My name is Katie Boyd and this is a little bit about my infertility journey.
My husband Grant and I were married in March 2015. I always envisioned having kids early on in our marriage, so I never went on birth control. All I truly wanted to be was a mother. We figured that everything would work out and Heavenly Father would help us start our family when the time was right. We began trying for a baby in August 2015 and six months later, still no baby. I went to see the doctor and he immediately put me on Clomid. After five rounds of Clomid and still no success, we were stumped! We didn’t know what to do or what our next steps should be. We continued praying and put our trust in the Lord that he has a plan specifically designed for us. Everyone always told us to live it up before we had kids, so we did! We had such a fun first few years of marriage together, but our main priority still remained the same – to start our family.
After 18 months of trying, we realized that getting pregnant might be more difficult than we had anticipated. After many more doctor’s visits, I was put on more medication and tracking ovulation. The doctors that we had visited found that there were really no glaring problems with either of us! I did the HSG test to clear my tubes and my husband was tested many times. Month after month, test after test, still no baby.
I came across a quote during this time that motivated me and helped me keep an eternal perspective. “Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf
At this point in our journey, I specifically remember making a choice. I could be miserable and full of heartbreak during this trial, or I could choose to be happy and optimistic. The heartache and pain of dealing with infertility is so real and so hard, but my husband and I chose to find joy in the journey. Of course, we had some really sad moments, but we were determined to keep working, hoping, and exercising faith during our trial.
The years seemed to pass by so quickly and we still had zero answers as to why we weren’t conceiving. In February 2019, we found a new fertility doctor. After the consultation with him, he asked me if any of my previous doctors had ever talked to me about endometriosis before. I didn’t even know what that was! Unfortunately, you cannot confirm endometriosis without surgery, but from all of the symptoms (painful periods, infertility, etc.) I was experiencing, he was pretty sure that was the reason we had not had success with getting pregnant. WHAT? I was shocked! No one had ever mentioned that before. Even though that wasn’t the answer we wanted to hear, we were so grateful for some answers…finally!!
In May 2019, I went in for a laparoscopy to have the endometriosis removed. We held onto hope that this surgery would solve our problem. The next month, we did our first IUI which was unsuccessful. A few months later, we did our second IUI which was unsuccessful as well. We were devastated. We felt like we had literally tried everything and nothing was working. With lots of prayer, we decided that we were ready for the bigger guns – IVF!
We were lined up with the best fertility doctor in town, but his next opening was 6 months away! Miraculously, a spot opened up and we were able to get in much earlier. Our first consultation was in November 2019. Our IVF journey officially began in March 2020 and we were so anxious and ready to take on the challenge. It is so amazing how everything literally fell into place for us to begin IVF. There were so many shots to take that sometimes it felt overwhelming, but we pushed through keeping our hope alive. Going into my egg retrieval, my doctor predicted that we would probably have 10-12 eggs. After the retrieval, we found out that he was able to retrieve 20 eggs! We were so grateful…that was way more than we were expecting! We could definitely feel the Lord’s hand. We were able to do genetic testing on 10 embryos and 7 of them remained healthy with the correct number of chromosomes. On transfer day, we were a little nervous that our doctor was going to call it off because of everything going on with COVID-19, but everything worked out and we were able to move forward. We decided to put in two embryos (one boy and one girl) so that we would have a higher chance of having a successful pregnancy. We had to wait 10 days to get the results of our transfer.
On April 25, 2020, I went in to get the blood work done to see if I was pregnant and we had to wait a few hours for the results. My husband and I were both on the phone when our nurse called us with the wonderful news…the blood work came back positive…WE ARE PREGNANT! We were both in shock, we had never had a positive pregnancy test before! We were SO happy and SO thankful! My heartfelt like it was going to burst with gratitude. At the ultrasound a few days later, we found out that one baby had survived! Words cannot express how excited, grateful, and humbled we feel for our miracle baby who we love so much! I will never forget the moment when we heard our baby’s heartbeat for the first time. This sweet baby growing inside me was all worth it…the 4.5 years, heartbreak, tears, many different doctors, hundreds of appointments, so many needles, and a thousand prayers.
Looking back, I am so thankful for this trial that we went through. I have often asked myself why we had to go through this. I’ve come to the conclusion that I feel like I have been made a better person because of it: more compassionate, humble, patient, kind, and strong. I feel like my relationship with my husband grew so deep. We were able to spend so much quality time with each other over the years and build many memories together. To anyone struggling with infertility, please know that you are not alone. You are important and you are worthy to be a mother. Choose to be happy and find joy in your personal journey. Keep hoping, keep believing, and trust that it will all work out…because it WILL! Your prayers and the righteous desires of your heart will be answered in the right timing. We may not understand God’s timing of things, but we do trust that things happen for a reason. Miracles do happen!
Instagram: katieluboyd
Facebook: Katie Boyd (Coon)
Infertility Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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