A minor miracle has happened and I can take no credit for it. To balance all the happy stories of babies for whom I was privileged to have a part in their conception, this patient has asked me to share her story to give a glimmer of hope to women who give up on treatment.
One day, our office received a happy phone call from a former patient who had not been in our office for three years, telling us that she was now pregnant naturally and had just come back from seeing heartbeat on ultrasound with her OB. Looking back, she had failed to get pregnant with us despite making four follicles and being inseminated with a good sperm sample in a single IUI cycle. She was 42 at the time and had one completely blocked tube. She and her husband were not financially prepared to invest in an IVF cycle, nor even in another IUI cycle, so they decided to take an indefinite break. Of note, prior to seeing us, she had had one miscarriage in her life during her 30′s and she had failed six cycles of Clomid with her OB/Gyn.
While it’s sad when patients have to give up, it’s also something that we all have to accept as a possibility, as not everyone has the same financial situation or the level of willingness to go on. I had a long conversation with her husband years back and wished them luck. I told them that at age 42, seven past years of infertility, one previous miscarriage and one blocked tube, it was estimated that they had less than a 1% chance of getting pregnant on their own each month, but it was not entirely impossible. They replied that they would keep trying on their own and if they ever changed their mind about doing any sort of treatment, whether IUI or IVF, they would be in contact.
When we received the good news three years later, she had just turned 45!! I was extremely surprised and even skeptical, until I got a chance to confirm it with her OB. Now, I have to admit that the possibility is not entirely ruled out that she snuck off somewhere and got pregnant through IVF with donor eggs, but I don’t think that’s the case here. So there you have it — one of the most improbable happy endings in a patient who had all but given up on treatment. Please don’t take this as a suggestion that trying on your own is the best way to go if you’re 42 with one blocked tube, but let it be a reminder that out of all the women in the world who are left with only a 1% chance of getting pregnant, each month, some of them (well 1% of them) will get pregnant.
