Michelle & Ryan

Michelle & Ryan's Story:

I have wanted to be a mother since I was a child myself. I have always loved working with children, which is one of the reasons why I became an elementary music teacher. I met my husband in 2015. We fell in love, bought our house in 2017, got engaged in 2020, and married in 2022.

We began trying for children right away. After about a year and a half of trying, it was clear we needed assistance. I first went to my regular gynecologist. Without running any tests, he told me he believed I would never become pregnant due to my size. Obviously upset, I began to research fertility clinics on my own. It was important that the facility I chose was affordable and size-inclusive.

The very first result was CNY Fertility. I couldn't believe my luck that their flagship location was a little over an hour away from our home! We began our fertility journey in April of 2024 with the diagnostic testing.

We found that I had hypothyroidism and a unicornuate uterus, with only my right tube connected. We decided to try IUI first. I decided to do all of my monitoring appointments right at CNY Syracuse- which meant I would often wake up at 4 am, drive an hour and a half to Syracuse and back in time for school to start.

Unfortunately, the IUI cycles were all unsuccessful. I kept ovulating on the left side, so we were really only able to try one IUI procedure, which failed. After the 4th cycle of attempting IUIs, we decided to move on to IVF.

We had our egg retrieval in November, and we were blessed with four embryos. We performed our frozen embryo transfer in December, right before Christmas.

(Photos by Megan Putney Photography)

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

The entire staff at the Syracuse location was fabulous- from the doctors performing my procedures, the nurses, to the front desk staff.

I remember after my diagnostic HSG, Dr. Arroyo told me he suspected the unicornuate uterus was the cause of my infertility. He looked me in the eyes and said "this is not your fault", which was so healing after my normal gynecologist told me I would never get pregnant due to my lifestyle choices.

Our egg retrieval and transfer were both done by Dr. Corley, who was beyond kind with us. He took his time during the transfer, and really made the experience feel special for us.

Helpful resources Michelle & Ryan found:

I was so fortunate to have a friend going through IVF with CNY at the same time as us. It was so nice to have someone to confide in. I also really enjoyed the acupuncture before and after my transfer!

The Moment:

After our frozen embryo transfer, I was certain it had not worked. I told myself I would wait until the bloodwork to find out the results, but on the morning of December 29th, I was feeling particularly emotional. I told my husband, through tears, "I know the transfer failed!". I decided to take an at home test, and to my surprise- there was a faint second line. I told my husband we were expecting-again through tears- who was understandably hesitant to be excited after the emotional whiplash. We confirmed the pregnancy with a blood test on January 3rd, and we were over the moon! I was incredibly anxious during my early pregnancy, so I had CNY monitor my pregnancy throughout my first trimester. The staff at CNY Syracuse was absolutely wonderful to work with, and I did not want to leave them. If I could have had my entire pregnancy monitored with them, I would have in a heartbeat- even if it meant more 4am drives to Syracuse!

We welcomed our baby girl, Audra Noelle, on August 20th, 2025. We are beyond smitten with her, and have been enjoying our little newborn bubble, all thanks to CNY Fertility.

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

I wish I had gone to CNY sooner! I dragged my feet because I assumed infertility treatments weren't covered under my insurance and they wouldn't accept me until I lost weight. Both were untrue at CNY. I really only paid out of pocket for my co-pays, and CNY never once brought my weight up as an issue.