“Keep going even when it feels like you can’t… The little victories will give you strength.”
Today’s patient story is from Courtney. Courtney discovered she had endometriosis when she and her husband were not able to conceive naturally after several months of trying. After undergoing surgery with Dr. Miller, she was able to get pregnant via IVF and just welcomed a baby boy only three weeks ago! Congratulations Courtney!
Courtney writes:
My husband and I began trying to conceive in late 2017. While at my yearly gyno appointment in May 2018, I mentioned we were trying to conceive. I was told to track ovulation with an app and/or pee sticks and go from there. My period had always been like clockwork and I learned that my ovulation was too. I maybe had heavier/more painful periods but nothing that ibuprofen and a heating pad couldn’t fix. My gynecologist did an internal ultrasound and noticed that one ovary was dense, leading her to believe that I might not ovulate on that side, however my pee sticks indicated that I did.
We ended up getting pregnant on our own in the summer of 2019, but that ended in a miscarriage (D&C) as there was nothing in the sac. I then had the dye test to see if my tubes were blocked and they were not. I also did 3 rounds of clomid with no pregnancy. This was the end of the road with my regular gynecologist as she couldn’t help me any further.
I then went to another gynecologist in my hometown to move onto IUIs. He did a natural IUI with no luck. Then we tried a medicated (clomid) IUI with no luck either. During this process, he did an internal ultrasound and that’s when I first learned I possibly had endometriosis. He referred me to Dr Miller.
I had laparoscopic surgery with Dr. Miller in Feb 2021 for endometriosis. We decided to try surgery before an egg retrieval, because Dr. Miller thought he could clean me out and then we could try to conceive naturally or with clomid as he didn’t think the endometriosis was as bad as it turned out to be. However, during surgery he found stage 4 endometriosis on my ovaries and appendix. He removed my appendix and did what he could on my ovaries in order to preserve them for IVF.
After my surgery, Dr Miller said that the endometriosis had been there for quite awhile because the cysts were so fixed to my ovaries. He said he did what he could to minimize the cysts but he couldn’t get rid of them fully because that would ruin good ovarian tissue for IVF. After I’m done having kids, I can have another surgery to fully clean me out.
It was invaluable to have Dr. Miller as my surgeon and fertility specialist. The entire time he was focused on the goal at hand- to have kids. I felt comfortable during the process that he knew what to do during surgery to make it possible for me to have kids.
After surgery, we started preparing for IVF and I had my egg retrieval in July 2021. We ended up with 4 well graded, untested embryos after retrieval. My first FET (frozen embryo transfer) was in September 2021 and unfortunately ended in a chemical pregnancy. Shortly thereafter, we did another transfer and I gave birth to my son, Leo, on August 11.
Going through infertility takes a toll on you emotionally and physically. Here are a few pieces of advice I would give to other women dealing with infertility.
- Keep going even when it feels like you can’t do/go anymore. The little victories will give you strength. For example, the recovery from retrieval was brutal for me, but when we found out we got 4 embryos, I felt like I could do it all over again.
- Ask for help and allow help from others. I am the most organized person out there but I had to have my husband take the reins on the meds because it was all too much for me. I never prepared, mixed, set up, or gave myself one shot!
- Don’t change your lifestyle. Dr Miller never once told me what to eat, drink, do, or not do. Working out was limited with retrieval and FET, but that was the extent of it.
- Take the month off and go on vacation. Dr Miller wrote in my message on the portal that this was a must! You have to continue to live your life as best as possible!