My dh and I have been together for almost nine years. Dh is 44 and I am 35. We started passively trying to start a family after 2 years. As the years passed, I finally took some action and visited the gyno and he scheduled me for a lap to see what was going on. He found that my tubes were badly scarred and blocked.

The next step was to try IVF. The first attempt failed (stimulated cycle: 22 embryos, 18 fertilized). Next was an FET cycle, but this also failed. The gyno recommended another lap to see if there were any other problems. There was a hydrosalpinx and the left tube was removed. I was insistent that they did not remove both tubes.

They repaired the right tube and I convinced them that my next cycle should be ZIFT. Considering they had repaired the right tube, they agreed and I became pg with twins. It was a very painful pregnancy, emotionally and physically. I was bleeding from 6 weeks to 16 weeks. At 11 weeks the heartbeat of twin 2 stopped beating, but I was certain twin 1 would fight on. At 18 weeks I suffered premature rupture of the membranes and at 24 weeks, I went into labour and delivered a beautiful baby boy, but he never woke up. There is nothing more painful than losing your child, but I am glad he was my child and that he was perfect in every way.

We started trying again after a few months - 1 stimulated ZIFT (unsuccessful) followed by two frozen ZIFT (unsuccessful) and finally we tried an IVF/FET with assisted hatching and I am proud to say today we are nearly 30wks pg with one baby.