Carolyn Savage and her husband Sean Savage have been all over the news since September 2009. For nine months, Carolyn cautiously navigated her way through her last pregnancy. A history of infertility and pregnancy loss was one of the reasons for her caution; the other reason however, was unique to the Savages and the Savages alone. Carolyn and Sean carried an extraordinary burden above and beyond the little life growing in Carolyn's womb: the baby she was carrying belonged to another family and the Savages were going to have to give the baby to his genetic parents on the day of his birth.
At almost the same time that Nadya Suleman (known in the tabloids as "Octomom") hit the news with her infamous IVF-conceived octuplets, Carolyn Savage was going through her own IVF treatment. In one life-altering moment, Carolyn's fertility clinic made the worst possible error: during a routine frozen embryo transfer, Carolyn's clinic transferred another couple's embryos into Carolyn's uterus.
The pregnancy and delivery had enough complications to ensure that this "unintended surrogacy" would be Carolyn's last pregnancy. But the Savages still had some frozen embryos and the desire for another child, so while still pregnant with the baby they would have to give up, the Savages found a gestational carrier (surrogate) who would hopefully be able to have a baby for them with their embryos. Their surrogate had a miscarriage.
After giving birth to Logan Savage Morrell and handing him over to his genetic family, Carolyn and Sean still felt that their family wasn't complete. They approached Dr. Geoffrey Sher of the Sher Institutes for Reproductive Medicine (SIRM) for help - and help is what they got. The Savages' gestational carrier is 21 weeks pregnant with twins (so really, they're going to need even more help once the babies are here)!
On April 26th, 2011 Carolyn Savage and Dr. Geoffrey Sher participated in a discussion at IVFConnections.com to talk more about the story (and a few other things).
Carolyn Savage and Dr. Geoffrey Sher: A National Infertility Awareness Week Discussion [04-26, 17:37] Erika Tabke:Welcome to our live chat! We are delighted that you are able to join us tonight! Tonight is exciting for us for a lot of reasons and I'll tell you about them before we begin.
For those of you who don't know Carolyn and Sean Savage's history, their book Inconceivable is an incredible read. And we have covered the Savages' story from the day the embryo mix-up and pregnancy hit the news. You can read the background information about the IVFConnections-moderated discussion with Carolyn and Dr. Sher can be found in our press release. And of course the SIRM website is an amazing resource for not only patients of SIRM but for those looking to learn more about infertility treatments: https://www.haveababy.com And if/when we run out of time tonight, I am sure that both of our guests will be glad to extend the conversation, either here at IVFC or elsewhere. They're both quite chatty, I'm told. [04-26, 18:02] Erika Tabke: Thanks again for joining us for our live chat. With me for the first hour solo (for the most part) is Carolyn Savage - if you're here in this chat then you likely know how amazing she is. Dr. Sher is also here, watching and waiting in the wings. [04-26, 18:03] Erika Tabke: The first hour will focus a bit more on Carolyn and her "pre-Dr. Sher" life, and then we'll bring in Dr. Sher to discuss all of the latest news. [04-26, 18:04] Erika Tabke: Carolyn, are you ready to say hello? [04-26, 18:10] Carolyn Savage: Thank you for having me! I am really looking forward to this event! |
