Megan Hulen did not ovulate on her own. Because of her polycystic ovary syndrome, she needed fertility treatments to have each of her first two children, and the second, Matthew, was born with Nager syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects his face, hands, and arms. He spent four months in the neonatal intensive care unit and today lives with a tracheostomy and feeding tube.
When Megan and her husband Josh decided to try one more time, in search of a girl, doctors canceled the ovarian stimulation cycle. There were too many follicles growing in her ovaries. They asked her to wait. But Megan’s body, at some point between that appointment and the next, ovulated on its own. At six weeks, the ultrasound showed five embryos.
“I had my moment of panic and cried for an hour in the corner of her office”, she recounted. From having experienced the NICU with Matthew, I knew that at that gestational age, babies are frequently lost. One week later, five heartbeats were detected. On September 2, in Fargo, Allison, Adam, Madison, Emma, and Chloe were born, all weighing more than 3 pounds, without Megan suffering any of the complications that often accompany high-risk multiple pregnancies.
