Campaign Story

Howdy!

My name is Marisa and my husband is Mariner. Together we are M&M. We have been married for 6 years, live in Texas, have a 10 year old terrier mix named Layla, and we are huge Office fans.

For the past 6 years we have been trying to make a Mini M&M. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 22 and knew creating a mini would be a challenge. Once my husband and I decided to expand our family, we basically started with leaving it up to chance… but with my PCOS, I don’t ovulate so that made things difficult. We then tried 6 rounds of Clomid through my Obgyn. Clomid helped me to ovulate but I never did fall pregnant. It was then discovered I had a few uterine polyps that were removed but it was time for us to move forward with a fertility clinic and an RE.

After our initial meeting with our RE, we decided the best next step was IVF. We had our first egg retrieval February 2020. We ended up with 15 embryos that we did not have PGT tested. Our first transfer was the next month. It ended up being a failed transfer. I then had an endometrial biopsy to check for chronic endometritis… it came back that everything was normal. We then had our second transfer in June. I ended up pregnant but I miscarried at 5 weeks and 4 days. My husband and I then did karyotype testing; and I did a RPL… everything came back normal. Our third transfer was in September and we transferred two embryos. I again ended up pregnant but I miscarried at 6 weeks and 2 days.

At that point, we decided to thaw our remaining 11 embryos to get them PGT tested. We ended up losing 3 embryos at the initial thaw but we had 8 embryos that got biopsied and were refrozen. 6 out of our 8 embryos ended up being genetically normal. We then moved forward with our fourth transfer in February 2021. I ended up pregnant but again miscarried at 5 weeks and 4 days. We then decided to repeat my RPL and do a mock transfer so that my RE could get a few biopsies to check progesterone levels, check for silent endometriosis, and any type of inflammation… everything came back normal. We opted to move forward with our 5th transfer in June, but tweaked my protocol slightly even though all tests thus far have shown no reason for my recurrent miscarriages. Well, I had a biochemical.

At this point, we felt that maybe thawing and having our embryos biopsied did more harm than good. Plus, we only had 4 not so great graded embryos left. So we did another egg retrieval in November. Once again we ended up with 15 embryos that we biopsied for PGT testing before freezing. 10 out of our 15 embryos came back genetically normal. We moved forward with our 6th transfer with an embryo from our new batch in December… but it was another biochemical.

Another reason we decided doing another egg retrieval was the best choice was because after our 5th transfer, we had considered surrogacy. Doing another egg retrieval would allow us to make sure we had FDA Guideline testing done at the time of retrieval, have PGT testing done right away this time, and if we were needing to turn to surrogacy… we would be starting with better graded embryos. We always knew that our 6th transfer would be our last transfer using me before turning to surrogacy.

We did turn to surrogacy and our amazing friend offered to be our gestational carrier. We did a 7th transfer with her and we finally made it to the 6 week ultrasound. We got to see a baby, see the little heart flicker, and even heard the sweetest little heartbeat. When we went back for the 8 week ultrasound, we found that our sweet baby had stopped growing at 7 weeks.

Because of how the miscarriage went and some other complications that arose later, our amazing friend no longer is our gestational carrier. She is still our amazing and fantastic friend that will forever play a major role in our story. We also are very hesitant of moving forward with surrogacy as we can’t guarantee another miscarriage won’t happen as we are left to believe we have some type of embryo issue. The plan, for now, is for the next transfer to be with me. And depending on how that goes, we will reevaluate. We aren’t saying we won’t ever turn to surrogacy again but for now, we feel trying with me again is best.

We have always found a way to make our dreams of a Mini M&M happen… but every little bit we get to help us out along the way makes a HUGE difference and is extremely, greatly appreciated. Trust us, our Mini M&M will know how much love and support they have received since the beginning. Please, consider helping us out if you can. Thank you!!!!