Ruth De Haas is encouraging anyone over 35 and trying for a baby to consider fertility screenings.
The Irish woman would have identified issues stopping her getting pregnant far earlier if she had been screened with routine tests.
Ruth is now a mum to two beautiful children, but she laments 'wasting time' when she could have been on the right path sooner.
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With the help of IVF, she and her husband were able to become parents, but it took them longer than they had hoped to get there.
Speaking to RSVP Live, Ruth said: "I got married in 2018 - we had a very short engagement because we wanted to have a baby. Time was ticking on and we had met later in life.
"We were trying for probably about a year and I was over 35, so after six months we should have gone and gotten help. I was just so stubborn, I was like, 'it will happen for us naturally, no problem'. It must have been about a year before we went to a clinic."
Unfortunately, the couple had a bad experience which led to them parking their plans for a time. While they had some basic tests done, there wasn't a routine one done on Ruth's thyroid that would have identified an issue in getting pregnant.
"If they had done that test, I would have been able to confirm there and then that there was no way, with my thyroid levels, that I would have been able to get pregnant," said Ruth.
The couple kept trying until 2020, where they went to a different doctor who checked Ruth's thyroid levels, confirming they would be a major issue in her getting pregnant.
"If we had gotten that in 2018 or 2019, we would have had way more of a chance," she said. "As a result, we wasted two years."
The couple had more tests, one which also revealed there was an issue with Ruth's husband's sperm. With this knowledge, they were able to undergo IVF. After a miscarriage during 2020, the couple conceived and welcomed their first child in 2021. They welcomed their second child earlier this year.
They are overjoyed with their success but Ruth wishes their journey didn't take as long as it did.
"We did just waste so much time," she said. "I'm so cross with myself, because I was so stubborn about it, and we just wasted loads of time. Obviously, we're delighted to have gotten here in the end."
Now, people can easily get checked for any potential issues with at home testing kits from Fertility HQ. It can test your egg counts, your hormonal health and your available options.
"It's so much easier, it just comes to your house," said Ruth. "You do the test and send it off.
"I think the biggest challenge for us was that I didn't want to do the testing because going into a fertility clinic seemed like such a giant step. The thought of going to a big massive clinic was so daunting for us."
You can visit the Fertility HQ's website for more information here.
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