Stories
06-07-2026
After an intensive course of treatment, Diana is now 31 weeks pregnant. She is happy to share her story with other intended parents.
Diana: “I always wanted to become a mother at a young age. I met my husband when I was 18 and we got married when I was 21. Around the age of 25 I was ready; we started trying for a baby. After a year of trying, I still wasn't pregnant. During a visit to my GP, the doctor thought they saw signs of PCOS, and I went to the hospital for further tests. Nothing came out of that, and we were advised to keep trying at home for another six months.
When that didn't work, after all kinds of tests we eventually started IUI treatments at the hospital in Gorinchem. We made a new attempt almost every month. We took a few breaks to be able to keep going mentally. When the IUI treatments were not successful, we went to the hospital in Utrecht for IVF. There, an IVF cycle was cancelled because not enough follicles were growing, and we were given a so-called escape IUI to still try to achieve fertilisation. In Utrecht, we eventually had 1 embryo transferred, but sadly this did not develop into a pregnancy. It no longer felt right for us in Utrecht, so we started looking around for an alternative.
We had heard about Nij Clinics Elsendorp through friends of friends, and it immediately felt like a warm bath. We started a new IVF-ICSI cycle, and in the end 7 embryos could be frozen. I did suffer from the hormone stimulation, though, because a very large number of eggs had grown.
The first transfer of one of the embryos was not successful. With the second transfer, I thought: we'll do this transfer and then take stock for a while. We were also just moving house at the time, and I needed some space for that too. After the second transfer, I did 3 pregnancy tests before I could believe my eyes: the tests were all positive! I was pregnant!
At 7 weeks, we came to Nij Clinics Elsendorp for a pregnancy scan and we could see a beating heart! We were overjoyed, but suddenly we were leaving the clinic, and after everything you have shared with each other over a year, you are also saying goodbye to a familiar place. It felt very strange to now be ‘just’ pregnant and go to the midwife.
What has helped my husband and me over the past few years is trying to keep doing your own thing. Don't put your life on hold. I put things off because I thought: what if I get pregnant? I could have done all those things perfectly well, now that I know we spent 5 years trying to get pregnant.
Be open about your wish to have a child, if you can. We were less open about it, and the advantage of that is that you can just have a glass of wine at a birthday party and talk about other things, without everyone focusing on your fertility journey. The disadvantage is that when we announced our pregnancy, I received lots of lovely reactions from people who are or have been in the same situation of involuntary childlessness. I thought to myself: if we had known this about each other earlier, we could have supported one another. I don't regret keeping it to ourselves, because we wanted to stay as “normal” as possible.
Of course, the journey was also difficult for our relationship. We learned that we each process our emotions in a different way. We have to give each other space in that and let go. That is exactly how we hold on to each other. Of course, it was different for me as a woman than for my husband. It was happening in my body. I am grateful that our relationship has actually become stronger through this journey – after all, you sometimes hear other stories.
Dare to say what you need. A fertility journey is not something you can just take on alongside everything else. If I felt the need to lie on the sofa because things weren't going well, I did. If I felt like a night out, I did that. I saw an osteopath, did yoga and followed a special diet. Anything to increase my chances.
Don't be too hard on yourself. I was, in order to keep going, but later I realised that this is not the way. What was good was that I saw a fertility coach so that I could tell my story. Someone who knew what it means to be involuntarily childless and who understands what you are talking about when you mention hormone medication or an egg retrieval. See what works for you and what helps you.
I am now 31 weeks pregnant and looking forward to my maternity leave. It took a long time before I could relax and really believe that we had actually managed to get pregnant.
We are now eagerly awaiting the birth of our baby! Then our most beautiful dream will have come true!"
