Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

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My husband, Ryan, and I met playing softball for the Ocean City Police Department, where we were both employed in the summer of 2007 and dated for four years before we were married on July 23, 2011. We both have always wanted to have children, and we started trying immediately after our wedding.
All of my girlfriends were using an app on their phone to track their periods so they knew when they were ovulating. One by one they became pregnant, and I continued to wait. Some months I wouldn’t get my period at all, so after a year of trying unsuccessfully on our own, we knew it was time to look for help. We took the first step and reached out to Shady Grove Fertility and scheduled our initial consultation with Dr. Jason Bromer

Getting answers

We met with our doctor and started testing immediately. We did a lot of blood work and a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) test. It was determined that I had PCOS. I thought it would be an easy fix, and we would quickly be ready to get started on our journey. After additional testing, we returned to Shady Grove Fertility for our follow-up appointment.
It was at this time that we found out that we didn’t have only one obstacle in our way of becoming pregnant but two: Ryan’s semen analysis showed he had a low sperm count, resulting in male factor infertility. I was devastated with this additional news; I choked through the tears because I knew our journey was not going to be easy. However, I’ve always believed that the longer you have to wait for something, the more you will appreciate it when it finally arrives.

Getting started with treatment

We immediately began treatment in January 2013 with an Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). We were so excited at the possibility that we could soon be parents. Our hearts were soon crushed after our first failed IUI, but we continued two more times – only to have our hearts broken twice more. We decided that it would be best to take a break before moving on to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
Not only does Infertility take a toll on your body physically but I quickly learned it also affects you both emotionally and mentally, not to mention financially. In August of 2013, we finally decided to start IVF. At this point, I must have cried a million tears already. We continued to struggle, dealing with our insurance company, but Delphina at the Shady Grove Fertility Frederick office helped us through the entire process until finally we received our approval; we were ready to start.
It was a very stressful process, and after enduring weeks of shots and medication, it was time for our egg retrieval. Since IVF is demanding on the body, we decided to freeze our remaining embryos so we would be able to do a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) instead of having to complete another fresh IVF cycle. We had two embryos to freeze.
Two weeks later, on September 20, 2013 we got the news we had been waiting to hear for two years: “You’re pregnant”. We were beyond ecstatic! We were successful with our first cycle of IVF and finally, we were going to be parents. Almost immediately after receiving the greatest news, however, things started to fall apart. I did not have an easy pregnancy and began to bleed every day. At my six-week ultrasound, it was determined that I had a hematoma that was causing the bleeding. I continued to have hope that I would still have a successful pregnancy. At my eight-week ultrasound, my hematoma was gone and I graduated from SGF. We thought this is it! We’re going to be parents.
It was the happiest that I had been in years. However, that all ended at my nine-week ultrasound when I found out that we miscarried; we were devastated. I was broken and my husband, devastated. We took some time off for my body to heal and my head and my heart to be able to tolerate our loss before moving forward. We are thankful that we have two frozen embryos waiting for us because IVF was difficult, and our next attempt hopefully won’t be so demanding. We will be doing another frozen embryo transfer soon. We continue to be optimistic and hopeful that one day we will experience the joys of being parents.

Spreading the word to help others

I have become a huge advocate for infertility. I think it’s important for people to know all of the options available to them, and people are often surprised by the cost of treatment. I am looking forward to participating again in “The Walk of Hope” this year, spreading awareness that we are 1 in 8 couples with infertility. I never give up hope that one day we will have our family, but in the meantime, I love the family I have with all my heart (my husband and our two fur babies, Drake and Remi).
I have had two friends “come out to me” after hearing my story and I have referred them both to Shady Grove Fertility. I tell them to never give up hope, and we are all very supportive of each other’s treatments. Our motto is “All good things are worth waiting for and worth fighting for.” I know that I am in the right place and that one day we will have the family we have always dreamed of. The more pain you have to endure on your journey, the sweeter the arrival at your destination… soon we hope to arrive at our destination.



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Diagnosis and treatment

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Infertility terms
Frozen embryo transfer (FET)
Polycystic ovary syndrome
Male factor infertility

Receiving care

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Dr. Jason Bromer
Frederick, Maryland location
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Meet our SGF care team

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My husband, Joe, and I have been together for nine years, married for five. We met while I was in high school and started dating just as I was finishing college. As soon as we were married, we decided to stop actively preventing pregnancy and thought we would see how things played out. I took a “work at home” job because we thought “this will be great when we have a child,” but it just wasn’t happening. As the years passed, I found myself getting more and more discouraged.
In the meantime, I had gone back to school and completed my MBA, and my husband went back to school and finished his undergraduate degree in Education. We did other things to pass the time: my husband became a triathlete, and we renovated our house. Eventually I got tired of working from home. I felt isolated, and I felt like I was just waiting to get pregnant- which obviously wasn’t happening. I decided to become a consultant and started traveling for work.
Unfortunately, as my husband was a full-time student and not currently working, we lost our health insurance that included fertility benefits. The self-employment health insurance I carried was not only very expensive but also without those types of benefits. We had to wait until my husband finished school and got the great health insurance benefits from being a teacher before we could start with Shady Grove Fertility. As soon as we received our insurance cards, I made the appointment online. It was the best decision I ever made.

Seeing a specialist

When I first set up my appointment with Shady Grove Fertility, I was terrified. I thought for sure they would tell me that there was no hope of us ever having a baby. In fact, I cried during my very first meeting with Dr. Gilbert Mottla just explaining to him our history and how much we wanted a baby. He assured me that he would help us have a baby. He was so positive and reassuring that there was very little room for doubt in my mind. Maybe that’s just part of their technique, removing the doubt and worry and taking the stress and burden of getting pregnant off of your shoulders and carrying it for you. I left there feeling like a weight had been lifted. Someone smarter than me was on it, and I could trust him.
Several times over the better part of a decade I asked my doctors (both PCP and OBGYN) if they thought I had PCOS. I had read many articles and knew I exhibited most of the symptoms. Unfortunately, I kept testing negative on the blood test. At my very first appointment with Dr. Mottla, he did an ultrasound and I was diagnosed with what I had expected all along, PCOS. As I like to describe it, my ovaries looked like pomegranates. Dr. Mottla said I simply didn’t show up on the blood test and that, although rare, it happens sometimes. Had one doctor taken the time to do this simple ultrasound I could have been saved years of heartache.

Preparing for treatment

In order to get my body to a baseline 0, we had to do several things. It was frustrating to know that we had several months of waiting before we could really even start with IUI treatments, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and I felt like I was at least headed in the right direction. I had to have a D&C done because the lining of my uterus was too thick. Then they found a polyp that needed to be removed, and I had a second D&C. Dr. Mottla wanted me to go through three months of birth control, which I am extremely sensitive to, in order to “give my uterus a rest” and let my lining remain thin. He also put me on metformin for the PCOS but I developed a severe, rare, allergic reaction to it. I am now the proud owner of 2 EPI pens.
When it was finally time to begin treatments, I was so excited I could barely stand it. All of our cycles involved Clomid, Follistim, and Ovidrel. The first cycle was a chemical pregnancy. Of course, at that time I didn’t know what a chemical pregnancy was, so I got extremely excited when the home pregnancy test read “pregnant”. I actually took a test that said “pregnant” or “not pregnant” because the tests with the lines were so faint, which turned out to be a big indicator of a chemical pregnancy.
In a healthy pregnancy, the line will continue to get darker every day. My husband, who is much more level-headed, kept telling me not to get my hopes up, but it was impossible. I was so angry with him for being negative. And then I was so angry with him when I found out it wasn’t a pregnancy that would stick, just because he was right. Fertility drugs don’t inspire rationality.
We had to cancel the second round and abstain from sex because I was overstimulated. I can’t tell you how long that month was. I was so frustrated. But I took the break in stride and had a few glasses of wine, got a break from all the “crazy” drugs, and tried to just look forward to the next cycle. Of course, SGF considered this a positive, since I was making mature follicles.

Our winner

The third round was our winner! By week five, even before testing, I wondered if I was pregnant because I was extremely nauseous. This time, when I took the home test, the line was getting darker every day. I was much more confident of this being a real pregnancy, though I was scared to get excited. When they finally confirmed that I was pregnant, it was surreal. I couldn’t even be excited because my husband wouldn’t let us tell anyone for the first 12 weeks, just because we were so nervous. Also, I was extremely sick. For the first 34 weeks of my pregnancy, I had actually lost weight.
One thing we did, that I wanted to add, is the night of the IUI we always had sex. It seems silly but I said to myself “now we will never know if it was us or the IUI”. Somehow it made me feel like it was a lot less clinical and more loving. After all the vaginal ultrasounds, timed intercourse, and other non-romantic things, it helped add some magic back in.

The team at Shady Grove Fertility was so excited for me. The entire time Dr. Mottla and our nurse, Dana, acted as if it were only a matter of time and the right combination of fertility treatments. Never once did I get the impression that they felt like it wouldn’t happen for us. Having someone believe in you to that extent really helps you believe in yourself.

A few more bumps in the road

After I left Shady Grove Fertility, I went back to my OBGYN practice. Around 19 weeks, the week I was due to have my anatomy ultrasound, I began to feel like something was wrong. I had a lot of pain and pressure. I went to my practice and told them that I wanted a cerclage (which I had read about on the internet), but they said they didn’t feel like there was anything wrong with my pregnancy and that they don’t do cerclages unless you have a history of losses. I explained to them that it took me five years to get pregnant and that I would not risk this pregnancy simply because I didn’t have a history of losses.
I decided that night to get a second opinion, and Dr. Sweeney, a high-risk MFM, agreed to see me the next morning. We did the anatomy ultrasound and I got to see my sweet, perfect baby boy. Then he told me that there was a problem. Apparently, I was 1 cm. dilated, completely effaced, and the membranes were already exposed. Needless to say, I was hysterical. I was rushed to the hospital, put in trendelenburg position (where you are laying down with your legs and feet elevated above your head), and the following morning they were going to attempt a cerclage if I had regained enough cervix. It was nerve-wracking. They gave me two sleepy pills, and I still lay awake all night.
I could only imagine that I had this perfect baby inside of me and my body was failing us. That night I tried everything I could think of – prayers, meditation, visualization, tapping – and apparently that, combined with the love and prayers from our friends and family, gave us a miracle. The next morning I had regained 3 cm. of cervix, my cervix had un-dilated, and the membranes had receded on their own. They were able to put in the cerclage and I was sent home a day later on strict bed rest.
During my bed rest, losing my mind to worry and thinking that at any moment I would go into preterm labor and lose our boy, my best friend convinced me that I needed to pick a date in the future when he would be “safe” and just hold that date in my mind. I’m not a very religious or spiritual person, but I did what she asked. I even put his “birthdate” in my phone calendar and sent her a picture of it via text message. I remained on bed rest for 19 weeks until I delivered a healthy baby boy at 35 weeks and five days, due to preeclampsia.

Ethan’s birthday

I was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 11, 2013. They weren’t sure if they were going to deliver me that night or the next morning. After looking at my labs and the very busy schedule that night, they decided at around 11:30 p.m. that they would deliver us the next morning.
As we were getting ready for bed, I asked my husband if he would plug my phone in to charge. Since it was midnight, my phone lit up and all the calendar appointments for the next day appeared on my screen.
My husband laughed and looked at me and said “You already put his birthday in your phone?” Confused, I asked him to hand it to me. I had completely forgotten, but I had programmed the exact date, December 12th, 2013 as “Ethan’s Birthday”. I was covered in goosebumps. I explained to my husband that I had done that months ago.
When he didn’t believe me, I pulled up the text message that I had sent to my best friend, dated Sept. 6, 2013, with the picture of the calendar. A picture really is worth 1000 words. He would have never believed me otherwise.
I’m not sure if it was just pure coincidence, mother’s intuition, or divine intervention (maybe a combination of all three), but somehow I predicted our son’s birth date. I will NEVER underestimate the power of positive thinking ever again. All this proves to me is we have no idea what we are capable of.
I will admit, during our fertility process, I took a little time to feel sorry for myself and mourn the years we wasted prior to coming to Shady Grove Fertility. Now I just think that maybe we had to wait on our little man to be ready for us. Or maybe we had to be ready for him. I’m not sure. Maybe we had to accomplish those life goals we had set, like grad school for me and teaching for my husband, which would have been much harder to do had we had our child.

My advice to other patients

Unfortunately, I would probably tell them all the cliche things that I couldn’t stand hearing- stay positive, it will happen, everything happens for a reason, etc. The one thing I would tell them is that the sooner you bite that bullet and make the appointment with Shady Grove Fertility, the closer you are to having your sweet baby.
Don’t let your fear of the unknown keep you from getting to the root of the problem the way we did. Shady Grove Fertility is a safe place. Everyone is rooting for you, and you are no longer alone. Just like that, you have a team of people helping you and supporting you to your goal. It’s so relieving.



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Diagnosis and treatment

We understand you may have questions about infertility and how it’s treated. Gain answers from the diagnosis and treatments shared in this story.
Infertility terms
Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
Polycystic ovary syndrome

Receiving care

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Dr. Gilbert Mottla
Annapolis, Maryland location
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by

My husband Matt and I met in elementary school. We were always friends and even attended dances together while in high school since I went to an all-girls private school and he went to an all-boys private school. Matt and I didn’t officially start dating until college and 11 years later, we have been together ever since! We always knew we wanted to have a family, but little did we know that when we started trying, we would struggle for years with no success.

Trying for our family

We tried for 3 years to start our family. We switched OB/GYN’s, but my doctor never put me on any medications to increase our chances of pregnancy. I didn’t know anything about infertility because I had no idea I had any health issues that would cause a problem.
Finally, I was referred to Shady Grove Fertility. I believe everything happens for a reason, but I do wish I had come to SGF sooner.
We had our first visit to SGF in December of 2016. I was extremely nervous to switch to a fertility specialist! I had no idea what to expect. Dr. Katz had us undergo fertility testing and I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). I had all the signs of PCOS but had no idea.

Beginning treatment

We began a treatment protocol in January. Dr. Katz began monitoring me to see if I could ovulate on my own. Although I was ovulating, we had two unsuccessful cycles of timed intercourse. We knew we didn’t want to waste any more time, so we moved forward with ovulation induction and completed our first intrauterine insemination (IUI) in March of 2017.
The IUI cycle was nerve-wracking. We had more monitoring appointments with blood work and ultrasounds. I was most nervous about the ovulation shot.
Wende Allen completed our IUI procedure. The procedure itself was quick and I remember wanting to lay on the table as long as they would allow to ensure it would “stick.”
The dreaded two-week wait was hard. During that time, my emotions took over and I worried that our infertility journey could be a long one. I spent the full 2 weeks wondering if the IUI worked. I questioned how much I could take and if I was strong enough to continue on with treatment.
Finally, it was the day of my beta. I remember that day in April feeling nervous as I had my blood drawn to see if the IUI was successful.

Best voicemail ever

Our amazing nurse Kristen called us and gave us the news that we were pregnant! That phone call was the most emotional moment of the entire process! I still have the voicemail saved to this day and listen to it from time to time. We had our nurse leave the voicemail so my husband and I could listen together.
I was amazed that one medicated cycle was all it took! At that moment, all of the early morning appointments, blood draws, ultrasounds, medications, and tears were all worth it.

I was excited to graduate and move on to the normal OB/GYN appointments, but sad to leave SGF because the consistent monitoring kept my mind at ease.

Our SGF miracle

In November 2017, we welcomed our beautiful little girl Aubrey to the world 3 weeks early! I know we didn’t struggle with treatment like many others, but I want others to see that it can happen on the first try! We had low expectations, but with the help of Shady Grove Fertility, having a baby was made possible. We are forever thankful and plan on returning for baby number 2!
My advice to future patients would be don’t wait to seek help! If you want a baby, go to Shady Grove Fertility and get started. Also, be sure to surround yourself with supportive people. My family and friends really helped me through some of the darkest days of my fertility journey.



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Diagnosis and treatment

We understand you may have questions about infertility and how it’s treated. Gain answers from the diagnosis and treatments shared in this story.
Infertility terms
Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
Polycystic ovary syndrome

Receiving care

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Dr. Eugene Katz
Towson, Maryland location
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My husband and I met in 2009 through Match.com. We hit it off instantly! We are both teachers; he is a high school physical education teacher and I’m an elementary librarian. He proposed at the beach in 2010 and we were married on the beach in Nags Head, North Carolina the next year. Very soon after we were ready to start a family!

Getting started

Before my husband and I met, I was married and we had tried to conceive naturally for about a year before realizing there might be a problem. I suppose it wasn’t surprising, growing up I never had a menstrual cycle without being on the pill, so that was always in the back of my mind when it came to the point of wanting children. I did a few tests with my OBGYN and received some help from the fertility nurse there as well. I was told it was a mild case of PCOS. The first step was to try a few cycles on Clomid. Unfortunately, the 2-3 cycles we did with Clomid did not give us a pregnancy and we decided to stop trying to conceive. A short time later we ended up getting divorced.
Based on my previous history, I knew I was going to have some problems conceiving and Chris was so supportive. We decided to seek out a fertility specialist in our area in the spring of 2012. Additional tests showed I had some scar tissue in my uterus. We needed to travel to Delaware in order for me to have a hysteroscopy/laproscopy to remove the tissue. The surgery was successful and we were ready to begin our first round of fertility treatment!
Just as we were ready to begin an Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) cycle, we got word that our fertility doctor decided to stop practicing. We were in a hurry to find a new doctor. The guidance counselor at my school was a patient at Shady Grove Fertility and suggested we try there. Chris called immediately.

Moving to Shady Grove Fertility

We met with Dr. Jason Bromer in June of 2012. Since we are both teachers we always have plenty of beach trips planned for the summer, the first being over the Fourth of July. We started with our first IUI cycle and had no idea what to expect. When we weren’t able to leave for our vacation on time, we realized how much this whole process could really change our lives. Due to timing, each of our three IUIs ended up taking place in the Rockville office. We became frequent guests of the Best Western in Rockville! We got to know the area very well and coined our visits there our “insemination vacations.”
After the first failed IUI, I decided to make some small lifestyle changes. I read a lot about eating a healthy diet to help with fertility and I looked into acupuncture. After visiting the Rockville office, I saw that there was an acupuncturist available right on the same floor. The ladies at the Wellness Center at Shady Grove Fertility were so wonderful. I did before and after acupuncture treatments with two of our IUIs at their office and continued with a few treatments in between with an acupuncturist at home. It was a great way to relax throughout the whole process.
Our third IUI started in August 2012, just as the school year was starting. It was very stressful missing the first few mornings of school when the students were just arriving for a new school year. Thankfully the staff and principal at my school were VERY understanding. It was hard, though, not wanting to tell the parents exactly what was going on. Unfortunately our third and final IUI failed as well. Dr. Bromer suggested considering other treatment options and we agreed and felt that if we weren’t pregnant by that point, we needed to move on.
Chris and I were both disappointed, frustrated, and heartbroken that nothing was working. Even Dr. Bromer seemed surprised too, especially since we changed our protocol the last IUI to be a bit more aggressive. We knew we needed a break and were OK with waiting a few months before returning to Shady Grove Fertility to begin our first In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycle.

Starting again

In January 2013 we contacted Dr. Bromer again to let him know we were ready for the next step, IVF. I needed to have another hysteroscopy since some scar tissue had returned. We started the stimulation medication and I was growing follicles really well and the retrieval was successful, unfortunately, we only had 2 embryos that were viable when it came time for our transfer, 5 days later. We were so disappointed hoping that we would be able to have quite a few to freeze. Two long weeks later we got word, it only took one and we were finally pregnant!
Thankfully the pregnancy went VERY well. I didn’t have any morning sickness, just overly tired the first trimester. My routine OB visits were positive and we found out it was a little boy at the end of June! Chris was ecstatic!
Of course I was very cautious the entire time about what to eat and things I should and shouldn’t do. We took MANY vacations that summer; Bethany Beach, Williamsburg, Outer Banks, and Myrtle Beach. We were both so excited for a new chapter in our lives to begin.

Life now

We are getting excited to celebrate our little boy’s 8 month birthday! He has been almost exclusively breastfed and we have just started a few solids like sweet potatoes, applesauce and oatmeal (homemade!). Peas are NOT one of his favorites!
Chris and I are excited that the end of the school year is here so that we can spend the summertime with Cooper. We have a family cabin that he has visited and loved being in the mountains and down at the lake. We are also traveling to the beach twice this summer with our families and can’t wait until Cooper sees the ocean. He is a joy every single day and we are so fortunate to have him in our lives!

My advice to a friend

There are SO many options for all situations of infertility. We had to try quite a few before something worked for us. I actually have a friend who went through fertility issues and IVF a few months before we started. It was nice to have someone to talk to. Finding someone who’s been through treatment really helps. And it’s so important to do things for yourself! I thought acupuncture was a great way to relax and stay motivated for the rest of the journey.



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Diagnosis and treatment

We understand you may have questions about infertility and how it’s treated. Gain answers from the diagnosis and treatments shared in this story.
Infertility terms
In vitro fertilization (IVF)
Polycystic ovary syndrome

Receiving care

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Dr. Jason Bromer
Rockville, Maryland location
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by

My husband and I were high school sweethearts and have been married for 4 years. We discussed having children while we were on a mini-vacation in May 2015 for our one-year anniversary and decided after our late honeymoon in January 2016, I would go off birth control and if we got pregnant, we would be happy. You are never fully ready to have kids, but we knew we were ready because we were happy with where we were in our jobs and our marriage. We both had stable jobs and a roof over our heads, so we were ready to start trying.

Trying to conceive

I had been on birth control since the age of 13 because of how irregular my cycles were. The doctor never did any testing to find a proper diagnosis and just put me on the medicine. When I finally went off the pill at the age of 25, I had no idea my cycles would go back to being irregular.
My OB/GYN told me to wait 3 months after coming off birth control to see if my body would regulate itself and unfortunately, it didn’t. They tried putting me on progesterone in May 2017 to jumpstart my body and it did not work. By September, I had tried 3 rounds of progesterone to get my body regulated and nothing was working. I decided to take an ovulation test every morning and discovered that I was not ovulating. My husband and I decided to wait three more months to see if we could miraculously get pregnant, but we didn’t. After a year of trying to conceive, we started to talk about seeing a specialist and we were referred to Shady Grove Fertility by two friends who had also been SGF patients.

Switching to a fertility specialist

Meeting with a fertility specialist was a little nerve-racking, but Dr. Sasson and the whole Chesterbrook office made me feel so at ease from the moment I walked in the door. My first appointment was difficult, as I had to go by myself because my husband had to have his wisdom teeth out 2 days before the appointment. Even though I had to go by myself, I was so comfortable with Dr. Sasson. He listened to my symptoms and then told me what he believed was causing the issues. He even drew pictures as an aid to show what he believed was happening. It was so easy to go home and discuss it with my husband showing the little drawings that Dr. Sasson had given me. The fertility testing was fairly simple, which included ultrasounds, a test to see if my fallopian tubes were unblocked and blood work.
The testing came back and I was diagnosed with PCOS. Being put on birth control masked my PCOS symptoms for 12 years. After meeting with Dr. Sasson and discussing our options, we decided to start with an IUI with letrozole and injections.

Starting treatment

Going through treatment was a little intimidating at first. I started with letrozole and a trigger shot. The thought of giving myself a shot was the scariest thing I could imagine. When I got the first shot in the mail, I actually broke down and started bawling. I wasn’t sure I could do it. With the support and encouragement of my husband, I overcame the fear of giving myself a shot. When it came time for the shots, I just kept telling myself it is something I had to do if I wanted to have a baby and I had to do everything I could to make that dream a reality. I felt #SGFstrong.

IUI #2

After the first IUI failed, we added FSH shots to help my eggs mature. We were extremely fortunate that our second IUI was successful.
The day I found out I was pregnant was Good Friday 2017. I had actually cheated and taken a home pregnancy test and it was positive. I went into the office for the blood test and they called me a few hours later and told me that I was in fact pregnant. I had so many emotions; ecstatic, nervous, and grateful just to name a few. I actually kept it a secret from my husband until we got home from work and surprised him with the news. This was especially hard, as we work in the same corporate building and he came down to see what the news was since he knew I was getting the results back.
I loved being pregnant. I had some minor high blood pressure towards the end of the pregnancy, but it was nothing that a little rest couldn’t help. There was nothing that I couldn’t do, including a day trip to Ocean City, New Jersey, and walking around the King Of Prussia Mall for 3 hours the day before I went into labor.

I gave birth on December 12, 2017, to the best Christmas gift we could ever hope for; a beautiful, healthy, baby boy named Austin.

Being a mom is amazing! They really are telling the truth when they say your life changes forever the moment that little miracle is placed in your arms. It is definitely an adjustment, but it is so worth it for all of the amazing memories, being able to watch him grow and see his personality come out. It is astonishing to look at him and think my body was able to create this precious little boy.

Advice to other patients

I would tell future patients to stay positive and always remember that difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. We are forever grateful to Dr. Sasson, our nurse Erica and the entire Chesterbrook office.
It is going to seem scary and intimidating at first, but it really is worth all of the tears shed and nights spent awake worrying. It is even incredible to realize how #SGFstrong you can be when you need to be. If you are thinking about starting treatment, it doesn’t hurt to just go talk to a doctor about what your options would be and find out more about the process. That is what my husband and I did and it is one of the best decisions we have ever made.



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Need-to-know fertility resources and guidance

Diagnosis and treatment

We understand you may have questions about infertility and how it’s treated. Gain answers from the diagnosis and treatments shared in this story.
Infertility terms
Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
Polycystic ovary syndrome

Receiving care

Assemble your fertility care team close to home. Explore our different locations and physicians who will provide guidance along your journey.
Dr. Isaac Sasson
Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania location
Find a location near me

by

Jesse and I have known each other all our lives. We grew up right down the street from each other and attended school together from first grade to senior year of high school. We did not start dating until right before leaving for separate colleges. We dated for 9 years before getting married and then waited two years before trying to have children.
I knew it was going to take some intervention to be successful because I have had irregular cycles all my life. In my early 20s, I had been diagnosed with PCOS. We tried for a year on our own while being prescribed with Metformin by my primary care doctor.

Coming to SGF

After no success, we scheduled our consultation with Dr. Kipersztok in the SGF Waldorf office in November of 2016. He was confident if we followed our protocol, we would be pregnant by February. We completed our first few steps in our protocol, which was a series of tests.
We learned that Jesse’s sperm sample brought about some concern with the shape. Dr. Kipersztok then recommended that we complete an IUI cycle to make sure we got the best sample possible.
We were nervous about starting the process because of my already known issues, but most of the doctors I had dealt with in the past assured me that with intervention, we would be successful. Naturally, there is still always fear and doubt. With each new test I encountered during the beginning stages, I became a little more anxious about the process and had a lot of self-guilt due to the lack of ability to conceive on my own. However, I did feel confident that regardless, we were taking the right steps to move forward with our dream of becoming parents.

IUI #1

Sure enough, after one attempt with IUI, we were successful in February of 2017, just as Dr. Kipersztok predicted! We initially learned that we were expecting twins and unfortunately at our last check-up at SGF before transitioning to my OBGYN, we learned that one did not progress.
It was very hard to grasp initially, but we were lucky to have the support of the team. I think the hardest part is losing the twin was how quickly the idea of multiples went from being scary for us to exciting, and it was hard for that to be taken away from us in such a short period of time. We had not shared the news with many that we were expecting twins, which in turn I was so thankful because I did not want the loss to overshadow the fact that we were still expecting. It was sad for a few days, but we were still so very thankful to have one fetus progressing so well.
Our little girl was due in November 2017 right around my brother and mother’s birthday, but she decided to make her appearance 8 weeks early in September, solidifying her own birthday week all to herself.
Since she was early, she had to stay in the NICU, but kept her visit brief for only 9 days. She has been a blessing since day one and continues to surprise us every day with just how much more love she has brought to our lives. Though she was a preemie, she is strong and has been our fighter dating all the way back to conception in February.

The journey

We did experience some ups and downs, however, the ups more than outweighed the downs. I spent many years in my 20s fearful I would never conceive, but the team at SGF really set my mind at ease and kept us informed of our progress every step of the way. We cannot thank Shady Grove Fertility enough. What I would tell other patients is do not be fearful to start the process, and on those days you feel like it will never work, fight through because your little miracle is depending on you.



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Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
Polycystic ovary syndrome

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