My husband and I got married four years ago. One year after we got married we decided to start trying to have a family. During that first year we had unprotected sex and nothing happened, so about 6 months after seriously trying we decided to go and see an Infertility Specialist. My husband tested fine, and the problem turned out to be me. After many different kinds of testing, I had a HSG done and it turned out that my tubes were clogged with mucus so it was difficult for the sperm to get to the egg. My Doctor felt that I was a good IVF candidate. I was on injectable medications, and every night my husband would give me a shot of whichever medication it was that I had to take that day.

The day of the retrieval I ended up having 15 embryos, and 14 of them fertilized. A few days later we did a transfer of 4 embryos, and 2 weeks later the results were negative. That was ok with us because we still had 10 frozen eggs.

3 months later we decided to do a Frozen Embryo Transfer. Again, the Doctor transferred 4. 2 weeks later the results were positive. 3 weeks later my husband and I went on a weekend trip and while we were on this trip I ended up having a miscarriage. Once again, we decided to go with another Frozen Embryo Transfer, but this time we only transferred 3. I followed all the Doctor's instructions and 2 weeks later the results were negative.

By this time, we had enough stress so we decided to take a break because it was getting to be too much on our marriage and we had found out that our health insurance was going to be covering infertility in January of the following year.

January came and we were ready to take off and try again. The last 3 eggs were transferred to me and 2 weeks later it was negative. My husband and I talked about adoption, but we didn't have the money to pay for it.

So we decided to try the whole IVF cycle all over again from scratch and if this didn't work, then at least we could say that we had tried our best. The Doctor prescribed different injectable medications this time. I was using Lupron, Humegon and Follistim. Faithfully, every night the shots were done and things were looking up again.

The retrieval went well. I ended up having 22 embryos and 15 of them fertilized. The day of the transfer the doctor sat me down and said to me: "Beverly, you have been a patient of mine for a very long time. I want this one to be a success. Right now we have your embryos in petri dishes of 5. Usually I transfer no more that 4, but I would like to see this one be successful and I would like to see how you feel about transferring 5." Well, I was shocked and there was no one else to help me make this decision and I blurted out "5 is fine with me". After I said it and he walked away I said to myself "What did I just do?"

He transferred 5 and 2 weeks later the results were positive!! I went for my first ultrasound 3 weeks later and we saw 2 sacs but only 1 heartbeat. It turned out that only 1 of them had made it, but that was ok with me. I gave birth to a little girl named Amanda on March 21, 1999 and I couldn't be any happier than I am today.

I strongly believe that my daughter was the fifth embryo that was transferred into me that day. It may have taken me a few more cycles than it does most people, but that's ok. After traveling down the Infertility Road for 2 1/2 years it's worth it.