Egg donor who helped two other couples have babies discovers she is infertile when she tries to conceive herself

An egg donor has told how after helping two other couples conceive, she may never get pregnant.
Leah Campbell, 29, from Anchorage, Alaska, started experiencing problems seven months after her second donation and doctors diagnosed her with Stage IV endometriosis, a disease - often referred to as the Silent Invader - that affects the uterus.
Desperate to have children of her own, she racked up $30,000 worth of debt going through two rounds of IVF, but both cycles failed and now she says 'I don’t know what the future holds'.

Heartbreaking: Egg donor Leah Campbell helped others to conceive, but now she is battling infertility issues

She told The Huffington Post: 'When I was in the middle of it I would have done anything, I would have gone to the end of the world to get pregnant. It was all that mattered to me.
'Realistically the only thing that stopped me was that I was $30,000 in debt, and heartbroken, and on my own, and I couldn't do it anymore.'

 

Campbell first decided to become an egg donor after hearing about a friend who had done it.
She explained: 'I just thought it was such a cool thing that she had done.'

Devastating: Campbell went through two rounds of IVF but both cycles failed

In July 2008 and January 2009 she donated her eggs to two different families.
She learned that the first family got pregnant with twins on the first try, however the second family never conceived.

THE SILENT CAUSE OF INFERTILITY: ENDOMETRIOSIS

Endometriosis is a gynecological medical condition that affects women in their reproductive years. The cause is unknown.
The exact prevalence of the condition is not known, since many have no symptoms. Common signs are pelvic pain during menstruation and infertility.
Estimates suggest that between 20per cent to 50per cent of women being treated for infertility have endometriosis, and up to 80per cent of those with chronic pelvic pain may be affected.
While most cases of are diagnosed in women aged around 25-35 years, it has been reported in girls as young as 11 years of age.
It can be treated with medications or surgery.
The goals of treatment may include pain relief or enhancement of fertility.

SOURCE: www.medicinenet.com

'The strange thing that happened was I felt so connected to these families,' she recalled.
Initial check-ups suggested she was healthy and in 'perfect reproduction state'.
But months down the line she found herself in hospital repeatedly for surgeries.
Doctors warned her that her window for getting pregnant was closing and it was a now or never scenario.
She said: 'I felt so lost. I was single at the time, I had been dating but there wasn't anyone in my life that I saw my forever with.
'I knew I'd always wanted to be a mom, but doing it on my own had never been the plan.
'All my friends were married and they were having kids, and I felt that none of them could relate to what i was going through.'
She said that experiencing repeated IVF as a single woman was 'probably the most devastating thing I’ve ever gone through'.
Now she is offering advice to other infertile women and endometriosis sufferers through a blog site and Facebook page titled the Single Infertile Female.
She says that as she nears 30, she is slowly warming to the idea of adoption.
In the past she said knew it was an option but it was always 'secondary to the real dream. It was runner up to my true desire of carrying my 'own' children.'