By Jessica & Jason

My husband and I started our baby adventures in 2010. We had been married since 2005 and it was taking an awful long time to become pregnant. As my husband is in the pharmaceutics industry, his company offered IVF as one of their medical option benefits. As we were a fairly young couple we were hesitant to seek treatment so quickly, and tried to live by the motto if it is meant to be it will happen. But as I approached my 32nd birthday I knew we needed to know if we needed medical intervention in order to make our wish to start a family a reality.

I had always known my periods were very heavy and fairly irregular. I had been off the birth control pill and we were not using any other form of contraception so I had a feeling the issues lay primarily with me. Knowing this made me a little apprehensive going into our consultation at RSC. I wanted a place that would not assign blame or look to dwell on all the negatives we may encounter in the journey to conception, but rather a facility that addressed the problem and was able to offer various solutions and options.

PCOS diagnosis

When my husband and I met with Dr. Susan Willman, we knew we had found a doctor who was compassionate, but equally skilled, professional and, most importantly to us, honest. I wanted to start the diagnosis and treatment process immediately.

After the initial testing my theory was confirmed. I had been diagnosed with PCOS and I was not ovulating regularly if at all, and therefore unable to conceive. We started out trying to use medication and then the ovulation kits to predict when I would ovulate and then try the less evasive IUI procedure, when I would be ovulating. We tried this procedure three times. Before, during, and after the procedure, Dr. Willman was informative, supportive and direct. She informed us after the second try that my PCOS was making it virtually impossible to predict when I was ovulating and that she thought moving on to IVF would be the most effective way to conceive. However, I was still so scared and wanted to give the IUI one more shot, and with that Dr. Willman understood and supported our request, we tried the IUI procedure one last time and were once again unsuccessful.

All or nothing

That is when we decided we needed to go for all or nothing. We began to prepare for IVF. It was during these procedures that the staff and Dr.Willman really made the hardest time in our lives bearable. Anyone who is reading this or has done research knows the time-consuming, emotionally draining, and physically taxing process IVF inherently has the couple go through. No clinic or doctor can save you from this, but they certainly can make the process a shared journey so you never feel alone, because when you go through such an intense procedure that is the worst feeling you can have.

My eggs were of good quality and my husband’s sperm was on par too. Our procedure went well and we waited to hear the news if I had conceived. On our first try I was pregnant and we could not have been happier. Initially, the ultrasounds showed a viable pregnancy and I was released to my OBGYN for the remainder of my pregnancy. However, a chromosomal issue that could not have been detected or predicted in the conceiving process existed and I miscarried in the eighth week of pregnancy.

We were devastated and I did not want to move forward. It took some time but after a consultation with Dr. Willman, and knowing that the reason I miscarried was not due to my body not being able to carry the baby, but because of the embryo issue, we decided to give IVF one last shot. The best part about this round was that there was no surgery involved to extract my eggs. The embryos would be unfrozen and placed in my uterus for what would hopefully be a successful and healthy pregnancy.

A happy ending

After we had learned that the second attempt was successful and that I was pregnant Dr. Willman monitored the baby’s development progress until the tenth week. Prior to the second IVF procedure, Dr. Willman had advised us she was confident that this round would result in healthy, viable pregnancy. My OBGYN felt the same way, and both were correct.

We are not going to lie: the infertility process was a long, hard, and sometimes discouraging process. We went through three IUIs and two IVF procedures before we had our daughter.

However, RSC makes this journey one filled with hope and success. In particular Dr. Willman, with her years of experience, gave us the confidence we needed to keep on trying. What is most impressive of RSC is that they do not preach false hope. If you preview their website they post the option of adoption and surrogacy too, allowing the patients options to look into while going through their procedures.

My husband and I looked for a facility that was compassionate and supportive, but most importantly medically and professionally equipped to deliver on what they offered. The result in placing our time, money and emotions on the line was a healthy baby girl born on October 12, 2011 who we named Malia Elizabeth.

It may not happen instantaneously, and it may not be an easy journey, but RSC is a facility that will work with you to explore the many options to making your wishes of starting a family come true. We recommend Dr. Willman and her staff to anyone who is venturing on the road of infertility solutions.