“We are so grateful to have been accepted into the trial that gave us the babies we always wanted, two for the price of one!”
Mom Melissa and her husband got married in 2013. Being a military couple, they started trying to get pregnant after a return from deployment in 2016. The army moved the couple to Hawaii in August 2017 and their fertility journey began with military doctors in January of 2018. The couple was referred to the REI clinic at Tripler Army Medical Center, which works closely with the Fertility Institute of Hawaii. Melissa was never officially diagnosed with a fertility problem, but was told possible PCOS. Her husband was diagnosed with male factor infertility. This was the start of a journey that consisted of multiple IUI’s with numerous medications, but they were not successful. During Melissa’s last IUI, she noticed a flyer for the RITA IVF clinical Trial at FIH and quickly applied. She was accepted after a thorough screening process and began the trial in March 2019. After an IVF retrieval, the couple had two embryos that were viable for transfer. Their first fresh transfer was again unsuccessful in April of that year. Fast forward to July 2019, and a frozen transfer was finally successful!
Unfortunately, Melissa’s husband could not attend (due to work obligations) the confirmatory ultrasound appointment with Dr. Karmon that would soon change their lives forever. However, he received the best news on this day, which happened to be his birthday, that the miracle baby they had waited nearly three years for, was actually twins! Twin girls Meredith and Jillian were born on April 4, 2020, as beautiful and as healthy as ever.
Sometimes they say you are in the right place at the right time. Finding that flyer for the study was the defining moment in helping to complete this family.