TESTIMONIALS | Dr. Craig Sweet I.V.F., A.R.T.

I want to open this letter by thanking you so much for helping us create our beautiful family. Everyone at SRMS ws so friendly and supportive and really made the entire journey a wonderful experience. I am documenting our success story below; because I think we have a neat one to tell.

I met Mel eleven years ago in 1992. From the first day, he told me he was a cancer survivor. He had been treated for Hodgkin's disease in 1991 and has been in full remission ever since. Luckily, his doctor had the foresight to inform Mel of the risks of radiation and chemotherapy and suggested he cryopreserve some sperm if he ever wanted children.

When we decided to try to conceive in 2001, I did a lot of research before deciding on SRMS. I was impressed with the wealth of information the website and the professionalism of Dr. Sweet and his staff. Naturally, I was very anxious to get things started immediately and sometimes felt that the process (consultations, tests, more tests & trial runs) took too long. However, hindsight is 20/20 and I now appreciate the meticulous manner which Dr. Sweet approached our situation. I think that his "due diligence" and demand for perfection and structure were key differentiating factors that helped our story have a happy ending.¬†

Based on our situation, we tired intra-uterine insemination [with cryopreserved sperm] first, which was not successful. Any failure to conceive is extremely disappointing, but Dr. Sweet and the staff were very supportive and helped us determine our next steps. We then tired in-vitro fertilization. Throughout the treatment, Dr. Sweet and the staff managed our expectations and again were very supportive. At one point early in the treatment cycle, I was not responding very well to the hormones (I had produced only 4 follicles). I was told there was a risk. Dr. Sweet altered the dosage, my body responded favorable and the hormone treatments resulted in 11 follicles! Eight eggs were retrieved, several were fertilized and two of those underwent cellblock. Based on the quality of the five remaining embryos, we implanted three embryos and ended up with two beautiful boys! I carried the twins to almost 36 weeks and delivered them via cesarean section without complications. The boys are perfect and healthy!!

When you consider that the sperm had been frozen for over eleven years, I think our success story is truly special and unique! I remember that, upon hearing that our sperm was eleven years old, the doctor that performed the ICSI procedure commented that he had a hard time finding good sperm; but his persistence paid off! A special thank you to him.

To Dr. Sweet and the staff, thanks again for everything. Words cannot express our gratitude for the wonderful miracles you helped us create!

Comment From Dr. Sweet:
I recall this couple quite well. They were quite fortunate in that a total of 10 vials of sperm cryopreserved over a decade ago. Some of these were thawed in our attempted IUI procedure, but there simply were not enough sperm available to make this worthwhile. We had to move to ART.

During the ART cycle, I was quite concerned that I would have to cancel them. She did not respond as I would have expected. It was the two of them that were quite brave and decided to press on while I had my concerns. Boy, was I wrong!
We actually have a couple of cryopreserved embryos from the first cycle and, I believe, sperm is still also cryopreserved. If they have not had their fill, we have more for the future!

This is an amazing story, like so many others. His being a cancer survivor made it even more "sweet". Using sperm that was eleven years is storage was no small feat for the lab and they are to be congratulated. My job was easy. It was the couple and the lab that were truly the heroes.

As always, their trust was their highest compliment.