Ada is a stunningly attractive woman. Her beauty is the kind described as”drop-dead gorgeous”. Radiating an irresistible aura of charm, in any gathering, Ada steals the show. Even the women nod approvingly in appreciation of her irresistible good looks. Ada is a sensation.

To describe Ada as a perfect blend of beauty and brains would be undisputed truth. A successful lawyer, she is also disarmingly intelligent. She bagged her first Degree at 19 and by the time she clocked 30, had been called to the Bar in addition to amassing two Masters Degrees.

She was getting set to add a Doctorate to her collection when she tied the nuptial knot with her heartthrob, Ike, a Havard graduate and highly successful business magnate. In so many ways, the couple were high achievers. Both had flourishing careers, were comfortable and influential. Everything appeared to be going for them.

When she signed on the  dotted lines, Ada was about 34 years. Ike, who was two years younger, didn’t mind the age difference. Love was what mattered, he argued, and since he and Ada were deeply in love, nothing else mattered. Like most married couples, they had hopes of starting a family right after their glamorous wedding, but after trying on their own for almost two years without success, they contacted their family doctor to find out what the problem was.

The doctor carried out all  the standard tests. He conducted blood tests to make sure Ada’s hormones were all in line and that her eggs were fine. Ike also had several tests done. There were at least three sperm counts and spem analysis tests done. The couple was poked and prodded more times than they could remember.

Alas! Nothing in the contrary was found. Everything turned out normal. The doctor then referred the distraught couple to a gynaecologist who redid all the tests and also performed a hysterosalpingogram (HSG), which is a special test done to find out if a woman’s fallopian tubes are clear of any obstruction. Again everything was normal. Ada’s tubes were in pristine condition. But she still couldn’t get pregnant.

The gynaecologist then gave Ada a prescription for Clomid, a powerful ovualtion drug and sent her and her husband home with specific instructions about when to use the drug and the right time to engage in sexual intercourse. Ada took the drug faithfully and exactly as recommended.

Over the next three months, the couple engaged in sexual intercourse with clockwork regularity at the exact time of her ovulation, but Ada was compelled to voluntarily discontinue the drug because she developed a very bad case of hot flashes.

Young couple relishing the joy of having a baby

She tried at least a dozen other drugs prescribed by other doctors, friends, well wishers and even family members. But the result was the same —nothing.

Rather ill health took over her life. She transited from one illness to another and was so ill at times she was bed-ridden and unable to leave home for days. An overwhelming sadness had enveloped Ada’s world.Why would she, of all people suffer from this cruel trick of fate? But there were no answers, only more unanswered questions.

She became teary-eyed, miserable and moody. She stopped taking care of her looks, put on too much weight and lost the edge to her sensational looks. Her highly successful career nosedived. Even her marriage was pushed to the brink. It got so bad she almost developed an aversion for sex and many-a-night, she dreaded to lie on the matrimonial bed. But for Ike’s love, patience and perseverance the marriage would have come to a dreary end. Back to the hospital she and Ike went. But respite remained elusive.

In the summer of 2010, the agonising couple traveled to Europe on vacation. All this time, Ada was trying to forget the sadness deep inside of her heart. She very much wanted to have a child, and was hoping the vacation in Europe would be the solution in the belief that relaxation while on a nice holiday is a good way to help a woman achieve pregnancy.

Incidentally, the holiday did not do the trick. The couple didn’t go back to the gynaecologist they had seen initially since there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with either one of them. But in truth, perhaps the real reason was that Ada and Ike just didn’t want to face the reality that we were infertile. Month after month, Ada would cry when her period would arrive and she wondered if she would ever be a mother. Even Ike often had doubts they would ever become parents.

On Christmas Day, 2010 came the announcement that Ike’s junior brother and his wife were expecting their first child after barely two months of marriage. On the one hand, the older couple were thrilled for the new-weds as this would be the first grandchild to be born into the family. But on the other hand, the news, in reality, was a devastating blow.

Christmas is always the most difficult time of the year for infertile couples, and the Christmas of 2010 was the hardest for Ada and Ike. Their beautiful niece, Uzoma, was born April 2011. Incidentally it was Uzoma’s birth that really gave the couple the courage to continue seeking help. They went back to the gynaecologist they had seen earlier, but he really couldn’t do anything for them except refer them to the local fertility clinic.

Their first appointment was in June, 2011. Prior to that appointment a friend of Ada ’s saw a newspaper advertisement for an infertility support group. The first meeting with the group gave the couple opportunity to hear the head of the local fertility clinic speak, but more importantly, they got to meet other people like themselves. By the next meeting, it was time to share their own story and hear others’ journeys through infertility.

As Ada confessed later, it felt so good to finally be among people who understood their feelings. So often had they been among friends and family members who wouldn’t know what to say, or were unable to offer useful advice. They had no way of understanding the anguish felt by the couple not being able to conceive. For the couple itself, it helped make the frustration of not knowing why they couldn’t conceive more bearable.

The doctor at the clinic looked at their chart and suggested intrauterine insemination (IUI). Very simply put, the idea was to take Ike’s sperm and place it directly into Ada ’s cervix at the most opportune time of the month (which was determined through ovulation predictor kits). The couple was so excited. They had this theory that their problem might be hostile mucous, thus with this method, they would be bypassing the problem.

After two unsuccessful attempts, Ada began using injectable fertility drugs. Each cycle she was carefully monitored to see how many follicles she was producing. On each cycle she produced 2-3, yet still did not get pregnant. The couple did three medicated cycles after which, the doctor suggested they moved onto In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Unfortunately, IVF was unavailable in the city they resided; therefore they had to travel down to Lagos for this procedure.

In August 2011, Ada and Ike went through their first and last IVF cycle. They were terrified. If this didn’t work, they believed they would have reached the end of the road for having their own biological child. Although adoption always remained an option, the couple wanted to try everything possible to have their own child.

Going through IVF is really a stressful experience for any couple. Ada honestly made it clear she had never been so stressed out in her entire life. Ike probably held the same view. However, the couple was lucky in that they had made some good friends through the support group, and that were able to stay in touch with them via e-mail, and sometimes on the phone.

At the end of it all, Ada produced 28 follicles, of which 18 were retrieved, and to their surprise, and joy, all 18 fertilized. In the end 13 embryos were usable so the fertility experts at the clinic transferred the best two into her uterus and froze the remaining 11.

As long as she lives, Ada would always remember lying on her back after the embryo transfer, with her husband by her side. She would never forget saying to him how she hoped the next time she’d be in that “position” it would be during labour.

Unfortunately, she hyper stimulated from the IVF cycle. Hyper stimulation doesn’t happen very often but when it does, the woman gets quite sick. For three weeks afterwards, Ada was unwell. On September 7, 2011 , she did a home pregnancy test and to her complete amazement the test came out positive. After using so many of those home pregnancy tests she couldn’t believe she finally got a positive result.

The following day a blood test confirmed the results. Several weeks later the couple learned that both embryos implanted. She was expecting twins!

Their twins, Chike and Chidi, were born 10 weeks early on March 2, 2011. Both are doing excellently well. They are normal, happy, healthy infants, and Ada and Ike are getting immense pleasure being parents.