IVF gave me my children, but as a pro-life Christian I wish I had known there were other options.

By Ericka Andersen, the Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2024

At 33, after experiencing infertility for several years, I reluctantly turned to in vitro fertilization (IVF). A fertility specialist advised my husband and me to pursue the usual course of IVF, which involves using drugs to stimulate the growth of multiple egg follicles. These eggs would then be retrieved and fertilized with my husband’s sperm in a lab. The best embryo would be transferred to my uterus while the runners-up would be frozen for future use. We were told it would be unwise to waste any more time or money on other plans.

I’d been dreaming of motherhood since childhood. So when the doctor encouraged us to move forward with the most powerful and effective method to achieve pregnancy, I agreed. Photos of newborns on the clinic walls made this advice hard to resist.

We drained our savings for the $27,000 IVF package, which included four potential rounds, and prayerfully signed on the dotted line. I couldn’t stop imagining a newborn in my arms, even as I wondered if IVF would ultimately violate my Christian faith.

IVF ultimately gave me my two children, for which I am eternally grateful. But multiple embryos remain on ice, which breaks my heart. The embryos that became my children were simply chosen first. Each embryo already has the genetic blueprint that sets each of us apart. We all began the same way, at conception.

IVF ultimately gave me my two children, for which I am eternally grateful. But multiple embryos remain on ice, which breaks my heart. The embryos that became my children were simply chosen first. Each embryo already has the genetic blueprint that sets each of us apart. We all began the same way, at conception.

When someone creates excess embryos, the options are to destroy them, donate them to science, offer them to other hopeful parents or freeze them indefinitely. With over one million frozen embryos stored in the U.S., many couples pay for storage for years, unsure of how to proceed.

Like the justices of Alabama’s Supreme Court, I’ve come to see these embryos as children. Because I believe in their humanity, my own embryos will be donated to others who are struggling with infertility. Maybe one day they’ll have a chance to see the sun.

I left other viable fertility options on the table because no one told me about them. Later, I learned about natural-cycle IVF, which involves using a woman’s natural cycle to retrieve a single egg, inseminating it outside the body, then transferring it back to the uterus when it has the best chance of success. The procedure creates one embryo at a time, making it an appealing option for those of us who believe that life begins at conception.

A room full of cryo storage containers, each capable of holding around 150 egg samples, at the Aspire Houston Fertility Institute on Feb. 27. PHOTO: MICHAEL WYKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

All IVF procedures are prohibitively expensive, but natural-cycle IVF is potentially more cost-effective as it dispenses with fertility drugs, which can cost thousands of dollars per cycle. Researchers at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California found that the procedure could save patients up to $7,000 for each live birth. Yet multiple cycles may be needed to secure viable eggs, which raises costs.

Because patients aren’t injecting hormones for weeks before the egg-retrieval surgery, natural-cycle IVF tends to wreak less physiological havoc. Headaches, nausea, mood swings and other changes are common side effects from the drugs. Because the procedure retrieves just one egg at time, however, more surgeries may be necessary to make a healthy embryo.

Few fertility specialists recommend natural-cycle IVF, as various studies put its success rate at 10-15%, versus 25-30% for stimulated IVF, and the success rates for all interventions decline as patients age. Given the physical, emotional and financial investment involved in any treatment, most physicians would prefer to optimize IVF outcomes.

“The likelihood of a pregnancy resulting is quite low, which is why the vast majority of reproductive endocrinologists don’t prescribe this type of treatment,” Dr. Janet Choi, chief medical officer at an insurance company for fertility coverage, told me.

Dr. Abby Delaney, a reproductive endocrinologist in Omaha, told me she doesn’t advise natural-cycle IVF because she wants the best odds for her patients. “We, as humans, are very inefficient at reproduction,” she explained. “Every reproductive endocrinologist lives for the day where every single fertilized egg turns into a baby, but unfortunately, that is not the case.”

For some women, however, the lower success rate is worth the risk. It is a shame, then, that so few of us know this treatment exists.

One hopeful mother I’ll call Lucy told me she discovered natural-cycle IVF by accident. She struggled to get pregnant for years but was uncomfortable with IVF because she didn’t want to create excess embryos. “I knew every embryo was a baby,” she said. After three unsuccessful attempts at intrauterine insemination, a procedure that involves placing sperm directly in the uterus, Lucy heard a local fertility clinic promote natural-cycle IVF in a radio ad.

“I thought, this is perfect,” Lucy said. “It allowed us to try something new, without doing anything we felt was going to be wrong.” Mindful of the lower success rate, she and her husband moved forward. They welcomed a healthy baby boy a year later.

Sheila Urban, a mom in Chicago’s suburbs, has twins from traditional IVF. After she miscarried during her second pregnancy, she decided to experiment with natural-cycle IVF to avoid another round of fertility drugs. “It wasn’t as harsh on me physically and mentally,” she told me. “I would never go back to a medicated cycle again unless my doctor had a really convincing reason to.” Her first attempt at natural-cycle IVF didn’t work, but she plans to pursue another cycle.

There is some evidence that fertility drugs can negatively affect egg quality. A 2017 meta-analysis of existing research in Reproductive Medicine Online reported “a higher risk of adverse perinatal outcomes after stimulated IVF” compared with natural-cycle or modified natural IVF, which uses some drugs. A 2016 study in the journal Human Reproduction found that naturally produced embryos have a reduced risk of low birth weight.

Ericka Andersen with her husband, Rick Sylvester, and kids in 2023. PHOTO: JENNY SPIRES

This is partly why some fertility clinics pride themselves on the natural IVF option. New Hope Fertility Clinic in New York City, which specializes in low- and no-drug fertility options, argues that a naturally produced egg is “usually the best quality.”

Other options are also available for those who are unwilling or unable to pursue IVF. Dr. Marguerite Duane, co-founder of the organization FACTS About Fertility, told me that she has helped many couples have children by addressing the underlying causes of their infertility.

“Infertility is a symptom of an underlying disease,” she said, noting that two leading causes are endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome, which are treatable. Duane said she has one patient who struggled with infertility for seven years and is now three months pregnant after being treated for insulin resistance, a common feature of polycystic ovarian syndrome.

I wish I’d had more clarity when I began IVF. No one counseled me to consider other options, nor was I told how many extra embryos may be possible. I wasn’t advised to think about what I might do with excess embryos. I simply hoped to produce as many as I needed.

Of course, clinics are businesses. This means there are real incentives to promote potentially costlier and more invasive treatments rather than to offer a more comprehensive evaluation of fertility problems and solutions.

Transparent conversations about reproductive choices are always necessary, but especially now, when so many Americans are struggling to understand what options they have about whether or how to have children. We may argue about when life begins and which lives to prioritize, but surely we can all agree that hopeful parents deserve to know all the ways they can have a baby. Maybe then some will be spared the grief I’ve felt about my own choices.

Ericka Andersen’s most recent book is “Reason to Return: Why Women Need the Church and the Church Needs Women,” published by NavPress.

This article first appeared HERE.