Vegas, Baby Page #4

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Leads to an egg retrieval,

leads to an embryo transfer.

That's still the

basis of what IVF is.

I work with many patients

who have won this contest.

You see them all the time

all over our website.

They've won these contests,

and they have babies,

and they could have

never done this before.

How could that ever be wrong?

How could that be wrong?

But I've got to think about the

other 99 people who didn't win.

We were just really struggling

trying to figure out how we

were gonna take the next step.

And then we talked

to our parents,

and they said that they would

be willing to lend us the money.

We're already in debt.

Do we bankrupt this family

to try to fulfill this dream?

So we decided that this

would be our last try.

Anyone who entered

the contest--

those who don't

win, the losers--

they still get a free

consult from a doctor

any one of our clinics.

They still get a discount

on their services for IVF.

OK, so I started

out at University

Reproductive Associates,

and there's those records.

- OK.

- And then I went to.

Columbia.

- OK.

And now I'm at New Hope.

My goodness.

It's gonna cost

maybe $15,000, and my mom

and I split the cost.

Have a great day.

You too.

Hi, Rosalinda,

can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you, Dr. Sher.

I know that due to my age

it's gonna take longer

to find an egg that's good.

But is there still a chance

that we can find one?

The biological

clock cannot be reset.

So it's very important

that whatever we do,

we don't waste a lot of time

to get down to doing it.

And I'm not ready

to give up yet.

All right, we won't

give up on you, either.

No matter how a

patient gets to me--

whether it's through

a contest, or they

scrape together the money--

they all face the ultimate

challenge, which is,

am I going to get

a baby out of this?

To prepare for a cycle of IVF,

Dr. Sher gets everyone cycling

at the same time.

And I have 45 people

in this cycle.

Women normally grow

one follicle per cycle,

and they ovulate one

egg from that follicle.

In IVF they need to

undergo many injections

to stimulate their ovaries to

grow as many eggs as possible.

IVF is a numbers game.

Two, three.

There's no

measurements on there.

It's really f***ing thick.

This is day 24 of injections.

Two, three.

One, two, three.

Hopefully this will

get us our golden egg.

Can I cut them shorter?

Yes, please.

Tomorrow I'm gonna go to Vegas.

Do you do insemination or--

We're doing IVF.

IVF.

Mm-hmm.

Why you get a

blue color today?

Blue for a boy.

I want a boy.

Oh, you want a boy?

Yeah, for my husband.

My third boy.

Yeah.

I thought it would

be a girl, yeah.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

No, I'm 42.

I'm done.

So this was a surprise.

Ha, ha.

My best friend's son,

my godson, they're 40,

and they just got surprised.

Their boys are like, 11 and

nine, and they were not--

Yeah, mine are 16 and 11.

--they wanted

another one, a girl.

And they got triplets.

Oh, triplet girls?

They broke the bank.

They broke-- it was crazy.

Oh my gosh, yes.

But it was pretty funny.

Yup.

Strange how it happens,

and what we get, isn't it?

OK.

I'm doing this for my wife

and myself to have a family.

But it's a really tough journey.

The Catholic church

disapproves of IVF,

because it believes that

you're messing with nature

in a way that you shouldn't.

It's considered one of

the unforgivable sins.

I'm following my

heart, but I can only

hope that my conflict

and my remorse

is enough that God will

forgive me for what I've done.

It took us seven years

to get to this point.

And, you know, through

everything, we've stuck it out.

It really is now

or never for us.

Our house is in the

foreclosure process.

We still technically own

it, but not for much longer.

Just trying to survive.

And whatever happens,

we're in this together.

OK.

I think that's everything.

Welcome aboard

American Airlines flight 2375.

Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to Las Vegas.

You go pose with them.

No, I'm not gonna

pose with them.

Yeah, I'll take

a picture of you.

That's not gonna look right.

That's not gonna look right.

Yeah it is, go ahead.

Take my picture?

Got it.

Thank you.

Live long and prosper.

Live long and prosper.

This is the trigger shot

that gets the eggs ready.

We have to do it

exactly at 9:
30.

You ready?

And I'm out.

I didn't feel anything.

You're good.

One, two, three.

Don't let go.

I'm not letting go.

I got you.

Tell me where you're at.

I'm done.

No way.

OK.

Love you.

Love you.

It feels

like you're just one

step away from the threshold.

Yeah.

Especially because

balancing the hormones

through acupuncture, and helping

the chi and blood to become

strong enough to increase

your ability to conceive,

and to sustain the pregnancy.

What we call fulfilling the

essence, in Chinese medicine.

Yeah.

So we're gonna go ahead open

up and clear the magnetism, OK?

Oh.

I do have some concerns

about all these hormones,

and about medicalizing

a natural procedure.

On the other hand, Athena has a

strong desire to carry a child,

and I understand that.

We all take risks in life

to get what we really want.

And it seems to me that

the enrichment of her life

is worth that risk.

The stereotype

of IVF is that it

is something that you

do on a whim, kind

of like elective

plastic surgery.

A long line

of celebrities who've

chosen this path to parenthood.

I feel like the

media, in general,

really focuses on pregnancy.

Oh, you're having a boy!

Any time a celebrity

gets pregnant they

have a baby blog on people.com.

They are doing

interviews constantly,

which really drives me

bonkers, because they think,

like, well pregnancy

is the new black.

We're still trying.

We're on the fifth

try, and I tell you,

this is fifth try

has got to come in.

Ah!

Right.

I think people know

about infertility largely in

the context of celebrity media.

And I think it's

great that infertility

gets the airtime that it does.

But it doesn't really speak to,

here's the actual experience

of an American in this

country with a median income,

and here's what

you need to save up

in order to try for a chance.

Thank you for holding.

At the Sher Institute

our physicians

have helped thousands of couples

stop spinning their wheels,

and go from

infertility to family.

I'm

gonna say they're

showing signs of fertilization.

We don't know if they're

fully fertilized yet.

I won't know that until our

next update on day three.

The other three just

didn't fertilize at all.

I'm trying not to get nervous.

Ha, ha.

- Hi, good morning.

- Good morning.

Can you take a look

at the information here?

And if everything is

correct, I want your initials

somewhere on the label, please.

All right.

Here you go.

Thank you.

OK, Brian, if you follow me.

You guys usually finish almost

approximately at the same time.

And I do apologize, I usually

have this ready, but--

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