Fertility Answers - Helping Build Families

Gift of Hope 2016 – Margo & John

Hopeful parents struggling with severe endometriosis wins chance to build family

Baton Rouge couple wins Gift of Hope IVF Grant 2016, a free round of in vitro fertilization.

Margo & John - Gift of Hope IVF Grant recipients
Margo & John – Gift of Hope IVF Grant recipients

When Margo Kitto was 5 years old, she packed her bags and walked out the door of her parents’ house. Confidently, she told her mom she was moving out and starting a family. Her mom giggled, turned her around in the direction of home and told her, “Be patient, you will get there.”

Margo and John met during their high school years and within a short amount of time it was clear they were meant for each other. Attending LSU together, they deepened their relationship over LSU football games in the fall, bow hunting in the winter, and fishing the Louisiana coast during the spring and summers. As college graduation loomed in their future, Margo kept asking John when they could marry and start a family, but he always said, “Be patient, we will get there.”

During this time and after suffering many years of severe menstrual pain, Margo discovered that she had ovarian cysts and Stage IV endometriosis. Over the next few years in between graduations, friends’ weddings, baby showers, and then her own wedding, she underwent three surgeries and lost her right ovary.

While saddened by her diagnosis and what it meant for their future family, Margo and John realized that while they were ready to start their family, getting pregnant would not be so easy. Seeking the help of Dr. Storment at Fertility Answers, they began with treatment and soon discovered that her tube on her remaining ovary was completely blocked by scar tissue from her endometriosis. IVF would be their only hopes of a pregnancy, but given John’s graduate school loans they decided they could not go further into debt. So, they put their heads together, crunched their budget and cut back on everything they could to save for IVF.

Throughout their 15-year journey together, Margo and John have stayed strong together.

But their struggles with infertility have become increasingly difficult, especially as they watch close friends become pregnant and have children. Margo’s journey hit a low point when, in anticipation of her 10 year high school reunion, she opened a letter to herself she had written 10 years earlier. It read, “In 2015, I want to be: 1) Happily married to John, 2) In a house that we bought together, 3) With our two children.” Although she could not have been happier with the first two, the third broke her heart and affected her to such a point that she didn’t attend her reunion.

The Baton Rouge couple was elated to hear they had been awarded the Gift of Hope IVF Grant 2016. Although Margo and John’s journey has been full of heartbreak, the couple says it has taught them valuable lessons including being more empathetic for others and taught them the value of sticking together as a team. More than anything, though, their struggles have helped them learn a deeper level of patience. They truly believe that if they stick together and remain positive they will one day enjoy the family they so badly desire.