Fertility Drugs Fulfill Dreams For Older Women
Reported December 19, 2007
HOUSTON — As women wait to marry at a later age, some pay the price on another dream — having a baby. But modern medicine is helping make miracles happen, including to a KPRC Local 2 reporter.
For Kym Alvarado-Booth, another woman undergoing the same fertility problems helped her get through an emotional time.
“I met Jody in an elevator at a fertility clinic,” Kym said.
That was almost two years ago. Jody Hobbs was in a wheelchair recovering from her fourth round of aggressive fertility treatments.
Jody prepared Kym for the emotionally and financially taxing roller coaster ride through infertility.
Kym and Jody soon became friends. Jody is in her early 30s with unexplained infertility. Kym is over 35 and has a history of female problems. They both left the first clinic after miserable failures.
“You’re like, ‘When is this going to end? What’s wrong with us?'” Jody’s husband, Cory, said.
“Basically the window is shutting at 35, so you need to figure out what the problems are,” Kym’s husband, Jason, said.
“The main thing that happens — the way humans are designed is that women are born with all the eggs they’re going to have,” Dr. George Grunert said.
Grunert is a reproductive endocrinologist. He put Jody on a strict diet, acupuncture and insulin maintenance, which affects egg quality.
Kym’s problems required a skilled surgeon. But after four months in a row of setbacks, including two surgeries, Kym and her husband were devastated — and facing another birthday.
“I got frustrated and angry,” Jason said.
But they never gave up.
Both Jody and Kym had to increase their egg ovulation per cycle by using fertility drugs.
Kym decided that she would inject her own stomach night after night.
Jody’s husband injected shots in her stomach.
The drugs averaged $2,500 for each fertility cycle.
The Hobbs opted for in vitro fertilization, in which the eggs are fertilized in a lab and later transferred to the womb.
“The whole trend in IVF has been to identify better embryos, transfer fewer embryos and maintain a good pregnancy rate,” Grunert said.
The modern fertility options worked for both the Hobbs, as well as Kym and Jason.
For Kym’s husband, all the ultrasound images made it real.
“That was like the touching moment for me — that we’re going to have a baby,” Jason said.
Kym just passed her first trimester. Her baby is due in April.