Now that I've told people that I've done IVF, I've realized that most people have no idea what it it involves or what it's like. For those who are curious, this is what it was like for me.
I've done 2 full IVF cycles this year- in July and September. If you scroll back on this blog you can probably find more information (although I have a lot of posts set to private). This is just a basic summary of the different phases of the process.
Ovarian Stimulation
Your body usually only releases one egg per cycle. When you do IVF, you take medications that stimulate your ovaries to release as many eggs as possible at one time. The amount of time you take the medications varies according how your body reacts. It's usually between 1-2 weeks. I had 12 days of stimulation meds for both cycles. It looked like this:
Follistim: 2 shots/day for the whole stim process, stimulated the ovaries
Low-dose HCG: started halfway through the stim process, 1 shot/day, helped stimulate the ovaries
Ganirelix: started halfway through the stim process, 1 shot/day, prevented my body from releasing the eggs too soon
(There are several different protocols/types of medications. This was what my doctor thought would work best for me.)
These shots were all with tiny needles and not too scary or painful. They went in the stomach and I did them myself.
The longer you take them, the more side effects you feel. I felt bloated, very tired, had some cramping, and had no appetite. It wasn't awful; just uncomfortable.
Every few days you go to your clinic and they do an internal ultrasound to check on the follicles (how many/how big they are) and blood work to check your hormone levels.
You can't see eggs on an ultrasound, but you can see follicles. Most follicles that grow to a proper size have a mature egg inside when they do the retrieval- so counting and measuring follicles is how they monitor how your body is responding.
A few hours after each appointment, I got a phone call with medication instructions for the next few days . Sometimes they adjust the meds based on how it's going. This part was nerve-wracking. It might just be the pessimist in me, but I was always afraid they were going to call and cancel my cycle because not enough follicles were growing. Thankfully that never happened!
Eventually, just when you start getting pretty uncomfortable, you get the call with instructions for the trigger shot. That means that the doctor thinks it's the ideal moment to do the retrieval. It's based on very specific parameters- you need to have a certain number of follicles that are between 16-20mm.
When they call, they tell you an exact time to do the trigger shot- which is what cues your body to release all of the eggs its been working on. Your egg retrieval is exactly 36 hours after the trigger shot.
Egg Retrieval
The retrieval is a minor surgery. I was under anesthesia and remember nothing of the process, which is fine with me! The actual procedure only took about 15 minutes. I was probably at the clinic for about an hour total including the prep, sedation, procedure, and waking up time.
In case you're curious about how they actually retrieve the eggs... they poke a needle through the vaginal wall and suction the fluid out of each follicle. The fluid is then given to the lab and they go on a little Easter egg hunt to count how many eggs you have.
For my first cycle in July, I was told to expect between 5-9 eggs (based on how my follicles looked)... and I ended up with 10. For my second cycle in September I was told to expect 3-5 eggs and ended up with 9 (thank-you prayers).
You find out how many eggs were retrieved right when you wake up, but you don't know how many eggs were mature and how many will actually become embryos. Even so, I was extremely happy both times to end up with more eggs than expected!
I've heard of women ending up with 50 eggs and women ending up with 0 eggs. It completely depends on your body, age, medication protocol, and other things.
I was a little sore afterwards (felt cramps and pressure) and was tired from the anesthesia for a few days. It took 4-5 days to feel all the way back to normal. Which is good because 5 days later it was time to do an...
Embryo Transfer
The day after the egg retrieval you get the call. Up to this point, this is the scariest moment of the process. Basically right after your surgery they fertilize all of your mature eggs. The next day, they call to report how many eggs fertilized and are still dividing/looking good 24 hours later.
Throughout the 5 days in between the retrieval and transfer, it is normal that your number of embryos gradually dwindles. I've heard some people refer to this as the Hunger Games- only the strongest survive. Just like happens naturally, not every embryo forms correctly and only the best ones continue to grow.
For cycle #1 (out of 10 eggs), 9 were mature and 7 fertilized and became embryos. For cycle #2 (out of 9 eggs), 7 were mature and 6 fertilized and became embryos. Those were pretty good numbers that we were thrilled with!
After that it was just a waiting game. We had no updates for 3 more days. It's not a guarantee that you end up with any embryos that are high enough quality to transfer, so it's stressful while you wait to find out.
The day after retrieval I did my first progesterone in oil (PIO) shot. These help prepare your body to be ready for and to support the developing embryo. PIO shots are the big needles. They go into the muscle and not just under the skin like the stim shots. They're done in the back/hip/side area. It would be an awkward angle to do myself, so David does them for me. It hasn't been a pleasant experience for either of us. David says he would be a horrible serial killer because he hates stabbing me. Good to know.
These shots hurt. It hurts less at the beginning but you have to continue them for the whole first trimester if you get pregnant.... and by then you're pretty bruised and sore. It's hard to tell what side effects come from PIO because I have no idea what came from these and what came from being pregnant.
3 LONG days later- we got another important call to schedule an embryo transfer. We didn't even find out how many embryos we had at this point, but it was a big relief to know there was at least one that looked ready to be transferred.
5 days after the retrieval, we were back at the clinic for transfer day. This procedure is much simpler. You're awake for it and it's not painful. It's a little awkward that there are like 5 people in the room while you get pregnant, but by this point you're too desperate to care. ;)
They have a big screen so you can actually watch the embryo be transferred. You see a tiny white dot come out of the catheter and land in the uterus, hopefully to stick around for a while. It's a happy and exciting day.
The Waiting Game
All that's left is to see if all you went through was worth it!
My pregnancy blood tests at the clinic were scheduled for 9 days after my transfers. Some people wait until then to find out. I was too impatient. I also thought it was better to find out on my own and it would reduce a little stress. Waiting for the phone call for your blood test results is torture- I wanted to have an idea of what the results would be beforehand.
For cycle #1 I waited until 8 days post transfer and had a positive test at home. For cycle #2 I tested one day sooner and got a positive at 7 days post transfer. I read that home tests are 99% accurate by that point. I've had enough negative pregnancy tests in my life and didn't want to risk getting a false negative.
My blood tests were also positive, and were then repeated a few days later to see if my HCG had continued to increase. It did not for cycle #1 and I had an early miscarriage. It did for cycle #2 and baby is still going strong!
The Future
We also ended up with 4 additional frozen embryos that are waiting for us when we're ready to try for more babies. That does not mean we will have 4 more children. You have about a 50% chance of bringing home a baby with each embryo. We plan on giving each embryo a chance.
The good news is that I won't have to go through the entire IVF process again- just the transfer part!
Hallelujah- I'm so thankful for IVF but also thankful that I shouldn't have to do the whole process ever again to have our family.
❤️😭
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