‘I was 24 when I found out I had a low egg count’: Madison Quintrell shares her story

Madison Quintrell was just 24 when she found out she had a low egg count. Now she is encouraging other women to seek fertility checks, despite their age.

A podcast by the wife of popular DJ Fisher prompted Madison Quintrell to seek a fertility check, with the results changing her family plan forever.

“(Chloe Fisher) started a podcast, and her and her best friend had both been through IVF treatment, and they said … no matter how young you are, go and get your eggs tested, because you don’t want to find out, like we have too late and then have a lot of trouble,” Ms Quintrell said.

“I went and got tested, and the first test had come back borderline, so they said, you know, in a year, come back and check and hopefully it hasn’t really dropped, and you should be fine.

“But when I got retested...it had dropped by like 75 per cent so quite drastically,” she said.

Madison Quintrell with Finlay, 2 months, at home in Flagstaff Hill. Picture: Matt Loxton

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Ms Quintrell was just 24 when she found out that she had a low egg count and what followed was a “long and hard” IVF journey that lasted for two years.

“It’s a really tough journey, and it’s quite lonely as well, because you don’t really want to tell people, because then you’ll always constantly have people ask you about how your journey is going,” Ms Quintrell said.

“My partner was also FIFO at the time … (so) when we tried the fresh transfer after the IVF, he was actually at work when I found out I wasn’t pregnant.”

While looking for answers as to why she had low egg count Ms Quintrell was tested for endometriosis.

But after results came back negative, she was told she had “unexplained infertility”.

After trying to fall pregnant with fresh embryos with no success, Ms Quintrell asked to try a frozen embryo and to her and her partner Andrew’s joy this option worked.

“You kind of have the excitement taken away from you because you’re so nervous that it’s going to be taken away,” Ms Quintrell said.

“So for most of the pregnancy, it was hard for us to enjoy it, even when we got the pregnancy test … it wasn’t until we had her in our arms that we could finally just relax and be really excited about it.”

Madison said it wasn’t until she had Finlay in her arms that she could relax. Picture: Matt Loxton

The gorgeous tot is now two months old. Picture: Matt Loxton

Finlay was born in October and has made her parents dreams come true.

“She’s the most chill baby, which has been awesome,” the now 26-year-old mother said.

“My message (to other women) would be to at least go and get a fertility test done, just so you know if you’ve got time in your corner, or if you need a plan to freeze your eggs for later.”

“It’s just like when people preach about going and get your skin tested for skin cancer as a pre-emptive. It’s just a pre-emptive.”

Now two months old, Finlay has been nominated as South Australia’s Cutest Spring baby.

To vote for Finlay or one of our other 50+ finalists, click here.

Voting closes on Wednesday, December 19, at 8am.