Dylan Dreyer overcame secondary infertility and recently revealed that she is expecting another baby. The meteorologist and host of Today show, announced that she is pregnant with her second baby, after facing conception problems for a while. She had consulted her fertility doctor and was on the brink of starting IVF just when she learned that she doesn’t need it.
Earlier this month, Dreyer announced joyous news on the show that she is expecting a second child with her husband Brian Fichera. “This is the best secret we could have possibly been keeping,” Dreyer, 37, said in an exclusive interview with People Magazine.
Their two-year-old son, Calvin, then made a surprise appearance on the show bearing blue balloons to reveal that the baby is going be a boy. She also shared a video of her son looking at a few sonogram photos confirming the arrival of his sibling, and actually saying there are five babies.
Dreyer however quickly clarified, “Calvin wants 5 babies, he wants 5 of everything… it’s one baby.”
Miscarriage
Dreyer’s pregnancy comes soon after her revelation of a miscarriage. Just two months ago, in April, she’d announced that she’d suffered a miscarriage over the winter.
After unsuccessfully trying to conceive for six months, the couple had already seen a specialist for medical assistance in pregnancy.
They were ready to turn to in vitro fertilization, when they got an unexpected—yet exciting—call from their doctor, who asked her to forget about the injections, since she’s already pregnant.
Pregnant before starting IVF
Not wanting to give up on her second child, she decided to consult a professional and get IVF treatment.
Upon examination, she was found to be low on eggs, which were causing the difficulty. On another segment of the show, she spoke about how she will soon start with her estrogen patches to kickstart the procedure and continued,
“Now we’re gonna start the IVF process and the shots and the scheduling and the blood work and everything that goes into it. We don’t know what to expect right now.”
Luckily for her, just as she was waiting to start her IVF, she received a surprising call from her specialist stating that there will no need for treatments as she is already pregnant.
She recalled, “I was just waiting for the phone call from Dr. Reichman, to tell me how much of each drug to use. Instead, when he called, he said, ‘Well, you can’t start IVF because you’re already pregnant!’ We were in complete shock. We couldn’t believe it”
Dreyer asserted the importance of having the right doctor that understands your needs and provides you with the right kind of support system as the journey of infertility is extremely complicated and should specifically focus on what you want.
She said, “You have to advocate for yourself. If there’s a doctor that you don’t feel like is listening to you, then you have to find the right doctor.”
There are several factors you should consider while selecting your fertility clinic and be very careful about selecting your fertility doctor.
Dylan Dreyer – Secondary Infertility
Secondary infertility is the inability to conceive a second child after having an easier conception the first time. It is something that is often downplayed and not discussed as openly.
It can happen due to various reasons such as medications, weight, egg count, sperm count, possible uterine scarring, gamete quality, etc. In Dryer’s case, she had scarring due to her first delivery being a C-section.
Like most people, she never knew that secondary infertility is common as many people never openly communicate about it and there is a stigma around it, mostly due to the guilt of wanting a second child when many others struggle to even conceive one.
She specifically had a segment to talk openly about her struggles where she was accompanied by not only her husband but also their infertility expert, Dr. David Reichman.
“This is something you need more awareness of,” she said on the TODAY show. “There’s this guilt that you have for wanting a second child when I have friends of my own who couldn’t have a single child. So here I am being ‘selfish’ that I want to have a second child and it’s like, no, that is not the case. This is our world.”
They were struggling due to her uterine scarring after which the tissue was cleared out surgically. Her uterus was two-thirds scarred shut so after the procedure, the couple got pregnant almost immediately after the surgery but unfortunately experienced a miscarriage soon after.
Dryer explained how it was very important for her and her husband to be open and talk about their struggles and said on her show, “My sadness doesn’t take away from anyone else’s happiness and my sadness isn’t minimized because someone else has a sadder situation.”
Apprehensive about motherhood
Talking about her first pregnancy, Dreyer revealed how she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to be a mother before Calvin. Unlike her second conception, her first one was a lot faster with no problems whatsoever.
As much as she was open about the idea of kids, she spoke about being happy without kids too.
“I was actually pretty open with it when I was pregnant with Calvin. Really scared to death. My life’s going to change. I never changed a diaper before. I really didn’t know how to be a mom,” she said. “I had Calvin, and something clicked.”
Soon after her first pregnancy, she decided to grow her family so that Calvin can have a sibling. When things started getting complicated, she decided to get examined and found out about the lesser-known side of conception—secondary infertility.
Dreyer conceived both her kids naturally, albeit after some struggle. She didn’t have to talk about infertility, but she felt it was important to.
“By putting my story out there, I feel like the thousands of prayers and good wishes we received made a difference. I knew it was in God’s hands, and this is certainly an answered prayer,” she said.
The TODAY show host even shared a blog on her brief IVF journey, addressing the feeling of being overwhelmed ahead of IVF. She wrote: STOP!!! Breathe. One thing at a time.
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