Help Maria and Julie Grow Their Family

Julie and Maria’s fertility journey started all the way back in February of 2019. They decided that Julie would carry the baby, so she underwent several rounds of IUI as it is significantly cheaper than doing IVF, and they were hopeful that since Julie was young and healthy, she would get pregnant quickly. Julie did become pregnant a couple times, but unfortunately the pregnancies ended in miscarriages. After spending the amount of money on IUI’s that one round of IVF would have costed, they decided that Julie would move onto IVF.

During testing for IVF, in September of 2020, Julie needed a brain MRI for something, and she found out that she has a cavernoma in her medial left temporal lobe of her brain. Julie has since been diagnosed with epilepsy (2023) as a result of the cavernoma. Unfortunately hormones are a big trigger for her seizures and can also cause the cavernoma to become unstable, so she is preparing to have a hysterectomy. So, needless to say, Julie is officially out of the running to ever carry a pregnancy. Luckily, there’s another uterus in the relationship!

Back in 2020 when Julie first found out about the cavernoma, they both decided that Maria would instead carry the pregnancy. She decided to go straight for IVF as that has the best chance of being successful. She went through testing and everything looked okay, but upon having her egg retrieval, it was found that Maria’s eggs were unable to fertilize. So, Maria was unable to get pregnant using her own eggs. The fertility clinic gave them the option of going on the wait list for donor embryos, so that is what they decided to do next. In September, they got the call that there were 2 embryos available for them! It was very expensive, but they knew it would be worth it in the end. In October, Maria had her first embryo transfer, and on Thanksgiving Day of 2021, Maria took a pregnancy test and it was positive! Flash forward to 2022; Maria gave birth to their sweet baby boy, Logan Albert Cochran. All of the tears and financial strain and uncertainty had finally paid off! Everything they had been through was totally worth it to get to be Logan’s moms.

In the fall of 2023, Julie and Maria decided it was time to give Logan a younger sibling, so Maria went through another embryo transfer with their last embryo. Unfortunately, that embryo transfer failed. Maria and Julie were both devastated, and they were unsure of what to do next. Currently, Julie is a stay at home mom and is unable to return to work at the moment due to some ongoing health concerns, so as a one income household, they are making it work, but money is tight.

Overall, Julie and Maria have undergone:

7 failed IUIs (2 miscarriages) with Julie

1 failed IVF attempt with Maria only to find out her eggs won’t fertilize.

Got on Embryo wait list and bought 2 embryos - 1 successful pregnancy (Logan!) and the next 1 failed.

Julie is now is having to get a hysterectomy

The 4 Cheapest Options for their family are:

1. Buy eggs from NY, and sperm, have the eggs sent to Ohio and the fertility clinic here create the embryos and transfer to Maria to attempt pregnancy ($10,000 min) – eggs alone from Ohio are $11,500

2. Get on the wait list again for Embryo donation and transfer to Maria ($10,000 min)

3. Buy eggs in NY, have them fertilize and travel there for the procedure ($11,000 not counting travel expenses)

4. Eggs and sperm from Ohio and create the embryos and transfer to Maria ($15,000)

Statistically, option 1 gives them the best chance to get pregnant again, but that is $10,000!

All options are on the table and while they are contemplating how to save money, work extra jobs, and take care of Logan, I felt it was important to share their story.

Will you help my sisters grow their family?