Military families get fertility help

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A local fertility center is helping military families with infertility issues.

Ten percent of American men and women have fertility issues that can prevent having a child. A soldier facing deployment can complicate the timing of treatments.

But the Texas Fertility Center in Austin won't take "no" for an answer and they especially focus on military families, waiving fees and using the latest medical techniques to produce healthy babies.

Twenty-month-old Axel is the pride and joy of James and Brandy Bryan. He came along after years of trying, and five miscarriages.

"I don't know how many surgeries I had in one year," Brandy Bryan said. "There's no words to describe how you feel, you're emotionally distraught."

They tried the Texas Fertility Center. The military provides aid for families looking to adopt, but not for fertility services. The Texas Fertility Center gives the military VIP treatment. Why?

"Respect," Dr. Kaylen Silverberg said. "They are brave enough to take care of business so those of us not quite so brave can stay home and work and take care of patients."

The center can freeze sperm and eggs. Eggs can be tricky, but the center uses a new flash freeze technique that increases the odds.

"We're the most successful program in Texas at not only freezing eggs but thawing them and having babies from eggs we've frozen," Silverberg said.

Silverberg waived his fees for the Bryans.

In Brandy's fifth miscarriage, Axel's embryo survived but the twin embryo did not. But it was enough to create an in vitro pregnancy.

"When we started going to appointments we'd see the same people going for fertility treatments," James Bryan recalled. "It was really neat to see they were pregnant too six or seven months down the road. Their whole demeanor changed."

So is parenting all they hoped?

Brandy replies with a smile, "More so. Even the nights he would cry we'd smile at each other knowing it was a sound we were afraid we'd never hear."

James is a sergeant first class who is headed out next year on his third deployment, but for now he is spending every possible moment with Axel.

He says, "He is our miracle, a real miracle."