"Thank you for not giving up on me."

“Dr Terrenz, I have gone through 3 In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) procedure. The doctors said that my eggs were no good and I should consider using donor eggs to try again. It never occured to me that after 6 long years of hard work, I would have to consider having a child that is not my own. I will never accept that. Dr Terrenz, do you think there is a sliver of hope left for me? Or is it hopeless? If so, tell me frankly so that I will hope no more.”

After IVF failed her thrice, Mrs B turn to me for help. The doctors recommended her to opt for donor eggs as her own cannot be used for IVF anymore. However, Mrs B is strongly against the idea. She wanted a child that she could call her own, and came to us in hopes of chinese medicine could could grant her her deepest wish.

Mrs B suffers from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) where the ovaries does not ovulate on every cycle. Furthermore, her menstruation comes every 2-3 months which further complicates her progress to conceive. The only viable option for Mrs B is to undergo IVF. The doctors manage to extract 5 eggs the first time, 4 eggs the second time, and only 1 egg the third time. However, all of them couldn’t make it through fertilization thus the procedure was terminated before embryo transfer.

“The stress of infertility is heavier on females compared to males whereas both party shares the responsibility.”

Whenever infertility is concerned, the blame is usually pointed towards the wife when in truth both husband and wife bears the responsibility. Male produces sperms everyday but female are born with limited amount of eggs, once exhausted they can no longer be replaced. Mrs B face challenges in ovulation as it is, but due to repeated ovarian stimulation during IVF, the quality of her eggs and ovarian reserve decreased drastically. This may lead to early onset of menopause, which in Mrs B’s case, a nightmare as she wish to get pregnant.

Mrs B saw a glimmer of hope and immediately took up the treatment. However, she did not fully commit to it. I kept encouraging her to have faith and believe in herself and stick to the treatment.

It was September when we received a picture from her WeChat showing a positive pregnancy test. She even wrote “Dr Terrenz, am I pregnant? I think this test stick is broken.” I took a look at her body temperature chart and confirmed that she is pregnant. Feeling dubious, Mrs B purchased 2 other tests that very night for confirmation and it proved positive for both. I couldn’t be happier for them.

Currently Mrs B has safely gone though the first trimester, she told me: “I almost gave up but you did not. Thank you Dr Terrenz for the encouragement and mental support. It took a while and tremendous amount of effort but everything was worth it. I can now be the mother of my child.”

Mr B’s seminal analysis result was not ideal as well. His work requires him to entertain clients, so cigarettes, alcohol and sleep deprivation cannot be avoided, resulting in low sperm count and low sperm motility. Knowing these facts, I told Mr and Mrs B frankly that they have less than 50% chance of getting pregnant as well as the circumstances for them to improve their chances. Mr and Mrs B must be patient during the treatment and condition their body.