Tracy’s Story

In February 2013, shortly after her son Jack’s second birthday, Tracy and her husband Wayne decided to try for another baby. After trying for a long time, Tracy fell pregnant and was delighted.

However, she started to feel very unwell seven weeks into the pregnancy and knew it was not a good sign. She had started to bleed and realised that she was losing their baby, describing this as ‘the worst feeling ever’.

Tracy was referred for tests, which showed that she had a large cyst on her left ovary. When the cyst was being removed, it was discovered that Tracy had endometriosis.

Tracy was told that she would have to be referred to the National Maternity Hospital because she wanted more children and that she would need to see an Endometriosis Specialist.

It was then that Tracy met Professor Mary Wingfield in the National Maternity Hospital and her journey started from there. While under Professor Wingfield’s care, she had a second cyst and as much endometriosis as could be found removed. Tracy was advised to try to conceive for a further six months and, if she did not fall pregnant, some further tests would be done.

Tracy was also carrying excess weight and was advised that she would have to lose at least two stone, as obesity can have an effect on fertility. Tracy was upset and worried that she would not have any more children as she had never considered this possibility before.

Tracy said that she finally realised that worrying and crying were not going to help and she decided to take action. She joined Unislim and lost 4 and a half stone!

However, by the next appointment in six months’ time, she was still not pregnant.

Over time, Tracy had several appointments with Professor Wingfield and some of the other doctors at the clinic. They did some ovulation tests and it turned out that she was not ovulating when she was supposed to be.

Unfortunately, it was found that her endometriosis was quite severe and was affecting her fertility, despite the weight loss. Professor Wingfield told Tracy that the only other option was IVF.

Tracy wrote:
“I could not believe that this was happening to us. I started to cry and we were very worried. My husband had been let go from his job at this time. All I could think about was how we could pay for IVF as it is expensive. Professor Wingfield told us not to worry too much; that there was help out there for people that were in these situations. She told us she would refer us over to the Merrion Fertility Clinic where she helped us apply for funding to help us pay for IVF through their sister charity, the Merrion Fertility Foundation.

I was so tired and emotionally drained as I was not sure that we would be accepted for the funding. Sometime later, we received a phone call saying that we were accepted for the funding. We were so happy. It was the best news ever! We could finally start our amazing IVF journey.”

Tracy began the process of IVF. On the day of egg collection, 16 eggs were collected and four were fertilised. The couple were told that they had two top quality eggs, one of which was transferred on July 20^th, 2016 and the other was frozen.

On July 28th, 2016, Tracy was feeling unwell and had to go back to MFC for a checkup. The doctor thought that she was having a side effect from the IVF so they did some blood tests. She was told to go home and that they would ring her with the results of the blood tests.

Tracy had just pulled up outside her house when her phone rang. It was the doctor from MFC. She was told that it was great news, her HCG levels were increased.

Tracy wrote:
“I did not understand what he was saying to me so I asked him to tell me again. He asked me if I understood what he was telling me, I said “I think so”. He told me that I was pregnant. I could not believe what I was hearing, it was amazing, all my dreams had come through in that one phone call.

I was to go back to MFC on August 22^nd 2016 for a scan but I had to have an early scan on the August 15^th as I had a bit of a scare. It turned out everything was fine and our little baby was doing great. My due date was the April 7^th 2017.

On April 10^th 2017, I had my beautiful baby girl Abbie-Mai Hudson, weighing 8lbs and 4oz. She was born healthy and well. All of our prayers were answered.

Professor Mary Wingfield is amazing and without her help, I don’t know what we would have done. We are so grateful to her and all the staff at MFC. Our little girl Abbie-Mai has just turned 3 on April 10^th 2020. She is the most generous, lovable, caring and funny little girl. SHE IS OUR LITTLE MIRACLE. Once again, I cannot thank Merrion Fertility Clinic enough.”