Welcome to Part one of my egg retrieval! This part of the blog is definitely more of an informative blog. For those of you who are curious about the process and the different steps! So, for those of you that may find this part boring, I’m so sorry! it’s a lot of info, but I promise its interesting to learn and the 2nd part is well worth the read as well!
Disclaimer, please understand that your procedure and cycle may consist of different medication. I am not a doctor, nor am I giving advice on what your cycle should look like, only sharing my experience. Trust your clinic and your doctor and allow them to make the proper decisions
Just like anything else “reproductive,” IVF is driven by the wonderful monthly friend “Flo.” It’s a constant waiting game. Wait for your period, so that you can start…birth control? Yep, you heard it right…birth control. But Carrie, isn’t birth control to prevent pregnancy? Uh, I’m so glad you asked!! like, what?! So when you are getting ready for an egg retrieval, transfer, and any type of fertility med cycle, the first step is always birth control. This allows you to regulate the cycle, time the cycle and reduce the chances of creating cysts that could interfere.
So the Birth control was started! My doctor’s office ordered my medications from the specialty pharmacy, and delivered to my door! My regimen consisted of 3 medications and a trigger shot (HCG). When these boxes came to my house, my anxiety and excitement were literally fighting each other. It was DAUNTING, especially since I am a nurse that has not worked bedside for a long time. It was like my mind went blank and I forgot how to mix meds! The needles looked so big and I blanked on how they were done! As I said previously, my IVF was covered a lot by my insurance, but my copays for the medications came to about $1000 out of pocket…ouch. The follistim, I was actually able to get a coupon for, (found on the Follistim website) for 3 refills so the out of pocket total was about $800.
So what are these medications exactly??
Follistim– This medication is a hormone that stimulates the follicle and creates eggs. (THIS MEDICATION IS TO BE KEPT IN THE FRIDGE!)
Menopur– Also a hormone that stimulates healthy ovaries to produce eggs in combination with other hormones. Fun fact about this medication, its an extract of the urine of post menopausal women…sounds fun right? This medication gets mixed. 1ml of saline, injected into one vial, mixed pulled up, and then inject that mixture into the 2nd vial, mix and pull up. (until the MD increases your dose, but this is the process of mixing)
Ganerelix– Medication that prevents ovulation so that my many eggs won’t naturally flow away
HCG Trigger– The easiest way to describe this medications pushes the eggs to grow and push them right before the removal
My last pill was on the 1st of September, and Sept 5th I went in to start it all! I had my baseline ultrasound, and bloodwork. The first of many. That night, I got word that everything was a green light. My bloodwork looked good and my ovaries looked ready to make eggs! I had been nervous about this moment for so long! Giving myself a shot for the first time, having to mix the medication, and work this wonky pen…I was nervous. I got through it! The anticipation of the first time you stab yourself is a lot. The shots weren’t as bad as I thought, even though the Menopur burned a bit. I spared my husband from this, since I’m a nurse and just did it myself.
For the first 5 days of the medications, I honestly didn’t feel much of anything. The follistim pen was somewhat simple, it was a cartridge, that fit into the little twist dose pen. You put the little needle on, twist it up to the number dose you want, and then push. (NOTE: if you go past your number, do not push it down, you will lose all of your expensive med, you must continue to twist it all the way, then it will allow you to push down.) The menopure, you draw the solution up with the big needle…the 18G, and inject with the 22G. I read a lot that some women made the mistake of injecting with the large needle thinking that was correct…OUCH! don’t make this mistake!
I took the same dose for all of these days then went back for an ultrasound and bloodwork. From there, they determine if I’m responding well to the medications and adjust the medications. From this point, its an ultrasound and bloodwork every 2 days until retrieval…on top of the 2 shots a day! They did increase my follistim the 2nd ultrasound, and the menopur remained the same. By the time my retrieval happened, my poor arms looked like I had been on a drug binge. I was actually really self conscious about it when I would go out.
Around the retrieval week, a lot of women complain about a lot of pain and “fullness,” but I honestly didn’t have any of this! I felt maybe a little full, but I wasn’t uncomfortable at all. During the full couple weeks of stimulation, every ultrasound they would call and tell me about my egg sizes in each ovary. So I knew I was responding well, I guess my tolerance was just pretty high! I had a little bit of mood fluctuation, but nothing that I noticed as a problem. My husband even commented that it wasn’t too terrible until the end when I was ready to be done with the shots, and was starting to get a bit uncomfortable.
During the whole timeframe of the schedule, I really couldn’t plan or go anywhere. It was unknown what day my actual retrieval would be, because it was completely based on my body and how it would respond. But, they felt I was responding great and had enough eggs, so we pulled the trigger after midnight Sunday (monday early am) and got ready for retrieval on Tuesday the 17th!
I had never been under the knife or put under before, so my nerves were pretty shot. It’s really nerve wracking to not know whats going to happen. I had such amazingly high hopes because I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with me and my lady bits. I sorta had the same thoughts as Ron did with his swimmers, in terms of my ovaries…that because I was still somewhat young, and had no known fertility issues, that I would be an egg factory! I was going to wow them with the amount of eggs! Even though I had an idea of the number of “good” mature eggs they were seeing in the ultrasound, I was still thinking there was some way that I would end up with more. I was so hopeful, and felt so good and excited. It was finally here, we were finally going to get the other half to meet Ron’s swimmers in the lab, to come together and make miracles!
to be continued in part 2…the procedure…and results