Sometimes I thought to myself that we were dinosaurs – while reading fora I knew already the answers to many questions, I wasn’t confused by difficult, medical words, I knew the websites of the leading Polish in vitro centres by heart. We tried the programme of in vitro fertilisation four times… this is a lot… this last time was not to happen at all … after the severe crisis in our relationship we got used to the thought that there will be only two of us in our relationship. There was so much of it … tests at first – me with my only passable ovarian reserve, my partner with weak sperm, the first attempt with huge hope, because our embryos coped great, next attempts in three different clinics, new doctors, the immunologist, the psychologist, diets, supplements, medicines, diagnoses, case analyses… with each subsequent in vitro programme we had less strength left. The worst thing was that no one could explain to me why every attempt failed. So we gave up.
During one of my routine appointments my doctor mentioned the difficult issue of our attempts at having a child. In the meantime we both became 34 years old. We weren’t apparently old, too old to be parents, yet no spring chickens. ‘Maybe this is a question of genes’, she said. I answered that we had already looked into various causes, our families were healthy, and we were healthy as well. After a longer discussion the doctor talked us into the appointment with a specialist in genetics and one more visit to the fertility clinic. That evening I couldn’t fall asleep. I wondered whether another attempt had any sense. On the other hand, embryo testing was the method we hadn’t given a try yet. No one has ever suggested it to us. After the sleepless night and a long talk with my partner Marek we decided to give ourselves the last chance…
Actually, the programme itself, from our perspective, did not differ much from the previous four programmes. Tests, stimulation, pick-up, fertilised eggs… we talked to the doctor and embryologists more than usually. In general, I think well of these meetings and discussions about the condition of our embryos. In the meantime, very complex processes went on in the in vitro laboratory. Of six embryos, four were genetically healthy, two were administered during the transfer. After the treatment I felt so-so, but I was determined to stay calm at any price. I didn’t want to expect any success or to worry myself sick.
Thanks to preimplantation diagnosis everything we went through before could be explained. In the previous programmes my body rejected all defective embryos. After the embryos had been tested for potential genetic problems, the doctors could transfer to my uterus only the healthy ones.
Adam was born at due date, he scored 10 on his Apgar test. In two months he will be 1 year old. He is a wonderful, cheerful boy. We have decided that when he grows up a bit we will return to the clinic for his little brother or sister.
