Campaign Story

Hello everyone! I just want to first say thank you- whether you donate or not, I appreciate the time taken out your day to read our story. My name is Ciara and my husband’s name is Jean Max. We started our journey towards parenthood in May of 2021. But just to back track a little, we had been together for going on five years and never used any birth control. So although I was excited about our new journey of officially starting, I was cautiously optimistic. After the first few cycles of not getting pregnant, I started experimenting with different supplements out there that other couples were claiming to get pregnant off of. I always had pretty regular cycles, or so I thought at the time, and being that I had a period every month. At this time I wasn’t tracking ovulation. The cycle days would vary time to time but I thought that was normal. I stopped the supplements thinking that may have caused me to not get pregnant because you’re really not supposed to take them if you have regular cycles. At this time we were planning our wedding in October, and that’s when I started to focus on wedding planning while still trying to conceive. At this point, I have gone to my gynecologist and my doctor and they told me I needed to wait a year before starting tests. I was really getting worried, crying every cycle that my period have came. Not a single positive pregnancy test, no signs of any pregnancy symptoms, nothing. Between the wedding, COVID, and trying to have a baby it was all very stressful and I knew deep down something was wrong. That’s when I got introduced to Fertility Homeopath channel on YouTube and I started really tracking my cycles with ovulation strips and vaginal temperatures and cervical mucus, I was doing it all. I was ovulating every month, timing the sex perfectly but still was not getting pregnant. I started taking different supplements, and eating and drinking different things to improve anything fertility related and nothing. It was now January and I noticed a bald spot on my head. I was at a new low. I never felt more defeated, unattractive and useless. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting pregnant since my mom had four kids of her own, and my three brothers all have children. I couldn’t understand what my body what going through that I was now losing my hair and I just didn’t know what to do. I went to go see a dermatologist and I explained to her that I was trying to conceive. She prescribed me topical steroid ointments to use on my scalp and in time if nothing was happening I would do the steroid injections. She advised me that the steroid she was prescribing me was one that they give to pregnant women so I was at least relieved that she was taking my journey into consideration. That same day I found another bald spot. I applied the topical treatments as directed but then started to notice that my scalp was thinning, literally I was getting indents in my scalp from the treatments. I went back to my dermatologist and she applied the injections. The most traumatic and frustrating experience that I have ever experienced. I wasn’t ovulating anymore, after explaining to the doctor that I was trying to conceive, I was no longer doing the one thing needed to get pregnant. I cried and cried. Next cycle, I wasn’t ovulating again. I have spoken to a few women and they suggested acupuncture and thankfully I listened cause eventually I started ovulating again. I also started to do this steroid detox protocol and that helped immensely as well. I felt hope again, it felt like I could start clean. I really started researching healthy supplements to take, continued the acupuncture, got supplements for my husband to take, eating and drinking all the right things. I still wasn’t at that year mark so I decided to take things into my own hands to hopefully give me a peace of mind and save a few costs from seeing a fertility specialist. I ordered at home tests for my husband and I to see how healthy his sperm was and where my hormones levels were at. He did his test first thinking everything was going to be fine, but they were not. His results came back that he had azoospermia. We didn’t know what to do or how to feel. My husband couldn’t believe it and was so distressed that he couldn’t give me a baby. This whole time of putting my body through everything and not even thinking twice that my husband could have had an issue with fertility. I did my tests as well and my testosterone was elevated and the FSH was not normal. I started stressing as well. I went to my PCP to see if she was able to run the tests for me and everything looked normal except my testosterone which I blamed on the steroid injections I got. I went to go see my gynecologist and had an ultrasound to check if everything was looking normal and everything was. Even though I was ready to get concrete answers, the financial strain of it all was holding us back. Thinking I was saving money by seeing my PCP and gynecologist only ended up costing me close to $2,000. I had to fight with the insurance to at least get some of the tests I’ve done covered but I learned the hard way that my insurance doesn’t cover anything fertility related, not even blood work. My gynecologist wrote us a referral with a fertility specialist as well as for my husband to do a SA. From there, a month after our year mark of trying, we made an appointment to see a specialist. We wanted nothing more to have a baby and I didn’t want to wait anymore. We decided that we will just take care of the bills when we can and take them down one at a time. Our first appointment was bitter sweet. My husbands SA results came back with only 8 sperm, and only 2 were actually moving. She said that we would have to run more tests but the only option to have a baby at this point was to do IVF. Even though we wished the results would have been better, it was hope. We actually had an option! My husband went to a urologist and all his tests and physical exam came back normal, they told him he would need to lose weight to improve his sperm but still at this point we don’t know what is causing his fertility issue. I was diagnosed with PCOS which was news to me, but thankfully HSG and ultrasound and hormone levels were perfect. As of this month, December, My husband and I officially got the green light from the facility’s nutritionist that we could start IVF! We both lost weight, I’m managing and maintaining the PCOS and we are just waiting to start our fertility treatments hopefully in January or February. We really could use any help we can get. I signed up with FSA with my employer, but the supplements and appointment fees alone are eating that up. We have no choice to take out a loan but we really wanted to buy our first home together. We are currently living in my mother in law’s house until we’re able to take care of our debt to buy our own home which should be in a month or so but we’re debating whether to get our home or to do IVF first. If you are able to help us, we would really appreciate it, more than you know. Thank you for reading our story and if you’re reading this and struggling with infertility as well, I genuinely hope you and your partner get blessed with the baby you’ve been longing for. You are strong and you can do this, you both can, as hard as it is.