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Diana & Colin’s Story

After 5 natural miscarriages and a diagnosis of unexplained fertility, we were referred to Dr. Kashyap from our specialist at BC Women’s Unexplained Pregnancy Loss Clinic. We had losses with natural conception and then with Clomid and Letrozole and they had been attributed to genetic problems with the embryos. We knew we were advancing in age and that the chances of getting that good egg were getting slimmer every month.

Dr. Kashyap was wonderful. She was incredibly informative, without giving false hope, and very quick in diagnosing us during our first meeting. She was able to quickly sort through our options and we were overjoyed when she described and explained Comprehensive Chromosomal Screening to make sure we could avoid the problems we had been having at conception.

I was pretty fragile from all the losses, and the idea that we could pre-screen for genetic abnormalities was a huge relief. It was the perfect option.
Our treatment was fantastic and the clinic nurses and staff were incredibly kind and helpful. We had our training session and felt completely prepared for all the upcoming medications and injections. Nurses were always helpful by phone or email with any questions I had.  They were even able to work medications around our busy schedules (which included a trip out of town) and provided a letter to allow us to fly with medications – which we didn’t even think about needing! It was all very exciting as we had been feeling pretty helpless up to this point, and having a plan and science on our side felt like something tangible that we could understand.

Our first try got us multiple eggs and 5 embryos made it to the CCS testing stage. The scientific odds were that 1 in 5 eggs should be good, so we were thrilled! Then the sad news: unfortunately, all of them had genetic problems. It was a huge disappointment, but we knew it was a possibility, especially with our history. Dr. Kashyap was incredibly kind delivering the news. We were understandably devastated. The odds were not in our favour.

However, Dr. Kashyap called us back and encouraged us to try again. She explained our options and that with our history, the odds should be there for us this time. She wanted to try a new protocol and thought we could do this. We were willing to try, and with this new protocol, we got 12 eggs and 6 viable embryos. I still remember the exciting phone calls every day from the embryologist updating us on their progression. We waited anxiously for the CCS testing results on our 6, and we were able to get that one good egg!  And it only takes one! I still remember our embryologist showing us the picture of our embryo on implant day. She gave me so much confidence and told me this was a very high grade embryo and should work.

Dr. Kashyap is fantastic in the room and I felt so comfortable with her during the procedure (both with egg extractions and the implantation – as well as all check-ups) and she pointed out our embryo on the screen while she was being implanted. We watched that little flash of light on the screen. Not long after, we had our positive pregnancy result!  Hooray!

My pregnancy was uneventful and best of all, because we had done CCS, we felt less worried during all of the extra testing you receive when you are an older mother. Due to our other losses, we would have worried the entire pregnancy about the health of our baby if we had conceived naturally. Now, five years, five miscarriages and two IVF attempts later, we have a perfect little girl. Thank you so much, Dr. Kashyap and everyone at Genesis! We are so happy we kept trying and that you could help us on our journey!

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