Campaign Story

Dear friends and family,

I want to thank you first from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to be here, read this, and consider supporting us financially. If you aren’t able to support us financially, we get it and we covet your prayers.

Ryan and I have been trying to start a family for what will be SIX years this May (2024). We knew going into things that I had a thyroid disease (Hashimotos), which could cause some issues. We were under the impression that as long as it was controlled, we would be fine. We didn’t think it would take long, but a year went by with nothing and my OBGYN wasn’t concerned. I found a new OBGYN but then COVID happened. After COVID, when I was finally able to properly see my doctor, I was diagnosed with PCOS and a year later with endometriosis. At this point, we were referred to a Reproductive Endocrinologist because we would need help. Before I jump ahead to where we are now let me help you understand our diagnosis: Hashimotos, PCOS, and Endometriosis.

* Hashimoto’s disease – This is an autoimmune disease that impacts your thyroid. Your thyroid controls your hormones. Hashimotos has a list of side effects that makes you question how to live at times and it is extremely difficult to diagnose since it’s essentially a yo-yo between hyper and hypo thyroid disease. This means that when going in for checks on your thyroid levels they’re not consistent. It took three years to diagnose mine. For more on the thyroid and fertility watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcbpka22EBc and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XfBkoJJt9w&t=17s.

* Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) – This one is confusing. It’s not that you have cysts in the form that most women think of (painful and with the risk of rupturing). This is really an ovulation disorder in the brain and the “cysts” are a side effect. The cysts in the ovaries are actually from eggs not growing and the follicles closing up to form cysts. With PCOS your brain doesn’t interpret the signals from hormones telling it to only grow one egg and ovulate the one egg. Instead, it will try to grow all of the eggs released from the vault at once, but your body doesn’t want to have more than one baby so the growing eggs don’t get enough food to grow to maturation and ovulate. Often patients with PCOS only need help through medication to ovulate, and then they’re good to go, but if you have other issues (like I do – yay) then this isn’t best practice, more assistance is needed. The positive to PCOS is your AMH (egg count) is usually VERY high, which means in IVF you have a likelihood of retrieving many eggs with only one retrieval. This in combination with young age, taking all the supplements, and eating an anti-inflammatory diet usually leads to a higher yield of healthy embryos. For more about PCOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As4V7KyErZw.

* Endometriosis – This one makes me the most angry. The lining of the uterus is the endometrium. Sometimes endometrial tissue ends up outside of the uterus. For a lot of people, this is fine, the tissue doesn’t do anything. For other people (like me) the tissue has cancer-like properties (it’s not identified as cancer but it does act like cancer). The tissue feeds on estrogen and causes extreme inflammation. It grows wherever it wants in the abdomen. A lot of women need surgery to remove it, which damages their fertility… and then like a lot of cancers, it grows back over time. My endometriosis is in my ovary. It filled one of those PCOS cysts and made itself a home. I am lucky that my endometriosis has not blocked my fallopian tubes or caused issues with my AMH, but it doesn’t mean it can’t with time. Endometriosis causes extreme inflammation which makes implantation challenging and means a higher risk of miscarriage in a natural pregnancy because the environment of the uterus isn’t maintained by the doctor.. For more on Endo, listen to this: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-88-endometriosis-menstrual-backwash/id1299915173?i=1000547532523 or watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqsq5s9TuVk,

We saw an REI in the DFW area in early 2022. This doctor was only concerned with my PCOS and took a very conservative approach. After many months of ovulation induction and my endometriosis pain becoming as debilitating as it was in High School (because it was growing and not being treated), we decided to take a break. When we pulled the trigger again we would find a new doctor since this one wasted a year of our time. Spring of 2023 we found our current doctor who has helped us advocate for ourselves before we were even her patient. She has a great plan and is taking it head on with my endometriosis being the lead factor and concern to work around. She also found one other issue, which gave us a small brain tumor scare. I’m fine though. I have hyperprolactinemia. My pituitary gland makes too much prolactin. I view this as a “the chicken or the egg” scenario because 2 things that can cause this are thyroid hormone imbalances and estrogen imbalances – of which I have both.

So, we are asking for your financial support (and prayers, lots of prayers). Our first step is IVF which includes egg retrieval, fertilization, genetic testing of the embryos, and freezing. This is the most costly part of this process. The second step will be a frozen embryo transfer (FET) and waiting to see if it is a sticky embryo that leads to a baby.

I do have to say that what is happening in Alabama concerns me. These types of laws aren’t usually science-based and tend to have a ripple effect in the South and will, without doubt, have a ripple effect on IVF, they already are in Alabama. If you’re curious about what I mean by the ripple effect this could have on IVF, watch this: https://www.newsnationnow.com/video/alabama-fertility-care-in-question-after-ruling-saying-frozen-embryos-are-%e2%80%98children%e2%80%99-newsnation-now/9452061/.  This Alabama situation has sparked urgency. We need your help as soon as possible.

Money given will go first to the IVF procedure costs, then to IVF medications. Completing IVF is our emergent concern. After IVF, any additional funds will go to FET and FET medications. None of this is covered by insurance. Medications needed are not covered by insurance either. Should we have unused funds, we will be donating them to the IVF Grant organization Hope for Fertility. We have purchased a puzzle to frame and display in Baby K’s nursery. For every $5 you donate your name will go on the back of a puzzle piece. If we run out of pieces (what a blessing that would be) we will update with a new way to thank you in memoriam for the literal GIFT you are giving us. 

We’ve seen all of our friends and family members move forward with life starting their families, while we feel frozen fighting a battle we just can’t win without assistance. We need the science of IVF to have a biological child, it is the only way we can have a biological family. We also need financial assistance. We have the doctor, we have the plan, and as soon as we have the funds we can move forward. We have struggled with hope and faith in ways we never thought we would in our lives. Even just having embryos frozen will breathe new hope into us. This is the ultimate gift we could ever receive. Thank you for GIFTING us parenthood!

With love and gratitude,

Morgan & Ryan