Infertility can be quite isolating

At 29, the Melbourne nurse was fit and healthy, newly married and had a regular menstrual cycle for calculating ovulation.But the excitement of waiting for a positive pregnancy test quickly turned to anxiety.

“Once it got to six months, I started to get concerned,” she says. “Each month, it just got harder and harder. The stress started to build up.”

After about one year of trying naturally without any luck, Martha and her husband Mike got a referral from their GP to see a fertility specialist.

“I felt quite relieved at that stage because I thought we could get to the bottom of things. But when I called for an appointment, it was still another three months to get in.”

Martha was hoping she would fall pregnant while waiting to see the doctor. But she didn’t. As time went by, she became more fearful that something might be wrong.

A fertility specialist ordered some tests and recommended the couple use IVF with ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) – a technique used to overcome problems with sperm. After their first IVF cycle, they had three embryos to try for a pregnancy. However, none of them worked.

“It was a rude awakening,” Martha says of the disappointment she and Mike experienced after trying each embryo.

Martha’s specialist did a biopsy of her uterus to see if she could detect any problems and diagnosed endometritis – inflammation of the lining of the uterus which is usually caused by an infection. She was prescribed antibiotics and her next period was unusually pain-free.

The specialist had previously considered the possibility of endometriosis – a condition where tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside of the uterus. It can only be diagnosed with surgery. But together, Martha and her specialist decided to try another IVF cycle first before an operation to investigate.

The second IVF cycle was particularly painful. Martha’s ovaries were over-stimulated by the drugs used to produce more eggs than usual for IVF. She was diagnosed with Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, causing her to fell very lethargic and bloated. Her doctor monitored her carefully. To her relief, she did not need treatment in hospital.

The cycle produced nine embryos, and tests showed that six were chromosomally normal and suitable for transfer to try for a pregnancy. The first one resulted in a positive pregnancy test. Martha and Mike were elated, but a viability ultrasound at about six weeks’ gestation showed the baby had no heart beat.