Human First Is Really Amazing (Jan 2016)

Our experience with Human First is really amazing. We'd already had 4 attempts, 3 in the Netherlands and 1 in Belgium. We decided to go for Istanbul because the costs are lower than Belgium. And because everything we wanted was possible there. Really great. The medication from Belgium (Elonva), for example, I was able to use. They don't work with that in the Netherlands. I'd had good experiences with it. And the treatment my husband needed wasn't a problem either. That treatment is called FNA, which also isn't used in the Netherlands, but is in Belgium, Turkey and a number of other countries.

The first phone call I had with Evren was really lovely. It was such a relief that everything we wanted was possible. And that there were no waiting times. They can even arrange your trip for you. Really great. In January 2016 we went to Istanbul for 15 days, to the hospital. We stayed at City Loft, a great apartment within walking distance of the hospital. That same day we already had an appointment at the hospital. We were picked up by the host, Dayon. At the hospital we had an appointment with Dr. Cem, such a kind doctor. The treatment plan was gone over and the first hormone injection was given right there. In the days after that we had to go back to the hospital a number of times. And in between we explored Istanbul. What a beautiful city.

My eggs didn't want to grow properly, which meant it ended up taking longer. The retrieval was eventually scheduled. 3 eggs were harvested, and the next day we got a message from Dayon saying Dr. Cem wanted to speak to us, and that's when I already knew: something wasn't right. My eggs were too poor quality to fertilize, they crumbled completely. That was the end of our 5th attempt. We were so devastated by it. And how compassionate Dr. Cem was. What a remarkable experience that was! He told us: don't give up, I believe in it, this is just bad luck, there's no reason behind it. This can happen sometimes, but it's very rare. He said wait 6 months, and when you're ready I might see you again, or you try somewhere else. Our experience had been so good that we immediately knew we didn't want to go anywhere else. Being at the hospital felt like such a warm bath. We eventually decided to go back in October. We reached out to the hospital in the Netherlands where we'd started back in 2008 to ask if the preliminary checks could be done there. And that wasn't a problem.

Since this time we'd decided to do it in my natural cycle, we couldn't plan it exactly. My husband checked with his work whether that was possible. And it was. And I'm self-employed, so I could arrange that myself. This time we went for 10 days since we'd chosen to do the preliminary checks here. Because if my eggs grew poorly again, we could cancel the attempt. But it went well. So on Thursday we had our last appointment in the Netherlands, and that same day we booked our trip so we'd arrive in Istanbul on Friday. This time we'd chosen a different apartment called Flora Suites. What a fantastic apartment. And it was even closer to the hospital. And close to Carrefour. And to some nice little restaurants. That same day we had our first appointment at the hospital. Everything went smoothly this time. We could explore Istanbul again while starting the treatment at the same time.

At the retrieval we had 8 eggs, of which 5 were mature, and after 5 days 4 were fertilized. Of those, 3 ultimately remained. We'd chosen to transfer all three. Since in our previous attempts we'd chosen 2. Dr. Cem said it wasn't his preference, because it often comes with a lot of complications. But we were stubborn and in the end we had 3 transferred. The next day we left for the Netherlands. After a few days we were allowed to test. We called the hospital for a blood test. And it was positive. We were so happy, but also uncertain. At 7 weeks it turned out we were pregnant with twins. At the 9-week ultrasound it turned out one embryo's heart had stopped. Right now I'm 17 weeks pregnant and I'm daring more and more to believe that I'm really pregnant after 8 years. We're finally going to be mom and dad! We had hoped for this, but after all those years we no longer really expected it. Since Thursday we know our baby's gender, and that everything is complete. It's really so special. At 19 weeks and 5 days my water broke. And things got tense. The risk of premature birth was high. Bed rest and short walks were advised. Now I'm 32 weeks and thankfully our girl is still doing well. She really is a miracle. The risk of premature birth is still there, but every day is a day, and we trust that our little miracle will be born in a few weeks.

This story was translated from Dutch by our team. Read the original Dutch version →