Campaign Story

Hi, we are Kelsey and Dennis Wayman from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We have been diagnosed with both a diminished ovarian reserve and low sperm count/male factor infertility. Kelsey is 30 years old, but her ovaries are acting as if they are 10-15 years older and Dennis has about 5% of what a “fertile” man would have in terms of sperm quality and count. This means that our journey to building our family has been anything but easy. In mid 2021, after a year of trying and being unsuccessful, we consulted a fertility clinic where we underwent several tests and were then diagnosed and presented options. With having low egg and sperm counts, we were given an 11% chance of conceiving through IUI and a 30% chance of conceiving through IVF. We ultimately decided to go with IVF and began our journey. We began with fertility meds for both of us in January of 2022. Our egg retrieval happened in February of 2022 and we ended up being able to freeze 3 embryos through ICSI. We proceeded with the process and had a scheduled Frozen Embryo Transfer for April. All 3 of our embryos were thawed at the same time to be watched for 3 to 5 days to choose the best two for transfer. We transferred 2 embryos on April 7, 2022 and unfortunately, our 3rd halted in growth and was unable to be refrozen for use in the future. We were naïve to the process and were heartbroken that if this transfer was unsuccessful, then we were at zero chances of building a family. By the grace of God, one of our embryos stuck and we gave birth to a healthy baby girl on December 20, 2022. We love nothing more than being parents to our little girl, but our hearts are missing a piece. We want so badly to be able to give her a sibling. However, during our first IVF cycle, Kelsey’s insurance only assisted in covering up to $15,000. Kelsey is a teacher and Dennis is a marketing producer for a news station. Dennis’s insurance does not cover fertility treatments. With this in mind, we knew that we did not have many funds, if any, left after our first cycle. In April of 2024, we were told that due to low counts for both of us, we should at least begin the egg retrieval process to have embryos ready when we want to grow our family. We decided to move forward and underwent another egg retrieval. We were able to freeze 2 embryos through ICSI this time. During this process, insurance completely stopped coverage and we were forced to charge copious amounts of money on credit cards to pay for meds and the egg retrieval. We are creating this fundraiser because we want to be able to grow our family. We will be paying all of it without insurance when we decide to transfer our two embryos and the cost will burden our family. However, if we don’t act now, biologically, time is not on our side. We would be so gracious for any donation you can make to help us. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.