ROANOKE, VA – Raising awareness about infertility.
It’s an unfortunate difficulty impacting one in six people worldwide.
“It never crosses your mind that when you want to have kids you won’t be able to have kids,” mom Ericka Solano said.
Ericka Solano and her husband Glen are the proud parents of one-and-a-half-year-old twins, Jonah and Perry.
“Our son is very sweet and emotional and our daughter is full of energy and full of personality,” Solano said.
But their road to parenthood was far from easy. Over the course of five years, they went through several IUI’s and several rounds of IVF.
“Three of the transfers were failures, two were pregnancies that ended in early miscarriage,” Solano said.
Over time, it took a bigger and bigger toll on Ericka.
“I started having panic attacks that correlated with extremely high highs and also really low lows,” she said.
Holly Humphreys is a counselor at Thriveworks in Roanoke.
She tells us she’s worked closely with couples and individuals struggling to conceive.
“It’s a mixed bag of feelings that come with infertility issues. There’s a lot of negative social impact that affects people so they can feel depression, anxiety, stress, social stigma,” Humphreys said.
She said it can be hard to navigate discussions about pregnancy.
“Try not to talk about your own pregnancy and children around them cause that is a very sensitive topic, but do include them, make them feel involved,” Humphreys said.
Ericka tells us there are also feelings of guilt.
“A waterfall of emotions. Between me, my husband, my family, everyone you drug along through the process. You feel a little guilty that the people who have been following have been following you for so long,” Solano said.
But Humphreys said that support system is crucial.
“It’s a process, you know, and you really need to take it one moment or one task at a time. It’s not something you can speed through even though you wish that you could be past it,” Humphreys said.
Ericka found a support group in Roanoke for women struggling with infertility, and said it made a world of difference.
“I don’t think I could have gone through it without those who were also going through it at the same time, or had been through it before,” Solano said.
In the end, Ericka’s last embryo transfer was the one that gave her her twins — and the day they were born was a day she couldn’t believe.
“Having them bring these living being up to your face, I could kiss them. It was really awesome. Whatever plan you might have for your family, the lord’s plan is better,” Solano said.
The Southwest Virginia Infertility Support Group meets on the second Tuesday of every month.
Their meetings are at 6:30 p.m. at the Panera located at 4202 Electric Rd. in Roanoke. Anyone interested in attending is asked to reach out to Laura West at thewest14@verizon.net before attending your first meeting.