Johan & Inge's Story (Oct 2012)

Human First – Johan & Inge

After our "Human First" experience we'd love to contribute a story to the experience section of the Human First website. We want to share with as many people as possible how amazing this organization is, and how a painful piece of news can turn into a remarkable experience. In 2011 my husband and I decided we wanted to try for a baby. We started with this and weren't worried during the 1st year. After a year of a lot of "trying for fun" we did start to worry and decided to get checked out. A tiring path at the hospital followed, with visits to a whole army of different gynecologists, including a second army of different doctors in training, along with countless tests. The waiting times were always huge, we were never seen within half an hour of our scheduled appointments.

Then, every single time, we had to tell our whole story all over again and were worked back out the door as quickly as possible. This made us quite frustrated. The service level and personal attention were extremely low. Every time we felt like just a number at the hospital and only got blank faces from the doctors, whether we were emotional or not. Empathy was nowhere to be found. Eventually it turned out there was a medical indication and we only had a 1% chance of natural conception. The hospital told us that only IVF-ICSI would give us a chance at pregnancy. Despite this painful news and the frustrating hospital process, we decided to move forward positively, since a chance at pregnancy wasn't ruled out after all. We saw this decision as a big step because by now we understood what an IVF-ICSI treatment would involve. The romantic idea of "we're making a baby" was clearly gone.

We signed up and the hospital put us on the waiting list, we had to wait 6 months before we could start because it was our first attempt and we were still young. This surprised us since I'm 35, turning 36 in January. All in all this was another disappointment in how the hospital operated, as far as we were concerned. We decided not to just sit and accept it, and started looking into whether there were other options to make our wish come true. Our requirements were: personal attention, no waiting list, the best possible laboratory to get the highest possible success rate. After all, you're going against "survival of the fittest" from nature. So you want to work only with top specialists who select the best cells with top equipment.

We found Human First through the internet and were initially skeptical about Turkey, we had some prejudices and question marks about the medical care there. Still, we decided to get in touch and see what it would bring. Evren from Human First was the first revelation, she took all the time to answer our questions and immediately empathized with us. We finally felt heard and got a really good picture of what would be possible in Istanbul. After talking it over with each other and a few people close to us, we decided together with Evren when we would go to Turkey. She arranged everything for us (accommodation, flight, transport, hospital appointment, host, etc.), we didn't have to worry about travel details, just focus on a relaxed departure. On October 12 (Friday) we flew to Istanbul and were picked up to stay overnight at the Belle Maison hotel... with lovely apartments and personal service. We were surprised by the modern feel of the huge city of Istanbul and immediately felt at ease there.

The next day (Saturday!) our 1st visit to the hospital awaited us, where we would start treatment with Dr. Cem and Dr. Arzu. Murat (the hotel owner's son) was our regular driver and Dayon our host. That was revelation number 2, thanks to their incredible friendliness, compassion and openness, everything felt a lot less tense. Dayon knows all the staff at the fertility department, speaks fluent Turkish, and can switch between them and translate into Dutch wherever English doesn't quite get you there. Just amazing that you get this kind of service.

At the hospital, all the time in the world was taken for us, we could go straight in at the agreed time, and the environment felt nice and personal. Nothing like the clinical, cold, factory-like environment at our Dutch hospital. After a clear explanation of what would happen in the coming weeks, an ultrasound was done, also in a respectful way, without that "legs spread in public" feeling from the Netherlands. We got an explanation of the medication to take and could enjoy free time for the next 3 days. A visit to the pharmacy followed, we practically bought out half the pharmacy, or so it felt. We had never seen so much medication together in one place. Luckily everything was reimbursed by our insurer Agis, and we didn't have to pay anything upfront. Agis is actually recommended since they have their own office in Turkey, with your insurance card you can arrange everything. A week followed of taking medication (tiny little injections), visits every few days to the hospital to monitor follicle growth, and plenty of free time to relax. We could go wherever we wanted, eat well, see the city, shop and just laze around. Wonderful to be so free of everything and to enjoy and relax, we're convinced this benefits the course of the treatment. After all, you have no worries about work, errands or personal obligations, you're just off together as a couple, which brings a bit of romance into the whole thing too.

At the end of the 1st week it turned out I had 10 follicles of at least 18mm, enough to go ahead with the retrieval. That evening (Friday) I had to take a last injection and then go to the hospital on Monday for the retrieval. We discussed local anesthesia versus 15 minutes fully asleep and chose the latter, after all, unnecessary suffering isn't good for anyone. This was again a relief for me after all the horror stories from the Netherlands about (pain during) the retrieval. We took it easy over the weekend, went out for a nice dinner and got to know Murat and his girlfriend better. Great fun to see even more of the real Istanbul with them and discover the non-touristy spots too. A visit to a Besiktas football match among thousands of passionate Turks was even part of it. Monday was the retrieval, despite my nerves I felt nothing. I was asleep for 15 minutes and dreamed of a beautiful uninhabited island. Dayon stayed by my side the whole time and everyone in the operating room was super friendly and helpful. The recovery room felt like a luxury hotel, and Johan was also guided very nicely. After my retrieval he handed in his sample, and fertilization could begin. 7 eggs were retrieved, a nice result. I came out of the operating room pretty much unscathed, rested for an hour, got a little breakfast, and spent the rest of the day with a warm hot water bottle and lots of hugs from Johan.

We were planning to transfer 1 embryo after 5 days, to use the most strongly developed embryo possible. Partly also because it was our first attempt, and twins carry a higher risk of complications. On Tuesday, however, it turned out 3 fertilizations had succeeded, of which 2 were top-quality embryos and 1 was good quality. In consultation with Dr. Cem and Dr. Arzu it was decided to transfer 2 embryos after all on Wednesday (day 3) to increase the chance of success. Dr. Cem indicated the success rate was 50%, and in case of a pregnancy the chance of a singleton would be 80%, twins 10%. We decided to take the gamble. The transfer went completely painlessly, drink plenty beforehand and then lie down as relaxed as possible. Again Dayon stood fully by my side and everyone in the operating room was incredibly sweet. Within a few minutes it was done and I could go rest. It felt very special. Now that the transfer was done, we could go home earlier than expected and were happily back in our own little house by Thursday. The wait until 12 days later had begun. We found it nerve-wracking but tried to get back to as normal a life as possible. It felt good to get back into a routine, and this also worked as a nice distraction.

On November 12 (D-Day!) we got to go to the GP for a blood test on HCG (pregnancy hormone) levels. It turned out to be 208 HCG... we were pregnant! A week later we had the test done again, by then the value had risen to 5813 HCG, so it was now confirmed that implantation had happened. In week 7, on November 29, we got to do the first ultrasound at the gynecologist's, and wonder of wonders, we saw one little "peanut" of 1 cm with a racing heartbeat! We were over the moon... By now we've reached week 10 and are about to have our 2nd ultrasound. In that one we'll see whether our "little peanut" has a good nuchal translucency measurement and is growing as it should. All so incredibly special and exciting. For now, at least, we're a proud mom and dad to be!

All in all we're proof that: the medication was much more manageable than expected, I was just sometimes tired and had some muscle soreness; the surroundings were beautiful and made us feel super relaxed; the service on every side was top-notch, we felt like VIPs; the medical treatment was top quality, partly thanks to Assisted Hatching and the IMSI option, which isn't available everywhere in the Netherlands. We can recommend to everyone to start an IVF(-ICSI) journey through Human First. It takes the burden off you exactly where you already have enough on your mind, it gives you room to breathe and lets you go through this already difficult process in a relaxed way. Even if it's your first time, and you're not thrilled with the often lacking service and long, drawn-out processes at Dutch hospitals. Turn a painful piece of news into a remarkable experience...

Greetings from a mom and dad to be. Johan & Inge

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