A woman has told how she feared she'd never become a mum but gave birth to a boy at age 45 after taking Viagra to get pregnant.
Carin Rockind, 48, welcomed a "miracle" baby after trying to have a child for five years after tying the knot with her husband, Josh Klur, 52, an artist.
The couple were left devastated after Carin miscarried twice and were close to giving up on their dreams of starting a family.
In a last-ditch attempt, the pair decided to try the costly IVF - with one round costing them $40,000 (£32,000) - but were only left with just one embryo - fertilised with his sperm - to implant.
Carin decided to try using Viagra, which is usually used to treat erection problems, after watching a video on Youtube where a woman claimed to use it to grow her uterus lining.
She claims after getting Viagra and inserting it into her vagina she discovered she was expecting in April 2015.
At her 17-week scan, the doctor told Carin that she had vasa previa, which is a serious condition that can result in stillbirth. She was also informed that she would need to give birth via c-section.
On July 2, 2022, Carin gave birth to her little boy, Shay Rockind-Klur, weighing 7lbs 15oz at the Lankenau Medical Centre, in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, US.
Speaking out about her pregnancy journey, Carin, a women's empowerment coach, from Philadelphia, said: "When I got told I was pregnant after a year-long fertility journey we were overjoyed.
"I really wanted to be pregnant, I believed that my body could do it.
"I found one woman in Australia who stuck Viagra up her vagina and it helped her uterus lining grow.
"I went to my doctor and asked for Viagra but he told me he had never seen it work. I asked again and in three days my lining grew and we were ready to go - my miracle baby is a Viagra product.
"It felt like all of our hard work had paid off.
"A lot of women who have miscarriages spend the entire nine months terrified. We agreed that we would just spend the whole nine months grateful and believing that this is meant to be."
She added: "Shay is super healthy and happy. On July 2 he will be three.
"He is a miracle baby. All of the things had to go right for this baby to be born.
"This kid wanted to be born. When you think about all the things that had to line up and all the things that went wrong, we are super blessed."
After tying the knot in August 2014, Carin and Josh fell pregnant in April 2015. But, at the eight-week check-up, Carin received the devastating news she had miscarried.
After a year of trying to fall pregnant again, the couple visited a fertility doctor in 2017 and were told Carin was "too old" to give birth.
Just two days before her 43rd birthday, Carin found out she was pregnant again but she later miscarried, saying: "At that point, I didn't want to live anymore.
"On Mother's Day 2018, my husband took me out for a meal, and we decided we would try again.
"It was a longing for me, I constantly saw pregnant people wherever I went, and I just had this longing and jealousy - my heart kept hurting."
The pair decided they would try IVF and received 20 eggs from a 26-year-old stranger, whose eggs had previously produced eight babies.
Out of 20 eggs, they only got one embryo after being told they should have received around three to five.
Carin said: "It was a 65 per cent chance that it would work, and I went to see my doctor to see why I was miscarrying.
"I thought if I have one shot, we better make sure it is a good shot and it turns out I have a rare autoimmune disease that is linked to miscarriages."
In 2019, as the couple was preparing for the embryo transfer, it became clear Carin's uterus lining wasn't growing - which provides nourishment and sustenance for an embryo - and she was placed on medication.
Carin claims the medication didn't work and it was only after watching a video where a woman used Viagra to grow her uterus lining, she decided to try it herself.
After asking her sceptical doctor for Viagra, Carin's uterus lining grew within three days and the couple were ready to start the process.
She claims it worked - resulting in her lining growing so they were able to do the transfer in November 2019. Then, Carin found out she was pregnant on November 11, 2019.
She said: "We felt a sense of relief and we just screamed.
"We put all of our work down and went for coffee, it felt like all of our hard work, our money, our everything.
"We didn't let the fear in. We were just going to spend the whole nine months grateful and believing that this is meant to be."
Carin was delighted to welcome baby Shay.
The tot wasn't breathing on his own and was taken to the NICU where doctors found he lost half of his blood during birth - due to the vas previa - and he received a blood transfusion, with Carin adding: "He was in the NICU for six days and now we are like 'thank you God'.
"He is happy and healthy - he was a miracle baby.
"We are super blessed, he is hilarious, he has been speaking full paragraphs since he was two.
"He is very imaginative - he is very funny and can be very mischievous."
Dr Valentine Akande MBBS PhD MRCOG, Medical Director, at the Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine, said: "Viagra is a medication that people use for erectile dysfunction and what it does it is can increase the blood flow.
"A woman with a thin lining of the womb, Viagra potentially can increase the blood flow to the lining of the womb.
"When it does, it has been reported that the lining of the womb thickens and we have used this before.
"There is some evidence that it can increase the lining of the womb, however, the studies have not shown that it results in higher success rates in pregnancy.
"When you have a patient where you try everything and nothing works then we would try Viagra.
"But, we don't use it in fertility treatment, we only use it in very rare circumstances.
"We would only use it for thin lining of the womb, we do not recommend this as a fertility treatment and it is not licensed for use in fertility treatment."
