My First IVF Experience

It has been a minute since I have been on here, but damn let me tell you something I have definitely not been myself. My first IVF ended up being a great success / a total failure all at the same time. Let me explain…

Injections /Medications before egg retrieval -I took injections in my stomach of  Gonal – F and Menopur. They were totally fine. I was not phased by the injections at all – until about day 9 out of 11. My ovaries were the size of oranges (normally the size of almonds) It hurt to walk. However- them being so big was great because…well…my body was creating SO MANY EGGS.

Egg Retrieval 2/20 – Today was a day I got surgery to take out these damn eggs that were causing so much pain. They gave me some drugs, went under, and before I knew it, i was waking up. Well – this was an amazing success. They got 26 eggs from my poor ovaries. 26! I was actually pretty close to having OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome) which could have been bad – but i was just on the edge of not having it. I was so happy. Also – the doctors were so happy about Joe’s sample too – which they gave us zero information on. I got the call the next day that they got 26 eggs, 22 were mature, and 17 fertilized normally. My doctor said average was 8-10 eggs – so I was thrilled. I was pretty convinced I will never have to do medications / stimulation again.

2/25 – Embryo Transfer – Today was the day where they put day 5 blastocysts in me. I was very nervous and excited. This was the day I could get pregnant! The embryologist came to see me and he was very excited to tell me that I have to perfect 4AA grade blastocysts going inside me today and they had 11 more to freeze. This was another huge success for us. 13 out of 17 made it to perfect blastocyst stage. We are in a sense lucky…if it didn’t take the firs time we had so many other opportunities to make this work. We were happy.

Week before Beta – spotting ( everyone was like omggg implantation bleeding, i knew better) cramps, boobs hurt, headaches, back aches,  everything hurt – I was on 2ML of progesterone OIL which literally mimics pregnancy symptoms. COOL. I also never got off Google, which was DUMB AF but never again will I do that to myself.

3/6 – Beta Test – This day was when i went in for blood work, took off work, and just relaxed at home. My anxiety  was so high, I was puking (naturally i thought I was pregnant) on edge, heart racing….the whole nine. Well, I got the call that it didn’t take. I was disappointed but I am pretty good at accepting what comes my way. She explained that the embryos were perfect, but sometimes with a fresh transfer, our bodies are so overstimulated that it can actually impact implantation. I accepted my fate, realized we had 11 more opportunities, got drunk, and cried for a total of 5 minutes.

So you see why i was hugely successful in having so many perfect embryos and failed in that i didn’t get pregnant….

But – a few days later the anger set in…