Against All Odds: A Journey from Cancer to an Unexpected Miracle
Our story starts four years ago. I delivered my son via C-section with no issues. Three weeks later, I was devastated as I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Unfortunately, at that time, I was critically ill and did not have time to save my eggs. My clinical team attempted to put me into menopause with certain injections in an attempt to salvage my eggs.
Against All Odds: A Journey from Cancer to an Unexpected Miracle
Fast forward two years later, I was feeling great and happily in remission. My husband and I decided it was time to attempt for baby number two. After multiple months of trying, we were not successful. We decided to see a reproductive endocrinologist for further workup.
After the initial consultation, our doctor was almost certain that our trouble was related to the chemotherapy aftermath but decided to do a thorough investigation.
My labs returned… with shocking results.
The first shock—my AMH resulted at 0.1, indicating I had a significantly reduced egg reserve. Almost negligible, to be exact. That was a gut punch.
The second shock—chromosome analysis indicated I had a balanced translocation between my chromosomes 15 and 17. WHAT?! I didn’t even know what this meant! Our doctor explained this to us and recommended we meet with a genetic counselor to further discuss. Yikes!
She also told us, point blank, that the odds of successful IVF were quite low given my very low supply as well as the chromosome issue.
Despite this information, my husband and I decided to proceed with IVF. I was a mess, cried constantly, and started seeing a therapist. My thoughts were—how can I put myself through IVF mentally, emotionally, physically, and monetarily to come out with nothing?
Starting the IVF Journey
Fast forward 30 days, and our adventure started.
My first two ovarian stimulation attempts resulted in ZERO follicles. Our doctor kindly looked at us and said, “This isn’t going to happen. Your best bet is donor eggs or donor embryo.” Yet another shocker.
We kind of accepted this and decided to consult a different clinic in the area for access to their donor egg bank.
Fortunately, at that consult, our doctor was excited for a challenge and offered to try a different protocol with me in an attempt to make it to an egg retrieval.
Our first round with her resulted in three follicles. We decided to go with an IUI, which was unsuccessful.
We attempted again with the same protocol and had five follicles! We made it to egg retrieval—all five follicles had eggs, all five eggs fertilized, and all five grew to day 3.
We attempted a transfer of two day-3 embryos. Based on the data with my balanced translocation, we had a very low chance of either of these being chromosomally normal and taking.
Unfortunately, the transfer failed, as did our other embryos. None made it to day 7.
Our doctor encouraged one last attempt. Again, it resulted in five follicles that had mature eggs that fertilized! We had one embryo make it to day 7! We were thrilled! This was our golden egg!
However, genetic testing revealed the embryo was an unbalanced female—it had too much of chromosome 17. All because of my balanced translocation.
I felt like a failure.
Our doctor agreed that with my low ovarian reserve as well as our chromosome issue, we had reached the end and encouraged egg donation.
After some time (and therapy), we accepted this. We decided to pursue egg donation abroad.
We had a consult with the clinic we were interested in and were ready to pursue this in the spring (around March).
An Unexpected Miracle
My husband and I took a trip in October to our favorite place on earth, Banff National Park.
We found the peace and happiness on this trip that we were missing while going through IVF. The highs and lows of the process were gut-punching, but breathing the mountain air encouraged us to proceed with our decision on egg donation. We were excited!
However, yet another shock was waiting for us.
On October 31st, I took a pregnancy test… and it was positive.
WHAT?!
We didn’t get our hopes up, as with the balanced translocation, we had a 6% chance of a chromosomally normal baby.
The next few weeks were a blur—weekly ultrasounds, consults with geneticists and high-risk doctors.
We made it to 13 weeks and proceeded with a chorionic villus sampling (CVS) to assess the fetal chromosomes.
On January 13th (four years to the day of my cancer diagnosis), our results came back.
💙 I am pregnant with a boy with normal chromosomes.
💙 He does not carry my balanced translocation.
I still can’t comprehend this. It has been a whirlwind.
I work as a physician assistant and have learned that the human body will do what it wants, when it wants.
I hope to be an inspiring story—even on our darkest, worst days, we can come out of it, see the light, and breathe the fresh mountain air with our family.
-Katelyn Ziobrowski