Our names are Jay and Natasha. We've been married for eighteen years, and for twelve of them we were trying to have a baby. This is the part of our story we talk about least, the testing, and yet it played a real part in our journey. It's also why, today, we're proud to partner with Fertilysis.
We thought it would just happen
When we got married we waited a couple of years (travel, fun, getting to know each other) and then decided we were ready. Like the storybooks promised, we assumed it would simply happen. It didn't. Month after month, nothing. When we finally went to the doctor, the answer was the one so many couples hear: "You're young, just keep trying."
So we did. And over the years that followed we lived through both ends of it: long stretches where we couldn't get pregnant at all, and a heartbreaking period where we couldn't seem to stay pregnant. One year, Natasha fell pregnant four times and miscarried each one. Twelve years is a long time to keep getting back up.
Becoming our own researchers
Jay is a researcher to his core, and this was before AI made it easy, so it meant books, forums, phone calls and grasping at every straw. We worked with nutritionists, consultants and clinics, and every new test came with the same hope: maybe this is the golden ticket. It rarely was.
The hardest lesson was this: you have to become your own advocate. We learned to ask questions without apology, to record appointments, to keep notes, and to refuse to be fobbed off. If an answer didn't sit right, we went and found someone who would actually look.
How we found Fertilysis
We were working with a fertility specialist, and it was she who pointed us toward Fertilysis. Her words stuck with us: the blood tests we could get at home were surface-level, and if we wanted real depth, the best people in Europe were a lab in Greece. You send your samples to them, and they go far deeper than anything we'd done before.
So we did. Jay completed a sperm-health test; Natasha did the female microbiome. And the results were a genuine shock, because we felt fine.
The infections nobody else had spotted
We both had infections. Not the obvious, dramatic kind, but dormant ones, sitting quietly in the background. Jay had done sperm tests in the UK before that were meant to cover infections, and they'd found nothing. Fertilysis found them. We learned that these low-level, dormant infections don't announce themselves, but they can quietly slow everything down.
What mattered just as much as the result was what came next. We had a consultation with one of their doctors who sat with us, answered every question, and drew it out until we understood. We took the results to a local pharmacy, got the right prescription, cleared the infection and re-tested. For the first time in years, we weren't left holding a piece of paper wondering what to do with it. We knew our next step.
We went back to Fertilysis more than once. Before later treatment we'd check again, and more than once infections had returned, so we cleared them before going ahead. Every IVF round is expensive and emotionally enormous; we wanted to walk in having removed every obstacle we could.
The moments we'd waited for
It was never one test, one clinic or one person. It was years of research, treatment, support and simply not giving up. Our first pregnancy came through IVF, just after lockdown lifted. We waited all day for the result call, convinced the late hour meant bad news. It didn't. There were a lot of tears that evening.
Our second took our breath away completely. Our last IVF had failed, our final embryo was gone, and everyone had told us Natasha's age made it impossible. We took a month to regroup, and that was when she realised she was late. The test lit up like a light bulb. Natasha was 44. After twelve years, our family was complete.
Why we tell this part of the story
If we could go back, the one thing we'd change is simple: we'd have done our research sooner, and we wouldn't have let ourselves be fobbed off. Fertility is rarely one problem with one fix. It's usually several small things that only make sense when someone finally looks at the whole picture.
Fertilysis was one of the people who supported us along the way, and we're proud to partner with them today. It's also where our own work comes in: we created Fertility Advance to replace the fifteen capsules a day Natasha was once taking with one considered, high-strength formula to nourish the body on the journey.
If you take one thing from our story, let it be this: ask the questions, keep the notes, and don't accept "just keep trying" as an answer. Be your own advocate. You deserve better than vague.
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Our story is our own. Fertility journeys differ for everyone, and testing or treatment decisions should always be made with a qualified clinician. BioMirco supplements are intended to support, not replace, medical advice.
Jay and Natasha Necati, founders of BioMirco