimate goal since I was a little girl. No career path, travelling adventure, or world-changing dream has ever pulled on my heart as strongly as this one desire. During our wait, seven of our eight nephews and nieces have been conceived. While I love them dearly, being the only childless couple left on both sides stings. After treating my hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue and encountering a possible cervical blockage (though not confirmed) during my HSG last May, we are now praying about the possibility of IUI. I’m still learning to accept and live this version of a grown-up life that I did not want or choose.

Monica | Monica Phillips | PCOS | Still Waiting {7 yrs} – It took 3 years to get a diagnosis, we’ve done every medical procedure under the sun now we are taking a more natural approach after many prayers and waiting for God to lead us in the right direction.

Jenn | Jenn Hesse | Endometriosis + Unexplained | Mom Made after {2.5 yrs} – After struggling to conceive, we underwent several tests, surgeries, and treatments, and started the adoption application process. Finally, we tried IVF. It was a complete bust. We were shocked and devastated. Two months later, we were shocked again: A birthmother who had just delivered a baby boy chose us! We became parents overnight and picked up our son at the hospital. We were overjoyed! Less than two years later, we got another shock: We were pregnant! We had our second son and thanked God for our family of four. He showed us His faithfulness in utterly surprising and gracious ways.

Samantha | Beyond Columbia Lane | Unexplained | Mom Made after {5 yrs} – My husband and I started trying for a baby and it just wasn’t happening. We went through just about every test and procedure with no success. The doctors have no idea why we have trouble conceiving. After loss and unsuccessful treatments, we took a 13 month break to heal and grow. At that point, we felt God leading us to go back to our RE one more time. We didn’t really expect to have success after all of the heartbreak we had already experienced but wanted to be obedient to how we felt god was leading. So we went in with low expectations for anything to work. But God! And we now have a beautiful 11 month old little girl!

And me? Male Factor | Still Waiting {6 yrs} – Colby and I started trying for babies in 2012. At that time, doctors told us it would be impossible to have children and we followed God’s leading to forego medical treatment or adoption and pursue him in the wait. 6 years later and we are still believing that our miracles will come to us in due time! You can see our history here.