the beginning

Chris and I first met in 2018, although our lives had been intercrossed since 1988. We went to the same church, pool and our some of our best friends are brother and sister.

Since our first date in 2018, kids have always been something we both wanted (yes we talked about this on the first date). We began trying for a family right after we were married.

Our fertility struggle

After things weren’t happening “naturally,” we were referred to fertility clinic-Main Line Fertility. Although both of us have great jobs (Nurse Practitioner and Fire Fighter) we had no fertility coverage, which is very common. You would think with good insurance you would have this, but many times there isn’t specific fertility cover. 

We were planning for a IUI (taken the medication and all set to go the day before) when we found out that IVF would be the only likely way, we would be able to have a family and were referred to meet with another specialist first.

Ultimately, we then moved forward and completed several rounds of IVF (meaning lots of shots and hormones for Danielle).

This was such an emotional, physical and financial burden on us. Not only do you have to pay for treatment that is extremely expensive, but the medications are also very expensive and change frequently during the course of treatment.

Once we had 3 embryos were ready to move to the next step getting ready to transfer. My body took a while to recover from all the treatment so moving forward took some time. I needed to have a few procedures to help get set up for good shape.

This part was a little mentally taxing; it require frequent clinic trips but nothing was really happening for a chunk of time. Many have a timeline in your head of how this will go, but a timeline when it comes to fertility treatment constantly changes.

Applying for the grant

We applied for the Better Sweat Foundation grant in 2023 after learning from promotion we saw on Facebook. Honestly, we didn’t think we would stand a chance (as that’s just how life seemed to be going) also we were slightly skeptical because it seemed too good to be true.

Matt and April reached out to us, and it is something we will be forever grateful for. I attended the event in 2023 with my mom, mother-in-law, sister, and sister-in-law. The day was so special.

Meeting Lynn, Matt and the community was truly wonderful. The event was amazing, and it was so nice to see everyone helping out a cause that is so common yet is also not talked about. Lynn and I shed some tears, both happy and sad. Unless you’ve been there it’s hard to understand but there was an immediate connection.

Shortly after the event we were able to do a transfer! Although it was successful we got news several weeks later that my numbers were dropping, and I ultimately miscarried. We received the grant officially shortly after.

We came to the gym and met with Lynn and Matt. Their words to us were what we needed to hear. It was so nice being able to connect. We left and both felt weight lifted off our shoulders.

The grant also helped ease the financial burden & helped ease our minds. We then learned that Main Line was also going to match the grant! This was such a big deal as we were unsure which direction we would be able to afford next.

hope for our family

After receiving the grant, we decided to go forward with more testing. After a rough summer of treatment for me (I was put into a medical menopause) we got the green light for another transfer.

On October 13^th we transferred our second embryo. There is a 10 day wait until you find out if the transfer worked- this may be one of the hardest and longest waits.

On October 23^rd we found it was successful and our numbers continued to go up.

After so much work, sweat & tears it was very hard to believe–I still don’t think I believe it–we welcomed Pierce Patrick Corcoran on June 25^th at 1209 pm (38.5 hours of labor) at 7 lbs and 19 inches. He was perfect.

Pierce brings us so much happiness & makes the whole journey all worth it. We are one of the lucky ones who got our baby, and we know this isn’t always the case.

We are gearing up to head back into the fertility trenches for another round of IVF to hopefully get Pierce a sibling or two. We couldn’t have done this without all the support from this community!!!

danielle & chris

more inspiring stories of hope

Our Fertility Story – Chris and Danielle

Our Fertility Story – Nikki & Herb

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The post Our Fertility Story – Chris and Danielle appeared first on Better Sweat Foundation.

Our Story

In early 2017 we were deep into our fertility journey. We were patients at Mainline Fertility, and each month ended with no positive pregnancy test.

Unfortunately, neither of our health insurances covered fertility treatments so we were racking up a lot of out-of-pocket expenses trying to start our family.

We learned through friends of friends that a local couple was looking to host a fundraiser to support a couple who were struggling through their fertility journey.

We wrote a letter to Matt & Lynn and shared our story with them. When they reached out that we were selected, we both cried!

We were so grateful and excited to meet Matt & Lynn in person.

Sweat for a Cause

We got to participate in the first Bent On Better Sweat For a Cause Event!

The generosity and outpouring of support was amazing. Shortly after Lynn and Matt delivered us a check that we could use towards our fertility journey, we found out that our fifth round of IUIs was successful and we were pregnant!

We waited until we “graduated” from Mainline Fertility (roughly 8 weeks) and reached out to Matt and Lynn with the great news!

At that point, we let them know we wanted to return the funds to them to put towards the next couple in need.

Matt, Lynn and the B.O.B. community not only provided financial support to grow our family, but continued to reach out, checking in on us as we waited for our Taylor to get here.

We are excited to be able to continue to support the Sweat for a Cause Event to help other couples who are navigating their infertility journey and hope that the financial support helps alleviate some of the stress.

nikki & herb

more inspiring stories of hope

Our Fertility Story – Chris and Danielle

Our Fertility Story – Nikki & Herb

Our Fertility Story – Taylor and Brad

The post Our Fertility Story – Nikki & Herb appeared first on Better Sweat Foundation.

Our Story

My husband, Brad, and I got married in September of 2020 and decided we wanted to start a family right away. I had a history of PCOS symptoms, so I sought help from Main Line Fertility within a few months of getting married in February of 2021. 

Dr. Bloom decided the best first step for us would be to try medicated IUI. We went through six medicated IUIs which were unsuccessful before we decided to move on to IVF.

We all had very high hopes for great numbers because I was in my 20’s, relatively healthy and PCOS usually yields a high number of eggs.

Our fertility struggle

Unfortunately, that first cycle we found out we were dealing with an egg quality issue and out of over 20 eggs retrieved we ended up with zero embryos.

This was a devastating blow because we only had $10,000 in coverage through insurance so a majority of any subsequent rounds of IVF would be out of pocket.

Due to the egg quality issue we also added on medications that were not covered by insurance and cost thousands of dollars out of pocket. 

Our second retrieval was in January of 2022 and we again retrieved over 20 eggs. Our embryos were slow growers and we ended up with one day 6 and one day 7 embryo.

Miraculously, both came back genetically normal after undergoing further testing. Additional testing showed I also have endometriosis.

This was another shock because I’ve never had any symptoms of it, and we would need to go through 6-8 weeks of treatment for that before transferring one of our embryos. 

Due to my autoimmune issues, we opted to add on some additional medications to give our embryo the best chance at sticking. These medications were not covered by insurance and would cost us over $5,000 out of pocket and required me to drive to Philly every week for infusions. 

Treatment leading up to our first FET started right around NIAW 2022.

Sweat for a Cause

In 2021 we attended Sweat for a Cause, so I decided to apply for the grant in 2022 in hopes of offsetting some of the out of pocket expenses that were taking a toll on us financially.

We were ecstatic to find out we were selected to receive the grant. It felt like the first thing that was going right for us in a long journey with so many bumps in the road along the way. 

I underwent my first FET with our day 6 4AA graded embryo on June 2, 2022 which was a success!

Our daughter, Hannah, was born in February of 2023 almost two years to the day of our initial consult with Dr. Bloom. 

Words cannot express how thankful we are for Dr. Bloom, her staff at Main Line Fertility, Matt and Lynn and the entire [Bent On Better] team who make Sweat for a Cause possible and giving us Hannah.

She is the sweetest kid on earth, and we can see firsthand how IVF makes the world a better place because of her! 

The grant we received was truly a light for us during a very dark period of time in our lives.

Before receiving it we weren’t sure how we were going to make things work financially, so it took a lot of weight off of our shoulders and allowed us to focus on remaining healthy and stress free. 

Again, we will never be able to adequately express how thankful we are to BoB and the Better Sweat Foundation for her helping to make our dreams of becoming parents a reality! 

taylor & brad

more inspiring stories of hope

Our Fertility Story – Chris and Danielle

Our Fertility Story – Nikki & Herb

Our Fertility Story – Taylor and Brad

The post Our Fertility Story – Taylor and Brad appeared first on Better Sweat Foundation.