Episode 019: Multiple Rounds of IVF Brought Her Two Miracle Babies with McKensie Kanos

McKensie shares with us her early diagnosis of stage four endometriosis. While diagnosed, she did not have laparoscopic surgery until after her and her husband married in 2016. It was then that she was told how advanced the endo was and was informed her reproductive endocrinologist would not move forward with any alternative reproductive treatments such as in vitro fertilization until the endo was removed.

McKensie successfully had her endometriosis removed and began her journey to start her family. She had her first egg retrieval in Charlotte, NC where she made 5 embryos. At this clinic, she did a fresh transfer, five days after the retrieval. For the fresh transfer, they transferred two of her five embryos. Unfortunately, this transfer failed. After her failed transfer, McKensie and her husband moved to Charleston, SC. With their move, their remaining embryos came with them. McKensie discusses the processing of FedExing embryos! McKensie quickly established care at a RE clinic in Charleston and became pregnant with her daughter, Lennox, on her second transfer (first frozen embryo transfer). Mckensie discussed how even through she had an uneventful pregnancy, she knew she still wanted a larger family and had to almost immediately start planning the next steps in growing her family.

In January 2021, Mckensie and her husband jumped back into the world of IVF as a “secondary infertile” patient. At this point, they had two embryos left. Mckensie walks us through how the morning of her transfer she finds out that only one of the two made it through the thawing process. The one that made it — the lower quality embryo. She did not have much hope moving forward with the transfer but they went ahead anyways. A few days later, they found out this transfer failed as well and now they were out of embryos.

In the summer of 2021, Mckensie moved forward with a second egg retrival. To her devastation, they only had 2 embryos make it to transfer. She tried for a third time to transfer both embryos and this transfer failed as well. McKensie was adamant she couldn’t go into a third retrieval. She wanted to take a break but felt like being in her thirties, time was against her. Against her better judgement, she immediately moved forward with her third retrieval.

In August 2021, she finally had great results! They managed to get 18 eggs, 11 embryos, and 7 PGT normal embabies! She was thrilled and felt like her next transfer would give her baby number two. To her devastation, she faced failure once again. Transfer #3 for Baby #2 FAILED. She was ready to throw in the towel and was convinced she was not meant to have another baby. However, she tried one more time. They opted for an ERA which showed she needed 3+ hours of progesterone before her transfer. On Transfer #4 in January 2022, McKensie fell pregnant with her second daughter.

McKensie discusses the trauma that she experienced in 2021 and how she really is not sure she can do IVF again to continue to grow her family. While she is thrilled to be pregnant and would love even more children, she discusses how failure after failure really took a toll on her.

Tune in to hear what pregnancy after IVF looks like and all the extra appointments you get along the way! McKensie wants to support other fellow infertile women and shares her IG @mackkanos for others to connect with her!