Happy, Proud, and Excited: HAI's First Grant Recipients
We want to share the special story of Hope Against Infertility’s first grant recipients! Thank you to Claire and Ryan for sharing your journey and allowing Hope Against Infertility, Inc to be a part of it. We appreciate your willingness to share your story and provide a testimonial of your experience.
My husband and I married in May of 2010. I was 26, he was 31. We immediately started trying for a family. At that time, I already knew that I had PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) but I didn’t know anything about it, and I had no clue it affected your fertility. I guess you could say that since it didn’t affect my daily life at the time, I didn’t care to find out more about it.
We tried and tried, no success. I started trying ovulation tests, basal temperature charting, and reading online about anything and everything I could be doing. It was frustrating because as the years went on, I went from having cycles every 2-3 months to several months or a year in between. I was at the point where I was becoming upset with myself that it wasn’t working, it literally felt impossible. We kind of shut down and stopped trying for a year or two. I then saw an OBGYN who specialized in PCOS, she told me that since I was overweight that they couldn’t do any tests or anything and to come back when I lost all my extra weight. I wasn’t given any exam or any information on how to control PCOS. I was traumatized from that experience and I didn’t look for any other doctors for help for a long time. Eventually I did lose weight, changed my lifestyle, and got rid of medications I was taking every day because of my weight. I thought for sure this would be our ticket to becoming parents. Still nothing.
Almost two years ago my dad was suddenly diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer. I spent a lot of time helping him at home, with treatments, radiation, surgery recovery, everything. Unfortunately, we lost him in Fall 2018, we were devastated. After losing my dad, it was a big adjustment to our lives. We suddenly had all this extra time, we didn’t know what to do with. I was now 35 and my husband 40, we felt we had to do something now before it’s too late. I started talking more to friends and posting about infertility struggles and was welcomed with a lot of suggestions, recommendations, and support from my friends and family. This is how I found out about the Kaldas Center. I called the next day and within a few days I was at my first appointment! I was unbelievably scared to go and NOT get help again like my last experience a few years before. I was surprised to find that it was exactly the opposite! I sat down with Dr. Menya and we talked about how we’ve tried for 9 years and how my cycles have been crazy all over the place and not normal, even when I was a teenager. He said he wants to help us and feels confident we will get answers from them. I was shocked. He could see based on my medical records that I had made lifestyle changes and am healthy enough for pregnancy. He felt based on the info I gave him that we should consider doing a Hysteroscopy procedure to diagnose what is going on and to test my tubes, clear anything bad out. We were scheduled and on our way within 2-3 weeks of our first appointment. We were able to have a lot of polyps removed and an endometriosis lesion. He was able to diagnose it as endometrial hyperplasia- fast growing lining. It was so relieving to know that things were removed, tubes were clear, and that after I healed up, we could start trying. My husband also was tested, and his numbers were above average for his age, so we knew everything we were facing was on my end. Once I was healed, we began our first cycle of oral medication, follicle scans, and trigger shot with timing. We tried this twice back to back, with no luck. We know that even with a perfectly healthy couple, your chances every month are not guaranteed. Even though we knew this, we still wanted to really try IUI since we knew we were good candidates for it. We quickly found out that on top of the cost for the meds, trigger shot, follicle scans, etc… that it would be another almost $900 a month for this. With having unexpected cemetery payments every month for my dad’s plot and our crippling school debt we knew we couldn’t take any loans out. We couldn’t physically make room for another $900 a month on top of the shots and scans.
This is where Hope Against Infertility came into our lives. A friend of mine had told me about this new organization in the Fox Valley and encouraged me to apply! I was hesitant because I wasn’t sure if I was a candidate and had never applied for any sort of assistance before. My friend explained that the organization is to help prevent or minimize the amount of debt couples with infertility incur while going through fertility treatments. I sent my application online and very quickly received a response from one of the founders. Let me just say how caring and compassionate she was. We received a warm welcome and were approved to receive their first grant ever, offering to help us pay for a round of IUI with the Kaldas Center. We were able to do the IUI in October of 2019, unfortunately, it did not work for us and are still trying to conceive but we would have never been able to even give it a shot without their help. I am so happy and proud that they are in our community and I’m beyond excited to see how many families get started because of their help. I can’t explain how grateful we are that we were given the assistance last month, thank you SO much! Baby Dust to EVERYONE reading this, you’re not alone, and you can do this!