Episode 008: How Infertility Built A Family & Turned Into A Career with Yllena Popovich
How Infertility Built A Family & Turned Into A Career with Yllena Popovich. Yllena chats with us about how her and her then boyfriend made the decision to move forward with fertility treatments, after a diagnosis of PCOS at a really young age. Now, she’s practicing NP at Kentucky Fertility Institute, married to her husband, and mom to their beautiful son.
Fertility Timeline:
Diagnosed with PCOS at 23 years old (symptoms were: no periods, acne, facial hair)
Self-referred herself to Reproductive Endocrinologist to see what options were out there for her after her diagnosis with PCOS
Started with a few rounds of Letrozole to try and get her to ovulate and see how her body responded to medications. It was unsuccessful, then she moved on to Clomid, and then added in Gonal F.
2 rounds of IUI with Letrozole and Gonal F- had a chemical pregnancy with the 2 round of IUI
Took a break with treatments, moved back to Kentucky, and decided she wanted to pursue women’s health nurse practitioner license.
IVF 3 months after her wedding, had embryos frozen and had great success through the retrieval process.
1 Cancelled transfer
Became an NP and had a transfer right at the same time
Got pregnant with her first transfer and had her baby boy!
Graduated when her son was 3 months old and started working at the clinic that she went through treatment at!
Nurse Practitioner Role in a Fertility Clinic:
Ovulation induction cycles
IUI’s
Ultrasound monitoring
HSG
Record reviews and oncoming patients
Treatment for PCOS
Letrozole - starting on cycle day 3
Tends to be better tolerated with the patients and does better with the endometrial lining
Things she tells her patients since going through treatments
Certain medications may burn, or give you hives (ex: cetrotide) and being able to tell patients that before starting it*
PIO- warming it before you inject it, using a heat pad versus ice packs
[Do not stress about adding in acupuncture, wheatgrass shots, dietary changes, etc. If you want to do it and it helps give you peace of mind do it, but if it is going to add more stress, or a financial burden then do not add it in! Be sure you always talk to your provider about anything you’re wanting to add in or try to be sure it is the right fit for you.]
Yllena had to have D&C after birth because parts of her placenta attached to her uterine wall. Her milk wasn’t coming in because her body thought she was still pregnant and then she had to get surgery to remove all of the leftover placenta that was in her body. Thankfully after her surgery her milk came in her son was able to latch!
Her clinic recommends a saline ultrasound after having a baby and before you do another FET*
Secondary Infertility and what that may look like:
She had her saline ultrasound and they found asherman’s syndrome which is the bonding of scar tissue that lines the wall of the uterus. (Which can cause secondary infertility)
Had surgery to remove it and now working on her next FET!