It Took 7 Miscarriages, 10 IVF cycles, 9 Years, and Nearly $200,000 to Solve My Fertility Issues
By Elizabeth Katkin,
Marie Claire
| 06. 15. 2018
After six miscarriages, six fresh in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles, two frozen IVF cycles, and one healthy not yet two-year-old daughter, I was told by my New York–based fertility specialist and embryologist to give up on having another genetic child. I had just turned 40. Though I had spent nearly $200,000 on fertility treatments in the U.S. and the U.K.—a staggering sum—my previous two IVF cycles had produced precisely zero useable embryos. The seasoned professionals at my clinic in New York gently told me that it was time to face facts: I likely had no good eggs left. Experts I had seen over the previous eight years echoed their opinion.
Throughout the course of my fertility journey, I had been “blessed” with the ability to produce lots of eggs. The IVF cycle that brought us our daughter had been no different than its predecessors: twenty-eight eggs retrieved, seventeen fertilized, and thirteen mature embryos on the third day of their existence—science-speak for a reassuringly ample supply. But genetic testing revealed a startling result: only three of our embryos were chromosomally normal...
Related Articles
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Zoeann Murphy, The Washington Post | 10.01.2025
MEXICO CITY — When she walked into an IVF clinic in June, Alin Quintana knew it would be the last time she would try to conceive a child. She had prepared herself spiritually and mentally for the visit: She had traveled to a nearby...
By Rob Stein, NPR | 09.30.2025
Scientists have created human eggs containing genes from adult skin cells, a step that someday could help women who are infertile or gay couples have babies with their own genes but would also raise difficult ethical, social and legal issues...
By Jessica Mouzo, El País | 10.03.2025
DNA is the molecule of life: this double-helix structure, present in every cell in the body and organized into fragments called genes, stores the instructions for making organisms function. It is a highly precise biological machine, but sometimes it breaks...
GeneWatch UK has prepared a briefing on the genetic modification of nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in October 2025
The upcoming Congress claims to be “where the world comes together to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action.” A major concern for those on the outside is that the Congress may advance plans to develop and encourage the use of synthetic biology in nature conservation. This could at first glance sound like...