HUFFINGTON
10.07.12
MIRACLE BABIES
UIG VIA GETTY IMAGES
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lab. When a fertilized egg divides,
it becomes an embryo which is
monitored and, given that everything looks okay, transferred into a
woman’s womb several days later.
The process is expensive — in
the U.S., the average cost per cycle is at least $12,400 — and not
without risks. There is a small
chance of ovarian hyperstimulation and pelvic infection, as well
as the possibility of multiple
pregnancies if more than one embryo is transferred to a woman’s
uterus. According to the American
Society of Reproductive Medicine,
babies conceived by IVF have a
slightly higher risk of birth defects
— between 2.6 and 3.9 percent,
compared to just to 2 to 3 percent
in babies born naturally.
And then there is the enormous
emotional toll of treatment.
“Those years were the low
point in my life,” said Cortney
Carroll, a bubbly 34-year-old
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with a wide, pretty smile who
recently moved from Ohio to Virginia. “They were the saddest. I
was crying constantly — every
day, it was this up and down.
You’d get excited, you’d think,
‘These numbers are good! Yay!’
And then you’d just crash.”
Cortney grew up wanting to be
two things: a dancer and a mom.
After a stress fracture in college
ended her Broadway dreams, Cortney eventually ended up working
in pharmaceutical sales. In 2001,
she married her husband in front
of 200 guests and the pair started
trying for a baby in September
2004, when Cortney was 26.
“I thought it would be easy,”
she said. “That was a dumb assumption.”
After about six months of trying, Cortney went to an OBGYN
who preached patience — women
under 35 are generally not considered infertile until they have
attempted to get pregnant for one
year. A few months later, she saw
a different OBGYN who found a
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The step by
step process
of in vitro
fertilization.