It was love at first sight. Abhijit and Sikha met on Facebook. The moment she accepted his friend request, something clicked, and the urge to meet became stronger with each passing moment. Six days later, they were sitting across each other in a coffee shop and in six months they were married. By the time she had found her Mr. Right, Sikha was a little over 35, and starting a family soon was on both their minds.
“We knew we wanted a baby and fast. But I was not conceiving. As a year passed, the feeling of failure started playing on my mind. Life became increasingly stressful and the strain started affecting our relationship,” Sikha recalled, talking about the time in her life when everything seemed to be going wrong.
On a friend’s advice, they decided to visit an infertility specialist. The Doctor heard them out and explained that there could be many causes for Sikha not conceiving. The problem could be a complication in either of them. “Male infertility is as much a problem as female infertility”, she said and advised both of them to get tested. Tests revealed a blockage in Sikha’s fallopian tubes. But that did not mean that the couple could not have a child, the Doctor reassured them. The answer was assisted reproductive treatment (ART).”A thousand questions crowded our minds. Wasn’t fertility treatment very expensive? Was it painful? And what if it did not work? Could we take the stress?”
Understanding their concerns, the Doctor told them that though not inexpensive, fertility treatment had come a long way in our country and in most cases, the success rate was pretty high. She told them that there were various techniques that could be used, depending on the nature of the complication. In Sikha’s case, she said, the blocked fallopian tube was hampering the natural process of fertilization. In such cases, in vitro fertilization (IVF) gave very good results.
IVF involves retrieving the mature eggs from a woman’s ovaries and fertilizing them with a man’s sperm in a dish in the laboratory. The fertilized eggs (embryos) are then transferred into the woman’s uterus to await the natural process of implantation in the uterine wall. About two weeks after the transfer, tests are conducted to determine whether pregnancy has set in.
For Sikha and Abhijit, this spelled hope though the decision to walk this journey was a tough one. But the desire to have a child was great. They had the encouragement of their family and friends stood by them. They decided to take the plunge.
The treatment began with an assessment by the infertility specialist and a session with the counselor who helped calm their fears and apprehensions. Sikha was put on fertility medication to increase ovulation. Sperm from Abhijit’s semen was extracted and prepared for the process. Sikha’s ovulatory cycle was monitored. She was asked to visit the Doctor’s clinic when she was ready for retrieval of the matured eggs. The process involved a minor surgical procedure. Sikha was ready to go home two hours after the procedure.
In a process called insemination, the sperm and eggs were then combined manually in a dish in the lab. A number of eggs are mixed with sperm to increase the chances of fertilization. Five days later, Sikha had to visit the clinic again, this time for transfer of the fertilized eggs (embryo) into her uterus. It was a painless procedure with just a little bit of discomfort. The Doctor told her that it is advisable to transfer three to four embryos into her uterus to increase the chance of pregnancy. However, she was warned that there was a chance of multiple pregnancies in case more than one embryo got implanted in her uterine wall.
The Doctor advised Sikha to go back to her normal activity. The next two weeks were the longest and toughest for the couple as they anxiously waited to see if the procedure had worked. On day 10 after the transfer, Sikha went back to the clinic for a pregnancy test.
“We just received the results of the pregnancy test and I’m thrilled to tell you it is positive,” the nurse from the fertility center told Sikha on July 30, 2017. It was a watershed moment in the couple’s life. The long wait, the uncertainties, doubts, fears, anger, and despair, it all seemed worth it. Sikha was pregnant and finally, the couple could allow themselves to dream of a complete family.
The pregnancy term went without a hitch. Because of her age, it was treated as a high-risk case, and the Doctors constantly monitored the progress. She was, however, advised to lead her normal life, just not overdo things. Sikha and Abhijit gave birth to Sohoj Chowdhury in April 2018. Thus, IVF treatment had helped Sikha and Abhijit fulfill their dream of parenthood.
