Wheelchair-bound man and his able-bodied wife candidly open up about their brutal year-long IVF struggles - revealing their agony at discovering repeated attempts to fertilize eggs have FAILED

• Interabled couple Shane and Hannah Burcaw kicked off IVF process in late 2022
• Shane, 32, has spinal muscular atrophy, which impairs normal male reproduction
• After over a year of IVF, the pair revealed their final attempt was unsuccessful

Influencers and interabled couple Shane and Hannah Burcaw updated fans that their latest attempt at IVF had failed.

The disability advocates, who’ve been married since 2020 and together since 2016, announced they were planning to undergo IVF in late 2022. Since then, they’ve been documenting their journey with the procedure for their nearly two million followers on their joint Squirmy And Grubs YouTube channel.

Shane, 32, has spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative neuromuscular condition that usually interferes with normal male reproductive function.

From the get-go, Shane has been upfront that his low sperm count, exacerbated by a medication he takes for SMA, has been a major hurdle in the couple’s reproduction efforts.

Shane, 32, and Hannah Burcaw, 28, are content creators who share what it’s like to be in an interabled relationship with their nearly two million followers on YouTube

In late 2022, the couple revealed that they planned to undergo IVF in hopes of conceiving a child – after two to three years of trying the ‘natural way’

‘We kind of knew that, it was in the back of our minds, so we got his sperm tested about a year ago and found out it was abysmal,’ Hannah, 28, explained in a video from April 2023.

‘Excuse me, my sperm is not abysmal… my sperm is non-existent,’ Shane quipped.

The issue has plagued the pair even before IVF when they spent roughly two to three years trying to conceive in the ‘natural way,’ as Shane explained in a Q&A about their IVF endeavors posted in March 2023.

Since early 2023, Shane and Hannah had been dealing with the cumbersome and often invasive procedures that IVF requires – from Hannah injecting herself with hormones and undergoing egg collection, to Shane trying to raise his sperm count through various lifestyle changes.

Making matters even more stressful, last year the pair also made the move from Hannah’s native Minnesota to Los Angeles.

Their latest – and in all likelihood ‘final’ – attempt at conceiving through IVF unfortunately ended in disappointment.

‘In early October, Shane’s numbers were high enough that we scheduled an egg warm, which is where they defrost some of my eggs and try to fertilize them with Shane’s sperm,’ Hannah explained.

‘And just for the emotional side of it, we were feeling pretty good at that moment. Like the changes that we made had improved my numbers. Which we didn’t know if that would even work,’ Shane chimed in.

The pair, who run the Squirmy And Grubs YouTube channel, tied the knot back in 2020 after dating since 2016

In his typical lighthearted way, Shane described his sperm as ‘fishy swimmers.’

‘Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I was drowning in fishy swimmers. I had like 10 now, like barely enough, but it seemed like it was worth it, so we were happy,’ he added.

After they gave the go-ahead for their clinic to try and fertilize Hannah’s eggs, they had to wait a day to hear whether the attempt had been successful.

‘The next day, we get a call that none of the eggs successfully fertilized. We got seven sperm that were like good,’ Hannah narrated.

‘But we’re going to hold on to three or four of them, because we might have just missed the fertilization window. Basically, they have to look at it at a very specific moment to see the nucleus and then it disappears. They might have just missed it,’ she continued.

‘So then they called us two days later that, actually two of them were dividing. And they had the correct number of cells. And we were completely shocked. Like we had given up all hope,’ Hannah admitted.

Sadly, none of the embryos took. ‘Two days later, we get a call. Unfortunately, they both fizzled out,’ she said.

But the two maintained a typically glass-half-full outlook on disappointment,

‘Together, we have made cells. Isn’t that cool?’ Hannah quipped, touching Shane’s arm.

‘In a way, we’re already parents!’ he joked back.

Shane has ‘normal sexual function,’ as he emphasized in a fan Q&A about the dynamics of the pair’s intimate relations

The two maintained a positive attitude after enduring a ‘rough emotional period’ that followed their IVF disappointments

Not long after, using the final 15 of Hannah’s eggs, the clinic made one final attempt to try to bring a viable embryo to fruition – and nine took.

‘Nine normal fertilizations felt like pretty good odds!’ Shane said.

Alas, a week later, the clinic messaged the couple that ‘none of them’ had made it.

‘Even making this video is extremely difficult,’ Shane admitted. ‘We don’t want you to think that our joking attitude is us being careless about this. We’ve gone through the rough emotional period, and we’re out on the other side of it now,’

Hannah emphasized: ‘For now, we are done with IVF. The idea of going that through that again right now, is nope, not doing that.’

Shane added: ‘We’re having fun out here in LA. We’re just not going to be doing IVF at the moment. That’s where we’re at, you know. If it comes up again in the future, so be it. If it doesn’t, so be it.’

The physical aspects and intimacy dynamics of Shane and Hannah’s relationship has long been a source of fascination for their followers.

Back in August 2023, Shane explained in a fan Q&A that, while he has very limited mobility in his limbs, he enjoys ‘normal sexual function.’

‘I don’t think I ever assumed it wouldn’t work,’ Hannah added.

‘I just didn’t because I knew you had multiple previous relationships. I knew that you had written about this.’

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