Shilpa’s Story

By Heidi Westfield

Planning to be a parent, after a double-lung transplant and dialysis

also led to many complications and months in hospital recovering. Fortunately, after that her health took a turn for the better. She spent time working, travelling, and met her future husband.

They initially considered family planning through traditional pregnancy and approached doctors at her lung transplant clinic for advice. Shilpa was referred to a high-risk pregnancy clinic, where she underwent medical testing and a physician assessment. The doctor outlined all the risks, including the possibility that a pregnancy could impact her transplanted lungs.

In talking with her fiancé, he asked her: “If there are other options, why would we put you at risk?” At that point, they decided that the safest choice to eventually have a child was to take the IVF route.

After many delays, Shilpa has decided it is time to step up their search. She and her husband have renewed their efforts to start a family.

“I feel like these hurdles just keep popping up,” she says. “We can’t wait anymore. We’ll move forward and hope that everything falls into place.”

The couple is looking to have a child through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and a gestational carrier. They had a successful IVF treatment several years ago. Now they are looking for someone to carry their embryo through pregnancy and delivery.

“There are so many ways to have a family. We are pursuing this right now because it is an option for us,” says Shilpa. “If for some reason it stops being an option, we’ll look at other alternatives.”

Shilpa was in university when she was diagnosed with lymphoma. She survived with cancer treatments, but the chemotherapy and radiation damaged her lungs. A lung transplant five years later saved her life again, but that

The IVF process was completed in May 2018 – just two weeks after their wedding. They planned to look for a carrier in early 2020, but then the Covid-19 pandemic began. That was followed by another health setback: kidney failure caused by immunosuppression medication for her lung transplant.

Shilpa is now on home hemodialysis and her health is stable; they have started searching for a carrier and are looking ahead once more with optimism. Recently, Shilpa took part in The Kidney Foundation’s virtual forum on family planning and found it very helpful. “The forum was very encouraging,” she says. “It was nice to have exposure to people you can relate to, who are going through similar experiences.”