Fertility issues isn’t something many men and women choose to talk about openly. Many of us to suffer in silence. My journey to motherhood has been a long one but I haven't been on this wild ride alone.
My husband Reggie and I have been together for about 16 years now and married for ten years.
He sat down for a candid chat about our road to parenthood.
"The problems we had, I was kind of getting to that point where I would be ok without having any kids,” Reggie said. “But once we committed ourselves to doing this, it was like 'wow, let’s do it'. And now we're here, it's like 'wow, it's really happening!' At the beginning of course, early on in our marriage of course, everyone wants kids and then once we realized that there's a possibility that we couldn't have kids it was like, 'wow, a low blow.'"
I am now nearly five months pregnant but getting to this point took some time.
After six years of trying to conceive, I knew something was wrong, but I was in denial, I suppose. When a doctor told me I had endometriosis and that could be contributing to my fertility problems, I knew we needed to do something fast and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) was the answer.
A lot of research went into our decision to go to the Barbados Fertility Center for treatment. BFC has a high rate of success at 60 percent. That is unheard of because a number of places in the United States have a 40 percent success rate. Dr. Juliette Skinner at BFC also made me feel very comfortable. In the States, I felt like they just wanted our money.
Many women go through multiple rounds of IVF. Costs vary depending on your medical needs. My estimate for one round in the U.S. was roughly $20,000. The cost for treatment at Barbados Fertility Center was less than half of that and my insurance covers none of it in the U.S. or abroad.
The egg retrieval and embryo transfer in Barbados worked. And now, the real fun begins.
“It's going to be hectic but we make a good team,” Reggie said. “I know it's going to be very different for Keitha. It's going to be exciting to see her transform into a mother.”