IVF – Covid-19 Shattering Our Baby Dreams

Here at Fertility Help Hub, we’ll be bringing you real-life stories around how Covid-19 has been affecting the TTC (trying to conceive) community. This week we spoke to IVF Warrior Kat in the US, who was moments away from a frozen embryo transfer, following an unsuccessful round of IVF. You can read her full story below. If you’d like to share your own story, please feel free to message us here.

Over to Kat Mayorga-Elton…

@kat.noelle

My husband and I have been married for almost seven years and we have been trying to grow our family for almost five years. I thought getting pregnant would be so easy since I am the youngest of four in my family, and my mom was using birth control when she became pregnant with me. Also, all my siblings have four children and seem to get pregnant easily. I was so hopeful when we started trying, but with each passing month we began to lose more hope. My husband and I are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is very family oriented and many members have a lot of children. 

After trying for a year and a half, we decided to consult an infertility doctor. I figured I wasn’t getting pregnant because I was working at a very stressful job and that must be the problem. After many tests, medications, surgeries and appointments we were told we had unexplained infertility. One of the surgeries also showed that I had severe Endometriosis. After the surgery our doctor was hopeful we would get pregnant in six months or so. We became hopeful again and I thought it would work this time. 

Sadly, it did not happen that way. We were told the only way for us to get pregnant was to do IVF. I was told if we kept doing Clomid, or other fertility drugs, it could make my Endometriosis worse and lead to the need for another surgery.  My husband and I are both social workers and therefore don’t make a ton of money nor have insurance that would cover IVF. We thought we could never afford to do IVF. After some research and praying, we found a way to make it work. We started the IVF process and were so excited. The egg retrieval was tough, but we were still hopeful. We then also got the news that we could do a fresh embryo transfer and get pregnant sooner. I couldn’t believe it. I nearly shouted for joy right there in the doctor’s office. 

Well, transfer day came and went. We felt so positive and thought this was it during the TWW (two week wait).

When I got the call from the doctor’s office with the news that this transfer hadn’t worked, I thought my world was over. My husband and I were both devastated.  When we were in the right place to try again, we paid for everything, scheduled another transfer and were feeling excited again, as we still had three frozen embryos left.

I began the shots, was going to the doctor’s appointment and doing everything right. I felt in my heart that this would be it and I would finally be pregnant. The day was getting closer and closer and I felt like a kid right before Christmas. Everything for this transfer seemed to be coming together perfectly. I was on Cloud 9 and nothing was going to bring me down.  Then the news of COVID-19 was increasing. I called my fertility clinic and asked if there was a possibility of this pandemic affecting our procedure. We were told by our clinic, as long as I had no symptoms, we would be okay. 

Then a week before our transfer day, we got the call that our transfer was cancelled. I again lost all hope. I knew that this wasn’t forever and we can do our transfer once this is under control.

This news was just another drop in the rollercoaster ride of our infertility battle. I tried to remain positive and had perspective that other people are dealing with far worse things at this time, but it still felt like a punch in the gut. At this point, my husband and I are trying to trust in our faith and the Lord. We will keep going forward, but this hiccup really threw us for another loop. Hopefully this will just make us stronger. We know everything will happen in the Lord’s time. 

Kat