My Fertility Journey: Part One- My Journey

It was hard for me to decide if I wanted to go through another round of fertility preservation. The process is rigorous and very demanding on your body. If you decide this is the route you want to take, you need to make sure you have time, energy, and money. You will be driving back and forth from the doctors 3 to 4x a week. The medicine you take will drain all of your energy. You will feel lethargic and sick. The medicine can mimic pregnancy symptoms which can make your body very uncomfortable. One thing that has never made sense to me is the cost. It's hard to find insurance that will cover the cost of this. You can wind up spending 5,000-12,000 dollars out of pocket for fertility preservation. It's really kind of sad when you think about it. People are already having to deal with the fact that they can't have a kid natural, you now have to add in the cost factor as well. The whole process overall is a lot to have to come to terms with. Everyone's body is different during this process. So what happens to me might not happen to everyone.

I want to document my process this time because I feel as if there aren't a lot of young females going through what I am having to deal with this. At the age of 24, this is my third time having to go through this. My first time, was after my chemo treatments. I was 19 and the doctors found another tumor. I only have one ovary left so they wanted me to go through fertility preservation in case I lost my last one. Chemo also damages your your eggs. When I did this round, I was able to get 9-10 eggs. My second time, I was 23. I got a call that the hospital where I did my first fertility preservation had lost my eggs. I now had zero eggs. When I went to do this round my numbers weren't good and I was only able to get 5 viable (usable) eggs. This number is low. It takes about 6-9 eggs just to get one child. I knew I needed to do another round I just didn't know when. My life was changing and fast. I was getting ready to graduate and I start my new job as a teacher. The only time I am able to do fertility preservation is during the summer. I didn't want to spend my last summer before I started my job in a hospital. Which made me decide to hold it off longer.

Then this year, in February, I had a cancer scare. I keep having these tumors that keep appearing on my ovaries. This is the third time I have gotten it. I will need surgery to remove it and there is a small chance it could be cancerous. Because of this, my oncologist recommended I go see a fertility specialist. Having only one ovary left, I decided it was a good time to do another fertility preservation. This was a really tough decision for me. But one I knew I would be happy about in the future. I was going to wait to have my surgery and do the fertility preservation, but with all of this going on, I decided right now would be a way better time. 

I will be staying in Cleveland for the next few weeks doing this. I am excited and nervous to be going on this journey again. I am excited that I am documenting this process and I hope I can help other women as well who might choose this path. 

My next blog will be focusing on cost and the first few visits :)