New hope for infertility
By: Kristina Krawchuk
September 22, 2003
Capital
News 9
The
joys of starting a family, for many it's a dream
come true. For others it's only a dream.
Tom
McGinness said, "There were times when we looked
at each other and said do you think it's time we
gave up?"
Dawn and
Tom McGinness wanted nothing more than to start
their own family. The marriage raced out of the
starting gates, but the family track was
anything but smooth, starting with a medical
procedure Tom had.
Tom said,
"After the vasectomy, I went through two
reversals without any luck."
The
possibility came by way of Dr. John Donhowe at
Bellevue Women's Hospital who's been performing
Invitro fertilization for years. Although sperm
was taken from Tom's testicles, it was juvenile
and not strong enough to penetrate an egg.
Dr. John
Donhowe said, "For those for whom nothing else
has worked or is likely to work, that is the
only option they realistically have."
In a
normal IVF procedure, the eggs and sperm are put
in a petrie dish like and left to fertilize on
their own. But because of Tom's vasectomy, this
wasn't possible. So Dr. Donhowe opted for a
different procedure called ICSI.
Dr.
Donhowe said, "Introcytoplasmic sperm injection
in which we actually pick up a single sperm with
a very fine glass microscopic needle and use
that needle to actually puncture the cell
membrane of the egg and insert the sperm
directly into the egg."
After, the
fertilized egg divides into an embryo, and it's
placed into the uterus. But it still takes two
weeks to see if a pregnancy has occurred.
The
McGinnesses went through this six times
unsuccessfully. They even looked into adoption,
but due to age and other requirements, they
weren't qualified.
Dawn said,
"You can never give up. You just can't give up."
And they
didn't. It was lucky number seven that brought
them the miracle of life--Bailey is their
healthy, boisterous 21-month- old pride and joy.
Dawn said,
"I really didn't believe it until I started
showing."
Tom said,
"I was thrilled. I cried like I'm about to do
now."
It was a
dream that finally became a reality, all thanks
to the miracle of modern technology.