If your ship does not come in, swim out to it!

My new friend from Fertile Thoughts, just shared this quote with me and I thought that is the perfect title for this blog. I am hoping to empower other women to get out there and go for it. I have had three failed attempts at IVF and wanted to share my amazing experiences with traveling to other countries for IVf and participating in a clinical trial.

I was a patient at a very well known clinic in New York City called RMA and I was satisfied with my treatment even if I did not get the desired outcome. The nurses were nice enough, although one nurse got annoyed when I called the crisis line. We did not shared that same definition of what a crisis is, I guess. Anyway, overall I had a fine experience there. I was given the short protocol twice (used Gonal-F and Menopur) and had a decent number of eggs and good fertiliity rates. Unfortunately, my insurance ran out and I asked about financial aid and was given, I think $1000 off my next treatment which would not work in my budget. Treatment at this clinic costs around $20,000 including medications, monitoring and everything. I felt fortunate, that I had had my previous attempts covered, so I was in need of a plan. I happened onto a website called Clinicaltrials.gov and found that I was not eligible for most of the trials, but, I was eligible for some. So I sent a few shourt emails out to the primary investigators and sent to Dr. Harry Siristatidis. He was one of the first to reply and asked me for my medical records. It took a week from me to get my records, but even just having a potential prospect lighten my mood. I had a hard time dealing with infertility and but then having finances be another source of stress was beginning to be too much of a burden.

Anyway, that was the beginning of the journey. I will add more information as it occurs and would be very happy to get you honest answers and my impressions of my experience getting IVF in another country