Campaign Story

My friends, Jenny and Jesse found each other later in life and want nothing more than to complete their family with a baby of their own. Let’s help them make this wish a reality, by alleviating some of the financial burden of fertility treatments, as they have already been through so much.

This is Jenny’s story below:

It took me a little while to find the right words, but there really aren’t any, so, I am just going to throw this out there. This has been my life the last few months.

Jesse and I decided a couple of years ago we wanted to start a family of our own. We were delayed in that process due to major life changes occurring.

I knew at 38, there would be some issues, and we were prepared to try to overcome them. Due to my age, I was referred to a fertility specialist and got some initial blood tests run. In February of this year, I was blind sighted by a diagnosis of Diminished Ovarian Reserve. That means my ovaries are failing prematurely and my eggs are almost gone. I was told by the first fertility doctor that we had less than a 2% chance of conceiving on our own without donor eggs. Jesse and I were both devastated. Browsing through profiles of “donors” was a harsh and uncomfortable reality I didn’t want to face.

In addition to diminished ovarian reserve, I also suffer from recurrent pregnancy loss. Prior to conceiving my daughter Scarlett, I have had three prior miscarriages, two ending at the 6 week mark and one ending at 10.5 weeks, after we had a heartbeat. What am I up against? Not only will it be incredibly difficult for me to get pregnant on my own, but I don’t have a good track record for staying pregnant. Despite all of this, we didn’t want to resort to donor eggs.

I did a lot of internet research and found a Doctor, Jerome Check, in New Jersey, who specializes in Diminished Ovarian Reserve. I had a phone consultation with him and he told me that just because my eggs are almost gone, doesn’t mean they aren’t viable. Dr. Check assured me he could get me pregnant without IVF, using my own eggs and on a natural timed cycle. I was extremely skeptical, but saw success stories from other women who swore by this Doctor and his methods.

My first cycle with him, he monitored my levels and my ovaries looking for follicles. There were NONE present during peak fertile days, however, there were cysts showing on the sonogram. Dr. Check told me to trigger with a trigger shot anyways, just in case there was an egg hiding out in there.

The day we ordered the trigger shot, I got word that my Uncle in North Carolina had passed away unexpectedly. We needed to make a last minute trip for services within 3 days. We triggered Friday evening, after work, and due to the funeral, missed our 24 hour window to “try” with traveling. All that money spent on fertility meds and sonograms, to waste.

I woke up one morning, about 12 days later, and had a “feeling” and took a home pregnancy test. We were pregnant!! I don’t know how, or why, with no follicles and missing our window to try, but we overcame EVERYTHING and we got pregnant, FIRST go around with this new doctor. We were SO cautiously excited.

Cautious? Why? Shouldn’t this be happy and exciting? A pregnancy means a baby for most people right? No. A pregnancy for me usually means a loss. We were to monitor blood work
And make sure levels were doubling.

I can’t even tell you the number of times I have been poked, prodded, had blood drawn, tests run. We got our test results back and our numbers were not doubling and were not even close to where they needed to be for a to term pregnancy. This was indicative of yet another miscarriage, which unfortunately, happened. Jesse and I lost our baby. The baby we had tried so hard for and had overcome so many obstacles to create.

This path, the path to motherhood, has been an unusually difficult, unfair and unfortunate path I have had to take and just like last time, I intend to succeed.

Please keep Jesse and I in your thoughts, send us positive wishes and please, cheer us on going forward.