Our fertility journey started shortly after we married in 2016 and we casually tried to conceive for a year, without any luck. After a full year of trying, I visited my OBGYN in 2017, who advised us to pay close attention to my body. I then started to track my ovulation via Basel body temperature checks and ovulation test strips. This continued for 6 months without success, so we felt like we needed to take a different approach.

In 2018 my husband had his first semen analysis done. Much to our surprise, the results came back as ZERO. Zero sperm found. We were dumbfounded. To be absolutely certain, he repeated the test a week later and the results were the same. We were told not to worry and that there could be a possible obstruction that a simple surgery could fix. We then started a year long journey of meeting with multiple urologists throughout MI, my husband undergoing two separate surgeries, and months of fertility drug treatments. But sadly nothing worked and we were left with a final diagnosis of “non-obstructive Azoospermia.” We were shattered and exhausted. Picturing a life without children was devastating to us.

After a few months of recharging our batteries, we got back into the ring and started researching infertility doctors. On our 3rd consultation we met with Dr Wolf at RMA of Michigan. From the start we knew she was the perfect fit for us. She was so kind and understanding and we never felt like “just a number” to her. Her compassion and positivity were something we had not experienced with any other doctor and it instilled hope in us once more.

Because of my husband’s Azoospermia, we needed to use a donor if we were going to make this happen. We started the process with medicated IUI’s and routine ultra sounds, during which was discovered I have endometriosis. Dr Wolf explained the difficulties this could present when trying to conceive but my body responded well to the medication and my numbers always came back in good range. We had high hopes but when the BETA calls came… they were negative. I’ll never forget those calls. One more “bad news” call to add to our growing list of setbacks.

We decided it might be best to move on to IVF. I was petrified of starting IVF but my amazing nurse, Jackie, made me feel so much better.

We started our first IVF cycle in October of 2018. Since our infertility was mostly male factor we expected good results, but after a week or so of STIMS my body was just not responding as well as they thought it would. With only a few promising follicles, it looked like the IVF cycle would turn into another IUI. I remember just sitting in my car in the parking lot and just sobbing. I felt so defeated and for a moment I thought of just giving up. But I didn’t, because I knew deep down that we could make this happen!

We pushed through and did three extra days of STIMS and it worked! We had 5-6 follicles they really felt were very viable!

I had my egg retrieval on November 21st, 2018. We ended up having 10 mature eggs and 8 fertilized. We were ecstatic!!! Finally, some good news was heading our way.

Five days later we transferred one beautiful embryo!