As a young woman, I learned about fertility with a surprise pregnancy at twenty-three. My first pregnancy experience came when I had unprotected sex on day 10 of my cycle after coming off birth control pills. The condom we used failed, and I became pregnant. My pregnancy was complication-free. We planned to have a second child, but ultimately our relationship ended.

I did not worry about conceiving another child because my first pregnancy was easy to conceive and carry. I was in no hurry to wait for “Mr. Right” so together we could expand our family.

“Mr. Right” was nowhere on the horizon, but my desire for a second child continued.  When my son was 12, I became a Foster Mom.  I decided to consider having another child and spent two years planning. I saved leave from my job, paid off all my student loans, and lost thirty pounds.

I was 38 when I began to try again and thought it would be “a piece of cake” easy because I was so fertile earlier at 23.

After three months of trying without any positive pregnancy results, I went to see a reproductive endocrinologist (fertility doctor).

My doctor ran tests over about 3 months. She found that my ovarian reserve was sufficient, which was good news. However, she also found a partially blocked fallopian tube. .  I scheduled surgery because I did not want to risk an ectopic pregnancy.

The doctor found two great tubes in surgery but a whole lot of endometriosis on my ovaries.   She used cauterization instead of excising the endometriosis. She advised that I had between 3-6 months before the endometriosis came back and to begin medicated IUI cycles immediately.

I tried three cycles with 3 negatives pregnancy tests.  I stopped going to traditional doctors and switched to alternative medicine.  I researched and cut out articles on anything anyone had ever said could cause fertility issues. I ceased using caffeine, dairy, wheat, soy and started regularly going both to the chiropractor and acupuncturist.  Still no positive pregnancy resulted.

Then I learned about embryo adoption.   I returned to the fertility doctor asking to start the process, not knowing that finding embryos was another battle. With traditional embryo adoption, one can “adopt” the embryos remaining once donor couple completed an IVF cycle or completed her family.   Finding donated embryos was difficult.  Many people were not willing to donate embryos to a single mother. I discovered Reprofit in Czech Republic. The clinic procedures included donor egg, donor sperm and embryo transfers at a low cost and with few requirements.    On June 14, 2015, I transferred one blastocyst embryo and on February 25, my Evelyn was born. I was 42 when she was born and once again blessed with an uneventful pregnancy.

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