Super grateful for their work, service, and compassion (Nov '22)

My husband and I have been together since 2019, we'd both been married before and both have children from our first marriages, him 3 and me 2. For me, it had been clear since puberty that I wouldn't be able to have children naturally. My children were conceived through IVF as well. I had those treatments in the Netherlands, both times I got pregnant on the first attempt, but with hellish pain during the retrievals.

My current husband and I actually both knew right away that we wanted a child together. I did have some doubts because of my age and our busy life. A year after we met we still wanted to start the process, and we started in the Netherlands. Even though it was already known that I couldn't get pregnant naturally, and that IUI and all other treatments wouldn't have any effect on me, and that the chances were really very small, we still had to try it from the very beginning.

I responded badly to hormones, gained 8 to 10 kg per attempt, and at some point I said this just wasn't doable for me. We agreed then that I'd lose 10 kg and then we'd try IVF again. Eventually I lost 15 kg, and went back for IVF. Stimulation took really long, after a month I still didn't have enough growth, after a month and a half I had 5 eggs around 20 mm, so ready for IVF, which we'd also scheduled. The retrieval was so bad that I nearly fainted from the pain, and after the retrieval we also got bad news; namely that the eggs weren't mature. We were in shock, how could this be? We had so many questions, but no real answers.

This wasn't a nice experience, and I didn't want to put myself through this again. As much as I wanted a child together with my husband, I no longer dared to, because of the pain.

One day it occurred to me that I'd looked at the Human First page before to get information about IVF. I decided to take a look, and again read very positive experiences about IVF in Istanbul. I discussed with my husband whether this might be something for us, we'd already booked a trip to Turkey and had 3 weeks of vacation there, maybe we could combine this? My husband was immediately very enthusiastic, because the wish for a child was still there. I decided to call, and got Evren on the phone, immediately very understanding, and gave clear information. My own cycle also happened to line up perfectly and they had space at the hospital that same week, as if it was meant to be.

We started stimulation in the Netherlands, and I also had 2 ultrasounds in the Netherlands. The day after we arrived in Istanbul we had an appointment for a third ultrasound, everything was on schedule and everyone at the clinic was immediately very involved and caring. We had a really nice conversation with dr. Cem. We asked them if it was possible to transfer 2 fertilized eggs. Dr. Cem understood completely, but pointed out the risks of this. We scheduled the retrieval, it was completely painless, how wonderful was that! I also experienced the aftercare as excellent, I got to lie down for a few hours, and had breakfast together with my husband, after which we could leave, and they wished us all the best, very kindly and warmly. In the meantime we also had a lot of chat contact with Evren, who was very involved too. We no longer felt like just a number, another patient... a truly wonderful, personal experience. On day 2 after the retrieval we got a call with the good news that there were 8 fertilized eggs of good quality. They'd call again 1 or 2 days later to update us on the development of the fertilized eggs. The day after that we got another call that development was still going well and that we could come back on day 5 for the transfer. The transfer was done and 10 days later we could test.

We still had 11 days of vacation left in Turkey, we did the test while still in Turkey, absolutely positive!!! We let Evren know right away, and she was very happy for us too. Once we got back to the Netherlands, the clinic in Istanbul even called to ask how things were going, and whether I'd already tested, so sweet that they thought of that! We've now had 3 ultrasounds, and yesss we're pregnant with twins!!! 10 weeks along now... It's still a bit early, but everything looks good.

We're truly super grateful to Evren, dr. Cem and his team for their work, service, and compassion.

S & H

November 2022

This story was translated from Dutch by our team. Read the original Dutch version →