Secondary Infertility & Parenthood Through Frozen Donor Egg

When Joel and Maria welcomed their beautiful baby boy into their family in 2008, they were overjoyed. He was the perfect symbol of their love.

After he turned one, they decided it was time to give him a little brother or sister.

They began trying to become pregnant, and were excited when Maria quickly got pregnant again. But their excitement changed to sadness when Maria endured a miscarriage.

Undeterred, they continued to try. But Maria was 40 years old, and they grew concerned that they were running out of time.

Determined to add to their family, the couple met with Dr. Susan Willman at Reproductive Science Center of the Bay Area. After discussing treatment options, Joel and Maria decided to try intrauterine insemination (IUI). Over the course of a year, they completed four IUI’s, but none resulted in a lasting pregnancy.

Then Dr. Willman offered the couple another option – donor egg.

After careful thought, they decided to move ahead with donor egg, and selected an egg donor. They began the process of stimulating the egg donor’s ovaries, and syncing menstrual cycles between Maria and the donor.

After the egg donor underwent her egg retrieval, Joel and Maria were disappointed to find that many of her eggs were unusable. The two remaining eggs were fertilized, and the resulting embryos transferred to Maria’s uterus.

Sadly, the pregnancy did not take. This time, Joel and Maria decided to look at other options.

It had been two years since they started treatment when they learned about frozen donor egg with Donor Egg Bank USA. They decided to give treatment one last try.

Going through the donor database, they selected an egg donor who had successfully donated in the past.

Without needing to sync cycles with an egg donor, Joel and Maria were able to begin treatment immediately.

The frozen donor eggs were thawed and mixed with Joel’s sperm. After transferring one embryo on the first try, Joel and Maria learned the happy news – they were pregnant.

As the months went by, Maria starting feeling the kicks as her baby grew. Their son could feel the kicks as well, and always asked to touch Maria’s belly as the kicks grew stronger. And just like her son had experienced, her growing baby had hiccups inside the womb.

On November 7th baby Alba was born, bringing their family to four.

Alba has an adoring big brother who loves to shower her with kisses and attention.

And both brother and sister still get hiccups, a strange little family trait that passed