“ 34-year old patient once said to me, ‘Doctor, if I fail again to get pregnant this time, I am thinking of just having my ovaries resected.’ “



To say I was startled is an understatement and I wondered what could be her motivation in simply giving-up so early. With a little bit of prodding, she eventually revealed that a test she conducted in the US confirmed women in their family has a strong hereditary link of acquiring breast cancer and she is a high-risk candidate. In fact, her mother, sister and aunt have all been diagnosed with it already.

I can’t imagine what it feels like having to choose between yourself and your potential child. How can she possibly cope with the reality of an imminent life-threatening disease harbored within her and still have the guts to gamble on her life’s fragility in producing another? Knowing that she chose not to let her fear of the possibility of breast cancer cripple her life, I had to admire her courage in continuing to try for a baby.

This year, she came to our clinic from Hawaii for IVF treatments. Married for the past years, she and her husband were not really in a hurry to have a baby nor were they using any birth control methods either. Her infertility is caused by endometriosis and in the past 9 years, they have only tried IUI twice and leuplin treatment in Hawaii but to no avail.

She is actually a very happy-go-lucky person, always taking life as it comes and never thinking that getting pregnant would be so difficult for her. It was when life suddenly threw her a curve ball that she seriously started to evaluate her future plans when it comes to family and the legacy she will leave behind.

Making her choice, she squared her shoulders and traveled the long distance to Taiwan to get pregnant with our help. After repairing the polyps in her uterine lining, we placed her husband’s sperm in cryopreservation and started follicle-stimulating hormone injections. In comparison with other women who have the same problem with her uterus, the development of her egg was good, and eventually we harvested 10 good eggs. Out of this, 3 embryos were transferred and 2 were stored cryogenically.

Sadly, after a few days, her menstrual period started meaning she had a natural miscarriage. Looking at her trans-vaginal ultrasound, we discovered that she had recurrent polyps which could be a factor in the failure of the embryo to remain implanted in the uterine wall.

After resting for a month, we again prepared the 2 cryogenically-preserved embryos for her second transfer. She also requested that we repeat the entire process in order to collect more eggs for embryo culture, explaining that she has decided to give-up completely should it fail again this time.

A few stressful days followed but thankfully God heard all our prayers and blessed her with not one, not twins but triplets. She stayed for another month in Taiwan before bringing her precious bundles home to Hawaii. I still remember how bright she smiled and the wonderful aura of contentment that seemed to surround her when she finally became a mother – our very first e-Stork mom from Hawaii.