Diminished Ovarian Reserve, Two Retrievals to Reach Our Target

We were nervous on our first trip to Taiwan — we mostly wanted to see the clinic in person and get a feel for whether it was the real deal. When we landed in Hsinchu, we took a taxi straight there. It turned out to be a well-known fertility center locally; the driver knew exactly where we meant and mentioned how many couples travel there from all over to build their families.

Every staff member we met was warm, welcoming, and patient. Once the front desk understood why we'd come, they connected us with a doctor right away, who patiently walked us through what IVF would involve and how to prepare. That first visit left us with a strong impression of the clinic and real confidence in the medical team's professionalism, which gave our search for a family a clear sense of direction.

Back home, we started preparing — adjusting our health and getting the necessary tests done, including AMH, FSH, PRL, and TSH, at a hospital closer to home. Once that was done, we returned to Stork for our appointment.

This visit was our formal first consultation. We completed the baseline examination and met my treating physician for the first time. She told me my AMH level was lower than average for my age, and that if we wanted two children, we might need more than one retrieval cycle to get there. That made us anxious — retrieval sounded like it would be difficult. In the end, though, it was nothing like what we'd imagined, and just two retrieval cycles were enough to reach the target egg count our doctor had recommended.

Three Trips for Retrieval and Transfer — Successful on Our First IVF Cycle

On that first consultation, we brought home some of the stimulation medication to prepare for our first cycle. The injections turned out to be much less intimidating than we expected — Stork provided detailed instructional videos and patient, repeated guidance, so we were able to manage the injections ourselves at home.

We coordinated everything by email and completed the stimulation injections smoothly, then arranged our third trip to Taiwan — this time, for our first egg retrieval.

I was nervous going into that first retrieval procedure, since I'd never experienced anything like it. The operating room at Stork was warm-toned and genuinely comfortable, and the nurses around me were kind and put me at ease as we chatted. Once the doctor came in, we said hello, and then the anesthesia took over and I fell asleep. When I woke up, the procedure was already finished, and I was resting in the recovery room, with nurses checking in on me regularly — they even brought me hot chocolate.

After two stimulation and retrieval cycles, our doctor told us, happily, that we'd successfully cultured 12 embryos in total. We were thrilled. All that was left was the final step: the transfer.

After talking it over, we decided we'd love for our first pregnancy to be twins, so we chose to transfer two embryos. We made our last planned trip to Taiwan for the transfer procedure. Unlike retrieval, embryo transfer doesn't require anesthesia — it's quick and painless, though you may feel some mild discomfort. Afterward, you need to rest quietly, and the days right after transfer are an important window that call for continued injections, so we decided to stay in Hsinchu a little longer.

What followed was a particularly careful stretch of time — supplementing progesterone, using vaginal progesterone gel, and being careful not to lift anything heavy. When we had our first blood test after the transfer, we learned we'd succeeded, and the joy was hard to put into words. A later ultrasound showed it was a singleton pregnancy rather than twins, but succeeding on our very first IVF cycle already felt like more good fortune than we could have asked for. In the careful, hopeful months that followed, we welcomed our first child.

Finding Our Good Fortune at Stork

Our little one is about to turn five now — a wonderfully energetic, lovable boy. He's already learned to swim, practices taekwondo, skates on inline blades, and has made plenty of good friends at kindergarten.

We feel truly fortunate, and we're deeply grateful for everything Stork did for us. Their professionalism gave us the confidence to keep going, and their thoughtfulness and attention to detail eased our worries and made the treatment process far more comfortable than we expected.

Succeeding on our very first cycle was an incredible stroke of luck, and we believe Stork can help many more couples on their own path to parenthood.