Infertility is something that 1 in 6 couples will end up facing. I am one of those 6. Infertility is honestly something you never think you will go through, no one ever really talks about it. Until you yourself go through it or someone you love does, you are oblivious to the issues that these couples face.
It is an emotional, mental, financial and physical part of our lives that we face daily. Our journeys are all so different but we face the same heartbreak every time that test comes back negative.
I want to help spread awareness of infertility, so every year I will be running a project where families are able to share their journey. If you are someone that is currently experiencing infertility, I feel you and I hope that you get through this, and your dreams come a reality. If you ever need to talk about it, I am always happy to be here for you!
Our journey started about 8 years ago. I have PCOS and Endometrosis so we had our first appointment with a fertility specialist, I also wasn’t ovulating every month. We started ovulation tracking. We did 6 rounds of tracking.
I had bloods every second day, ultrasounds, and specialist appointments. And nothing was changing. We headed to Sydney for another opinion and found out that sperm changes month to month and could be the reason why we weren’t getting pregnant.
After several months of tracking again with new medication we ended up having a chemical pregnancy and a miscarriage. It became too much, so we took a break. We started eating clean, exercising and taking vitamins. I ended up losing 20kgs.
In 2024 we decided to try again, but with a new clinic in Brisbane. We had to have more bloods, ultrasounds and an analysis for my husband. Our new plan was straight to IVF (ICSI). I started my injections, kept having ultrasounds and then had to go to Brisbane for an egg collection. Zero eggs were collected.
My medication was changed for my 2nd round. The egg collection was horrendous. I can’t even describe how painful it was. They collected 9 eggs this time. 5 embryos were able to make it to day 3, but only ended up with 2 embryos. Two weeks later I had further ultrasounds and then went back to Brisbane for the transfer. At the transfer, only 1 embryo was suitable. We waited 2 weeks to only find out it was a chemical pregnancy. I was in so much pain physically, emotionally, mentally and financially.
In October 2024, we went through it all again. 9 eggs were collected but only 1 embryo. In November we did our final transfer. It was so hard, but we waited until the blood test and we got a positive result. We were thrilled. Even after we heard the heartbeat we were constantly worried. We even ended up in ED at 9 weeks from a haemorrhage. Every scan we were always scared but it was just growing as it should have been.
At 20wks we found out we were having a boy and he was starting to move around a lot.
At 39wks I was induced because he was an IVF baby and also suspected to be larger, but at 39+3 I had an emergency c-section and Dylan was born.
Hardest challenge:
Always being told by others 'it's all timing, you need to relax.' Or the question of 'when are you having a baby?'
The emotional roller coasters during and after,, it doesn't stop. Each month, my body failing what I was intended to do. What I wanted most, what I thought I deserved. Feeling like a failure is the hardest part.
My husband and I discussed having a family early in our relationship. When we started trying our hope grew stronger. Month after month nothing happened. Being diagnosed with endometriosis in my early 20’s I figured this was causing our infertility issues and went to Drs and then a gynaecologist. All results showed everything should be fine.
This then prompted my husband to get checked. First test result showed no sperm, second test result same thing. More tests and scans revealed he had congenital absence of the vas deferens (also known as azoospermia).
The only option was to try IVF involving us both having surgical procedures — one to collect eggs and one to collect sperm. This experience was tough as to help produce quality eggs I needed numerous needles causing mood swings and bruising. I’m lucky my husband was able to do them for me. The meds can make you feel very out of sorts but determination was key.
Just over 2 weeks later we managed to collect 6 eggs. The next day we were told 6 fertilised and by day 4 we had lost 2. On the day of our fresh embryo transfer we were told another embryo had been lost, the remaining 2 embryos were frozen.
The wait after the transfer was intense, mind constantly running — did it work, maybe it didn’t. We made it to testing day and got a call confirming a positive result. The next few months felt slow making sure we made it through the first trimester. We are extremely blessed to have made it through with the arrival of our daughter.
4 years later we decided to try for a second baby. This journey was harder with a lot of hope on expanding our family. The first frozen embryo transfer stuck but unfortunately resulted in early miscarriage. We went back to try our last embryo — our last chance. The second transfer stuck but again shortly after resulted in another early miscarriage.
This has meant the end of our journey. While very difficult, we are eternally grateful to be parents to our daughter. Our hearts go out to those still trying and the heartache that comes with the journey. We cherish every day with our daughter and the fact that science was able to help. Infertility is hard — so many suffer in silence.
Hardest challenge:
The hardest part for me was the long, quiet waiting between treatments, when hope flickered and then dimmed as each test and setback reminded us how fragile our fertility journey could be, and I carried the heavy ache of feeling like I was failing in the role many believe women are placed on earth to achieve.
My cycle wasn’t “normal.” At only 12, it was heavy, painful, and irregular. With family history of PCOS it was assumed I had it too. At 14, I was put on birth control to try to regulate things. Nothing ever truly worked and I never had any proper testing to understand why my cycle was so unpredictable.
In 2021, at 20, I found out I was pregnant — I was shocked. I had been told that conceiving naturally would be unlikely. We then had our beautiful daughter, Olive.
I assumed conceiving again would be just as easy. We started trying when Olive was 10 months old. In the first month of trying, I had a chemical pregnancy. It was disappointing, but I tried not to dwell on it. We kept trying, yet nothing happened. I tracked everything but never had another positive test.
After 6 months, I went to my GP, concerned that I might not be ovulating. I had a standard blood test, which came back normal, my concerns were dismissed.
I was 22, I knew something wasn’t right. I found a new GP but was nervous to go, I was expecting to be dismissed again. After listening to my history and concerns, my doctor ordered the right tests. I was diagnosed with severe Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, likely Endometriosis and secondary infertility. I was referred to a fertility specialist. I felt relief and hope. Thankfully, I was able to conceive through ovulation induction.
I didn’t realise how invasive, exhausting, and isolating fertility treatment would be. Having to report the start of my period, medications that made me feel awful. Blood tests every 2nd day, internal ultrasounds and being told when to be intimate with my husband. We also experienced a miscarriage.
I’ve always been an open person, but this was deeply personal. I didn’t think needing help to conceive would mean giving up privacy and control of my own body.
In April 2024, we had our son, Joseph, who completed our family. I will always feel immense gratitude for the science that made this possible, while also grieving needing help in the first place. Sharing this story is important to me. I hope it brings comfort to others walking a similar path and helps break the stigma surrounding fertility struggles and treatment.
The hardest part of infertility for me:
The hardest part for me was the lack of understanding from those around me. In your early 20s, people don't expect you to be going through fertility treatment. It felt incredibly isolating - like I was navigating something that no one in my circle understood.
Like many couples, when my partner and I married in 2016, we dreamed of having children. What we didn’t expect was years of fertility treatments, financial strain, and the emotional rollercoaster that comes with trying to build a family.
Infertility slowly took a toll on our mental health. While families around us kept growing, we were left longing for one miracle—the one that would make us parents.
Being told we needed IVF brought mixed emotions. Relief that science could help, but heartbreak that my body couldn’t do what it was “meant” to do. I was diagnosed with PCOS, endometriosis, and adenomyosis.
The physical side of IVF, scans, injections, blood tests, was nothing compared to the mental load waiting to hear how many eggs were retrieved, how many embryos had formed, whether they would survive long enough to be implanted, and finally, whether an implanted embryo would result in pregnancy.
And then there’s the “two-week wait” , the longest two weeks between transfer and results. Filled with hope, fear, and overthinking every single symptom.
After multiple specialists, we finally found one who truly understood my conditions. But even then, the journey meant more appointments, surgeries, time, and financial pressure.
After seven years, and six frozen embryo transfers, we finally heard the words we had been longing for
“You are seven weeks pregnant.”
We finally experienced something we had been longing for our baby's first heartbeat.
It felt surreal!
But after two previous miscarriages, fear never left. Every day was filled with anxiety, hoping and praying our baby would make it safely into the world.
When the time came, I was induced over three days. The birth itself was straightforward but the moment our baby boy, our beautiful Austin John Moore, was placed on my chest .
Tears of joy. Tears of relief. Tears for everything it took to get there.
The hardest part of infertility for me:
Over 7 years of infertility there are too many different parts that were hard for us.
Before 2021, our journey to parenthood was marked by heartbreak — multiple miscarriages and the quiet, often invisible grief that followed each loss.
In 2020, we turned to fertility assistance: ovulation tracking, an IUI, two egg collections, and IVF that didn’t succeed. Each step carried hope, but also fear — learning to protect our hearts while still daring to believe.
In 2021, we transferred two embryos and entered the dreaded two-week wait. When we saw a positive result, it felt surreal — and even more so when we learned we were expecting twins. An absolute miracle, but one filled with anxiety after everything we had been through.
Pregnancy after loss is not carefree. It’s filled with second-guessing and fear. We held our breath more than we celebrated. Despite complications, we were incredibly fortunate to welcome our girls, watching them grow stronger each day. After so much loss, holding them felt almost impossible to believe.
In 2023, we fell pregnant again but experienced another loss. Falling pregnant the very next cycle brought hope, but losing our little boy to chromosomal abnormalities was devastating. Grief returned, heavier than before.
But through that grief, we also felt something else- a quiet knowing that our family wasn’t quite complete.
We kept going — more tracking, appointments, medications, and emotional strain. Learning to hope again after loss is one of the hardest things to do, but we weren’t ready to give up.
In September 2024, we fell pregnant again through assisted fertility. It wasn’t excitement — it was cautious, fragile hope. Welcoming our final baby girl felt like the closing of a long and emotional chapter.
Infertility is not just physical — it’s emotional, isolating, and all-consuming. But it is also a story of resilience, of continuing to show up, and holding onto hope, even when it hurts.
It’s also important to acknowledge the postpartum phase. IVF can train your mind to expect bad news, and that doesn’t always switch off after birth. Postpartum anxiety was something I wasn’t prepared for — but like every stage of this journey, we do our best to move through it.
Hardest challenge
One of the hardest challenges was feeling alone. We didn’t know of anyone close to us going through the same experience (maybe we were just naive), which made it difficult to open up. Working in the health industry also brought constant questions that were hard to navigate and avoid at times. The lack of community awareness makes infertility even harder to talk about — but by sharing our stories, we can help make others feel less alone.
As I approach my first "official" Mother’s Day I’ve been reflecting more and more on the journey it took to get here.
February 2020 we decided it was time to start a family, we booked a GP appointment to get the ball rolling and it was at that very appointment I was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer. In July 2020, 5 months after surgery I underwent radioactive iodine treatment which resulted in a 12 month period in which I was not allowed to get pregnant due to the risks of radiation.
December 2021 and we were told the cancer was under control (not gone but under control) and we were allowed to try for a baby.
January 2022 - WE WERE PREGNANT! How easy it seemed, I praised my body for “doing what it was supposed to for a change”. By the end of February 2022 I was having surgery for a missed miscarriage. Next came the medically recommended 3 month wait before trying again which was followed by 7 months of being unable to get pregnant.
January 2023 - WE WERE PREGNANT! It seemed like fate, another pregnancy with a similar due date to the last. By the following month, I was in the emergency room with my best friend due to an ectopic pregnancy. Another medically recommended 3 month wait followed this time by some fertility testing.
April 2023, I was told I had a very low AMH which was likely too low for even IVF. We gave it a shot anyway and ended up with some embryos and finally some hope. Month by month the conditions in my body meant we were unable to transfer and by December 2023 we were mentally, emotionally and physically DONE. We needed a break. We decided to take a month “off” and start fresh in the new year.
January 2024 queue the celebrations again - WE WERE PREGNANT! My exact words to the fertility specialist were “Keep this baby in me” and they did. Months of anxiety and holding our breath. September 2024, we welcome Eleanor Grace, a bright light we never thought we could see.
Looking back in memory is a comfort and makes this Mother’s Day a whole lot more magical.
The hardest part of infertility for me:
The hardest part for me was feeling like my body couldn’t do anything “right” or “what it was supposed to”. It was losing faith in myself, hating and blaming my body while still trying to nurture it and do everything right.
Diagnosed with PCOS at 19 and endometriosis at 22, I knew infertility was a possibility.
My gynaecologist was positive that all signs pointed to falling pregnant quickly and simply. The next 12 months saw failed cycles that involved oral medications, injections, scans, and blood tests right from the start. My pain was unbearable and I was on multiple medications in order to push through and function day to day.
In that time, the closest we came to pregnancy was a hospital doctor getting our hopes up when she told us I had an elevated pregnancy hormone. It’s hard to forget the moment we both realised this was a false positive due to the injection I had used to trigger ovulation and how devastated we were.
The next step was a fertility specialist who straight up told us we had to do IVF at age 25. It took a couple of cycles to get the right injections/medications to stimulate my ovaries, but we got there and amazingly collected 23 eggs which fertilised into 7 embryos!
Although extremely lucky, I experienced intense amounts of pain from collecting such a high number of eggs. The first period I had post egg collection I ended up back in hospital unable to cope with the significant amount of pain I was in.
Our IVF journey was paused for 3.5 years while I better managed my pain, battled other health issues and worked on our relationship which unfortunately had become impacted from the challenges we had faced.
When it came time to recommence our journey, again, typical injections were doing nothing, meaning I was given a different medication that was a tablet.
I cried at the simplest things during that time until my endometriosis pain peaked and then I cried in agony. I was struggling so bad being on a dose that was 6 times the normal for that medication that I questioned if I could continue.
It was my 30th birthday when we received the call confirming we were pregnant, and my partner’s 30th birthday when we heard our son’s heartbeat for the first time.
Falling pregnant and pregnancy itself was rough, but I would do it all over again if it meant having our boy.
The hardest part of infertility for me:
My journey with infertility often left me feeling isolated and alone, especially when it seemed like those around me were effortlessly growing their families.
You want to celebrate with them wholeheartedly, without casting a shadow of guilt over their joy, but it’s hard when your heart aches for the same thing.
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