Just Call Me ‘Mom’
It would be difficult to find a woman more fiercely determined to be a mother than Stacey Cobb. With the help of researchers and clinicians at Magee, Stacey overcame unthinkable odds to earn the title she always dreamed of – “Mom.”
 Stacey was just 25 and recently became engaged to Jason Cobb. It was 2003 and she was moving back to Pittsburgh from Columbus, Ohio, to prepare for her wedding and begin her new life. On moving day, even as her belongings were loaded into a van, Stacy decided to keep an appointment for a routine exam with her gynecologist. She’s thankful she did.
To the right: After enduring cervical cancer, halting their plans to have children of their own, Stacey Cobb is thankful for Magee's research and medical advancements in curing the infertility that ensued.
A few days later, as she was unpacking in Pittsburgh, she got a call that changed everything. The gynecologist in Columbus said her Pap test was abnormal and advised her to go to Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC. A biopsy confirmed Stacey had cervical cancer.
Stacey needed a radical hysterectomy to remove the cancer. Her first thoughts turned to the children she always dreamed of having, children she now feared were not possible. In the months that followed, Stacey and Jason would learn how fortunate they were to be in Pittsburgh and close to Magee, with the country’s most advanced research and treatment programs for women’s cancer, infertility, and newborn medicine.
Before her surgery, Stacey’s Magee oncologist told her of an option, called in vitro fertilization (IVF) with frozen embryo transfer (FET) to preserve fertility and enable her to have her own biological children after cancer treatment. Despair turned to optimism as Stacey learned that the success rate for FET using expedited in vitro fertilization is more than 43% for women her age.
Since the cancer hadn’t spread, Stacey’s ovaries were spared. She didn’t require radiation or chemotherapy after surgery, making her an ideal candidate for IVF. Still determined to be a mother someday, Stacey was back at Magee to begin the IVF process, within weeks of her recovery from surgery, and in the midst of preparations for her wedding. Under the care of fertility specialist Anthony Wakim, MD, Stacey began a series of hormone injections to stimulate her ovaries to produce eggs that were harvested and then fertilized by Jason. Thirteen resulting embryos were frozen at Magee for future transfer to a gestational carrier, commonly known as a surrogate.
Stacey and Jason married that March as planned. When they were ready to start a family, the couple decided to explore adoption as well as transferring their frozen embryos to a gestational carrier. They selected a surrogate for the FET, but two pregnancies using the couple’s frozen embryos failed. They also visited an attorney to begin the process of adopting a baby from Russia, while they continued to try for pregnancy with a different surrogate. At the airport awaiting their flight to Moscow in October 2007 – the first of three overseas trips they would make to complete the adoption – Stacey got a phone call saying that the FET with the second gestational carrier was successful. They were pregnant at last.
The Cobbs returned to Moscow in December to meet their new adopted son, 18-month-old Evan. It was Stacey’s birthday. Later that month, they brought baby Evan home.
This time, the pregnancy continued uneventfully. Although Stacey admits to “feeling some loss” in not being able to carry her own baby, she considers it a small sacrifice to have a child. In May, seven weeks early, little Braden was born at Magee. Weighing less than four pounds, Braden remained in the Magee neonatal intensive care unit, where Stacey, Jason, and Evan spent most days, including last Mother’s Day. This year, Mother’s Day weekend holds special meaning for the Canonsburg family as they celebrate Braden’s first birthday.
The Cobbs are grateful to Magee for so many reasons. Without the innovative research and care that halted Stacey’s cancer, preserved her fertility, and cared for tiny Braden, their dream for a family would never have come true. Some would call her an inspiration for the challenges she’s overcome. Stacey much prefers to be known as “Evan’s and Braden’s mom.”
If you are interested in supporting the Preservation Fertility in Pittsburgh program, please contact Arthur Scully at 412-641-8973 or email him.
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