For Becky and T.C. Palmer, the hits seemed to keep coming.
After about nine months of trying to get pregnant, Becky found out her left fallopian tube was blocked, which was likely cutting her fertility in half.
Then a blood clot in her left eye lead to her diagnosis with a form of lupus, prompting doctors to caution her from trying to conceive.
“It was shocking, devastating,” Becky Palmer recalled of a 10-minute phone call from the doctor who said she should opt for adoption.
T.C. Palmer, 39, didn’t settle for that answer and sought out the physicians at Shady Grove Fertility Center in Baltimore. After three months of testing, doctors there were also doubtful, telling the Baltimore couple Becky Palmer’s eggs were no good.
Becky Palmer, 40, was beginning to worry she might never experience having a child.
“There was an empty feeling,” she recalled.
Just as they were considering egg donors, Dr. Ricardo Yazigi called to tell them that another of Becky Palmer’s conditions, a form of degenerative arthritis, may have thrown off the tests. A different test showed her eggs were indeed fine.
So the couple began in vitro fertilization.
“I started to feel good, but after being through so many hoops, I didn’t want to be too excited,” T.C. Palmer said recently as he held one of his twin daughters.
Becky Palmer gave birth Oct. 7 to Margaux and Lucy after the first round of in vitro fertilization.
About 10 percent of the 62 million American women of reproductive age reported having infertility services at some point in their lives, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2002, the latest available.
Infertility is most commonly caused by low sperm count, obstructed fallopian types or other ovulation problems, Yazigi said. Depending on the problem, couples most often opt for artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, where eggs are extracted, fertilized and transferred back to the uterus.
Although success rates aren’t always 100 percent, chances are improving with the technology.
“Mostly we talk about now whether they will conceive but how is it they can conceive,” Yazigi said. “The Palmers’ case is one of “hope and perseverance. It was such a long journey.”
