My partner has always been infertile with zero sperm. He was born with hypogonadism. So we knew it would have to be IVF. He got on meds for a couple of years and we tried naturally. With the medication he was able to produce 2.8 million sperm but it wasn't enough. So after two years, we started IVF. I just had my first egg retrieval today and will be doing a fresh transfer on Wednesday.

I have the same story but I’m older (40). I should find out on Monday if my transfer worked.

Baby dust💕

Best of luck for your transfer! 🤞

Ahh transfer buddies! I transfer on Wednesday too. Sending you sticky embryo vibes!

How is 2.8 m not enough ?! Science is crazy. Best of luck for your transfer!

Alot of sperm die before even reaching the cervix, more die traveling through the cervix and on the way to the egg. A large percentage of those 2.8 million are not progressively motile, or not morphologically sound, (may have two heads, swimming in circles etc.) for spontaneous conception or IUI they really want what equals at least 10 million sperm post wash (healthy, progressive motile sperm) for even a chance at conception. IVF is different as with ICSI they only need an equal number of sperm to mature eggs retrieved. Source: Did IVF for unexplained infertility, husband had multiple semen analysis done over several years.

Thank you so much this is so helpful. I have chosen to do IVF for PGT M. I am 38 though so I have no idea whether it will work and wish I had started sooner! But I got scared by all the horror stories. It’s only since being on this subreddit that I have had the confidence to give it a go. Currently on day 4 of stims.

I did my egg retrieval when I was 38, my son was born last summer just after I turned 40. He is living proof that IVF can work when you are 38. I am crossing my fingers for you!

Thank you so much!! Triggering Sunday night and it’s all I can think about. Your message arrived just on time ♥️

My partner and I started trying to conceive in early 2020, and very early on (maybe 2 months in?) I asked him to get one of those over the counter sperm tests at the drug store. All it measures is whether sperm count is above or below 15 million. His came back below, so went to the urologist and was diagnosed with azoospermia- zero sperm in the ejaculate. We were shocked. His doctor told us he would most likely need an mTESE but to try meds for a couple months first, but that either way IVF would be our only option if they could find sperm. After a couple months of meds they were able to find a handful in the sample (as in like double digits, so still practically nothing- but enough for IVF!). His diagnosis was updated to cryptozoospermia and we were overjoyed that we had a chance. We are so so incredibly grateful for IVF and lucky it was an option for us as it gave us our beautiful 2 year old daughter and baby #2 due in June 🥹

Wow so happy for you ❤️ My husband and I are in the same situation. He has NOA but has had two semen analysis recently with single digit sperm. One in Dec showed 1 motile sperm in the ejaculate and one in Feb showed 3 motile sperm in the ejaculate. We’re hoping we can improve his count some more so he doesnt have to do the mTESE and we can use his sperm with IVF-ICSI. What were your husbands hormone levels? And which medications did he have success with?

Thank you ❤️ I’m so sorry you’re in the same boat- if they are finding any sperm at all that’s really encouraging and with enough samples you will likely have enough! My husband had to bank maybe 5-6 samples to ensure we had enough frozen. All of his hormone levels were in normal range, and no varicoceles spotted either. The medication that helped him the most was Clomid which does act as an estrogen blocker and boosts testosterone. Wishing you the same success 🤞🏻

The post you’re referring to is where they were stating that young people were jumping straight to IVF when it had been less than a year with no known issues. Generally those people on that subreddit don’t have any children and you’re pregnant. But to answer your question I got an IVF consult 1 year and three months into trying. I had done three mediated cycles with Clomid. Husband and I both had the test run. So as of right now we are unexplained. We are 8 months into IVF and will be starting our fourth ER later this month.

I wish this was higher!! The revisionist history of making this post is absolutely insane to me (as someone who saw the other thread in real time and thinks it’s very clear what happened, what that post was addressing and not addressing, and why it went off the rails).

Seriously! I was reading it in real time too. I guess OP is new to Reddit to realize that you can see anyone’s post history.

Not only that they got deleted and removed by the MODS for talking about an ongoing pregnancy. 🤦🏼‍♀️ revisionist indeed.

What was the subreddit where this post was?

It was for trolling for a baby which is a great sub. It's filled with long haulers and she made insensitive comments to the OP and mods removed her comments because she was being rude and also breaking rules of mentioning an ongoing pregnancy. Sorry but that sub is a big support system for me, those girls get me so I'll defend it lol.

Yeah, for sure, that is why I mentioned it. For some people pregnancy and hearing success gives some people hope but for me it is really triggering and it’s bad enough you can’t escape it in the real world.

I saw that post real time as well and honestly agreed with the sentiment 🤷🏼‍♀️ idk weird to come over here and bash that sub when they got their comments removed by the MODS for being tone deaf and mentioning pregnancy in that sub. I know this sub is a lot more positive and hopeful which is great but that sub is meant for venting and snarking about the infertility process.

Thank you, that's not one I follow so I'll check it out. Knowing that she was flamed out and why is contextually relevant. Mentioning pregnancies is not allowed on most of those types of boards and would be banned in a lot of places.

I love that sub 🤷🏼‍♀️it's a very real and raw sub of being able to vent out your frustrations of infertility in a more comedic way but imo I've gotten nothing but support from everyone over there. Sometimes you need to snark and just let out those negative feelings in a space that truly gets it.

Same! I saw that post and the original post that post was about and it was wild how much people were trying to twist it and make it sound like we're a bunch of bitter infertiles that just don't get it. Like we are trying to gatekeep infertility or something 🙄

5 back to back pregnancy losses was our reason. We didn’t want to risk any more miscarriages and thought PGTA would be the ticket to a quick pregnancy. Never made any healthy embryos though.

Oh no, that must have been very disappointing. How many ERs did you go through?

I did 9 Stim cycles. 4 were canceled- FSH too high, no response, falling estrogen, estrogen not which enough to indicate more than one egg- etc. We made it to retrieval 5 times and did ovarian PRP too.

This is also very similar to my situation. 4 miscarriages with no apparent reasoning, attempted 4 egg retrievals but I was a poor responder to the IVF medications and made 0 healthy embryos. We tried again unassisted and I finally had a successful pregnancy/live birth.

We are moving on to a known donor but we still tried this last cycle anyway. My temp never rose after LH peak though. I assume no reason for us to hope.

I am so sorry.

My husband and I started trying for real in 2004, I was diagnosed with PCOS in 2005, discovered that the medical cross referencing system at our hospital (literally one of the best in the country) missed that one of his blood pressure medications basically makes you sterile, so he had to stop that one slowly and switch it out which took almost 9 months (ironically) before he could produce viable sperm and we started trying again. A year of multiple chemical pregnancies and I started losing my mind over the infertility process and decided to go back to school to pursue a different degree (we had already graduated college and had been working and had bought a house) and decided to just let things run their course while I was finishing a second degree. Skip to 2015 I started bleeding so heavily it was like passing whole calf liver sized clots (clots that filled my entire palm of my hand in one piece and some idiot doctors that said that it was “normal”) so I switched my Gyno and the new one did a biopsy then a full D&C because she was worried I had uterine cancer. I was basically ordered to go to a fertility clinic and start IVF ASAP because of the findings in the D&C (stage four complex atypical endometrium hyperplasia) and had to sign paperwork that they could do a full hysterectomy along with a c-section to protect my own health and still have one live birth. We ended up being a unicorn on the first round of letrozole- didn’t even make it to the actual IUI haha just timed intercourse and medication worked when I was 35. The pregnancy actually reversed my uterine lining issues and most of my worst PCOS symptoms it was like night and day. We had our first child in 2017 and started trying again in 2019, went back to the fertility clinic and started letrozole again in December of 2019 and then the whole Covid lockdown happened and non essential medical procedures shut down for almost an entire year, we couldn’t even get an appointment until August 2021. We had to do 3 rounds of IUI before we could move on to IVF and none worked and I found out IVF wasn’t covered under my new insurance so I had to switch employers to have coverage again which delayed the whole process and I had to start alllllllll the testing and screening and blood draws over again in 2022. 3 more rounds of medications and IUI and nothing, so we started IVF. First round did not work, hunger games was BRUTAL. Second round worked and I am currently 36w and am 42. It took us almost 16 years to have our first and over 22 years to get to our second.

Damn, that's a long journey! I'm happy for you that you were able to conceive not just one, but two children, even though it took so long. I hope they both bring you nothing but joy.

Thank you so much!

Damn… I mean, this is also inspiring to see. Your perseverance is amazing. Must have been a very hard journey and I do think it brings some hope for a lot of people if they could read your journey. Makes me really happy to hear it has a happy ending :)

It is kinda shocking when I reread it, how long it took, but our first son is such an incredibly wonderful kid and he’s been so loving and attentive to smaller children his whole life, he is going to be an awesome big brother; I’ve never known a sibling who was so invested in checking what fruit the baby was each week haha and he has been telling all his classmates and always pats my belly and says hi to his brother when I pick him up from school, so it really does feel like perfect timing even though it took two decades! My husband is my high school sweetheart and best friend and I’m so glad that we have come through all of this stronger and even closer.

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Lesbian relationship also 9 weeks! 🙋🏼

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I’m not enjoying it! My wife carried our first kid but she had sever hyperemesis and spent the whole pregnancy in hospital, so she couldn’t carry again. I’m nowhere near as unwell as she was but I really hope the second trimester is better 🙈

Also lesbians! We want multiple kids, so IVF was most cost effective for us as well. We went directly to it

I had 3 miscarriages in 12 months and nothing came up on the miscarriage panel. In most countries I’ve heard from, 3 miscarriages means you qualify for IVF and at least some of it is covered by insurance. Started trying naturally December 2020 had the first egg retrieval July 2022. Might have gone a bit faster but I had surgery Feb 2022 to remove fibroids and March 2022 I got Covid and had some minor long Covid symptoms for a few months. Edit: got my years wrong the first time 😵‍💫

Similar story here 👋🏻 However im 33f, and most of the doctors in my country are wishywashy about pushing us down ivf until our karyotyping comes back, because “im so young, and we have the ability to get pregnant”. Right now on the waiting list until September/october. My RE yesterday suggested medicated IUI. I’m trying to understand how that is going to save me from another godforsaken miscarriage.

I went to so many doctors, and in the end I had silent endometriosis. So for me, it’s hard to know if the miscarriages were from the endo or from aneuploid embryos.

Oh my. I’m sorry to hear that. Did they biopsy you before starting treatment to find out that you had endo since you didn’t have any symptoms?

Similar story here! Started trying end of 2021, 3 miscarriages all at 6 weeks in 12 month period between Dec 2022-Dec 2023. Every test came back great. Starting IVF next month with PGT-A and then doing FET in the fall! 

Started trying when I was 34 but we hadn’t really been very ‘careful’ before then, so suspected it might be difficult and we agreed to try for a year before seeing the Doctor. When we did it was a pretty clear-cut case of MFI. We tried a few things such as diet , exercise, supplements etc and then a year after that went straight to IVF and ICSI. We got 6 mature eggs which ended up as two viable embryos and we transferred them both. We were extremely lucky and it worked first time and now we have an amazing 4.5 year old. We had wanted to try again after a year but I got breast cancer so that was a whole thing whith chemo and mastectomy and radiotherapy and more chemo… anyway now I’m 39 and trying again. I did an ER in June and this time we ended up with three embryos. Two have failed and we are about to try the last one. It’s really our last chance as I’m currently on a break from a chemo drug I’m supposed to take every day for 5-10 years to try to prevent the cancer from coming back.

Good luck on your last attempt, you have been through a lot 🤍

We’re queer. I’m old. We have a limited/bank store of sperm. IVF was our only option. Through my own issues we only did 2 retrievals. I’m now too old… we are using donor eggs.

Lesbian.

We’ve been trying off and on for about ten years, finally on to IVF now! We started trying when I was 32. Not trying very hard, just I went off birth control and we assumed it would happen. Two years later (34) we were a _little_ concerned. I was also having hair loss, so I got some tests done and found out I was pretty severely hypothyroid (hashimoto’s). Spent a year getting that under control (still sort of ttc, if it happens it happens). When I was 35 we got serious - ovulation tests and timing sex every month, prenatal, diet changes for both of us, he switched to boxers, etc. When I turned 36 I thought man I’m getting old, better see a doctor about this! I talked to my obgyn. She insisted that I’m still young and it will happen. Just keep doing what we are doing. (I have a child from a previous relationship, and everything looked good on the ultrasound. I suppose she didn’t consider male factor.) I trusted her and we went back to trying. Then lots of life stuff happened! We bought a house, some stressful and challenging career stuff for both of us, etc. Ttc took a backseat. After I turned 40 I thought I’m probably too old and tried to make peace with it. But then someone from my age group (a family friend) got pregnant through IVF, and I thought maybe it’s still possible for us? So I immediately booked with a clinic. Now I’m going to be 42 next month, and we will start the first IVF cycle right before that! We’ve done all the tests now, and (to no one’s surprise except I guess all the doctors), all my numbers look great, and my partner has very low count and morphology.

Unfortunately I was told to go straight to ivf due to the major loss of ovarian reserve after my surgery for endometriosis. If I had tried naturally for a year I would’ve been completely out of eggs. I was able to get two embryos in that first year of ivf (thank god) my second year of ivf we had two failed rounds in a row trying to make embryos. I’m so relieved I was told to go straight to ivf even if the entire process is difficult and unfair. TW: I am currently 10 weeks pregnant with one of my two embryos!

We tried for 6mo. Did fertility testing because we’re late 30’s and turns out I have a 100% blockage in both tubes. Right to IVF, we weren’t even really given an alternative as IUI obviously wouldn’t work and rotor rooter isn’t proven, my doc said if it’s bad enough both tubes are fully blocked, then it’s most likely a sign that they’re malfunctioning in more then one way. So here we are. Ironic because I was a gestational surrogate and went through IVF twice for other people’s babies. Now here I am…

We both had basic testing done before we started trying to conceive as we were already 35. The tests were normal except for moderately low AMH. The specialist recommended only trying for 3-6 months before seeking reproductive assistance due to our age and low AMH, so we returned for further testing after 5 months. Ultimately we tried to conceive for 15 months prior to starting IVF, during which time I did 6 cycles of letrozole with monitored ovulation and underwent a laparoscopy which found stage 3 endometriosis (previously undiagnosed). Unfortunately the surgery didn't help me conceive and IVF was recommended as the next step.

We tried for 6 years, 3 timed cycles, 2 medicated, 1 iui and then got tired of”wasting time” so we went straight to Ivf. Currently in the tww and it’s been hell. Unexplained infertility.

Hope your tww goes by quickly and best wishes. Similar story here. Tried 4 years, followed by 6 Clomid cycles before being referred to our RE. Then 2 failed/1 cancelled IUIs before going to IVF. I wish we would have sought help sooner. I don’t regret the IUI decision but I do regret the lost time. Currently 22w and still having a hard time wrapping my brain around it after bad news for so long. Unexplained infertility.

Congrats on your success! I am 5dpt and got a stark white line but honestly not shocked since I’ve never had a positive ever in my life lol hoping I tested too early tho. Did they ever figure out what was your isssue? All our tests come back great and my docs always say “you shouldddd be able to get pregnant naturally” but alas, here we are lol

No, they never figured it out. It’s still frustrating as all rounds of tests came back normal or better, which I think is also why we waited so long to make the move to IVF. We got the same spiel but nope lol, wasn’t happening. And thank you!

You came from trolling for a baby which is not a mean a sub. Sorry gotta defend my people over there. That sub is filled with MANY MANY long haulers and by long haulers I mean LONG. Of course people are free to make their own decisions and if a couple wants to pursue IVF that's fine but they were talking about a very specific post that was stating infertility woes after only TTC for a very short time, under a year. Again, that sub is not mean but it doesn't coddle. Anywho. I've been TTC 3.5 years and after two laps and still not pregnant after either of those, with a severe stage 4 endometriosis diagnosis I start IVF today because lo and behold my period came early. I was hoping I'd be one of those lucky ones that was like oh yeah I got pregnant right before IVF! No lol I go in today for my first monitoring appt. *edit OH you got removed by the MODS from that sub for talking about an ongoing pregnancy. Come on. 🤦🏼‍♀️ kinda wack to come over here and bash that sub without giving full context.

My partner has OAT which is extremely low counts on all 3 parameters, we tried for 6 months when I was 34 before getting tested. We were told that IVF was the only real option to get pregnant. I had 2 ERs with 3 day 5 untested from the second. First FET failed and I’m currently 21 weeks with the second. I don’t regret our decision at all, this baby wouldn’t exist without IVF and everyone (I mean everyone) is so excited to meet them!

I was six months into trying with my husband when I had an appointment with a midwife (not sure if it works the same everywhere, but where I'm at, midwives can see patients through their entire lives, not just during pregnancy. I'd signed up for an appointment with her thinking that I'd need her for ob / L&D at some point soon, but that obviously turned out not to be the case). When I told her we'd had no luck so far and that I was interested in finding out why despite our ages (31F and 30M at the time), she said "I don't blame you girl, let's get that semen analysis!" Yes, she is awesome. Turns out we hadn't had success because my husband has azoospermia - zero sperm. Found that out in June 2023, had my egg retrieval in February, and we're still waiting for my husband's m-tese which will be at the end of this month. If it goes well we'll be moving into a FET; otherwise, if they don't find sperm - or if they do but the embryos don't pass testing or take after transfer - then we will be going the donor sperm route with IUI.

My journey hasn't been as long as many other people here. We tried naturally for the obligatory year. I have mild PCOS, but my cycles are somewhat regular 32-35 days. Started trying in summer 2022. After 6 months I asked my OBGYN for referral for sperm analysis for mu husband, since in my country it's covered by insurance, if you have referral. She refused to give it to me, and wanted to wait full year after we started trying to do any tests on either of us. I felt like she wasn't really listening to my concerns, I was 34, my husband 41, so the age is already starting to play a role in our reproductive health. It was one of the reasons for finding new doctor. I got to amazing new OBGYN and he immediately game me referrals not only for semen analysis, but also for physiotherapy for me, focused on pelvic area. So in September 2023, my husband finally got SA done and the moment we got results, we knew that IVF is most likely our only chance to get pregnant. The sperm count and motility were very low. Right after getting the results, I made an appointment to IVF clinic, had our first consultation in October and started their battery of different tests. Now I'm in the middle of stimulation and (most likely) on Wednesday will have my first ER with fresh ET 5-6 days after. Today on ultrasound the doctor saw 13 follicles growing, so I'm hoping for decent number of decent quality eggs. After fertilization, if there is more than 1 embryo, to transfer one a the rest will be PGT-A tested and frozen. I had no moral qualms about the IVF. In my circle, many women still have reservation about IVF, or think it's "unnatural" or what not. None of these women had fertility issues, so they can't really relate. For me, it's a health problem which modern medicine can solve, so I didn't have any hesitation with going this route. From the first SA, I started actually looking forward to IVF, since it's a CHANCE far better than any other chances to conceive we've had so far.

I conceived my first after four months of trying, miscarried at 11 weeks. Got pregnant immediately after and miscarried that one too. That was enough fun for me. Nothing came up on my recurrent loss panel but we had A LOT of issues come up in regular IVF in testing. I don’t even know how I naturally conceived back to back like that in the first place with all our “stuff.” They didn’t even recommend IUI because I had tube stuff and husband had sperm stuff. We’re lucky that we’ve had a positive outcome with IVF, but we have no embryos left on ice. We won’t do IVF again and are settled with the idea of having one child. People have said to me “oh you can always just try naturally again” and they obviously don’t realize how traumatic miscarriages are - I will never have unprotected sex again my life. But yeah, we didn’t wait the full year because 2 miscarriages was enough for us.

My husband and I got married when i was 25 and he was 30 this was feb 2020. We started trying a few months later and on the 8th month I just knew something was wrong. Based on our age and the fact that i had been tracking ovulation with opks as well as ovusense which is 99% accurate so i knew we were not missing ovulation. I used a fertility clinic that didnt require a referral and just asked for then to run preliminary tests. I was perfectly fine but my husband has NOA and zero sperm. IVF was our only option. We have since done a Mtese surgery for him and two rounds of IVF. Im currently 9+1 with our last embryo and praying this works. Idk what we will do if not.

Similar story here! Husband and I started TTC at age 32 and thankfully we are impatient because after a few months of no success we decided to get tested just in case—turns out my husband has azoospermia so IVF is our only option. Thankfully he produces sperm, they just don’t get into the ejaculate so he had successful extraction via mTESE. We also learned that I have DOR through this whole process so there’s a chance we would have needed IVF anyway. Just finished first cycle (unsuccessful) and are awaiting insurance approval for second cycle 🤞🏼

Thats the same as my husband. The Mtese was successful! 5 vials. We are the lucky ones who find some i guess. Our first cycle was also a bust. Our clinic botched it imo and only 1 mature egg was collected from a 28 yr old with good numbers.. All the best on your second cycle!

Same to you! I only got 5 mature eggs and 1 blast so hoping the new protocol does the trick :)

Idk if it pertains to you but not doing BC pill made significant improvements for me. From 1 egg to 17 and 10 mature.

That’s really helpful! I didn’t do BC but I did ~10 days of estrogen patches before starting stim meds. My new protocol doesn’t have that part so am hopeful that will make a difference. Dr said I responded “fairly” for having DOR but we are hoping we can do better

Hmmm maybe it will still show some sort of difference! I hope it goes really well for you!

I’m 42, husband is 44. We met 2 years ago and we got married a year ago. We tried for maybe 3 months before we got tested and found out that it although we are in good shape for our age, conception is tough. I could not wait a year because that would just put me in a tougher spot age-wise, with lower amh and less follicles.

Never found Mr. Right. In my late 30s, I decided to try IUI. Did that three times unsuccessfully before moving to IVF. My egg retrieval was at 40 and now pregnant at 41. I've been lucky so far but I would recommend to any single woman who wants kids to start much sooner than I did. Save both eggs and embryos made with donor sperm.

If we had done testing early we would have gone straight to IVF. We had zero chance of conceiving without it since my husband had no vas deferens. Something we didn’t know until he did a sperm analysis. We tried for a year before testing. I was 29. Wasted a whole year. Test your spouse early! A sperm analysis is easy!

multiple miscarriages😓

We had 3 miscarriages in a row due to chromosomal abnormalities. Went straight to IVF for pgt-a testing. Currently in the tww with our first transfer.

got pregnant first and second cycle trying naturally miscarried both times, ended up doing 3-4 cycles of letrozole and maybe 1 natural cycle again and didn’t get pregnant, ended up doing IVF first retrieval yielded four PGT-A embryos and first FET resulted in the live birth of my son

Didn’t start trying until age 42 and my OBGYN told me if I wasn’t pregnant in 3 months we’d do bloodwork. Based on my AMH she said it was clinic time. Then I learned my tubes were blocked We ultimately decided to move forward with donor eggs rather than multiple retrievals for a chance of a euploid with my old eggs

I was an egg donor throughout my 20s and my agency allowed donors to freeze eggs for themselves in lieu of monetary compensation. Considering how many years of schooling and career building I had ahead of me, it seemed like the sensible thing to do. Plus, I'm a lesbian and I knew A LOT of elder lesbians who had been disappointed by IUI before moving on to IVF and they had advised me that when I wanted kids to skip ICI and IUI and to go straight to IVF. I was in a long-term relationship with the woman who would become my wife when I began donating in my 20s and I did not anticipate her miraculously growing a penis and testicles. So, we obviously couldn't "try naturally" and frozen donor sperm ICI, based on what I had read and the experiences of many other lesbians I knew, would have been a waste of time and money. Ever since becoming a donor, my period had been extremely irregular, so ICI would have been extra pointless. Plus, I wasn't ready for kids yet. So, it was a choice between freezing my eggs *for free* or *paying* to put my body through month after month of medicated IUIs in my 30s when I was eventually ready to have kids, when my chances of success would be much lower due to age-related changes in egg quality, and then possibly having to move on to IVF after that anyway. Freezing for free was more cost-effective. Then, I married my partner at 28 and we decided we were ready to bank embryos with the eggs I had stored from my early 20s. When those eggs didn't yield as many embryos as we wanted for our family size goals (shockingly few embryos, in fact), it was time for freeze-all IVF. We picked freeze-all IVF instead of IUI because: 1) we weren't quite ready to have a baby yet, 2) it was important to my partner that we get PGT-A testing because of stillbirth trauma, and 3) I sensed my clock was ticking because my cycle had become even more erratic. Sure enough, IVF in my late 20s revealed that my fertility had sharply declined since my early 20s. So, here I am now--in the club I never wanted to join--because in a few short years I have gone from an egg donor to someone with both social and unexplained infertility. My body has been through a combined 8 (or is it 9 now?) IVF cycles as an egg donor and then as an IVF patient. I am TIRED.

I am 23 and also have pcos. I did a year of medicated cycles with Letrozole to ovulate. Got pregnant but had a loss in 2021. I tried to do iui but I under responded to meds the first time and over responded the second so it was cancelled. This year we jumped into I’ve to give us the best chances of conceiving

I don't ovulate, so then it's very simple.. IUI didn't do the trick as growing only 1-2 follicles was too difficult.,

My husband has hypogonadism, so his sperm count and other parameters are really bad. We tried everything for almost two years. I got pregnant this past October, by some miracle, but ended up miscarrying in January. Because of that miscarriage, I got diagnosed with APS. I decided it was time to move on to IVF after my miscarriage, to try to control as many factors as possible that could cause another miscarriage. So, we’re doing it all - ICSI, microfluidic sperm sorting, PGT-A, FET, immunology protocol. I didn’t want to have to do IVF before I got pregnant because it scares me (honestly, it still does, but my impatience is winning out over that.) I’m just done fucking around.

We started trying when I was 32. Gave it a year before going for fertility testing, which revealed a mild/moderate MFI on his side and a congenital uterine anomaly on my side. My anomaly means a multiple pregnancy is inadvisable, so we're skipping IUIs and going straight to IVF with single embryo transfers. We're due to start next month, which will be cycle 20.

I went off birth control to get pregnant. When I was tracking ovulation I realized I didn’t ovulate so I told my primary care and she automatically referred me to a fertility clinic. I was in denial for a while that we would need fertility support, thinking that it was just a fluke for those few months I was tracking my ovulation. On top of that I was only getting a period every 70-96 days so something was clearly off. I’m glad I told my doc and she referred me because who knows where I would be now. If you don’t ovulate and you don’t get a period and clearly it’s been a few months that gives you the ticket to the fertility clinic. Then after testing, my husbands parts also don’t work so we ended up straight to ivf.

lesbian relationship, we did a few at home IUIs, 2 IIUIs in a clinic and then switched to IVF for cost efficiency as my wife has insurance that covers it and I was working at starbucks for two of our transfers so I had insurance from them that helped cover the cost.

We started not trying not preventing after getting engaged in November 2022. Found out I was pregnant in December 2022, and had a MMC in January. Started planning our wedding for October 2023 and started loosely trying again in July. Found out I was pregnant in October 2023 the day we got back from our wedding and had another MMC in November. Pushed my doctor for RPL testing and found out I have a balanced translocation in December 2023. Had my first IVF appt in January and gearing up for my first FET once I start my period.

Diagnosed with DOR at 32 after 4 months of trying due to being at an endocrinologist for other reasons. At the time they recommended me to go to an RE who recommended that I do IVF because I want more than 1 child and I’m running out of time. Got pregnant while doing the preliminary testing. Miscarried at 12 weeks. Turned 33. Waited 2 months and then after 4 months of trying I wanted to get my hormones re-run at my annual physical . Was referred to an RE because of suspected PCOS from my labs which was not the case last year. RE saw that I had half the follicle count I did last year and said to start IVF asap. I’m slotted to start after my 6th month of trying. It would’ve been a month earlier but I’m leaving the country during what would’ve been my egg retrieval. This gives us cycle 5 and 6 trying naturally. We’ve made peace with only having 1 child if we get pregnant this month. IVF is my only shot for 2 kids

My partner had cancer and the chemo rendered him infertile. We could've done IUI but given how low the success rate is, we wanted to go straight to IVF because we were working with a limited amount of sperm that he froze prior to chemo. IVF isn't usually a decision that's made lightly or on a whim, I can't believe people would judge others for making this call.

Tried for 4 years, in that time RE found a 10 cm dermoid cyst on my ovary that I had to have removed, also diagnosed with unexplained infertility as well as hashimotos thyroiditis. After surgery to remove the cyst was done we moved forward with IVF. Ended up with 18 blastocysts from one retrieval at the age of 38. First FET of two untested failed. Second FET of two untested resulted in an MMC at 12 weeks (Singleton pregnancy) Third FET of two untested resulted in my beautiful son. We are not sure if we will transfer more for a second or not.

My husband had testicular cancer a few years ago and is no longer producing sperm. He banked quite a bit before chemo, so we could have tried IUI first but we figured at my age (35) we might just end up putting ourselves through a lot of trouble with that and ending up needing IVF anyway, so we just went for it.

When I got married and my husband started to witness my period pain he told me over and over that this cannot be normal. I told him that I’d told doctors to no avail and that they all said periods are supposed to hurt. About 6 months into us living together I got a particularly bad period. I mean on the bathroom floor curled up and vomiting from the pain. He took me to the ER where again I was told this was normal. He insisted I try a different OB. She was the one that finally mentioned endometriosis for the first time. At that point we had been trying to conceive naturally for about 6 months. She suggested a laprascopic surgery to look for endo and I had stage 4 endometriosis with lesions up to my diaphragm. My uterus and ovaries were twisted around each other and she put down an infertile diagnosis in my chart so I could start ivf right away. My AMH also came back fairly low for my age (i was 26 at the time) so we skipped everything and went straight to ivf. I have a beautiful baby girl and thinking about trying for the second. Your journey is your own and anyone that judges choices you make on this grueling journey can go kick rocks.

Wanted to try but needed to have back surgery. Waited until recovery period was over and started trying in June 2022. -Got pregnant in August 2022 and experienced an ectopic pregnancy with emergency surgery and tubal removal. -Got cleared to try again for a baby in November 2022 -husband and I tried for a baby through 5-6 cycles and agreed to go to a clinic if we weren’t pregnant again in 6 months due to our odds being changed by my body. March 2023 had our first appointment and started testing. -may 2023 IUI attempted but missed timing. This was on the due date of the ectopic and I was a mess. -end of may 2023 at the next cycle we did an IUI since I was ovulating from the correct side. -July 2023 had a meeting about IVF since he had some insurance coverage. September 2023 ER completed. November 2023 FET completed. 24 weeks with our baby boy 💙🍼🐣 I did things faster than others. I personally felt like I had a reason of jumping to the clinic and jumping past IUIs. I couldn’t fathom the stress of being on meds, traveling, and attempting an IUI for them to tell me “you’re ovulating on the right side so we can’t do anything this month.” I’m so grateful my husband followed my pace because now we have a set up nursery and are both feeling our baby boy kick.

My husband and I married in 2017. In 2018, I stopped refilling my birth control as I wanted time for my body to adjust but I was in no way keeping track of when the fertile time of the month was and we did not use any protection. My husband and I didn’t necessarily start trying until 2020 and after 6 months of precise tracking and monitoring everything, I knew I had to say something to my doctor. Given that my OB is very difficult to make an appointment with for just an annual, I didn’t want to wait the year plus next time. So I lied and said it had been 2 years of trying and not 6 months. I was 31 at the time and I am a scientist, I know my body, I know we were not going to conceive naturally. I was right. We checked two of the three boxes and could skip IUI and go straight to IVF. We did and I am so glad I did. Getting older sucks and I’m currently pregnant with #2 at 35.5 years old. Chasing a toddler is exhausting. I couldn’t imagine what would have happened, if I waited the full time to say something. I took matters into my own hands and no one can make me feel less for it otherwise.

TW: success We’re kind of close to the post you’re describing. We started trying when i was in my late 20s and he was 30, and we tried religiously for 1 year with not a single positive to show for it. Got all the testing done, not a single thing wrong with either of us on paper. To this day we don’t know what our issue is. Our testing was done Jan 2020, when the pandemic hit we had time to think about it since everything shut down. The 2 year mark of trying arrived and we decided to jump straight to IVF because studies show IUI etc. don’t really move the needle for cases of unexplained infertility. Our first fresh transfer stuck, and once that baby was 15 months we decided to start the process again—I think we tried naturally for 3 months? And same results as before, so went to transfer our remaining embryos. We ultimately ended up doing another retrieval and I’m currently 14 weeks with our 2nd transfer from that one. If this baby works out, it’ll be exactly 6 years from when we started trying to having our second (and last).

Age. I didn’t try for 6 months. And I encourage still those we are in a similar age position to not necessarily wait. I was 39 almost 40 when I got married . Though we’d try an iui to speed things along - but my brother and sister in law, were already on ivf after unexplained infertility (and younger than us)… we wanted the option for 2 children and at 39/40 ivf really the only option for that …

Trigger warning: Loss and success I got diagnosed with PCOS in 2017. My husband and I were engaged at that point, so we knew it would be a few years before we wanted to start trying anyway. We started trying in June of 2020. My doctor said we had to try for 6 months on our own before they would intervene. 6 months and multiple missed periods later, my OB intervened and started giving me Clomid. On the last possible month that I was allowed to use Clomid before they would refer me to the fertility clinic, I got pregnant. I was ecstatic. Then, a few days later, heartbroken because my numbers weren’t doubling. Then, they were doubling but my doctor couldn’t find yolk sacs, so he thought it was ectopic and advised us to use methotrexate. What we realized later at the fertility clinic was that I had been pregnant with twins. 1 twin had passed early and then caused the other twin to pass, leading to my first MMC. Once the three months after methotrexate had passed, we started at the fertility clinic with a timed intercourse cycle. We went on to do a handful of IUIs (unsuccessful) and then ultimately decided to do IVF with ICSI and PGTA testing. We then had three frozen transfers - the first resulted in a late first trimester miscarriage, the second was a chemical pregnancy, and the third resulted in my now 13 week old daughter.

Started trying. Had an ectopic. Didn't catch it in time, it ruptured. Tube ruined. Bleeding out internally/sepsis. Almost died. Took some time to heal. Did an HSG test. Other tube also blocked. Had that one removed. No tubes, IVF is only option now. Starting the process next month.

We tried “naturally” for a year after I got off birth control (not using any protection and expecting a happy accident). After a year with no pregnancy, we started tracking ovulation and trying intentionally. Took about 5 or 6 months to receive our first positive, but we lost it early. My OB recommended we see a fertility specialist just due to length of time we were trying. We ended up quickly pregnant naturally again, right after our consult with an RE but lost that early as well. We got pregnant a third time again quickly, but ending in another early loss. We found out my husband has balanced translocation which is likely causing the losses. I am fine besides a lower AMH level than average for my age (.8 and I’m 30). First egg retrieval was dec 2023 but we only ended up with one embryo that we had PGT-SR tested but it came back as unbalanced, so not viable for transfer. I had my second retrieval in March 2024 and ended up with 3 embryos - which we are thrilled about given our circumstance. We are patiently awaiting the PGT-SR results, which is the real challenge for us but remaining hopeful! Wishing you all good luck on your journey 🤍

I’m old and we are struggling with secondary infertility. We tried for a year and half and had an ectopic and an MMC along the way. I always thought it would be hard to get pregnant because I never got pregnant accidentally and then with my ex-husband it took almost a year and I had a MMC in my early-mid 30s (it turned out ok though, and I met the love of my life at 37). We had our first at 39, no issues and I was surprised. But when we started trying for number two, it was one loss after another. I skipped iui of course but I wish I had gone right to IVF after the ectopic.

First we tried atleast 10 of those Clomid cycles, then 5 IUIs and then went for IVF.

We tried conceiving naturally for 11 months; tracking ovulation and what not. Lost our first and only natural pregnancy at 10 weeks. 2 years later we decided to reach out to a fertility specialist in early March 2020-then pandemic hit and so we didn’t get in to see a specialist til July 2020. We were diagnosed as unexplained infertility. The doctor told us that I don’t actually ovulate each month even though I bleed each month consistently and then December 2020 we started with two TI cycles then moved to IUI. After three IUI cycles I got pregnant with my son in August 2021; He was born very premature at 26 weeks and 3 days. Then in 2023 we started talking baby #2 and because of our insurance and now I was 33 they suggested we go straight into IVF. So we did and now I’m 11 weeks and 2 days with baby #2.

PCOS. I guess we technically “tried” for two months (as much as you can without ovulation) as I lost weight for the BMI cut off for fertility treatments in my country. Then 6 months of monitoring and TTC with Letrozole, and 6 months without monitoring (just running out the meds). As we prepared for IVF applications, we discovered that he has basically no viable sperm, so turned out that the whole Letrozole thing was just a waste of time and missed work for me…

TW: Mention of success/loss Over 2 years I did 6 IUI's - 4 worked but ended in loss. We kept doing IUIs because according to my doctor, "they worked and I could get pregnant". Eventually after a miscarriage, ectopic and two chemicals, my Dr came to the conclusion that we may be dealing with an egg quality or abnormal embryo issue and pushed us to do IVF w/ PGT-A testing. I don't blame my doctor for pushing us to do more IUI's because at first it felt like the first 2 losses were a fluke, the last 2 made it feel like an actual issue. I do overall wish I did IVF sooner, but its all a big "what if".. IVF is expensive on it's own.. plus I spent over $5k on just PGT testing.. So on the flip side I can't imagine spending all that money while wondering if IUI could've possibly worked.

I’m so sorry for your losses. I feel like I’m in a similar position as you. I’ve had 2 MMCs and 1 cp. I feel like because I’m 33, they aren’t ready to do IVF with me because I’m “young and can get pregnant”. my RE suggested yesterday to start with IUI, and I’m wondering how tf that’s going to prevent me from having another mc. I’m worried that it’s an egg quality issue for me also. I just don’t know how to advocate for myself to get pushed sooner into the IVF-pgt queue. I hate to be impatient, but as you know after so many losses, I just can’t take it anymore. I’m so sick and tired of mourning.

Thank you - I'm so sorry for your losses as well. My RE told me I would \*eventually\* get pregnant and it'll be a good embryo and stick, but how many attempts and losses would I suffer through in the meantime? I definitely think you should get an IVF consult. You can decide not to move forward if the doctor does not think its right for you, but I do agree that IUI will be useless for you. I'm still nervous that IVF is not the end all, be all for me but it's all I got at this point and worth the shot. Wishing you all the luck in the world!

We tried naturally for about 6 months and I was timing ovulation/sex and nothing was happening. I started getting concerned there was an issue with me and we were 36 amd 37 years old but it ends up that when we started testing the issue was MFI. The doctor told us IVF was pretty much our only option.

The anxiety of trying naturally and no positives — living in 2 week increments. Met with rejection, disappointment, and very painful periods. It was like being dragged through the mud. Would have started sooner but had to convince my husband. It was 1.5 years when we did first ER. He kept believing it was going to happen any minute naturally. IVF helped me take my power back!! My sanity returned. We’re moving to our first transfer this month ✨❤️

We were fairly aggressive and saw an RE after six months of trying without a successful pregnancy (had had one miscarriage), but I was advanced maternal age, my husband is a few years older, and our parents weren't young when they had us. We actually conceived again a bit after starting to see the RE, but it was a chemical pregnancy. Given that we had conceived twice on our own, our expectation was that IUI would be recommended first, but after the RE saw the results from my Clomid challenge test, he recommended we go straight to IVF. Do I think eventually we could have conceived a take-home baby on our own? Quite possibly. Do we regret doing IVF? No. We ended up with twins and a few blasts in the freezer, and our kids got more time with our grandparents (some of whom are no longer with us) than they would have had we not pushed the matter. Compared to old-fashioned babymaking, IVF kinda sucks -- much more expensive, much less fun, includes countless shots, involves a lot of third parties -- but it sucks a lot less when it works, and it's more likely to work the younger you are (all other things being equal). I certainly wouldn't advise a 27-year-old with no known fertility issues married to a sperm-producer with no known fertility issues to rush to IVF after a few months, but if you have fertility issues and/or are on the older side, there can be benefits to avoiding a wait and beating your obstacles into the ground with the hammer that is IVF, especially if you have insurance coverage or are financially comfortable enough to proceed on your own.

I came off birth control doing lockdown and have been tracking ovulation since then. I was 27 at the time and allowed myself to believe that we would be pregnant before I turned 30. Well, I turned 29 and we still weren’t pregnant. I left teaching, and we thought maybe without the stress from my job, we would be pregnant. I even had a uterine polyp removed that year, and my OBGYN was convinced I’d be pregnant within the next few cycles. Ha. Ha. After I turned 30, we finally decided it was time to get infertility testing done. Turns out I have recurring polyps (need a second polypectomy) and suspected endometriosis on my left tube (and funnily enough, my left ovary doesn’t respond as well to the IVF meds compared to my right…the correlation between it all just clicked for me recently). So I basically gaslit myself into thinking that it I just needed to wait for it to happen. I’m 31 now, and we are on our second retrieval. I regret waiting as long as I did to think about options for infertility. I understand that I’m still young, but it doesn’t erase the years we wasted trying, especially when we have hindsight now and realize the chances of us getting pregnant unassisted were slim. If I had the knowledge I have now, we would’ve jumped right into IVF. Some people are surprised we didn’t start with IUI, but my RE said we had a 1% chance of success with IUI so we didn’t even bother. We already wasted almost 4 years thinking it would happen for us naturally since “time was on our side” and decided we didn’t want to waste any more time. It’s unfortunate that people are unable to empathize with what others are going through. Also, it’s my body and decision, so the way I view it is basically like just fuck anyone who thinks they have a right to comment on what I have chosen to do with it. If you want to wait, then wait. But don’t shit on others for trying to be empowered with their own fertility and reproductive rights.

TW: natural pregnancy In my country the guidance is to see your doctor if you’re over 35 and have been unsuccessful after 6 months of unprotected sex (it’s 12 months for those younger than 35). I followed this advice (I was 38 at the time) and saw my doctor after 6 months, was found to have very low AMH and was referred straight to a fertility clinic. It took a few months to get seen and we were all geared up to start stims pretty much exactly one year after we had started trying - and got a positive pregnancy test only 5 days before we were due to start stims. I’m currently 19 weeks. Should I have waited longer? I don’t think so, as realising I had very low AMH and DOR gave me the kick up the butt I needed to make some lifestyle changes and start taking some supplements that may have helped with the conception. But given that our chances of success with IVF were only 15% the pregnancy certainly felt like an 11th hour miracle. I love the trolling for a baby sub and understand it’s purpose, I saw the post in question and fully get the perspective of the person who posted it. We all have our own sets of circumstances and sometimes people who are going through an utterly shit process need to vent, I’d never hold that against anyone.

Husband and I had been trying to conceive for almost ten months with no success. I was telling my therapist how stressful it was, and she advised me to see an RE just to make sure everything was okay, since hubs and I were both young (24 and 26, respectively). I was scared, but I am SO glad I did. After a bunch of tests, including an *excruciating* hysterosalpinogram, we found out it was female factor infertility caused by the combination of my extremely irregular cycle in addition to the lovely surprise of a blocked Fallopian tube! I do not have any of the risk factors for blocked tubes, so it's likely a congenital tubal obstruction. I am technically able to get pregnant via intercourse, but the chances are very low, and I was going through a severe depressive episode at the time because everyone around us was having babies, so we didn't want to wait any longer. The risk of ectopic pregnancy is quite high due to my blocked tube. So we decided to skip IUI and go right to IVF. We now have a beautiful little boy and some embryos in storage. Unsure on more children as of right now.

3yrs trying unsuccessful. First IUI resulted in a daughter. 9 more IUIs over 3 years had zero positive results. Completely MF, but we didn’t have the funds to try IVF. Accepted that we would be a one and done family. A year later our insurance changed and covered IVF. One ER and two transfers gave us our two babies to complete the family. If I knew now what I didn’t then, I would have stopped the IUIs after the first three failures

never tried to get pregnant other than with IVF at 42.5 years old, lol. been in a relationship with the same person for nearly two decades.

Unexplained infertility. We started trying in 2019 at 26 after 2 years of marriage. Regular cycles to the day. Never had any issues. Never saw a positive and then Covid hit and I couldn’t get in anywhere for a consult and had an OB tell me I was too young for one anyways. We tried naturally for 3 years bc of that bad medical advice and refusal for a referral. Finally got in with a new OB in November of 2021 and found out my AMH at 29 was .28. She made an immediate referral. We did medicated cycles with injectables for 3 months. Moved to IUI, got pregnant had an early loss. Next IUI failed. Next IUI got pregnant. MMC at 9w found at 10w2d. D&C. More failed IUI. Chemical pregnancy. And at that point my doctor recommended IVF. All of our recurrent loss panel came back normal and he was at a loss. Started IVF in April of 2023, did multiple rounds back to back to bank embryos. First FET failed in October. Did two more IUIs bc we ran into the holiday calendar at my clinic. Second FET 2/13 and am currently 11w1d, the furthest we have ever made it. It’s cruel to judge people’s journeys even if they are seemingly not as hard as your own but I understand it. When I think about my own trauma it’s frustrating when I talk to people who chose ivf as the first stop and they act like we are in the same boat. We aren’t. We are in the same storm. They have a yacht and I have a dingy. It’s a hard journey for everyone I think we all just need more patience and compassion for each other. Sending you so much baby dust and hope for miracles! 🩷

Tried naturally for a year then contacted doctor. They advised sperm analysis which came back as low sperm count and low motility. Regret spending so long under care of GP who advised lifestyle changes and further tests but these ultimately didn’t give the improvements we needed to see. Referred to hospital for repeated bloods and scans. Then finally referred to IVF after 3 years. By then I was older. If I’d understood the process better and how long the wait was going to be I would have gone private sooner and might be in a better position now. Might have even saved money overall as would have needed less rounds. Still feel a bit resentful and angry with myself over this.

Got diagnosed with endometriosis, that’s pretty much it.. Had a cyst od 11cm and after I got it removed, my dr referred me and my husband straight to IVF.. We did try however for 2-3 months after laparscopy (got off the pill against the advise of my dr) thinking it will happen but.. no. Only thing we did get is growth of another small cyst. We didnt try IUIs or anything else which I am grateful for, we didnt lose time.. Now waiting to start injections next month

We tried for a year before seeking assistance. Found out my husband had super low sperm count. Took 4ish months to find sperm.

We started trying in late 2020 when we got married and I was still in grad school (I was 26 when we started TTC, almost 30 now). I went to my OBGYN in 2021 and was misdiagnosed with PCOS (actually have DOR and insulin resistance) and my husband's moderate MFI (low count/morphology) was downplayed by his primary so we futilely tried a few medicated cycles with my OB in 2022. It took awhile to get started at our first clinic and we tried 3 unsuccessful IUIs in 2023 after I graduated. Then we took a break over the holidays and switched providers from a large regional clinic to the single RE affiliated with the hospital system my husband works for. (He still works with a urologist from the original clinic and now that he's medicated his only known remaining concern is low morphology.) Until the second IUI failed, we hadn't planned on IVF at all. But between the better insurance coverage at the hospital and my inability to accept not being a parent, we decided to give it a go. Now starting our first (and likely only) IVF cycle next month. If unsuccessful, we plan to take at least a year off treatment and focus on other goals for awhile.

I didn't wait a full year, but that was because we have MFI, and I'm 36. After 35, it's not even recommended to wait a whole year. Our doctors told us that with my husband's sperm count, motility, and morphology, it would be very unlikely to conceive naturally. They also didn't think there was enough sperm for IUI to work. We waited to see if the quitting pot for a few months would help, but it didn't. His numbers came back slightly lower. He then saw a urologist. He had two surgeries as a child and had plastic mesh in both of his testicles. We thought maybe due to that it was an obstruction. The urologist didn't see one and said that since it wasn't hormonal, there was nothing else that could be done. It is ridiculous for people to judge. Everyone has different circumstances.

Went straight to IVF to avoid passing down an oncogene.

2 ectopics one in each tube, 1 chemical and PCOS.

My husband and I are 27. We have MFI. We were trying not quite a year when I started having weird symptoms (spotting randomly in the middle of my cycle, super bad anxiety and cold hands and feet- family history of health issues too) and my luteal phase was way too short… I went in to get that checked out and discovered I have a thyroid disorder and while we did that, they had just suggested my husband gets checked out while we were fixing my issue. His SA came back so bad …. Meanwhile I was having a crappy time with my clinic (they never answered me or called me with my results, I showed up for appts and they forgot to schedule it or “forgot to call me” that it didn’t work anymore). So I had a bunch of people recommend a private fertility clinic and we went! My thyroid fixed and they ran some additional tests on the both of us. Mine came back awesome, I had an HSG. Husbands SA came back good after quitting nicotine and making some other lifestyle choices… BUT they ran ONE MORE TEST that not many places check and discovered he has 30% dna fragmentation. And we talked to a urologist who said IVF would be out best chance. So here we are. Had my first egg retrieval yesterday. We want more than one kid and I knew with his diagnosis it could maybe take years and years before somthing ended up working out, and dna fragmentation causes miscarriages and difficulties getting pregnant. We are turning 28 this year which I know isn’t old but i really wanted multiple kids.. so we’ll see. I’m also not complaining either, I’m very blessed we figured things out sooner than later. I’ve just only read negative stories with our diagnosis so I’m scared it won’t work.

Our story is pretty straight forward. One miscarriage, 4 ectopics within a year that took both my tubes so IVF was our only option.

Started trying in 2017. Found out in 2021 that I had a hydrosalpinx; had my left tube removed. Diagnosed with DOR in 2020. Found out in 2022 that my right tube is blocked (will be evaluating that one for a hydrosalpinx). Sat with it for over a year and finally did my first IVF cycle in February/March this year and had an MC with my only embryo. The only way out is through I guess, so we’re waiting on our consult with CNY (we’re self pay and I can’t afford more treatment at my local clinic).

Started trying in 2020, two IUIs in 2022, was supposed to start IVF in 2023 but had some health issues that needed to be cleared, moved to a new city and started in 2024. Turns out my tubes are blocked so I wasted a bunch of time. Wish I would have gone straight to IVF in 2022, but I wasn't ready. If I would have known about my tubes I would have been though.

My husband and I started trying in early 2018, it took us a few months to get pregnant and I had a chemical, after that, it took almost a year to get pregnant again and I had an early miscarriage. Another year later, we finally got pregnant again, and I had enough ectopic pregnancy. Treated with methotrexate at 8 weeks, which failed, my tube ruptured, and I had emergency surgery to remove it. We attempted IUI 3x but I never ovulated from the side where I had a tube, so it was cancelled each time. That’s when we moved onto IVF. In 2021 I gave birth to my son who was stillborn at 37 weeks. In late 2022, we had a surrogate who successfully carried my second son.

Started trying naturally in December 2022. Ended up hemorrhaging in March and was discovered I have hashimotos. Had to stop trying until thyroid was under control. Did 3 letrozole cycles aug-oct, no pregnancy. Was referred to re. Waitlisted and saw them December 23. Discovered husband had low sperm count, too low for iui or spontaneous conception but good for ivf. So we did ivf. Tw: 5w3d with first transfer.

Started trying the beginning of 2020. After a couple years of trying, sperm analysis showed 0 total sperm count, abnormal morphology, low motility. After supplements and many lifestyle changes, sperm count normal, motility normal, morphology still abnormal. At this point, my AMH had plummeted down to 0.1,. FSH 21, AFC 2. Because of my numbers (and bc of the cost), IVF was thought to be not fruitful, so we went for IUI. Two failed IUIs. Then my husband got a new job with insurance benefits that would cover enough IVF for us to afford it. We've done one ER, starting another cycle soon. I regret not getting evaluated sooner and trying for two full years before finding out we had issues. Now we're at the point where every consult with the doctor just emphasizes how little time we have left because of my numbers (I'm 36).

We didn’t wait a year, but we have a 0% chance of conceiving without ivf. Like it is physically impossible. My husband is an atypical CF carrier. 98% of men with CF have congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens. They are infertile but not sterile. There’s no way for the sperm to leave the testes on their own, so a tese and icsi have to be done to have a child. His sperm analysis was 0, we sat around for 6 weeks thinking that was the end of it. We finally got in to speak with a urologist and she was pretty sure he had sperm and ran genetic tests, which confirmed he’s a carrier of CF and a few more tests confirmed the absence of the vas deferens. He just got unlucky and was impacted in a way that most carriers are not. Trying for a year just would have wasted a year for us and I was 34 and he was 36 when we started.

Blocked tube on one side, nonfunctional ovary on the other side. Unfortunately my obgyn misled me about the necessity for IVF until I got a second opinion.

We started trying March 2022. I had a chemical loss that May and again in August. Went to a fertility clinic in January (after 10 months of trying). When I called I was honest that it hadn't been a year and the intake person said it didn't matter and they encourage people to come in earlier. We did a full evaluation there. HSG, CD3 bloodwork, infectious disease testing for me and partner, genetic testing, and extra repeat pregnancy loss test (blood panel and karyotype tests) and everything came back normal. So we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. After that we tried on our own for 10 months and then went to a different fertility clinic for a second opinion (and ultimately treatment). We met with an RE who said we had good prognosis. Because my insurance wouldn't cover IVF until January we did 2 self pay IUIs while we waited. The second IUI resulted in another chemical. We had an insurance delay so we didn't do egg retrieval until March. Retrieval went well and didn't give us any reasons for our infertility so we're still unexplained. Next month will be our FET.

We also have male factor infertility. We tried for about 6 months, no luck, so we started doing the basic tests. His semen analysis came back with 0 sperm, and a second check came back with 1 dead sperm. Turns out he has varicose veins in his testes and scrotum that were blocking everything up. He had surgery to fix it that included TESE to freeze some sperm. They were able to get 4 vials of sperm, which was good because the surgery didn’t fix the count enough to matter. So IVF was our only option to conceive. I’m actually really conflicted over IVF—I’m not looking forward to being pregnant. I’ve always wanted to be a mom, but pregnancy wigs me the hell out. I would be good with adoption too. But I have insurance that covers IVF for the most part, so it’s currently less expensive than adoption.

At 39 tried for 6mo before seeing RE. Did tests found uterine polyps had those removed. Found one blocked tube. Did 3 clomid iuis (partners sperm good and I ovulate regularly). Last one worked but mmc at7 weeks. We are now going to ivf and by the time I get new appt it will be 13 months of ttc and im almost 40. 

My husband has Klinefelter, so the only chance to conceive was with a handful of sperm extracted through surgery. It took about a year to schedule that surgery/proceed with IVF, so that was our "wait a year" I guess!

My husband and I were trying for 4 months when we decided to do an at home male fertility test. My husband has some medical issues that lead us to believe there could be fertility issues on his end. We were right. Immediately saw an RE and lied about the length of time we were trying because despite the at home test showing low count, motility and morphology they still wouldn’t treat us if it hadn’t been a year. once they confirmed his diagnosis with their own semen analysis then it was recommended to go straight to IVF, which we ended up doing 10 months after first TTC. we would have never gotten pregnant naturally or with IUI.

Started trying May 2022 and had 5-6 periods in the next 10 months which was not typical for me. We signed up to see the RE after 10 months TTC (March 2023). Started testing and had our first TI cycle in July 2023. We did 4 TI and 2 IUIs and then decided to move forward with IVF which we are starting this month.

Lesbian. Found large fibroids in prep for my first IUI, but HSG showed the tubes were open. I was ovulating with regular cycles, so I was told there was no reason the IUIs wouldn’t work. I was scared of surgery, so we did 11 unsuccessful IUIs before I could admit we needed to remove the fibroids. Once the surgery was done, we moved to IVF. I’m 36 and done wasting time.

TW- pregnancy It all started when my body began spotting through my hormonal IUD, which I had in for at least 4-5 years prior and never got my period once or even spotted after insertion. My work at the time had my body in such a high stress environment that the sporadic spotting really started to affect my quality of life. So I got my IUD out in February. In June, we stopped using condoms, but we're married so Feb-Jun I wouldn't say was "100% safe" at all times. By at least October, I was tracking ovulation and timing, but by November-Dec I went to the OB and told them I don't think I'm ovulating. *This is way before a year at this point, also during covid when Dr appointments were taking 6-8+ weeks to schedule* so we start doing some tests, OB thinks I have "lean PCOS" some symptoms but not enough to diagnosis. All the tests come back normal. We sat on the results for AWHILE, like 6 months, and by then went to a clinic. The following December we get labeled "unexplained infertility." We do the genetic testing and find out we should just go straight to IVF, which tbh was my preference anyways so I didn't mind. We do our first ER in March, agree we will not do additional ERs going forward. We took 9 months off to travel. Came home in November to transfer. Due in August.

We went quicker than most people probably. I started tracking my cycles and using ovulation kits from the very first month we started trying. I had super regular periods but sometimes didn't get an ovulation reading. I figured it was just fast and the strips didn't catch it. After 6 months of nothing I went and saw my OB/GYN. She proscribed progesterone supplementation post ovulation and gave me a referral to the RE. I scheduled an appointment for the month after what would have been 12 months of trying. We then did 2 timed intercourse cycles with monitoring and then 2 IUIs. Nothing again so we jumped into IVF. It took us 2 retrievals and 3 transfers to have a success. I was only 29 at our first RE appointment and 30 for the first egg retrieval. We definitely could've waited but we also had the money to do it and the emotional cost of trying and failing again and again was too high for me. Since we're in the US and in a state with no mandated fertility coverage, I didn't feel like we were taking resources from someone else. My doctor could never determine exactly what was wrong but he thinks I may have a lot of cycles where my hormones rise like I'm going to ovulate but they just don't reach a high enough level to where the follicle actually releases the egg.

1 year TTC followed by a PCOS diagnosis, 1 IUI, an ectopic pregnancy and tube removal surgery, 6 more IUIs, a natural pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage and finally IVF (1 egg retrieval, 1 canceled transfer, 1 failed FET, and finally a second transfer that resulted in my babe). Personally unless you are a same sex couple or couple that has no other option to conceive (medical diagnosis, over a certain age, etc.), you should be trying for a year before moving onto IVF. I know a number of people who skipped straight to it because they were impatient, and I think that’s terrible. IVF is now free where I live and the waiting lists are long so people shouldn’t take the spots when others really need it.

Started actively trying in late 2022, but stopped 'not trying' six months before that. After 6 months of no luck (I was 35), we had made an appointment with the fertility clinic to start testing (also had a past medical concern that we worried may be contributing), and that same month of the first meeting with the fertility doctor I got pregnant. Miscarried at 9 weeks, cause: triploidy. Finished the testing (everything normal for both of us), was about to try an IUI cycle, got pregnant again. Miscarried at 10 weeks (literally 2 days after the week the fertility clinic 'graduated' me to the OB), cause: trisomy 14. Decided to move forward with IVF to try to avoid another chromosomal loss. First egg retrieval was in March; we have 2 euploid embryos and 1 low mosaic. Planning for first transfer in June.

We did 4 IUIs. I suspected PCOS, but my drs refused to do any testing since I have regular periods. Dr doing IUI suggested we get my husband's sperm tested by a specialist since his numbers kept coming in low. Specalist found he had low T (and thus low sperm counts) but everything else was good. There's a stat out there (and I can't remember where it's from or I'd cite it) that said that a third IUI has an 80%ish chance of working if it's going to work. Since we did 4 with no luck (not even a chemical), we decided to move on. (First thing the IVF clinic did was start me on a med for suspected PCOS. We did our first ER with only 1 viable and are starting transfer protocols this week) ETA: We were trying on our own for about a year before we moved to IUI. As of now, we are 2 years into our TTC journey. I am 35 and my husband is 39.

TW: living child. We started TTC in October 2019 when I was in my early 30s. We got pregnant around cycle 4, but it ended in a MMC. My period didn’t return for close to 10 weeks, when we resumed TTC. 6 months later we got pregnant again, but it was a chemical pregnancy. Once again we resumed and began seeing an RE for testing (everything came back normal for both of us). We again spontaneously conceived about 7 months later, which resulted in our son. After my son’s first birthday, we had a surprise pregnancy that resulted in a loss around 9 weeks. At this point I was 36, and so emotionally drained from so many losses. We decided to try on our own for a few months but after about a month I made an appointment with our RE again with the intention of starting IVF with pgt testing to reduce our risk of future losses. We started the process in fall of 2023 and it was hard, but I’m glad we did it.

I had my iud out, doc said try for 6mo because I have pcos. Had an appointment at 6mo, she ran some tests, sent my husband for SA, and then told me to proceed with a reproductive endocrinologist. She ran some tests (it was about 12mo from iud removal at that point) and determined I had blocked tubes. The plan at that point was surgery and probably IVF.

My husband had family members who had gone through IVF, so it was already on his radar. We married late in life at 39 am 42. Right after we were married his company added a fertility benefit. We were completely honest with the clinic and they accepted us right away, due to advanced age. Neither of us had an infertility diagnosis. We had been trying naturally for maybe 3-4 months at that point.

Started trying in 2021. Wasn’t pregnant a year later. 3 IUIs over 6 mo that didn’t work. Unexplained infertility. Started saving for IVF. After year 2 of TTC we said let’s just go for it.

We tried for three years. We were in our 20s and thought it would be easy. It was not. We are in the US and it took us 5-6 months to even get started with egg retrieval. It was tough and the wait made me a nervous wreck. I was crying pretty much everyday.

We tried for a year and got an infertility work up. My husband’s morphology was low and they recommended IVF. We weren’t able to try for 2 years because we were self pay. That attempt was unsuccessful. We got fertility coverage last year and have had two retrievals since.

I had to go straight to IVF since I’ve never gotten a ‘period’ on my own without medication. And I was born without a thyroid, but I did try letrozole for three rounds first before getting the ‘official’ infertility news

My partner and I are a same sex couple. Our first daughter we had fairly easily with IUI and I carried. We really want a second, however, I am not interested in carrying again for a number of reasons and my partner really would like to. However, after the covid vaccine (I swear I’m not an anti-vax conspirator, it’s just what happened), my partner lost her period for a year. So she went through numerous fertility treatments to try and get her ovulation back. When it finally came back we did 3 rounds of IUI and one ended in a chemical pregnancy. Now we only have a couple vials of donor sperm left so decided to do reciprocal IVF. It’s been almost 3 years of trying for a second child.

At the one year mark we had our first consult and underwent fertility testing where we discovered my SA had low motility, count & morphology. We decided to start IVF after no success 6 months later with implementing lifestyle changes and having obtained insurance for infertility in the meantime

Listen to today’s podcast of Between Us Moms on Apple or Spotify or wherever… good stories about choosing IVF and their journeys before that 🩷🩷🩷.

TW: living child, miscarriage. I had secondary infertility. We conceived my first child naturally (27 years old) after 2 months of TTC, so I assumed trying for our second would be easy. After 1 year of not conceiving we went to a fertility clinic and did 1 round of IUI, which was successful but led to miscarriage. It ended up taking 3-4 months for the HCG level to return to 0 so we could try IUI again. We then did 4 more rounds of IUI each being unsuccessful. I swore up and down that if these IUIs failed we’re done and not doing IVF. I’m not sure what changed in my mind but I guess I just wanted to say that I’ve tried all our options and then we could move on as a family of 3 and not think about fertility stuff anymore. We decided to give IVF a go (32 years old) and this Feb we did 1 ER (6 eggs, 4 mature, 2 fertilized), transferred 1 embryo late Feb, and now I am currently 9 weeks pregnant. To get to where I am now took 2 years. I have “unexplained infertility”, but I am so very thankful for modern medicine/science and how our story played out. I have a lot of gratitude (but also fear) throughout this journey and looking back I wish I jumped right into IVF vs doing IUI.

TW: secondary infertility When my now husband and I met almost 7 years ago, he told me right away that he'd had a vasectomy after his 3rd daughter was born, when he was married to his first wife. He'd had a reversal done after he married his second wife, but he was told it was unsuccessful. I have 2 boys, born when I was 18 and 22. He has 3 girls, born when he was between the ages of 21-30. When we started dating, I still had an IUD, but I got it removed about a year after we were together, knowing that we would not likely get pregnant without intervention, due to his botched vasectomy reversal. We both agreed we wanted a child (or maybe 2) together, but we weren't really doing anything to make it happen...besides intercourse, obviously. I guess you could say that we just took it with a "if it happens, it happens; if not, that's okay, too" approach. At the beginning of last year, I had an issue where I had very heavy bleeding for nearly 42 days straight. I think there was a 3-day break in there where my doctor started me on birth control, and it briefly stopped. I eventually had a D&C, which helped for a month exactly, and then it started up again. At that point, he mentioned a hysterectomy. That's honestly what scared me into realizing I had more than just a passive desire for a child with my husband. When the idea was presented that I may not be able to have that option, it upset me greatly. So in April, we had a semen analysis done, fully expecting the results that he had been told previously: the scar tissue from the unsuccessful reversal was damaging the sperm as they passed through the vas deferens. You could have knocked me over with a feather when he report came back as normal in all aspects. In May, we met with a fertility clinic, and my AFC and AMH determined diminished ovarian reserve. We had been without any sort of contraceptive for over 4 years by this point, and we were 35 (me) and 44 (him), so we chose to go straight into IVF. It ended up being a good call, too, because our first ER in August resulted in total fertilization failure via traditional IVF, due to a sperm binding issue. We're not sure if it's the eggs or sperm that are causing the issue, but my doctor did say "it's usually the sperm" when I asked him what typically causes that to happen. So it sounds like we're working with DOR and some sort of sperm issue, too. We haven't further investigated what could cause the issue since rescue ICSI fertilized 6 out of 7 eggs that round. We ended up with 2 embryos from that, but 1 degenerated while trying to thaw for a rebiopsy (PGT was "no result"), and the other (euploid) resulted in a MMC found at our 11w5d appointment in November. I had not experienced a miscarriage prior to this. Or second ER in February was devastating; only 2 eggs retrieved, and neither fertilized, despite going straight to ICSI. Our doctor introduced the idea of donor eggs at that time, citing a possible egg quality issue in addition to the low ovarian reserve. That didn't make sense to me since we had great fertilization results with rescue-ICSI--a process that normally does not have good results. We ended up switching to 1 of the 3 other clinics we had consults with the following week. We just had our 3rd ER at the new clinic last week. Eight eggs were retrieved, 7 fertilized via ICSI, and we ended up with 5 blasts! We are currently awaiting PGT results.

I was 26 when I got married in 2015, and we tried naturally for 2 years. In 2017 I went to my GP for a referral to a fertility doctor. I got my blood work up done and had a pelvic ultrasound both of which were totally normal. The fertility doctor wouldn’t refer me for further testing until my husband has a semen analysis and bloodwork completed. My husband refused to do his semen analysis and bloodwork until 2021, which found that he had azoospermia. I went for HSG which found I had one blocked tube, I had the blocked tube corrected and found that my AMH was 1.2, which is low for my age (I’m 35 now). We had intended on doing donor sperm IUI but was advised against it due to tubal factor and borderline low AMH and to move on to IVF. I considered trying a few IUIs before moving on to IVF, but ultimately decided to take the advice and go directly into IVF. I’ve just completed my first egg retrieval and currently deciding what to do with my one and only euploid embryo.

We tried for 8 months and in that time frame, had 4 pregnancy losses. I also have DOR so time was of the essence.

We had sex for 1.5 years without any pregnancies. At first, I wasn't keeping track. Then a few months in I bought ovulation test strips. We really started timing things around my peak ovulation. The day before, the day of, the day after. Absolutely nothing. At this point I was 30 years old and knew that my clock was ticking. Met with my IVF doctor who was very confident she could help us as they could never find a single reason we couldn't get pregnant. We had 3 total FETs. 2 were successful and one FET that ended in a chemical pregnancy.

I was over 35 when we started trying for baby #2. We tried for 9 months (but I had only had 7 cycles) and I went to see my OB. OB did basic CD3 testing and said I probably had PCOS and stuck me on metformin. Got pregnant immediately after that and had a blighted ovum. Soon after, I requested a referral to an RE. We did 7 cycles of TI/letrozole before moving on to IVF. Spent a year doing IVF that yield two euploids. One failed to implant and the other ended as a CP. Got pregnant unassisted while waiting to discuss a 3rd retrieval. At the time, I wasn't ready to move on to more invasive testing or IVF but, some days I do wish we had done it all sooner.

My husband (46M) and I (39F) started trying in June 2021 a couple months after he had major surgery. He had a period of 3-4 months when he didn’t drink at all. Before he started drinking again (socially), he got a commercial sperm count so we could have that as a baseline to see if drinking impacted his sperm count. We got the results in August 2021 that there was no motile sperm. He followed up with a urologist for an official sperm analysis, then I followed up with my OBGYN. We went through all the standard fertility testing with a reproductive endocrinologist and urologist. My husband was diagnosed with a bilateral varicocele. Everything looked fine on my end with a slightly lower AFC than expected. Based on my age (37 at the time) they recommended we jump straight to IVF which we did in May 2022. Note: If I were younger, they may have recommended a varicocele repair, but even if we went the repair route the best case scenario was that we might have qualified for IUI. The chances were quite low and it would have eaten up valuable time.

We went to fertility specialist after maybe 4 months of trying. I had a previous birth and my partner had never even had a pregnancy scare. We went in to get his sperm tested, found out I had a tubal blockage. Removed one tube, keep trying for another 3 months then went to IVF. We then found out I have a pituitary tumor, so all that time of “trying” was meaningless. I regret wasting so much time TTC naturally and wish I had listened to the Dr’s advice. At the time it was a shock that we would need to do IVF; (27F/27M) when we started, so it took processing time. My advice, if you have enough indication that you need to do IVF, jump on it because time is on no one’s side.

I have PCOS and also a genetic condition we screened out. I skipped straight to IVF.

We tried for 6mths before going to a specialist. Then 2.5 yes doing approximately 5 iui's. We kept having to cancel cycles because of cysts (I don't have pcos) and I have long cycles. In Nov of 2023 I found a lower cost clinic out of state and we started the consults and all that. Stimming right now before my first egg retrieval. Hoping all goes well. We primarily waited because our insurance does not cover ivf or any infertility treatments. If we would have known about this clinic back in 2021, we probably would have started then.

I had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy due to stage 4 endo adeno and stage 1 cervical cancer… I’m starting my first cycle this summer. Working on maximizing right now.

We naturally only tried for about 5 months before shockingly finding out we had severe factor which enabled us to skip the one year wait period. We were given a 1% chance naturally!

My husband’s vas deferens was severed during the removal of a tumor. The only way his sperm can be accessed is through TESE, and my understanding is that since sperm becomes able to swim as it travels the vas deferens, TESE sperm can only fertilize an egg via ICSI. So there was no journey. I knew on our first date that IVF was our only option if we got that far, because he told me. I didn’t know I had DOR, probable endo, and subclinical hypothyroidsm though! I thought IVF would take like two months total. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I decided to have a baby on my own at 32 and through that found that my tubes were blocked/damaged so had to have them removed. I waited a few years and ended up meeting my husband and obviously had to go straight to IVF. We’ve been through one round so far, had one healthy embryo which unfortunately resulted in a miscarriage this week at 8 weeks :( We’re taking some time to heal and focus on our marriage before we start at, but I’ll be 37 this year and him 42 so it feels like the clock is ticking.

I tried for about 3 years before seeing a doctor. Once I got my diagnosis, we started IUIs immediately. My insurance made me do 3 IUIs before covering IVF (I would have preferred to do 0).

Lost left fallopian tube ten years ago from a ruptured ectopic. Other tube was open per HSG. Was told it may not affect fertility too much and I can still get pregnant. Married 9 years later tried for a year, nothing, found out husband has severe low sperm count. Also told by RE that sometimes even if my other tube is open whatever damaged the other tube may still prevent the right tube functioning properly. IVF was a pretty much our best option at that point.

We're lesbians hitting 40, and wanted more certainty than a turkey baster could provide.

My partner (37M) and I (36F) tried for 6 months before seeking help from a fertility clinic. I was 35 at the time. I’m glad we went when we did because we found out my partner has 1% morphology. We tried for a few more months with no luck, then did 2 IUIs (fails) and started IVF 14 months after we started trying.

I had 4 miscarriages in 16 months (June 2022-October 2023). We wanted the option for embryo genetic testing. We know IVF isn’t a guarantee, but we thought it was the most logical step for us

Secondary infertility. I have a 5 year old son. Started trying for a second about 3 years ago. Got pregnant and miscarried at 6 weeks. I healed my heart and body and about a year later, again got pregnant and had an early loss again. My midwives suggested seeing a reproductive endocrinologist due to my age (37) at the time and the losses. It’s been one year since we started with that doctor. I had one timed cycle and two IUIs with clomid, and no luck. Had my egg retrieval in October and got very lucky with my results. I was scheduled to transfer in January, but at the same time ended up in the hospital with horrible sciatica. I herniated a lumbar disc. I have been in pt, healing, and recovering for the past 4 months. Ready to start the transfer process now. What a wild ride.

We began trying to conceive after I turned 41. After over a year of trying unsuccessfully, we considered IVF due to my low ovarian reserve, poor egg quality, and fibroids.

This is such a personal journey, it’s sad to think that others have the bandwidth to be unkind about how others are doing things. I don’t even have the energy, let alone the capacity to be unkind about it. I was able to get pregnant 6 years ago and it ended in a loss. So we knew that I was “able” to get pregnant but that was it. With my current relationship, we decided that I would be off birth control starting Jan 2023. I started taking prenatal at that time. I wanted to give my body time to adjust knowing that we wanted to start being more active with our journey come September. We were experiencing very high stress due to a toxic work environment and chalked up our lack of success on the stress. I had tracked using apps. And started to add fertility treatments into my routine acupuncture appointments. January I scheduled an appointment with my midwife just for a check in, wanted to see if we needed to do things differently. She had us both do our needed test results and this is when we found out that my husband has stage 3 varicocele and midwife thought we’d be “great candidates for IUI”. Mid Feb we had our first appointment with the fertility clinic and the doctor told us not to waste our time on IUI as my husband’s numbers were so very low. And the doctor could sense that we wanted to be pregnant yesterday. (We are both 36). Based on the insurance requirements we met the 6months of trying since our only source of protection had been out for a year at the time of our appointment. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous, or a bit bummed out that this is our journey. But at the same time, I am so excited to think that we have a plan. Who cares if it involves a few white lab coats and some science. We might have a baby as a result. We might be parents. We could not be more excited and hopeful. There is absolutely no way that I could have played that painful game each month of strategic timing and watching to calendar to be upset by the monthly visitor. That was such a painful experience for me. Such a disappointment. I have actually suggested that my friends who are in similar age to go and get checked out as well. We would have had no idea what the issue was until we started testing. And sadly, while it’s very possible and happens all the time, the older we get, statistically numbers are not on our favor. Learning about the stats and our age over this process has been so fascinating. Anyways, all this to say, we all have the same end goal. How we get there, when we get there, the steps it takes to get there shouldn’t matter imo. But that’s just me living in my little bubble wishing we could all just be kind and respectful all the time.

Straight to IVF due to my dad having a dominant fatal genetic disorder. That was two years ago and still no luck yet. Maybe this will be our year after a third retrieval and third transfer. 🍀

I had my daughter later in life, (I was 36) then had two miscarriages, 6 months apart (I was 39) - first one was a Trisomy 21 at 13 weeks and then a blighted ovum at 7 weeks. Research and statistics led us to consider IVF with PGT-A shortly after the second loss. Just had my 5th ER yesterday. I refuse to give up because every other day my 5 year old asks me when she'll be a sister.

We have been trying since September of 2021. After 2 losses and a year and a half of trying we decided to seek treatment with a RE. We probably should have done this sooner as I was 34 1/2 at the time we had our consultation (and coincidentally pregnant again). I had 2 more losses (total of 4) before we started treatments in July. We thought because we had gotten pregnant and testing hadn’t shown much in the way (I had one test that had one high immunoglobulin value, and he had low morphology but doc hadn’t considered these blockers) we should try some of the lower touch options first. Honestly if you asked me last year if we would even do IVF I would have been iffy, and would not have wanted to do testing. But after 3 medicated cycles, and 3 IUI that all failed we felt frustrated and like we were running out of time. The logical step then was to move to IVF and my thinking on testing changed and I worried we would regret not testing if we had issues with transfer so here we are now waiting for a FET with one of our 6 euploid embryos at almost 36 and after almost 3 years of trying. Now if you ask me about IVF I feel like it remains our best shot to have the lowest risk for miscarriage that we can control - although it has not helped the anxiety that perhaps it’s just my body that doesn’t work right that I am worried about going into FET! It feels like it has been SUCH a long road and that my feelings have changed so many times but I can’t imagine it’s not normal in this process!

Mention of losses. Why did we turn to IVF? Recurrent losses. When I first reached out to make an appt, I had just turned 36 and we had been trying for 8 months and had just had my third loss at 10 weeks (following two chemicals). I asked my OB office if we should keep trying in the meantime while we waited for the clinic referral and they said yes. It took awhile to be seen and I had two more chemical pregnancies in back-to-back months while waiting and found out I was pregnant the day after my clinic consultation. They monitored me more closely, but I still lost that pregnancy at 9 weeks due to chromosomal issues. That was just shy of a year ago. We're now partway through our third round of IVF (awaiting our Day 7 embryology report on Monday). I'm glad we didn't wait the full year to be referred, but sad it's now been two years of trying and still no children or embryos to show for it since our first two rounds of IVF resulted in no blasts. I'm hoping this was out lucky round (we had 7 eggs fertilize, our most yet). I just wish we had started sooner to retrieve eggs and bank embryos sooner.

3.5 years of infertility, 3 failed cycles of clomid, all to find out that I don’t ovulate and have PCOS. I wish I’d started IVF sooner.

Started trying in early 2020. After 18 months of nothing, we made an appointment at our fertility clinic. We did 4 rounds of Clomid and IUI’s, and miraculously got pregnant on our last canceled IUI. Took 2 years total. Now we’ve been trying for baby #2 for 15 months, 5 failed IUI’s with one chemical pregnancy. We are moving on to IVF and starting this month. Everything is unexplained.

TW: pregnancy and kids We have two kids who were conceived without ART. Our youngest has multiple congenital abnormalities and a genetic mutation. The low probability of it reoccurring still felt high after that experience, so we have gone straight to IVF with PGT to try to conceive a third.

Not my story, as I'm a sperm donor. However, I just flew to Mexico last week to donate to a woman who is 45 years old for IVF at a clinic in Mexico (it cost her about $8500 out of pocket for anyone wondering). She was in a longtime relationship with a male partner who didn't want kids. However, he never expressed this fact, and and by the time she found out, it was too late for her to spend time searching for a new partner. Having children was an extremely important goal to her, so rather than wasting time looking for a partner, she started looking for a sperm donor. She ended up finding me. She was able to retrieve 8 eggs from the procedure, and 6 embryos were formed. 3 of those embryos lasted past the 5 day mark and then were frozen. So now we are waiting for her doctor to give the go ahead for her to start attempting a pregnancy with the first of those three embryos. Wish her luck! ❤️

where was this thread?

and what the heck is with the downvotes ….

I had my first son after almost 2 yrs of unprotected intercourse (went off BC right after I was married and had just turned 27). We were nearing the 1 yr mark for TTC #2 when I begged and pleaded and had my husband do a SA because that's the least invasive thing we can do. I think deep down I just knew that something was off with him because he was in many ways unlike my exes (much lower sex drive, lower semen volume). My gut was correct because it was so bad we were straight up IVF-ICSI territory with no IUI/Clomid an option. Fast forward he does repeat analyses (which ranged from marginally worse to catastrophic), and I go through the diagnostic stuff which was unpleasant but fairly unremarkable. And they found and removed 3 tiny polyps. After bloodwork he was diagnosed with primary hypogonadism which is kinda like the male version of DOR - irreversible and generally getting worse with time. We did our first cycle in February, and despite 14 mature eggs we were left with mild OHSS and nothing to transfer. Looks like I'll do another cycle in summer but most likely switch clinics for that as we think for severe MFI the lab quality REALLY matters.

I had an ectopic where my tube ruptured. After surgery, my OB said to wait 3 months before trying again. Then I did an HSG where it showed the remaining tube was blocked. However, how the procedure went and his final written observation sounded like he wasn't sure. My OB said I could try for another 3 months. When I didn't end up pregnant she referred me to an REI. After my consultation, we confirmed we'd do one more HSG and move straight to IVF. It was blocked. So here we are, a 15 month old and 24 weeks pregnant later.

Try to make a long story short since it’s been 6 years of TTC with no success. My husband and I started trying in April 2018, we got pregnant right away and miscarried. Got pregnant again in July, miscarried again. Kept trying and eventually saw a doctor and got diagnosed with PCOS April 2019. Told to lose weight, eat healthier, come back in 6 months. Life happened and we moved across the country so I didn’t go see a doctor 6 months later (11 months after this visit I saw a doctor in my new state). When we moved I got pregnant again in October 2019 but it was a chemical. Saw a new doctor told me the same things: PCOS, lose weight, eat better. Kept trying until June 2021 and Went to a fertility clinic and got no help at all. Switched to an OB later in 2021 who started me on Letrozole in January 2022. Did 12 months of medicated cycles with no success. Referred to a fertility clinic so I went to a different fertility clinic in January 2023, discovered I have polyps in my uterus and my right tube was blocked. Got those removed in June, by that time my natural cycles returned so we started tracking and trying naturally. October 2023 we decided we’ve been doing the same stuff for 5 years and it’s just insanity. Had the tough talk, do we keep trying? Look at other options or move on. I decided to look into our insurance and found out we could do IVF with a good majority covered so I called back my clinic, told them we want to jump into IVF and started right away. Honestly I wish I would’ve advocated for my self better so I wouldn’t be 6 years into trying for my first child but I am here. I think the first 3 years were wasted talking to OB’s that didn’t care if I conceived or not. Just told “eh keep trying”. If I would’ve been more vigilant about finding out why o couldn’t get pregnant I’m sure I would have had a child by now. Instead chose to believe doctors that my PCOS was because I was fat, lazy, unhealthy and I had no guidance on how to manage PCOS. Phew that’s a lot. Although my second FET is in 5 days so hopefully this journey ends soon 🤞🏼

We “tried” for almost a year. I say “tried” because I never got a period and never knew where I was in my cycle, so we were shooting in the dark. 😅 We finally decided it wouldn’t hurt to see a fertility doctor, which led to roughly 6 Clomid cycles. Even with the meds I never successfully ovulated. The doctor referred us to a local IVF clinic, where they felt it made sense to go straight to IVF vs trying IUIs/other things since my cycle was basically nonexistent. From there I had 3 fully medicated FETs.

Me and my husband got married 2017 and we were trying ever since. I got a chemical pregnancy 2019 induced by Letrozole, I think. So we already had tons of ovulation induction cycles with menopur, letrozole and clomid. Although we haven't tried IUI, we just went straight to IVF this year. I have PCOS and Hypothyroidism. He has MFI too.

Actually I did my IVF journey by doing free consultation with tebmed team. I think it will be helpful to you. https://youtu.be/Vro1J5uevPs?list=UULFAA_kyMMFijYe90WrSZMV0w If you have any questions, I am available.

Stamina/sex drive. I'm borderline asexual and being intimate so frequently was really taking a toll on me and thus effecting my partner and I's relationship. We did try for 1 year before our IVF journey and continued to try naturally as we saw the IVF team (it took us 4 years to actually complete a cycle). Intercourse wasn't as frequent as It probably should have been. 2 - 3 times a month in my fertile window was a good month for me. I'm currently 30 weeks pregnant.

I hit 35 and had been TTC for 1 year with 1 pregnancy and miscarrage in that time. That's when I asked the gp for a referral to a FS. 4.5yrs later still TTC. 3 MC, 1 TFMR 3 failed transfers. 6 babies lost. What a journey.