Episode 82: PCOS and Fertility: An early diagnosis, IUIs, IVF, and Baby Liv

It’s PCOS Awareness Month and for those who have PCOS, you may know firsthand how difficult it can be to conceive naturally.

Kayleigh and Steven Hajny always wanted to have a baby. But when Kayleigh was 16 and diagnosed with PCOS, she was set to believe this was a pipe dream that wouldn’t happen for her unless she did IVF.

So, they decided to go to a fertility specialist for help. What they didn’t expect was the number of treatments and the amount of disappointment they faced. After nine medicated timed intercourse cycles, a failed IUI attempt, and a miscarriage, their fertility coverage was starting to run thin. They were told IVF was the next best option, but there was only $7,000 left of their coverage. How were they supposed to afford this?

With luck, Steven’s employer, VMWare, announced they enhanced their fertility coverage by partnering with Progyny. This meant the Hajnys could move forward with IVF and didn’t have to worry about the financial roadblock. So, they did just that, and two rounds of IVF later, (spoiler alert) Miss Olivia Eloise was bought into this world.

We also hear from Dr. Ilan Tur-Kaspa of IHR Institute for Human Reproduction on PCOS.

Guests: Steven and Kayleigh Hajny, Progyny members

Expert: Dr. Ilan Tur-Kaspa, IHR Institute for Human Reproduction

Host: Julie Hunt

To learn how you can bring a comprehensive and inclusive fertility and family building benefit to your organization, visit Progyny’s Advocate page and start the conversation by talking to HR.

For more episodes on PCOS, check out:

• Episode 13: PCOS and Fertility: Getting Pregnant with PCOS
• Episode 14: PCOS and Fertility: Creating Awareness about PCOS
• Episode 15: PCOS and Fertility: When the PCOS Symptoms Don’t Match
• Episode 49: PCOS and Fertility: Why it’s a Serious Challenge to Get Pregnant with PCOS
• Episode 50: PCOS and Fertility: How Certain Foods Can Help with PCOS Symptoms
• Episode 51: PCOS and Fertility: An IVF Baby After Ectopic Pregnancies

For more information visit Progyny’s Podcast page and Progyny’s Education page for more resources. 

Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility.

Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at thisisinfertility@progyny.com.

Here are some highlights from this episode:

PCOS Awareness Month and a Diagnosis as a Teenager
1:10 – 3:38

Julie Hunt: September is PCOS Awareness Month. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome is a hormonal disorder causing enlarged ovaries with small cysts on the outer edges. Symptoms vary from person to person, but what we can all agree on is that most of these symptoms aren’t very fun. They include things like menstrual irregularity, excess hair growth, acne, obesity, and of course, infertility. And believe it or not, PCOS is pretty common. Today we’re going to hear from Kayleigh and Steve who will share how they overcame a PCOS diagnosis to have their daughter.

Kayleigh Hajny: They found out that I had PCOS because I had a period at 14 years old. And then I hadn’t had anything until I was 16. Luckily, my doctor was pretty ahead of the curve. She did a lot of other testing and that’s when I was diagnosed with PCOS. So that doctor told me at 16 years old that I would probably need IVF to conceive.

The Journey to IVF
14:15 – 15:17

Kayleigh Hajny: And so my first cycle right out of the gate was medication and we got pregnant. Unfortunately, I miscarried at six weeks. So I was sent to an OBGYN and we kind of handled that. And as soon as we could, we got back to the medicated cycles. And I think that gave us a lot more hope because we said, great, this medication is going to work, we don’t have to go through anything else, we’re going to get pregnant again and this is going to be great. We’re going to have a baby and start a family! Unfortunately, we had eight more medicated cycles, and every single time they failed. So in the spring of 2018, we decided to try and IUI. Unfortunately, that also turned up negative.

Julie Hunt: Kayleigh and Steve had been through a lot. One pregnancy loss, nine medicated timed intercourse cycles, and a failed round of intrauterine insemination, which is often called IUI, or artificial insemination. It was looking like the next step was going to have to be IVF.

Financial Strain, then the Introduction to Progyny Through VMware
15:57 – 18:02

Julie Hunt: All of these treatments and all this disappointment was taking its toll on Kayleigh and Steve emotionally. But it was also all starting to really add up financially. The couple had insurance coverage for some fertility treatment, but the limited dollar cap maximum coverage for those treatments was quickly starting to run out.

Steven Hajny: I had basic work and a high deductible plan. They gave us a limit. I don’t know what the exact limit was but it was essentially like you have X amount of dollars that will be billed towards your insurance for things like the IUI.

Kayleigh Hajny: And if I remember correctly, I think we had like $15,000 to start with, for fertility stuff and I believe by the time that we ended 2018 going into 2019, we had $7,000 of that left. We would have had only $7,000 to go through an IVF cycle, which is not much.

Julie Hunt: When coverage is offered by an employer and when the employer chooses coverage that doesn’t really cover what the employees actually need, it becomes a waste of money for both the employer and the employee. Now, I could talk about this all day, but I’ll spare you because the good news is that Steve’s employer, VMware understood this concept and they switched their infertility coverage to a plan that would really work for people. A plan called Progyny. When employers step up like this, they’re making a statement about their cultural values and the kind of company that they really are. And VMware is a company that truly values in supports its employees.