Heather & Timothy

My husband and I met each other in 2009. We always knew we wanted a family and to start trying before we turned 30. We were both young so I thought having kids wouldn’t be an issue. I never thought I’d have trouble at 22 years old. Two years passed and I was still not pregnant. I also gained 50 lbs in a year out of nowhere. I knew something wasn’t right and it was time to see a doctor. I got diagnosed with PCOS from my OB/GYN. We decided to seek treatment at Johns Hopkins. We tried six rounds of Clomid with timed intercourse and 1-2 cycles of Femara. All of which were not successful.

Discovering Shady Grove Fertility

After 6 months, I was still not pregnant, so I decided to look up the nearest fertility center with the highest success rates, which is how I discovered Shady Grove Fertility. I live not even 10 minutes away from the Towson, MD office so I was grateful that we were so close and they have so many convenient locations.

I met with my nurse Bernie and Dr. Stephanie Beall, who immediately provided me with a game plan. We decided to try again with some basic treatments before going to IUI. We did six cycles of Clomid, then 6 cycles of Femara, but nothing seemed to work. We did 2 IUIs with Femara, still no success. It was finally time for some more aggressive treatment. Dr. Beall said let’s try IVF and I was all for it. The IVF process was hard on the body and mind but if you have a positive attitude you can get through it. On my first retrieval I was so nervous and scared but I knew that I had come this far and needed to go through with it. The injections weren’t too hard but I never thought I’d have to take so many! Eventually, I got used to it, and my husband even gave me my progesterone injections every night.

In our first IVF cycle, I got the news that only one embryo made it to day 5 blastocyst. We transferred the embryo, but unfortunately, it didn’t end up implanting. We decided to try again. Dr. Beall reviewed my last cycle and made changes to our next cycle, but we were slightly worried about ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHHS) since the treatment protocol was a little more aggressive. This time, we got the amazing news that we had 35 eggs and 30 fertilized with ICSI. Five days later we found out that we had 10 embryos that made it to day 5 blastocysts. We transferred two embryos on 02/14/2016 and decided to freeze the remaining embryos.

The two-week wait

The two-week wait was dreadful. I just kept thinking I’d never get pregnant. Two days before my Beta blood test I took a home pregnancy test. I walked away from it thinking it would be a negative, however, I came back in 5 minutes later and there it was, a big fat positive!

We went in for our Beta blood test and it did come back that we were pregnant. I went in for my 4-week ultrasound and saw the heartbeat and we were so incredibly happy. To our surprise, we came back a week later and Dr. Beall goes “there are two sacs and two heartbeats, you’re having twins!” We couldn’t believe we were having twins. I really couldn’t believe it.

Our experience at SGF

Our nurse Bernie and everyone at the Towson, MD office gave me so much hope through the entire process. Dr. Beall was so nice and understanding. She never turned me away because I was “too young” to do fertility treatment. She knew I was serious about this and it wasn’t a joke and that I wanted a family so badly. She listened to my concerns and my husband’s as well. If I needed her she was just an email away, which was amazing.

I now have two fraternal boys named Roanen and Matthias. They did come early and stayed a month in the NICU but they’re healthy as can be. They’re now 6 months and growing like weeds. We love them so much. I would tell future patients please don’t ever give up. As soon as you’re about to give up something amazing happens. I would tell future patients to go to Shady Grove Fertility because they gave me my miracles.