IVF Treatment and Process

Now to the part of the process that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to. The IVF medication. Before the IVF egg collection, you need to have certain injections in the lead-up to that procedure.

If you’re someone like me who gets a bit uneasy at the thought of needles, I totally get it! But guess what? It’s really not as scary as it seems. I want to share a tip that helped me get through the experience. By the time I had to use the needle, I really couldn’t feel a thing! You’ve got this!

There is a bit of a process with the injections and other steps throughout this IVF treatment process. To make sure you’ve got this all right, you need to attend an orientation.

I had scheduled my IVF medication orientation with the nursing team. I arrived that day with my mum, who came armed with countless questions—just as I expected! When we got there, two lovely nurses greeted us. We entered a small office where we dove into all the details of the IVF treatment.

Here’s the process as it was explained to me: On the first day of your period, call the nursing team. On the second day, go in for a blood test. After the blood test, expect a phone call that same day to find out if you can start the IVF treatment. If everything looks good, you’re ready to go!

Each day, for at least 10 days, you need to inject yourself around the stomach area. These injections need to be done at the same time every day. I did mine each evening during this IVF treatment process.

For the first 5 days, you are using one type of IVF medication (one injection), then for the next 5 days after that, you are using two different types of IVF medications (two injections).

At the end, about 36 hours before the egg collection, you will administer the final injection. This IVF medication is only used once, and it’s called the ‘trigger injection.’

So, the first two IVF medications help your ovaries to produce more eggs than usual. Then the last IVF injection ‘triggers’ ovulation so that the eggs mature and become ready to be collected.

I should also mention that throughout this process, you will be having scans. This is to see how things are progressing and how your body is responding to the medication.

It is a nerve-racking process, all of it. I worried about the injections, then I feared they wouldn’t work and dreaded the thought of having to go through the entire process again. And then there is the cost if it doesn’t work out. This part of the process, with the medication costs, is more than the donor, and the donor was $14,500. So there is a lot of hope and anxiety wrapped up in this process. Also, in the middle of doing all of this, like most people, you are going to work each day. Which has its own stresses.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I really do feel fortunate that I have the opportunity to go through the IVF treatment process. But at the same time, I want to acknowledge that I also felt all of these other emotions. I practised daily gratitude, but I didn’t feel positive all the time.

On a good note, with the scans, the IVF clinic opens at 7am. So if your clinic does this, you can pop in on the way to work. Less disruption. That was something I was worried about. Having to take time off. So that worked nicely with the work schedule.

A tip for the injections! Put an icepack on your stomach 5-10 minutes before the injection. I did that every night throughout the IVF treatment process, and I literally didn’t feel a thing. It was fantastic! I remember I was freaking out at home, getting ready to do the first needle. I felt like I was going to be sick. Then I jabbed it in and just paused for a moment. I thought ‘Wow, I didn’t feel a thing!’. My advice – freeze, freeze, freeze!

Anyhoo, after I went through all of the above steps, i.e. did the injections and had the scans. I was then given the green light to have the final trigger injection. And that was that. Thirsty six hours later, I was off to the hospital to have my eggs collected!

What’s up next? Next, I will discuss the egg collection and embryo transfer (I’ll include a video of my transfer)

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