Photo: Mallory Weggemann/Instagram
Paralympic gold medalist Mallory Weggemann and her husband Jay Snyder have invited PEOPLE to follow their IVF journey as they try to start a family.
Mallory Weggemannis done putting herself first — for a while.
“The decision is a shift for me, but it’s also really exciting — and hopefully it’s one I get to continue to make for months to come because that means everything’s gone well.”
Weggemann and Snyder have been on a fertility journey for several years, navigating Weggemann’s Paralympic swimming career and Snyder’s male-factor infertility. After two IVF stim cycles, they are thrilled to have two healthy embryos and are preparing for their first transfer in late April. But, she says, the past few months have brought unexpected challenges.
After consulting her doctor about the pain and other symptoms, she received the suspected diagnosis. And that’s all it can be, for now. “Doctors can’t definitively diagnose endometriosis without surgery, but when you’re going through IVF, and are an athlete as well, doing a surgery for exploratory reasons isn’t great,” she says. “It would’ve completely knocked me out from being able to do Trials for Worlds, which wasn’t an option.”
Another reason the couple, who live in Eagan, Minnesota, opted not to do the endometriosis surgery is because they would have had to wait an additional six months after the surgery for the IVF transfer, and they simply don’t have that kind of time.
But even without surgery, the suspected endometriosis complicated the couple’s IVF process.
“Endo can make implantation challenging for for women trying to become pregnant,” explains Weggemann. “And so in our scenario, we have two embryos — and making embryos isn’t necessarily easy for us, considering Jay’s condition. So we we decided we needed to give our first transfer the very, very, very best shot we could.”
This meant two months of extended transfer preparation, additional injections that essentially put Weggemann’s body into a medically induced menopause. It was a hormonal roller coaster. “After filling my body with hormones and estrogen for the January egg retrieval, a week later they gave me an injection and bottomed me out and basically turned off my reproductive system,” she explains. “That’s supposed to silence things, quiet your reproductive system and minimize the endometriosis for a few months to give your body a break.”
That doesn’t mean it’s been easy watching her body change. “Physically, I definitely don’t feel like myself. I’m bloated. I’m tired. My body feels different, but it’s not because I’m pregnant, it’s because I’m on a ton of meds to try to get pregnant — it’s a mental game.”
Changing her mentality around her workouts has also been a challenge. “As an athlete, your body is your vehicle. It’s been tough not allowing myself to grind and push in my training. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am in my career, but I can’t do that right now. I have to be careful how much stress I put on my body as we get closer to transfer. My body is trying to prepare itself to do the biggest thing that’s going to do for us.”
If everything goes as planned, Weggemann’s transfer at the end of April will be successful and Weggemann will be pregnant while competing at the Paralympic World Championships in June.
“Frankly, we don’t see enough women with disabilities that are pregnant in our society and we don’t celebrate enough women with disabilities as mothers. To be able to utilize the platform of sports and change how society perceives the journey of somebody who happens to live with a disability — that yes, I can still be a world champion and yes, I can still be a mom — is rewarding. We want to change the conversation.”
Check back for more updates as PEOPLE follows Mallory and Jay on their path to parenthood.
source: people.com
