Millions of people struggle with infertility, and one South Florida couple’s determination to become parents led them across the world to find a solution doctors in the United States could not provide.
After years of failed IVF attempts, Heidy Willis decided to explore another option — a procedure that is not legal in the U.S. but gave her and her husband, Josh, the chance to have their own biological children.
Willis says her journey to motherhood was one she was willing to do whatever it took for.
“I was ready to fly to Ukraine during the war. That’s how badly we wanted this,” she said.
Willis started trying to have children around the age of 30, but in her late 20s, she learned she had polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS.
Doctors recommended intrauterine insemination and eventually IVF.
“I did six rounds of IVF here in the United States,” she said. “I tried different doctors, different clinics.”
But after multiple failed IVF attempts, Heidy Willis said she was left searching for answers.
“Once we started the IVFs and we had multiple, multiple failed IVFs, we were like, there’s something wrong,” she said. “The doctors would just tell us, you know, it must be your poor egg quality because of your PCOS, but no real diagnosis.”
Willis said doctors would retrieve dozens of eggs, but they would not develop as expected.
“They would retrieve 30 eggs, and then at retrieval, when they would study them in the lab, they weren’t mature,” she said. “Like, how can we have 30 plus eggs and not have one that fertilized?”
Doctors eventually suggested she consider donor eggs, but instead, Heidy started researching other possible causes.
“I found an article that said that there could be infertility genetic mutations that directly affect your fertility,” Willis said.
That research led her to doctors in Ukraine who performed a procedure called mitochondrial replacement therapy, or MRT.
The procedure is not approved for clinical use in the United States.
The National Institutes of Health says a federal legislative provision prevents the Food and Drug Administration from reviewing or approving clinical trials involving MRT because of concerns about potential safety risks, including genetic abnormalities and the fact that genetic changes can be passed down.
But as Heidy was preparing to move forward, war broke out in Ukraine.
The doctors relocated to Albania, and Willis followed.
“So, we met at the clinic, and they said they had brought the donor with them from Ukraine,” she said.
Willis describes MRT as a process sometimes called “three-parent IVF.”
“They remove the DNA from that donor egg, they transfer my DNA into that donor egg and then fertilize it with the sperm, and then they create an embryo which is then transferred over to me and then I carry on the pregnancy like any other IVF transfer,” she said.
The doctors who performed the procedure, Uliana Dorofaeva and Birol Aydin, said MRT is intended for patients who have exhausted other options.
“That means they have many IVF trials. They are not having good quality of embryo or blastocyst or no embryo transfer,” Aydin said.
“It’s not a 100% magic tool for solving fertility, but it’s improving a lot where it’s really reasonable and needed,” Dorofaeva said.
The doctors said Heidy’s case was complicated, but she refused to give up.
“I didn’t want to 15 years from now see that I could have had biological children and regret my decision,” Willis said.
Heidy and Josh traveled to Albania, spending several days making sure they were comfortable with the procedure. They returned home to South Florida and waited — without telling anyone what they had done.
“We kept it super top secret,” Heidy Willis said.
She said they wanted to protect their family from disappointment if it did not work.
“We just felt like, you know, we didn’t want to disappoint them again or get their hopes up and then again, it doesn’t work,” Heidy Willis added.
But this time, it did.
“So, I tested right away and I saw a very faint line and I was like, I think it must have worked,” she said.
Heidy was pregnant — with twins.
Aubrey and Aspen became the first twins born following MRT, according to the family.
“To this day I see them and I see so many pairs of shoes at the door,” Willis said. “I can’t believe they’re mine.”
Heidy Willis says she is grateful to the doctors who helped make her dream of becoming a mother a reality.
“I want them to know how badly we wanted them and how much we tried for them to be here,” she said. “So just to be grateful to us for how hard we tried to get answers.”
Heidy and Josh’s journey did not end there. They later decided their family needed one more addition.
Heidy returned to Albania for the procedure again. The couple says it was successful, and their family is now complete with their youngest child, Nolan.
If you would like to contact Heidy, you can find her on Instagram at Eggsquisiteembryo.
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