How was your IVF experience ?

Question

So my new RE mentioned IVF during our consultation but we will not know what our game plan is until we find out what the results are from my RPL panel as I’ve had 7 early recurrent miscarriages. But just in case IVF is the route, how was your experience? From the egg retrieval moving forward....

Answer

We went through IVF back in 2018. It’s difficult to remember all the details, but I’ll do my best. Egg retrieval went well. I think I may have been a little crampy after but I barely remember. I believe they retrieved 14 follicles, of those 6 were able to be fertilized, and 3 made it to day 5. I can’t remember the specific grading, but one was excellent and the other were slightly lower quality. We did a fresh transfer on day 5. Transfer is easy peasy. They even gave me a chocolate bar after. 😋
Through all the medications, my husband was there. It was important to me that he helped with the injections. I wanted to feel like we were going through it as a team. He was a rockstar and his support really made me feel like the experience brought us so much closer. It was a great feeling after years of struggling with infertility and feeling lost. 
A few days after the transfer, I felt extremely bloated and just had a really heavy feeling in my ovaries. This is a result of all the hormones to boost your ovaries for egg retrieval. I’d guess that this was about a week after my retrieval. I went in to my fertility clinic because they wanted to do an ultrasound to check for OHSS. I had a mild case and they decided to do a blood test while I was there to see if the pregnancy ‘stuck’. I got a call the next day saying that I was indeed pregnant. 
Since I had the OHSS, I was told to be careful drinking too much water, and to avoid physical activity....sex, exercise, heavy lifting, etc. I followed their instructions, until 9 weeks when I made a huge mistake. My husband was installing a fence in our yard, and I had really been feeling great. I didn’t feel bloated, that heavy feeling I had was gone, I was sure the OHSS must have resolved itself by then. I helped my husband do some digging and carry fence panels and felt great doing it and even that night still felt great. The next day, I was resting in bed, rolled to get out of bed and suddenly had this horrible sharp pinching pain in my side. It made me bend at the waste and drop to the bed. I yelled for my husband to call the clinic because I immediately knew something wasn’t right. I wasn’t bleeding, and I had miscarried before, but this was a different kind of pain. They told me to come in ASAP. They struggled to do an ultrasound while I wriggled in pain on the table but were able to see that the baby was ok and the heart was still beating strong. They called an ambulance and had me admitted to labor and delivery. I was in pain for about 8 hours, struggled through a second vaginal ultrasound, and was screaming and moaning through the pain. They couldn’t figure out if it was my appendix or my ovaries. They finally decided to put me under and do exploratory surgery. 45 min later, I came out of surgery and learned my ovary had twisted not once, but twice. I immediately felt so much better and was able to go home that night. A week later we had another ultrasound to ensure the pregnancy wasn’t affected by the surgery. I broke down in tears when I saw that heartbeat was still there. It felt like an absolute miracle. 
The moral of the story is...listen to your Drs!  Even if you feel great, if they haven’t lifted your restrictions yet, do not take any chances! Prior to starting IVF, I was so intimidated. It felt like this HUGE decision abd I wondered if I was tough enough to endure every phase of the process. In reality, it’s not that difficult. You figure things out step by step, you have a huge medical team supporting you and helping you through every question, concern, hurdle. And everything is so closely monitored that you’re not experiencing any more if those horrible two week waits or at home tests where you’re trying to force yourself to see something that’s not there. Looking back, IVF was just a small step in getting us to where we are now. If we needed to do it again, we both agree we would do it in a heartbeat. No questions asked.
Good luck on your journey!  I hope this didn’t scare you in any way!  Just wanted to be up front abd honest about my entire experience!

Answer

I was lucky because our first IVF worked, but that’s not always the case. It’s very expensive because the medication and tests add up quickly, plus the cost of the egg retrieval and transfer themselves, so it definitely helps if you have fertility insurance coverage. I had my egg retrieval in March 2020 and finally transferred in August 2020 after COVID delays, extra tests, and an extra long protocol to deal with my endometriosis. 
If you have reoccurring miscarriages you might want to look into a complete autoimmune panel before starting. Your RE can order these for you. There are medications they can put you on to deal with certain autoimmune issues to prevent miscarriage again, so IVF might be a great option for you. You can also test your embryos to look for genetic and chromosomal abnormalities before your transfer. 
If you’re interested in more IVF experiences I highly suggest joining one of the monthly IVF groups on this app because the girls are so supportive and helpful. Right now we’re all in the January/February 2021 IVF group! Best of luck ❤️

Answer

Overall IVF was emotional and stressful at times... but I wouldn’t change it! I am pregnant with our first baby (it was our first embryo transfer). 
Our egg retrieval was a little different because we used an egg donor (an antonymous donor). So there were no meds for me, my husband gave his sperm sample in the day of the donors retrieval, and we got updates from the clinic during the cycle when the donor would have appointments and updates on the eggs/embryos as they grew :) we did genetic testing of our embryos so we froze the embryos after creating and waited a few weeks for the results. 
As far as the frozen embryo transfer cycle, all went well and was pretty uneventful for us. We ordered all the meds and started them as directed at the beginning of a cycle for me. I was on estradiol patches, progesterone injections, and progesterone suppositories. Honestly, I found the suppositories to be the worst/most annoying, and the patches second most annoying lol. Shots were scary at first but they really weren’t that bad, plus my husband inherited me and did all the work. Towards the end of all the medications I was starting to get red and itchy at injection sites, my skin was sore from the patches, and of course I was sick of wearing panty liners everyday with the suppositories. Appointments to check progress were always nerve racking, and we did have a few small bumps along the way but nothing major. 
Going into our transfer day I was so nervous and didn’t know what to expect, but it was such a special and wonderful experience! Plus, the clinic gave me some meds to help me relax lol. I just remember feeling so happy and emotional and just smiling at my husband! 
I definitely took home pregnancy tests before my blood test because for me that caused less stress to know or have an idea before the official test... but for some it can do the opposite and it may be better to wait until the clinic dies the blood test. 
Good luck to you!

Answer

IVF was overwhelming in theory, but when the time came, I just did it. We were lucky bc it worked on the first try, but I have friends who had to do several cycles. 
Just keep in mind that it's a means to an end and you'll do just fine. 
The egg retrieval was the easiest part. Even though I was slow to respond to the meds and had to stim for 14days, it was the best decision we ever made.

Answer

Mine was mostly only a mess because my clinic has communication issues... which seems common. I do not have RPL, so I can’t comment on that. The shots were super easy aside from the PIO for the transfer. I am slightly PCO, and wound up with pretty nasty OHSS symptoms after my retrieval. However, they collected a huge number of eggs from me because of it. My suggestion would be to select the best possible clinic in your area, with the best possibly lab, as opposed to the most affordable. Going through the process multiple times is not something I’d wish on anyone. I luckily only had to do a single retrieval and transfer. I would recommend PGT, especially as someone in your situation to ensure it’s not your embryos. As the other poster said, get your panels run. There are plenty of things they can do to keep your immune system suppressed, if necessary. The medical infertility groups on here are super helpful. Good luck on your journey :)

How was your IVF experience ?

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