A New Year is always a time for new beginnings. A time to start fresh – break a habit and start a new, healthy habit, and take the first steps toward a goal or a dream. Sometimes the first step takes a lot of courage but as you will read in our blog, having courage made one woman’s dream to be a mum a reality (despite having the odds stacked against her). She has shared her story in the hope that other women will get educated about their fertility sooner rather than later.
My Journey to Become a Mum
Sitting in the waiting room of the fertility specialist, I felt sick with nerves. What am I doing?
This is not how it was supposed to happen. My ‘plan’ was to be married at 25 and have two children (naturally) by 30.
But here I was, 38 and single. Perhaps a quick chat with the specialist (recommended by a friend) would put my mind at ease and I could cruise back into my little comfort zone knowing I still had time (or not, as turned out to be the case) to find the perfect man and start a family (albeit a few years later than the plan!).
To this day, I am so very thankful that I had the courage to make that appointment and turn up on the day, because that one appointment changed my life.
At 38 I discovered I was too old to have any eggs frozen (at that stage the cut off point was 35). And at 39, my chances of conceiving with IVF or naturally were low (very low) – less than 15 per cent. And to make matters worse, my AMH test (Anti-Mullerian Hormone) result came back at 2.5. ‘We want a result of 9 or more,’ I could hear my specialist saying over and over in my head.
My IVF Experience
If I was to become a mum, NOW was the time to do something about it and that meant starting IVF NOW. And so I did. The first day of my next period (I have never before been so excited to get my period) I rang the clinic and started the injections the next day. I remember my hand trembling as I gave myself the first injection.
I kept news of my attempts to become a mum through IVF to a small group of trusted friends and family, all of who were extremely supportive.
Despite my age and low AMH result, I was confident that I would be pregnant first cycle. I had read an article about a single woman in her late 30s who became pregnant from her first IVF cycle. This, I said to myself, would be me.
But sometimes life makes us work a little harder for the things we want so badly. Five fresh IVF cycles (I didn’t have any embryos to freeze) and one IUI later (plus a lot of tests, tablets and tears), I had the most amazing news of my life. I was pregnant … I will never forget that day!
My baby is now a toddler and every day continues to be a complete joy. She is the most amazing little human being – the love of my life.
The reason I share this story (the very brief version of how it all happened) is to encourage women to get educated about their fertility and to talk to their GP or a specialist sooner rather than later if they want to be a mum now or in the future.
I naively thought having babies would happen easily and naturally for me as soon as ‘Mr Right’ came along.Knowing what I now know about my personal situation, it’s quite possible that even if I had married at 25, I may not have been able to conceive naturally.
So I may well have found myself (with husband by my side) sitting in the waiting room of the fertility specialist, feeling sick with nerves.
