Getting Baby on Board
The first time it was easy. A few well timed attempts and the pastel plus sign on the drugstore test appeared. At the doctors pee in a plastic cup confirmed the impending arrival.
This time though things are different.
Thermometers, doctor’s appointments, schedules, blood tests; the list of to-do’s and don’t do’s long and involved, the stress is incredible.
This time there’s infertility.
“One day you feel that you can handle any disappointment, and yet you find the next day you might be devastated by the smallest of things.” says Sam Myles of her experience with infertility.
“The waiting is extremely difficult and the longer you’re in the fertility treatments the more negative you become.”
Myles, 42, is mother to a three year old boy. Her husband Maxwell Stone, 52, also has three adult children from a previous marriage. After having their son the Toronto couple was surprised to face obstacles conceiving again.
After a few months of trying Myles was diagnosed with high follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) in august 2004. In women FSH initiates follicular growth. High levels are normal during menopause, abnormal in child-bearing years.
Waiting a few years could mean a lifetime when it comes to getting pregnant.
The Clock is Ticking
A woman’s reproductive potential depends on many things; physical condition, lifestyle, environmental exposure and, most importantly, age. Typically fertility begins to decline during the mid-to-late thirties with the greatest decline occurring after 40.
For men the reproductive window is wider.
Even if she becomes pregnant a woman whose fertility is in decline has a higher chance of miscarriage or genetic abnormalities. For many women the consequences of an infertility diagnosis are difficult to bear.
“Infertility has made me feel more anxious about my health and even mortality,” says Myles.
“The notion that one aspect of your health is declining makes you feel more vulnerable about other aspects of your health as well.”
For women and men affected by infertility medical interventions have the potential to change everything.
A Light at the End of the Tunnel
While treatments can cost thousands of dollars, assisted reproductive therapies can give hopeful parents the child nature can’t. But the success of these treatments also decline with age.Atlantic Assisted Reproductive Therapies (AART), in Halifax, is Atlantic Canada’s main centre for assisted reproductive therapies (ART). Established in the mid 80’s by the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at Dalhousie University, AART offers a full range of options for people facing infertility issues.
For Myles and Stone therapies provided at clinics like AART might help them get the baby they desire.
So far though, therapy has yet to work.
“We have tried Intrauterine Insemination with no success,” says Myles, “we’re deliberating on doing IVF with my own eggs, however we aren’t terrible optimistic about the outcome, and so may forgo and go straight to donor eggs.”
IVF stands for in-vitro fertilization. According to Bruce Dunphy, AART’s Director, IVF begins with a controlled hormonal manipulation of the ovaries that stimulates egg production.
It’s then the treatment gets complicated.
“They receive medicine to stimulate their ovaries to produce a bunch of eggs and that involves careful monitoring with ultra sounds, blood tests and a variety of things,” Dunphy says.
“Then it involves a procedure to collect the eggs. That’s done under conscious sedation. They’re awake but receive medication to make them comfortable and pain free. About a 15 to 20 minute procedure is done under ultra sound to collect their eggs.”
If the egg collection is successful the eggs are fertilized in a laboratory. Once fertilization has been achieved the embryos are placed back into the uterus, ideally resulting in implantation and pregnancy.
But Myles’ poor ovarian reserve means that success may depend on the kindness of a stranger. The couple has been searching for a suitable egg donor throughout Canada, so far without success.
“Our ideal donor would, of course, be healthy with a good family history,” she says.
“Physically attributes most similar to mine would be preferred – brunette, tall, fair skin… If finding the right donor means flying someone in from across Canada, then that’s what we’ll do
And it could mean just that. Egg donation is more complex than ejaculating in a cup.
“It’s an emotional rollercoaster,” says Dunphy of a woman becoming and egg donor, “and it’s a substantial commitment.”
Finding a donor is more of a challenge in Canada. Although the intended parents pay for all costs associated with the procedure, the laws in Canada prohibit a donor receiving compensation for their eggs.
“I’d give you the world in return if I could,” says Myles when asked what she would say to prospective donor.
“I would so appreciate anyone who would even considering donating”
Hickety, Pickety, my Black Hen
“It’s just an interesting concept,” says Lindsay Arbuthnot about egg donation, “The whole thing.”Arbuthnot, 21, is in her 3rd year at Dalhousie University. She considered becoming an egg donor after seeing an ad Myles placed in The Coast. Although she initially responded with a hasty ‘yes’, she has since reexamined the idea.
“I know a lot more now than I did when I said that I’d do it,” she says, “I know that it’s a bit of a painful operation, and that you have to take fertility drugs. The other thing is that the child would actually be half of me… I guess I hadn’t really thought about those things”
But in spite of these issues donation is still something Arbuthnot would consider.
“Yeah, despite all those things I would definitely be willing to,” she says, “I would do it without question if it was for a friend.”
For Myles making people aware is what’s key.
“I wish people were more aware,” she says. “Much like there’s a campaign to educate people about donating organs at time of death, I think it would be helpful to infertile couples if there were some sort of similar campaign to make women aware of the potential gift they could give.”
“I’m sure more women would consider donating if only they knew.”
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