First, welcome to the IVF Infertility Help website.
This site is designed purposely to identify with and offer help to infertility sufferers. I know the pains, agony, frustrations and psychological trauma that go with being diagnosed infertile because, within the past twelve years I’ve gone through this with 3 very dear ones and I must admit that it is indeed physically distressing.
How the Journey Began
Some twelve years ago, a pastor friend and I had high hopes preparing for our weddings. It was a thing of joy as we planned and ran around to put things in place. We were close, very close and if not for some very pertinent reasons, we would have held our different weddings on the same day! But then we opted to have the weddings just a week apart. And boy was it fun!
But that was twelve years ago. Two years down the line, I had my first baby, and that was because I and my wife decided to hold on for about a year because of financial issues. But we were happy when our first child came. Today we are happy as a family and indeed we have retired from making babies!
But this is not the same for my pastor friend.
He was eager to have his own children immediately after his wedding but then one year went by. Soon it was 2 years, then 3 and 4! Of course, as a pastor, he and his wife stood on their faith trusting God and praying always, knowing one day their prayers would be answered. I and my wife, who is a medical practitioner (she is a nurse/midwife) identified with them throughout these years. Most times, we joined them in fasting and praying. Other times, we did it on our own, seeking the face of the Lord for a solution.
By the fifth year, we had no option than to advice they seek medical help. Of course, at this time the woman, who was already feeling frustrated from carrying other women’s children every Sunday as they come for baptism and dedication, was already putting pressure on the husband on this option.
Finally, they agreed to go for medical checkup and that was when both of them were diagnosed medically infertile!
The man was said to have a condition of lessened sperm movements. This was said to may have resulted from some abnormal body heat. The major causes of this they were told were things like prolonged fever, exposure to too much heat due to chemotherapy, varicocele or the presence of varicose veins in the testes and un-descended testes.
The womans problem was to do with ovulation. There was the problem of having difficulty in ovulation. This problem was of course, being gradually compounded by her age as the quality of her egg cells had started declining along with their potency!
After these diagnoses the couple agreed to undergo the various prescriptions needed to correct the ugly situation. Unfortunately for the man, it was revealed that there is presently no technique that may affect the condition of the sperm cells presented instead, all treatments were to focus on how to make the most of the sperm cells that are under study. And for the woman it was to be a restoration of the ovarian function.
Indeed, at the time, all of these sounded foreign to us. With knowledge of the true situation of things came more concern and anxiety.
Will these treatments work?
Is there really any hope?
And that began the journey of enduring examinations and physical tests on a monthly (sometimes weekly) and then later, yearly basis.
There were the daily injections that may sometimes cause both subtle and obvious side effects and several other procedures all without the absolute assurance that they would work.
Knowledge is power
All throughout this period, I and my wife were together with them in every way encouraging and continuing in prayers with them that things would turn around for the better.
As fate may have it, two other family friends who married some years after we married, were later diagnosed with this same problem of infertility. This was when I, my wife and the pastor friend decided on researching more on this subject. Of course, we reasoned that if the scriptures say, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, then we must seek more knowledge on this issue. And so, with the help of my wifes medical background, we took to the internet to see what information we can get about the causes of infertility and whatever help we can get there.
Most of what you will find on this site therefore, is a result of that research. Indeed, there is so much out there that could be of help but what I have put together on this site are simply the best resources we have found to be really useful and helpful. You can see my review of our top recommendations here. Besides, Ive also put up some articles, and will continue to add more, to give you the right knowledge about fertility treatments. Check out our article archives to enrich your knowledge.
There Can Always Be a Good Ending!
I’ll love to inform you that after about 9 years of going through the pain, agony and psychological trauma, my pastor friend and his wife had their first baby a baby boy! Today they have two lovely kids. One of the other family friends also has a kid right now while the other is still waiting. But with the successes of the other two we are more than confident that their own case will not be any different!
So, as you browse this website, understand that your situation is not peculiar. The invasion of your personal privacy because you have to go through different checkups, those feelings of shame and fatigue as you lie on the examining table, the psychological devastation as you need to give your sperms or egg cells for the 8th, 10th, 15th and so times. All of these are understandable!
But no matter how many times you’ve tried and the procedure failed, do not despair your chances of conceiving a child is better now than before. Check out our top recommended resources here.