A journey from a Canadian patient who needed genetic testing

I am here from Canada to explain my story of how we ended up at the Barbados Fertility Clinic. In 2016 after having no success we sought out fertility treatment. All of the initial tests came back normal so we started with IUI. On our first try we had a biochemical pregnancy. We went through a couple more rounds with no success. Then out of the blue I stoped ovulating. A blood test was completed and it was discovered I had hypothyroidism. Immediately, I started medication. After trying IUI for a year with no more success, we decided to try IVF.

On our fist try, we got pregnant. Unfortunately, just before our 6 week ultrasound I miscarried. We tried again and again got pregnant, but again right before 6 weeks we miscarried. At this point the clinic we were at performed genetic testing. It was discovered that I had thyroid antibodies, which is an auto immune thyroid disease where my immune system attacks my thyroid.

As we had no more embryos from IVF I asked my doctor how to proceed and what would be changed. Unfortunately, since it is such a rare condition the doctor could not answer my questions. So we took a few month break to figure things out.

We were about to give up and started looking as surrogacy and adoption, when I came upon BFC. They had a whole webpage just on auto immune conditions and how they tailor a treatment plan to the individual condition. I did my research and compared to other international locations and decided to contact BFC.

I was put into contact with Anna and Dr. Skinner, who immediately requested that my blood be sent to the United States to be tested for natural born killer cells. The test revealed an increase, which meant these cells attacked and kill a fetus any time I got pregnant. An individualized plan of medications was created for me and by May 2019, we were in Barbados for IVF.

Upon arrival, everything was going as planned until on embryo transfer day we were told we had one embryo remaining. A test of my thyroid levels revealed my TSH was high. I was instantly put on medication. As the saying goes you only need one for success and we had a beautiful baby boy in February 2020.

Due to COVID and time time needed for quarantine, we are back in Barbados to have our second child. This time we were prepared, numerous thyroid tests and still my TSH went high. We are currently waiting to see if our son will be an older brother.

If I was going to tell anyone why they should come to BFC, it would be because they gave us answers and a plan when no one else could and most importantly, they gave us our son when I had lost all hope.