After trying for almost a year, I suspected that something could have been wrong and I suggested to my gynae if I should do an HSG test. True enough, my one and only tube was blocked and I also had an ovarian cyst and uterine polyps. The fertility doctor recommended that I go through IVF  to retrieve my eggs first, followed by a surgery to remove the polyps in the uterus before doing a frozen embryo transfer. I had 6 frozen embryos at age 34 with one ovary. My first transfer was negative but I managed to conceive on my second embryo transfer just 2 months later. My third embryo transfer was done 15mth after my daughter was born but failed. I did take another HSG test and the results showed my tube was not blocked so it did give me some hope to conceive naturally.  In the last few months I have tried clomid and TCM ( acupuncture and herbs) . However with my history endometriosis and ovarian cyst it has been quite a difficult journey. Hence I am on my 2nd stimulation cycle. 

In the third year of my marriage, I underwent HSG, tried Clomid and acupuncture before finally conceiving naturally. Unfortunately, these resulted in 1 natural miscarriage and 2 ectopic pregnancies (both of which ruptured and had to undergo emergency surgeries to remove the fallopian tubes), all those within 1.5 years. IVF was my only option to conceive. At 29, I underwent my short IVF protocol in a local hospital and managed to yield 7 blastocysts. On advice of the medical team, I did a single FET and was blessed with my first boy in Apr 2018. After he turned 1, we weaned off the breastfeeding and did another single FET in Sept 2019. I safely delivered my second boy in one of the most trying period aka Circuit Breaker 2020. 5 more frozen Captain America in storage! “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations” - Unknown

Hi, my name is Kim. And this is my story. Ever since I was a little girl, I always said I wanted a big family with 3 kids. I got married at 27 and decided to start a family after a year or so. The first month we tried, we got pregnant and had our 1st son. It was such a joy. 3 years later, we decided to try again and straight away got pregnant again with our 2nd son. Having 2 boys was such a handful, but deep down I knew I wanted one more to complete our family. At the age of 34, we started trying again, thinking that it would happen fast as it did with our first 2, but after a year of trying and nothing happening, we decided to get ourselves checked out. We found out that my husband suddenly had sperm motility issues where the quality of good sperm was pretty low and therefore he had to start taking medication to improve them. I also started taking clomid and we continued trying for another year and finally got pregnant but 4 months into the pregnancy during a scan, we found out that the baby no longer had a heartbeat, and I was experiencing a missed miscarriage which resulted in an emergency d&c. We started trying again about 3 months later. And continued for another 6 months but still nothing. We consulted the doctor who did another set of blood tests, and this time found out that my AMH was low, meaning I had a low egg reserve which affects the chances of having a baby.  The doctor then suggested going for an IUI. We proceeded to fail 2 IUIs, in which we also found out that I had some type of abnormal bleeding in my uterus which is causing problems with implantation. So now we are starting our IVF journey and hoping it will succeed one day. I just want to share that fertility problems can hit anyone at any point in time, whether you have had kids previously or not, and regardless of whether it’s your 1st, 2nd or even 5th child, the pain of not being able to have a child is still there. I wish everyone reading this all of the best and that you will be able to complete your family soon! 

After getting married and trying naturally for 1.5yrs, my husband and I decided to go for a fertility assessment. All results came back normal and no issue was found. We continued trying naturally for another 1.5yrs before deciding to go for IVF, but our Dr recommended for us to do an IUI before going for IVF. During the IUI, I had such a horrible experience with the Letrozole pills and it was an unsuccessful round. Took time off for 7 months, before going for IVF with Dr Loh at TFC. Along with TCM and acupuncture to give my body a boost. Sadly, my 1st FET failed but it allows me to see God’s grace during this period and strongly believe in His time and will. Had my 2nd FET the following month and I am happy to share that my pregnancy blood test result came in to be a BFP.

"I was only 26 when I found out about a 7cm blood cyst in my ovary. During the surgery I found out my tubes were severely blocked, and I have endometrosis. When I finally see a fertility specialist (FS) at 27, tests and scan shows that I have PCOS. As blocked tubes affects implantation, I made the decision to remove both tubes and started my IVF journey months later. 

When my transfer failed, my FS did more tests to see if there is any issues with my body. That is when I found out I have a blood clotting disorder called Antiphospholipid syndrome that causes miscarriages and implantation failure. I too have elevated NK cells. In order to have a successful pregnancy, I will need to be on steroids, Hydroxychloroquine, blood thinner injections and the list goes on.

It took me two years, 1 chemical pregnancy, 1 miscarriage, 2 more surgeries, 3 failed transfers to finally succeed on my 5th transfer. My daughter has just turn 2!  

I have been sharing my story to encourage those who are facing the same issues as me, if you need a listening ear or find out anything about fertility treatments you can find me on my IG @sueannys."

We had to embark on IVF when I was 29. At that time, I did not understand why I had to suffer so many injections even though I was young and people around me seemed to have no problems getting pregnant. But now in retrospect, I am thankful that I was young when I extracted my eggs. My first transfer was successful, but I miscarried at the start of the second trimester. Thankfully, God blessed us with another two successful pregnancies. My journey with infertility was life-changing, and it is my wish that my story will bring hope to others who now face the same challenges. 

As I have PCOS, I do not ovulate regularly, so I started down this infertility road.
I started with 3 rounds of Clomid of increasing dosages, but for all 3 rounds, no ovulations were detected. Then I did 1 round of IUI, which was not successful. My second round of IUI was changed to IVF as too many follicles were stimulated.
All in all, I have done 5 IVF retrievals (2 short protocols and 3 long protocols) and 6 transfers (2 fresh transfers and 4 frozen transfers). I have got implantations for 4 of those transfers, but 1 ended with a blighted ovum while the other 3 ended as miscarriages in the first trimester.

By God's grace, I could conceive quite easily. However, staying pregnant is a hurdle for me due to my age. I have had three miscarriages (in their first trimester) in the last four years; two recurrent ones in 2020. I am blessed with one living Champion Baby in between my first and second miscarriages. I hope to give her a sibling - someone to love and have her back always, even when her parents are gone. My third conception in 2020 was via IUI. It ended in miscarriage. A fertility doctor in the private sector later told my husband and I that we would be better off trying to conceive naturally compared to doing IUI. As age is catching up, I am exploring IVF with PGS. But doors after doors seem to be closed for my husband and I. First came the shock that we are not eligible for the government subsidy as we were past 40 years old. Next, the borders to Malaysia are closed indefinitely due to Covid-19. And then, disappointments resulting from difficulties in proceeding at certain public hospitals. This led both my husband and I to wonder: "Oh Lord, are you trying to tell us not to proceed with IVF?" We also hear the consistent message from various fertility clinics that my rate of IVF success is just 15% at most due to my age. Another would say: "80% of your eggs are bad". This further discourages me. The cost of IVF is enormous and the success is not guaranteed. This can cause tremendous anxiety and stress, and can potentially put a strain in the marriage relationship if finances and expectations are not managed properly. I am learning to be patient and content with what I already have, and to treasure my two loves as I pursue pregnancy relentlessly. While I am interested in understanding the various aspects of IVF for myself, I am also a rep of an Independent Financial Advisory firm. When I hear about this Fertility Support group, I see my interest and mission-aligned.  

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Finally, I wish that all our desires will come true. If you need a friend to listen to, do drop me a line @ 90108700. We all need friends on this roller-coaster journey.

We moved to Singapore from London just after we got married in 2016. After trying naturally for a while we decided to get fertility tests done to see if there were any underlying issues. To our shock and surprise we were told that natural conception was virtually impossible for us due to a condition that my husband has called “cryptozoospermia” (low sperm count and quality).

The reality of IVF left me feeling llike a hormonal, bloated, pin-cushion. I felt horrendous with constant nausea. I’ve self-administered over 700+ hormone injections into my stomach and have taken a cocktail of various drugs administered in a variety of ways. My husband underwent an excruciating micro -TESA operation to surgically extract the fittest sperms using a microscope for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). 

We’ve had a total of 4 IVF cycles (the first two egg retrievals were done in Malaysia). The first three cycles were unsuccessful leaving us with no viable day 5 embryos. The fourth cycle here in Singapore blessed us with 6 embryos that had survived 5 days and beyond. Ahead of our transfer, I underwent a robotic laparoscopy surgery to treat my endometriosis and adenomyosis. 

To date, we’ve had 3 failed Frozen Embryo Transfers (FET). We are in the middle of the fourth transfer and are patiently enduring the 2 week wait to find out whether this cycle has been successful and if we have been blessed with a baby. Only time will tell…..

Our treatment in Singapore has been incredible. However, during our cycles I noticed a huge gap in the care, support and empathy couples and individuals receive to help manage their emotions and mental well-being.

In between IVF cycles, intense operations, gruelling tests and treatments I’ve retrained to be a fertility coach. Alongside my Neuroscience degree, I have qualified as a Neuro-Linguistic Master Practitioner recognised by the American Board of NLP. I am a reiki practitioner, London Reiki Academy, and currently qualifying to achieve my International Association of Coaching Institutes (ICI) accreditation. It’s now my mission and passion to help and support others that are going through this emotional, anxious and devastating journey to help empower and take back control of emotions, feelings and behaviour.

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My name is Sophie. I got married at age 40 to my best friend, and so, that was the start of our roller coaster ride to make a baby.

To sum up our experience, I have low AMH and blocked tubes. Upon advice from the doctor to collect as many eggs as we can, we did 4 full IVF cycles in 2018, which gave us 9 embabies. However only 2 stuck, but unfortunately neither passed the 8 weeks mark (one was a chemical pregnancy and the other - blighted ovum.)

I may look and sound Okay, which I am, most days but infertility is a trauma - it will take time to recover and I am doing a lot of inner work. I’m also popping a lot of pills, getting poked weekly with acupuncture needles, drinking stinky TCM herbs, meditating, journaling etc

FACT: I have a 10-20% chance of live birth due to my age, because quality and quantity of egg decreases as a woman grows older. 

Because there is still that 10-20% chance, and I still have my period, I believe and trust that I'm fertile, my body is capable of healing and all I need is only one egg.

I always believe there is blessing to be found in everything. So my blessings from my IVF journey is that I am on my way to be a Certified Fertility Support Specialist. I am currently working on a fertility yoga program (I am a 500 hour certified yoga teacher). I find my joy in helping others, dancing, teaching yoga, writing my blog (sophiexsanders.com) and being of service to the IVF community. My current mantra is “I trust myself. I trust my body. I trust that I'm on the right path.”

Sending loving and compassionate energy to all those who are here and connected by our deepest desire to bring a child into our lives.

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