Making Mateo was a tough IVF journey, but so worth the wait

There were more than 1000 needles, $100K spent and a heartbreaking five miscarriages — but in the end this Melbourne couple’s dream came true thanks to the help of IVF.

His name means “Gift from God” and to his parents, it is a perfect description for their newborn son Mateo Soteris.

Because to create their family Laura Garcia and Max Soteris needed not only faith, but plenty of courage and determination.

For them, what seemed like a natural next step for their family became a gruelling five-year journey that would cost them emotionally, physically and financially.

It triumphed 11 weeks ago with the birth in Melbourne of Mateo, a gift his parents say was “so worth the wait”.

New dad Max Soteris, Laura Garcia and their son Mateo Soteris. Picture: Victoria D’Angelo

It was also the culmination of a love story that started when Ms Garcia, 37, met Mr Soteris, 47, in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.

“He asked me to move to Australia with him and here I am 13 years later,” Ms Garcia said.

After trying unsuccessfully to conceive naturally, they saw fertility specialist Lynn Burmeister, the Medical Director and owner of No 1 Fertility.

“My advice to any young woman is don’t wait, have your fertility tested and freeze your eggs,” Ms Garcia said.

“I was young, fit and healthy and we were not expecting to have issues.”

Dr Burmeister started the couple on ovulation induction cycles, a typical first line of fertility treatment in 2019.

“When three cycles didn’t work Dr Lynn told us that the best way was to jump into IVF straight away,” Ms Garcia said.

In March 2020 Ms Garcia was ready for her first egg collection and delighted to learn there were 20 promising follicles. These each have the potential to release an egg for fertilisation.

The day before surgery to retrieve them, the hospital called to ask if Ms Garcia had any Covid symptoms.

“I had been cleaning the house and the dust made me sneeze and cough,” she said.

“I made the mistake of saying yes and they cancelled my surgery. I was very unlucky because I didn’t have Covid, but the results didn’t come back in time.”

Then lockdowns and suspensions to elective surgery because of the pandemic delivered the couple blow after disappointing blow for the next two years.

IVF specialist Dr Lynn Burmeister.

Dr Burmeister championed to have the bans lifted saying at the time it was impacting potentially thousands of people desperate to start a family.

“Some people still see fertility treatment as some sort of a luxury, but it is a medical issue that needs to be treated the same as other medical issues by the community and governments,” she said.

When they were finally allowed to do another round of IVF, the couple created nine precious embryos.

“We did two transfers which were unsuccessful and as I was preparing for my third transfer Dr Lynn picked up that I had a polyp that needed to be removed so we had to cancel the embryo transfer,” Ms Garcia said.

Laura Garcia and son Mateo, now 11 weeks old. Picture: Victoria D’Angelo.

Later, much to their surprise, the couple discovered they had become pregnant naturally.

“We just couldn’t believe it,” Ms Garcia said. “We were so excited and I started doing all the scans and everything was looking pretty good until Christmas Eve December 2020.”

“We found out that our little boy didn’t have a heartbeat. It was terrible. Only a week before everything was perfect.”

The couple still had five frozen embryos so in early 2021 they tried another transfer and achieved another pregnancy.

“I lost the baby again at week eight,” Ms Garcia said.

“Then I did another and that was a twin pregnancy, twin girls, but I lost them naturally by week eight again.”

In total they would suffer five miscarriages, endure more than 1000 needles to stimulate ovulation and spend tens of thousands of dollars.

“For sure, more than $100,000, I don’t know to be honest,” she said.

“There was a point in which we said we are not going to count. We want to have a baby and we are going to do whatever it takes.”

Ms Garcia said testing revealed her immune system was attacking the embryo and preventing it from growing. Picture: iStock

In January 2022 the ban on IVF treatments in Victorian hospitals that had sparked such fury was finally lifted. It allowed the couple to undergo more rounds of IVF, but these were also unsuccessful.

Dr Burmeister then sat them down to have a conversation about surrogacy.

“I’m quite stubborn,” Ms Garcia said. “I told her it was an option, but not now, I wanted to keep going.

“She told me that moving forward things were going to get extremely difficult because we had tried so many times, so many pregnancies, and we were doing tests, we have no idea how many tests we did, and everything was coming back normal.

“So she suggested we see a doctor in Sydney, a reproductive immunologist, and he worked with Dr Lynn’s protocol and it was like the magic. We finally had an answer.”

It was discovered that Ms Garcia’s immune system was attacking the embryo and preventing it from growing.

IVF (in vitro fertilisation) or insemination of a female egg under the microscope.

Medication allowed for Ms Garcia’s immune system to be suppressed and another embryo transfer resulted in their beautiful baby Mateo.

“It was a difficult pregnancy,” Ms Garcia said.

“I had morning sickness all the time, and for the last 20 weeks I was on restricted duties, not allowed to exercise, do any housework.

“Everything that we have been through takes a toll. I have been seeing a perinatal psychiatrist and that has really helped.

“And Max is great, he’s a keeper. After everything we have been through to have our family, it has all been worth it.”

Dr Burmeister said Ms Garcia’s remarkable fertility journey has not been an easy one and it showed the challenges so many women and couples go through.

“Sadly, not all fertility journeys end the way patients hope it will, but Laura’s little Mateo is an inspiration to all women and couples with fertility challenges that dreams can come true,’ she said.”

Originally published as Making Mateo was a tough IVF journey, but so worth the wait