Emily and Zach Harmon struggled with infertility for 6 ½ long and painful years.
The Harmons married in 2012 and tried to conceive for two years but could not get pregnant.
Emily’s pastor’s wife suggested she make an appointment with Dr. Rohde. “I had heard people talk about this Dr. Rohde and that he was really good with hormones,” said Emily. She made an appointment at Renew and kept an appointment she already had with a fertility specialist.
At Emily’s appointment with the fertility specialist doctor, he told her he wanted her to do Artificial Insemination and In Vitro Fertilization. Emily said, “‘I’m not ovulating, do you know why?’ His exact words to me were ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m going to give you a drug to make you ovulate.”
Three days later Emily and Zach walked into their appointment with Dr. Rohde. “It was a whole different scenario we walked into. Dr. Rohde said ‘ok, let’s figure out what’s wrong.’ And I said that’s what I want to do. I don’t want a band-aid; I want to get fixed.”
Dr. Rohde started by running tests for thyroid, gut, and hormones, but Emily’s body was not responding to balancing her hormones. “He was frustrated. My hormones were off in ways that didn’t make sense.”
In November 2016, Emily was having severe issues with her knee. Emily’s friend recognized that it could be Lyme disease and suggested she be tested. Emily tested positive for Lyme, but her primary doctor said she could not treat her.
In 2017, Emily went back to Dr. Rohde and told him about her diagnosis.
“Originally, I wasn’t going to see him for Lyme because I thought of him as a hormone doctor. I didn’t realize how broad and how much experience he had in so many things, so I was relieved because I knew the antibiotic route for the rest of my life was not a happy picture, but I also knew I was in bad shape.”
Dr. Rohde treated Emily’s Lyme with a detox protocol including UVBI IV Therapy. “It was life-changing for me. Once we started killing that bacteria my hormones started to balance. I started having a cycle every month.”
Emily detoxed for 10 months, but there was still no baby.
Dr. Rohde said “Your body is not dumb. It knows it’s not in a good place to have a baby. Let’s do some more detoxing.”
Three months later Emily was pregnant with her daughter Elizabeth.
“The girl I am now and the girl I was when I first went to Dr. Rohde’s office are two different people. I could hardly function,” said Emily.
“When you get to the root cause versus a band-aid it takes longer because you’re fixing and healing and that takes time. It’s not an overnight fix. I could have been put on Clomid and ovulated the next month, whereas Dr. Rohde actually got my hormones balanced and my body has been working for all these years now.”
Emily says her Lyme disease is manageable now and when she feels a flare-up coming, she gets a UVBI IV for maintenance.
“There’s nothing that brought me to tears faster or has caused me more pain than infertility, it was hands down the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through,” said Emily. “If I didn’t find Dr. Rohde, I don’t think I would have two biological children.”
Zach and Emily have been blessed with two biological children and two adopted children.
“Looking back I see a Sovereign God who has had a much bigger plan than mine. I see a God that was good and faithful through six years of infertility. I see that He had purposes in our infertility. He taught me surrender. He taught me joy is found in Him, not my circumstances. He taught me to trust. He taught me to wait upon Him. He used infertility to open our hearts to adoption and graciously placed two precious children in our home who were in desperate need of a forever family. And I absolutely cannot imagine life without either of them!”
You can read more about Emily and Zach's story at Emily's blog: