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"From Hope to Happiness" takes you on a moving journey through the lives of people who faced the challenges of infertility and found their path to joy with Dunya IVF. This podcast showcases heartfelt stories of resilience, determination, and ultimate fulfillment as families share how their dreams of parenthood were made possible.
Thank you so much for joining us
and agreeing to sharing
your journey.
Im sure you're going to touch a
lot of people and help a lot of
people feel that they
can relate,
and so it's very important that
you have decided to
do this with us.
No problem at all,
it's my pleasure.
I would like to start just by
asking how did this whole
journey start?
When did you start trying
to conceive?
If you could give us a little
bit of a backstory.
Of course, yeah. So,
we've been together with
my husband since 2013,
and then 2016, we decided that,
you know, it's time to,
you know,
start to expand our family.
And obviously,
we always think that, you know,
once you start,
it gonna happen straightaway.
And this actually what
happened with us. So,
in a few months' time, you know,
I was pregnant.
It was around Christmas time and
I had all the positive
tests and everything,
but then obviously,
in two weeks' time,
the dreams crashed and I ended
up in a home in England.
So they said it's a chemical
pregnancy,
so
it won't progress then.
So we said, "Okay, that's fine.
You know,
one
failure so it won't, like,
pull us back." And then we
started trying and trying
and trying.
Then
it was already like a year and I
decided to just contact the GP,
and my plan was to try with IUI
with insemination because
I thought it's like
straightforward thing.
They get the sperm, they insert,
then you know,
you are pregnant within a month.
And then the GP said, "Oh,
you know,
it doesn't work that way.
I'm gonna refer you for IVF."
And when I heard the IVF,
I was like, "Oh, that's fine,
you know.
As long as the wait is not too
long." I was quite
happy with it.
And then it took like six,
seven months of the initial
tests and everything.
We picked a clinic here in
England. It's called...
Maybe I shouldn't mention the
name of the clinic anyway.
So,
we had like
two like collections with the
clinic here, three transfers.
They were all,
they all implanted but they were
chemical pregnancies. So,
we didn't know, you know,
what the problem is,
so we just carried on
trying and trying.
We tried with a clinic
in Turkey.
Then in between,
I was pregnant twice naturally,
which ended up in miscarriages
again. So it's been, like,
stuck in a limbo ever
since then,
so it been like nine
years already.
Okay.
So how many rounds did
you do in the UK?
So, I had two egg collections.
The first one,
even though I have polycystic
ovaries and I had plenty
of follicles,
they managed to get only four
eggs and none of them survived
past day two.
Then had a second egg collection
here in the UK.
I had 30 plus follicles.
They got seven eggs only and we
ended up with three
day five embryos.
They were quite good quality but
all of them implanted have but,
you know,
ended in chemical pregnancies.
How did this all shift to you
deciding that we need
to make a change?
How did it continue
from thereon?
How did you decide to leave your
clinic? What were the,
the factors that played
a role in changing?
The factor that played a role
is because obviously,
we had the treatment on D-NHS,
so we didn't pay anything
for it.
And you know,
this was around when I started
researching. You know,
I was getting ideas from
different people and the doctor
was quite reluctant to try
the ideas that I had,
even though we wanted to pay
privately for more testing.
And then when D-NHS funding was,
like, done,
my doctor had these brilliant
ideas which would've cost us
like over 25,000 pounds.
And I was like, "No,
I'm not doing that," you know.
And then because my husband
is Turkish,
we decided to try with
a clinic in Turkey.
So, we found a clinic in Turkey.
I had
treatment there with them
as well. Then I had,
I had a better outcome there,
to be honest.
I had 22 eggs taken out.
We had
six day five embryos,
quite good quality,
and then I had three transfers
in total both with double,
with two embryos.
The first one was
twin pregnancy,
which I lost at six weeks.
Second one was single pregnancy,
which I lost at six weeks again.
And the third one was, again,
twin pregnancy,
which I lost at seven, six,
between six and seven weeks.
It's always the same
time anyway.
So you went through a lot of
pregnancies that weren't
able to reach term.
Yeah.
And I had, you know,
like I had the,
we did quite some
genetic testing.
We did some immune testing.
I had intralipids.
I had aspirin. I had Clexane.
I had,
I can't even remember anymore,
you know, what I had.
It was just like a,
they call it, I think the,
the bucket
something. You know,
when they just throw everything
they can at you to see if,
you know,
if anything will make
difference.
Still,
we saw a bit of a difference,
you know,
because the pregnancies,
they carried on a bit
more than before.
But still, you know,
it wasn't the right approach
to our case.
So, I'm guessing, I mean,
obviously this is a very
difficult, stressful,
tiring time.
Do you feel
Very. Yeah.
Would you like to talk a little
bit about that, how you feel?
Yeah, Of course,
I don't mind at all.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like, you know,
you're just feeling sometimes
you're, like, stuck.
Your life is all about
IVF and nothing else.
That's all you can think about.
And you're actually, like,
forgetting to live your life,
you know,
because it's like you
are likely, like,
defined by from transfer to
transfer, from loss to loss.
You're always like,
"What else can I do?
What else can I do?
What am I missing?
Am I doing something wrong?" And
then when everyone around you is
having a baby after a baby after
a baby, and you're like,
"What's wrong with
me?" You know,
"Why is this happening
to me?" But actually,
it's not your fault and there is
nothing you can do because
obviously-...
you are in some way of
control of your body,
but until one point,
and then what happens
after this point,
you can't really change it.
There is nothing you can
do better or worse.
Do you feel
like
yeah.
affected your relationships?
Do you,
did you feel differently in
certain relationships,
either with friends, family?
Not from my side, to be honest,
because I was, I'm always,
you know,
a person that I try to, I,
I want to be involved in
people's lives and, you know,
when they have babies,
I will buy presents,
I will go and play
with the babies.
I never had problem being
around children.
But I think some people thought
that, you know, if...
because I have a problem
having a child,
they quite,
they tried to distance
themselves because they thought
I might be feeling bad,
you know,
being around their children,
which this had more negative
impact on me than the IVF and
my problem, you know.
So that's why I try to explain
to everyone that, you know,
having problem having a child,
it doesn't mean that I can't
bear around children.
With me,
it's actually the opposite
thing, you know,
being around children makes
me feel better.
Yeah, that's interesting.
The
mean,
I feel like for a lot of people,
it could be the other
way around.
Yes,
for many people it's the
other way around.
And I've met lots of women that,
you know, they just,
they just can't stand looking at
a baby because they can't
have their own.
So your,
your difficulty came from when
you felt that people were
trying to protect you
Yes.
...
but that just made you feel
worse in the end.
Yeah, it's like, you know,
one of the worst things was
like my best friend,
she didn't tell me she was
pregnant until she was three
months pregnant.
And when actually it was,
I even remember the day,
it was Easter, we were sitting,
you know,
on the sofa in my house
and she was like, "Oh,
I have to tell you something."
I was like, "You're pregnant,
aren't you?" And then she just
burst out crying. She was like,
"I'm so sorry." I said,
"What have you sorry for,
you know?
People won't stop having babies
because I can't have
one yet," you know.
Of course. But again, as I said,
I think a lot of women struggle
with hearing these news,
Yeah.
...
and
Definitely.
...
I feel it's important to educate
people around us to be aware of
how to bring these
topics up and
how
Yes.
Yeah.
Definitely.
So that is how you basically
decided to then go abroad was
because your husband
is from Turkey,
you decided to start treatment
now in Turkey, correct?
Yes, that's correct.
And then for the first
two transfer,
we had an amazing doctor.
He was listening.
He was really involved,
you know,
and he was like always trying
to reassure me, you know,
find ideas with me and
things like that.
But then he left the clinic,
and we got to have a new doctor
who was like, you know,
she had all these big promises
and all these big words.
And by the time my transfer
day came,
she didn't remember any of it.
And, you know, once I started,
you know,
miscarrying that pregnancy,
the only thing she said is like,
"Okay,
just stop the medication," and
that was it. She didn't say,
"Oh,
would you like to talk about it?
Would you like to, you know,
make new plans?
Would you like any advice or
anything like that?" You know,
she just like left
me there hanging.
I mean, I didn't expect her,
her to come back and say, "Oh,
you'll be all right," and things
like that. But just like,
you know, like,
be more supportive, you know,
from her side, you know,
as a doctor to say, "Oh, look,
you know, just relax,
you know try to get better and
then we can sit down and talk."
She didn't even do that.
So I was like that's it,
you know.
You know,
when you have one failure,
I always give chance,
and because I know that,
you know,
we just have to work together
to find a way.
But then when you see
the opposite side,
it's like doesn't
care at all, you know,
and have
It's important to
have that
Yeah.
from your doctor as well.
Yeah.
So this is when, you know,
I decided I was done with them.
I won't, you know,
do another treatment with them.
And I gave myself quite
some time, you know,
to recover from everything.
We had a really nice long
holiday with my husband and then
Dunya was keeping coming out in
like on Facebook, on Instagram,
and then I met a couple of
friends that, you know,
they were with the clinic itself
and I just decided
let me see now what,
what they have to offer.
Yeah, of course.
So after you were done
with Turkey,
was your next stop
Cyprus then?
Yeah.
I didn't plan to be honest,
you know, it just happened.
I just saw it online and I
didn't actually research any
other clinics in Cyprus.
I just, you know,
contacted Dunya and then the,
my coordinator,
she got back to me and
then how to say,
we just hit it off with her and,
you know,
she was amazing and she's still
amazing. She always, you know,
checks on me.
She's always like there
when I need something.
You are listening to the Dunya
IVF Clinic Podcast,
from Hope to Happiness.
To learn more about
IVF treatments,
visit our website
www.dunyaivf.com and
download our ebook,
A Complete Guide to Assisted
Reproduction.
So you're in Turkey and then how
many years in are we now?
So right when you got to Dunya,
how many years had you been
undergoing treatment in Turkey?
So So we started with
Dunya 20...
So I first contacted Dunya
in 2023 in December.
Okay.
So this is when I got like,
I filled the form online and
then Daniela got back to
me with an email and,
you know,
we just had the chat and then we
just started the ball rolling.
So it's been so
seven years into the
trying to conceive journey.
Yeah.
So
how has your experience changed
ever since starting at Dunya?
What are...
I don't How do you feel?
Do you see any major
differences?
So I it's a good thing to
mention that, you know,
when I started with Dinya,
it was the point where I decided
to try donor eggs.
And was that a difficult
decision to make, so?
Not at all.
Okay.
I mean, for me, it's important.
I would like to...
I want to have a child,
I want to have a baby, so.
Of course,
genetics are important but
they're not the most important
thing here.
Mm-hmm.
So I thought, you know,
I've tried with my own eggs,
I've tried, like,
six transfers with my own eggs
and then the same thing was
happening over and over again.
I've been pregnant naturally
three times with my own eggs and
it didn't work, so I was like,
"Why not, you know,
try with eggs from a younger
woman who's healthy,
who can look after herself?" And
obviously I was already 35 years
old, so I thought, "You know,
why not give it a try?"
And, to be honest,
it wasn't a difficult decision
at all. It was...
Actually,
it made me look forward to
trying again with this hope
you've got, you know,
with this new hope,
with this new outlook of things,
so it wasn't difficult
decision at all.
So have you...
Has this happened? Like,
have you gone through a
round with donor eggs?
Yes, I did go through a couple.
Oh, okay.
So you've already done a couple
of rounds with donor eggs?
Yeah.
So basically it was January
last year when
Daniela sent me note options for
donors and I chose a donor.
Then we came to Cyprus at the
end of March last year,
and we had
two, four, six,
eight good grade embryos
on day five.
I had a fresh transfer
last year,
at the end of April I think it
was, the first transfer,
and I got pregnant with twins
again.
Obviously had two embryos
transferred to go
back into twins.
But then one of them stopped
developing at week six,
the other one stopped,
stopped developing
at week seven.
And I had this time last year,
I had the vacuum procedure
to remove the embryos.
And the good thing was we were
able to send them for genetic
testing to see if the issue
was with the embryos,
but they came back, like,
healthy embryos, so they were...
The problem wasn't
with the embryos.
Okay, I see.
And so
how are you now? Where are we,
now that we're talking,
what phase are you in in
this whole journey?
So
maybe it's good to mention that
after this loss last year,
I had immune testing,
I had a hysteroscopy just,
you know,
to check if things were okay,
and then everything
came back normal,
and then I had another double
transfer this year as well.
With donor eggs?
Yeah, yeah,
with my embryos that are
frozen on Dinya.
So the embryos are with donor
eggs and with my husband's
sperm, so.
Are you making any lifestyle
changes now?
Anything different
than you did
the
I mean,
I always make lifestyle changes.
I always try to prepare my
body as much as possible,
obviously with healthy eating,
being more active, with,
you know... You know how it is.
Everybody... We've got, like,
in the IVF communities we've got
a list of things that
we're following now,
especially a few months before
the transfer that, you know,
we are trying to prepare
ourselves.
So for the moment,
we've got another four embryos,
like, frozen.
Ive spoken with Dr.
Alta and we have made,
like
a new plan,
new treatment plan for my
next embryo transfer,
with new medication that we can
try and see if, you know,
it's gonna help maintain the
pregnancy for longer term,
hopefully to term.
would you that just
Since you have
tried IVF in three different
places, have you...
And countries,
have you noticed a difference in
how healthcare works, basically?
I mean
with Dinya everything was really
nice, easy and smooth journey.
The clinic was, like,
very clean,
very well looked after.
Everything was organized very
well. You know, you've got...
When you go to the theater for
the embryo transfer and
everything, everything is just,
like, by the book, how to...
If I can say like that.
And then also with, like,
recovery after, they let you,
you know, if they've got...
It... Everything is, like,
just really well organized.
And how do you feel
very well looked after.
You you mentioned your,
your coordinator.
Daniela?
Yes.
Yeah, her name's Daniela Blaine.
She's the English coordinator.
She's amazing.
I mean,
I can't speak highly
enough of her.
How was your relationship
throughout treatment?
Amazing.
She's she's been always there
for me. You know, even,
even on a Sunday, you know,
a Sunday at lunchtime,
she'll be checking on me.
You know,
when I have the bleeding,
you know, and things like that,
she'll go and check on me,
how I'm feeling.
She was, like... You know,
you'd send her a message and
then she'll be like,
"Back to you as soon as
possible." She's always...
She's very responsive,
she's very caring and very
professional at the same time,
so
I think that's a very important
connection, you know,
between the... Your doctor,
between the clinic and you,
and it's very important to
have the right person.
If you were to explain to
someone what this coordinator
does,
what role does she have
in this whole process?
If you would like to explain to
someone who doesn't know,
who hasn't had a coordinator
before in IVF.
I mean,
she's like the glue between the
doctor and the patient.
She's the one who helps build
the relationship,
because you're not always......
able to contact directly to the
doctor. So she's the glue that,
you know,
brings everything together.
I think I'm, that's,
I think the best way I can
describe, you know,
what the coordinator does.
And it's very important that
you've got the right person,
and it's very important that you
actually trust them and rely
on them in some ways.
So you would say that they're
kind of like a guide in both
practical and emotional
support maybe?
Definitely yeah.
Yeah, and she was always like,
you know, when I have questions,
she's like, "Oh, let me just,
you know,
go get to the doctor and I'll
get back to you as soon as
possible," which always didn't
take long anyway.
Well,
that's really nice to hear that
there's, you know, a,
a support system basically that
helps connect you
to your doctor,
as well as helping you just
understand what's going on.
I think it's super important
that something like that exists.
Definitely. Definitely.
Now we know you're going
through a new round.
When do you plan on
having your...
Not just yet.
Probably in a few months time,
maybe November or January
latest, something like that.
So I always,
I want to give my body
enough time to,
like,
properly recover,
have a nice long holiday,
that I'm, like,
mentally recovered as well,
if I can say
it that
Of course, very important. How,
how big of a gap will there have
been if you have your
round in November?
When was your last round?
So my last round was
in March this year.
So you're taking about spring,
summer,
and a little bit
of fall
Yeah.
... to do the recovery.
When I first started,
I thought three months
is enough gap,
but I don't think three months
is enough gap if you have
experienced like a proper
miscarriage, you know,
if you've gone through...
Because it takes at least couple
of months for the body to
physically recover,
and at least three months for
your hormones to go
back to normal.
So I think something like five,
six months at least is a good
gap you can, you know,
give yourself to fully recover.
So I have a question regarding
what is keeping you
now at Dunya?
What is keeping you
from trying something else or
how come you're deciding to
continue your journey
with Dunya?
I think it's one of the main
thing is that they've never
given me false promises.
They never use the big words.
"Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah,
we will do it,
we will do it." Well,
the doctor said, "Look,
your case is a gray area, but,
you know,
we can work together and we can
find a way to achieve success."
And
I have a doctor back home
in Bulgaria who is,
who he is not an IVF doctor.
He's just a diagnostic,
so he helps you with advices
of what you can try.
And Dr.
Alper is happy with the
recommendations that are
given by my doctor.
We discuss them together,
he explains to me, you know,
why he would agree to use it or
why he wouldn't agree to
use this approach.
I like the thing that they
actually listen to you
and they listen to
the concerns you've got.
They listen to your ideas and
they would always come back and
explain why it's good or
why it's not good.
So I just like working
in partnership.
A lot of good communication.
Yeah.
Trust.
Definitely. Yes.
Wonderful.
So I have one last question,
unless you have
Of course, yeah.
... would like to share.
I guess just if you had any
advice to someone who's going
through the same things you're
going through, the same journey,
the same issues,
what would your advice be?
Remember that, you know,
you are the most important thing
in the whole situation and
your mental health,
physical health is,
like, the most important thing.
You know,
don't forget to live your life.
Go on holidays, read a book,
chill out with friends,
and try not to focus on IVF only
because just life goes on and
then we are just missing
so much if we just
think about IVF and
nothing else.
And I always say that, you know,
this is something that,
you know, it can be fixed.
We can find a way to have a
baby. There's so many things,
you know, in this life that,
you know, people can't fix.
There is wars,
there is terminal illnesses,
there is so many things going
on around us that, you know,
people can't fix them.
They can't find a way.
But with our cases, you know,
it is difficult,
it's heartbreaking, but,
you know,
there is, there's always a way.
Sometimes it takes a year,
sometimes it takes five,
sometimes it takes ten. I've,
I've met women that, you know,
they've been doing this for 15
years and they're still there,
they're still fighting,
but they're also living
their life.
Yeah.
So just live your life.
Yeah,
I think
Don't forget to live it.
Thank you. Well, Rosie,
thank you so much for,
for joining
No problem at all.
... sharing your story.
We wish you all of the best.
We can catch up maybe once I
have a baby again, maybe.
Yes, we would love that.
We would love to catch up again.
So yes,
Yeah, lovely to meet you.
...
make sure to send us any good
updates. We would love to,
to talk again soon.
Yeah, we'll keep you posted.
Awesome. Great.
Thank you so much, Rosie.
It's such a pleasure
meeting you.
No problem at all.
Nice to meet you. Bye.
Bye.
Bye.