Dylan Dreyer overcame secondary infertility when she was 37-years-old. 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 just about to start IVF when she learned that she doesn’t need it.
Dreyer announced on the show that she is expecting a second child with her husband Brian Fichera.
Dylan Dreyer pregnancy after miscarriage
Dreyer’s second pregnancy happened soon after she revealed her painful miscarriage. Only two months before, in April 2019, she’d announced that she’d suffered a miscarriage over the winter.
Their son, Calvin, who was two-year-old 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.”
There one baby arrived on January 2, 2020. They named him Oliver George Fichera.
Why couldn’t Dylan Dreyer start IVF?
After unsuccessfully trying to conceive for six months, the couple had already seen a specialist for medical assistance in pregnancy.
Not wanting to give up on her second child, she decided to consult a professional and get IVF treatment. She was found to have low ovarian reserve.
“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 Dylan, just as she was waiting to start her IVF, she received a surprising call from her doctor.
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”
Why is it so important to have the right fertility doctor?
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.”
At Infertility Aide, this is something we regularly stress upon. We’ve had so many patients benefit from just being able to find the right doctor, get the right diagnosis, and tweak the treatment to their requirement.
Use the contact button to request a consultation or get second opinion for IVF.
When Dylan Dreyer overcame 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 Dreyer’s case, she had scarring due to her first delivery being a C-section.
The scar tissue was cleared out surgically and Dreyer believed it “made a huge difference” to her situation.
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.
Encouraging discussion about secondary infertility
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.”
Dreyer 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.”
Dreyer’s third baby
At the birth of their second child, baby Oliver, Dreyer said, “Now, it feels complete. The four of us … everything about it just feels right.” Turns out it wasn’t complete yet.
“We really enjoy having kids. Calvin and Ollie, they’re so much fun. And we’re like, ‘Let’s try for a third.’ And it wasn’t happening so we said, ‘Let’s forget it, let’s move on.’ And then, of course, surprise!”
On September 29, 2021, when Dylan was 40, she and her husband welcomed their third son— Russell James Fichera.
The baby arrived six weeks before his due arrival. “Guess he couldn’t handle being left out of all the fun his brothers have been having!” Dylan wrote.
Why was it important to share her story?
Dreyer conceived all of 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.