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Experimental Fertility Treatments
By: Carolyn Dooley Apr 29, 2015
After getting second opinions from various doctors who mostly didn’t support the decision, we decided to try the experimental fertility treatments. I was going to do this along with IUI’s (intrauterine insemination) so that I would hopefully get pregnant quickly and not be on the drugs very long. After four IUI’s and countless shots, there was no pregnancy.
At this point I was becoming concerned about the drugs I was taking, and I decided to get another opinion—what seemed like my 43rd—from one of the most prestigious fertility clinics in the country, located in Manhattan. There weren’t many tests left to be run, but there were a few that my new doctor recommended. After receiving the test results, his conclusion was that there was nothing wrong. Excuse me?
I asked him how I was supposed to wrap my head around the fact that one “experimental” doctor was telling me that I was the worst case scenario he had seen and another “conventional” doctor was telling me nothing was wrong. He explained that, unfortunately, little is known about miscarriage, and to try and take comfort in the fact that the truth probably lied somewhere in the middle.
His recommendation was to do PGS (pre-implantation genetic screening) testing to make sure the quality of the embryos were not to blame for the miscarriages, even though an earlier D&C detected a normal embryo from my previous miscarriage. The heartbreaking “XY” that I hadn’t expected to see on the D&C results report, showing a normal genetic make-up, could have actually been my own cells that were tested, he explained.
I trusted this doctor and he was one of the first “conventional” doctors who didn’t make me feel crazy for wanting to try these experimental treatments. He even supported my continuing with them through my IVF process, if it is what I chose to do. The results of the PGS were nine frozen embryos—eight of them viable! My doctor was shocked by the results because typically only two or three embryos would survive to this stage. As my gut had always been telling me, genetics was not my problem.
This article was originally published online at: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a10726/why-i-chose-a-surrogate/
RSMC is a full service fertility center and can arrange surrogacy services along with all medical reproductive services.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
