2024-05-02 21:48:06
“It’s like the death of a dream,” admitted 37-year-old American Katie Abdou. The woman feels that the hopes given by the doctors were empty: “Artificial insemination ruined my life.”
Now the grieving woman is sharing her story in the hope that it will help other women struggling with IVF to feel less alone. She also wants to call on the medical community to provide more support to single and LGBTQ people who want to start a family.
K. Abdou admitted that she always wanted to become a mother, and it did not matter whether a potential father appeared in her life or not.
“I’ve never been interested in being in a relationship, but I’ve always wanted kids,” the food vendor from Plymouth, Massachusetts, told Southwest News Service.
Without a partner, K. Abdou first became interested in foster care and adoption, but quickly realized that this practice was not only expensive, but also confusing and ethically questionable. “It would be unpleasant for me to ‘acquire’ another person’s child just because his family was unable to support him,” the woman explained.
For these reasons, the woman decided on an artificial insemination procedure performed at home and in 2020. in March, he started looking for a potential sperm donor in the Internet registries.
However, after five unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant in this way (the woman experienced three early miscarriages), an X-ray examination showed that the woman’s fallopian tubes were blocked, so in vitro fertilization (IVF) was not only the best, but also the only method suitable for the woman.
The price of one artificial insemination can vary from 9 thousand. up to 23 thousand euros, depending on drugs, fees, and the number of consultations required for the success of the procedure.
Some insurance companies cover part or all of the cost of IVF, but this procedure is not covered by Mr. Abdou’s insurance plan. The woman had to sell her house and move in with her parents to pay for the procedure.
After selling her house, the woman received 93 thousand. euros. Before long, she found a clinic in Albany, New York, that offered affordable procedures.
in 2021 in November, eggs were taken from the woman’s body, from which three embryos were retrieved. Two of them failed to establish, and the woman lost the third after five weeks due to a miscarriage.
K. Abdou did not hide that even then she wanted to give up, but then her “best friend” – 37-year-old Chris – offered her help.
With Chris’s sperm, she decided to undergo another IVF procedure. They managed to get two embryos and in 2022. in November, the woman found out that she was pregnant.
“I was very happy, but I was still cautious,” said the woman. The pregnancy was long enough, the woman even managed to find out the sex of the child. She was expecting a boy. “I had already prepared the child’s room. I even planned a waiting party for him,” said K. Abdou.
Unfortunately, an ultrasound at 17 weeks pregnant revealed that her baby’s heart was not beating and she needed surgery to remove the fetus.
“He’s gone,” said the woman. “It was horrible.” Abdou memorialized her only son with a ring made from his ashes, which she wears, and a tattoo of tiny feet on her shoulder.
No one wanted K. Abdou to surrender. Even the woman’s doctors claimed that she was healthy and fertile enough for a successful pregnancy. “Each time I hoped that this time I would be lucky,” she recalls.
After a failed attempt to transfer the remaining embryo from the second procedure (it did not implant) and a failed egg retrieval in 2023. In April, K. Abdou underwent surgery to remove polyps that had formed in her uterus. Then the woman learned she had chronic inflammation of the endometrium, or endometritis, which doctors said was likely the cause of Abdou’s fertility problems.
The woman was prescribed antibiotics. This restored hope that the fourth procedure would be successful. She also began taking growth hormones and embarked on platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. This is an experimental treatment where blood taken from individual platelets is injected back into the uterus.
It was a complicated process. “I was fainting. “I gained 23 kilograms,” the woman testified. – I used to trust myself. But now I had to exchange my size 38 for a size 56.”
in 2023 in October, two viable eggs were taken from K. Abdou’s body. But shortly after the egg transfer, she woke up one night in excruciating pain. It turns out that the woman’s ovary had ruptured and she needed emergency surgery.
“I lost a lot of blood,” she said.
After doctors assured her that her ovaries had healed, K. Abdou underwent her fifth egg retrieval in January of this year. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.
She still had enough medication for her last test, which she undertook in February. That time we managed to get five eggs.
“I was very happy,” said the woman. – I believed that this time it would be successful.”
Of the five embryos, only one was transferred and the rest did not survive. On March 28, she received the terrible news that she could not conceive.
“I felt crushed. It changed me,” K. Abdou did not hide.
Despite the heartbreaking experience, the woman supports those trying to conceive through artificial insemination. True, she wishes other aspiring parents knew about the many potential complications before emptying their bank accounts.
“I think single people and LGBTQ people should get more support,” she said. “I would like to see more information about artificial insemination.”
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2024-05-02 21:48:06