You've been trying to conceive for a long time. Perhaps it's only been a year, but that year has felt like an eternity. Maybe it's been since your honeymoon, and you've now been married for three years. Perhaps you've been trying for upwards of five years. Maybe it's been even longer than that, but however long it's been, it feels like forever. It's been years of negative pregnancy tests, of holding your breath when someone else tells you that they're pregnant, of intimate sessions with Wanda (the ultrasound wand). It's been countless doctor's appointments, blood draws,...

I miscarried at the same time as a close friend who had also been fighting infertility. She told me she was pregnant two weeks before I found out I was pregnant, too. Our due dates were fifteen days apart. We were thrilled about the idea of raising babies together. I miscarried first. She miscarried two days after me.  When we were in the depths of it all, still bleeding as our bodies worked to become un-pregnant, we consoled each other. We updated each other on appointments and procedures, comforted by the fact that we were both...

If you’re considering using frozen donor eggs to help grow your family, you might also be wondering what sort of biological impact, if any, you’ll have on your baby, given the fact that they’ll be inheriting their DNA from the egg donor rather than from you. The reality is that your baby’s development, health, and even future well-being are greatly dependent on your body, from day one. And that’s due — much in part — to something known as epigenetics.  Here’s what RN and Donor Egg Bank USA’s physician relations manager, Becca Murillo, has to say...

I have always felt like my infertile life seemed imaginary to others. Despite confirmed diagnoses, years of trying to conceive that included tests, meds, shots, procedures, timed intercourse, ovulation kits, countless visits to a fertility clinic, IUI’s, and a miscarriage, the darkest days of my life seemed invisible to everyone around me. That feeling only grew after we had our first miracle daughter when people wasted no time to start asking when we were going to have another as if they hadn’t seen all of the tears we had cried. I would hold my breath each time I would hear the...

I lied about doing IVF for over two years because I was ashamed. Ashamed that my body didn’t work the way others did, that my story didn’t play out as I imagined. I would tell my boss that I had a doctor, dentist, or financial advisor appointment—you name it, I used it! I would get excited when I thought of a new “excuse” that I could use to hide a fertility consultation, IUI treatment, or IVF egg retrieval. During those years of infertility, I lost myself in the emotional roller coaster and became unrecognizable to myself. I...

I met my husband the old-fashioned way—on the internet! We got married in 2012 and traveled the world: Europe, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Tulum, just to name a few. When we started trying for a baby in 2013, many of our friends already had kids and had zero problems conceiving. We thought, “this will be easy,” since it was for everyone else we knew. It took about a year of trying, but we finally got pregnant in 2014. We were so excited and completely shocked when that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage....

I am a mother to a daughter. This fact still brings me shock and awe. There is rarely a moment that the reality of how difficult it was for us to have our daughter isn’t with me. I’ve said praises under my breath for her at all hours of the day—so often that it seems they are engrained in my subconscious. I am so aware of the miracle of my daughter that it sometimes makes me physically ill—I don’t know what to do with the moments of overwhelming gratitude, especially when they connect and collide...

My husband Michael and I knew right away that we wanted to start trying to have kids when we got married. We found out fairly early on that Michael had low sperm count and low motility because he was being treated for another medical condition where they just happened to do a sperm analysis. Because of that, we jumped right into fertility treatments.  We did four IUIs, all of which failed before we were finally referred to a Reproductive Endocrinologist. It was after our initial meeting with our fertility doctor and additional testing that we discovered...

Confession: For most of my adult life, I proclaimed that I did not want children. Ironically enough, one of the major things that scared me away from motherhood was the fear of losing a child. I even wrote a letter to my imaginary baby, explaining my apprehensions: “The existence of you means that something—the loss of you—could destroy me. Obliterate me. There has never been something in my life with that capacity. I have always prided myself on strength, but you could bring me to my knees. And I’m not sure I would ever be able...

Some experiences in life stay with you and teach you lessons long after people think you should have moved past them. That’s what happened to me with pregnancy and becoming a mother after infertility. As infertility patients, our focus is constantly on the next step: the next procedure, the next medication, the next blood draw, the next ultrasound, the next retrieval, the next transfer, the next pregnancy test, and the next month to try again. To hope those two lines appear. That’s what we are working towards, that’s our dream. Those two pink lines and...