You may have already read about our journey with unexplained infertility. In a nutshell, Loren and I were trying to get pregnant for three years unsuccessfully. After trying multiple Intrauterine Inseminations (IUIs), we started our first IVF round.
I had no idea what to expect when we began IVF. I couldn’t find anything online that had all the information I was looking for in one place — the good, the bad and the things people don’t tell you. So that’s what this post is meant to do – share a little too much information – so you feel a little more prepared to go on this journey yourself.
Things to keep in mind…
IVF is all about timing. Plan for your life to be run by a very strict calendar. Everything will begin to revolve around IVF. You have to trust the process and be ALL IN, but understand that everything can still go “wrong”. You’re expected to stay on top of every appointment, pill, injection and procedure – yet stay well-rested, hydrated and not AT ALL stressed out.
IVF is expensive. To be transparent: we saved up and paid – out of pocket – in full. I feel grateful every single day that God gave me my business and allowed me and Loren to PLAN for this kind of “unplanned expense” in our life. Every day I’m thankful I didn’t have to choose between a baby and a loan.
IVF requires a lot of medications and needles. As a former nurse, I’m very comfortable in this environment, but even I found myself overwhelmed by the amount of ‘stuff’ that was required.
Phase One: Birth Control
On IVF, when you start your period, you begin birth control. Opposite Day, right!? I had been off of birth control for years because I’m trying to have a baby, not prevent one!
You start taking birth control because you have to shut those ovaries down. They can’t be doing anything on their own. You are about to pump your body full of incredible medications that will help your body produce these eggs. So those ovaries & your body’s natural cycle needs to be predictable.
Be prepared for your body to react to being on birth control again. I had a massive migraine after just a couple of days. I was throwing up, sensitive to sound and I couldn’t open my eyes — it was bad, only lasted one full day, and never came back.
Once you finish your active birth control pills – it’s go-time.
Phase Two: Stimulation “STIMS”
You are now stimulating your ovaries. Essentially, you are taking your normal almond size ovaries and you’re about to grow them to the size of oranges. Yup. You feel it. In a normal month – a woman’s body will produce one egg. You’re about to produce WAY more than that. The number of eggs you will produce varies, but it will be more than one egg. My body produced about 16 follicles (they hold the egg) and I had about 8 eggs.
I started Follistim and Menopur injections first. These are two stimulating medications. These are the injections that you see people pinch an inch around your midsection and stick the short little needle in. I created a system to dull the pinch: ice the injection area, inject, place hand warmers on the injection site. It helped me get through the daily injections.
During STIMS, expect to go to your doctor frequently. For me, this was every other day for an ultrasound and bloodwork. The doctors are checking to be sure your ovaries are responding to the medication and they have time to adjust medications or lower dosages if needed.
By the fourth day of STIMS, I had six follicles in the left ovary and seven in the right.
On the sixth day, I added Ganirelix to my injection protocol. So, now, we have three pokes every morning.
Your ovaries are doing their thing.
You are producing lots of follicles (follies) which hopefully contain eggs. But, they need more time to grow and mature. The Ganirelix makes sure you don’t ovulate too soon – before the egg retrieval. This new drug makes sure your ovaries hold on to those eggs and let them cook a little longer!
You continue your frequent ultrasounds where they will measure your follies each time. When they have grown to a certain size your doctor will then schedule your egg retrieval. You will be told when to inject a new drug — i.e. your trigger shot, mine was Ovidrel. This is usually 36 hours before egg retrieval. It helps your follies to release your egg(s).
My follicles were the size they wanted at about nine days of stimulation and my egg retrieval was scheduled for ten days after I started ovarian stimulation.
You can expect to be sore around the injection area and feel bloated due to the growth of your ovaries.
PRO TIP:
Use a tracker to keep yourself sane with all the appointments and medication timing. Also, grab a box to keep all the medications and supplies to keep everything organized. There’s nothing worse than being stressed, but also having IVF stuff all over the house.
Phase Three: Egg Retrieval
I was sedated for my egg retrieval. Loren was able to go with me which was a giant miracle in itself due to his crazy schedule. You’re not allowed to have any food or drink beginning at midnight the night before surgery. We got to the clinic before anyone in the normal office was there. We waited in the dark waiting room for about ten minutes. And an IVF nurse came down to get us. From there it was all pretty basic and smooth. Change into hospital gown + hairnet + booties. Take vital signs. Start IV + fluids.
Then they took Loren to do his part because we were doing a Fresh Cycle not a Frozen Cycle. As soon as they retrieve my eggs – they fertilize the healthy ones.
They took me back, my favorite doctor was doing my retrieval, so I never felt nervous. Just excited. The procedure itself was quick – probably 15 minutes.
The next thing I remember is being back in that waiting curtain room and waking up feeling loopy in all my hair net glory. Loren was there but I felt like I came out of the anesthesia way quicker than my wisdom teeth (probably because the procedure took a quarter of the time). I had a tiny tiny bit of cramping. No pain.
I was given all these instructions and was told I had to lay very low for the next couple of days. They gave me Tylenol #3 for the “pain” – but I never had any and didn’t have to take it. They ended up retrieving eight eggs and fertilized them all that day. The embryologist would call me with a report the next day.
All in all, for me, egg retrieval wasn’t a big deal. I felt uncomfortable but that was happening because of stimulation and my ovaries being so ginormous. No pain.
The embryologist called me the next day and told me six out of the eight embryos fertilized normally! YAY embabies!
Phase Four: After Egg Retrieval
This is where my body felt the most uncomfortable. After egg retrieval, I laid low for a few days, and then I was back to normal. I wasn’t doing any workouts that involved twisting or anything too intense at all. I have a vivid memory of Loren and I walking out of a movie and just the walking motion was pulling on my pelvis so much it was very uncomfortable. It felt like a mix of having a really full bladder kind of discomfort and a strained muscle. It was odd. And it lasted about a week or so. My doctor did an ultrasound to be sure I didn’t have OHSS – overstimulation and fluid in my pelvis – I did not. My ovaries were just taking a while to go back down.
The day after egg retrieval I started Progesterone injections & Estradiol patches.
The stimulation injections are nothing in comparison to the other injections. Progesterone is an intramuscular injection. That’s the daddy of all injections. And it’s an oil, so it’s thick. Lucky for me, I did these injections myself :(. Loren had to leave town again.
It does take a level of crazy to stab yourself with such a long and giant needle – at an odd angle into your booty – every morning – and push oil into your muscle. I like to think it’s part of what will make me a good momma ;)! It’s not so bad after a little while, trust me. However, if you can have someone else do it – I would definitely go that route.
I didn’t ice my booty before Progesterone because it is an oil and I felt like that may make it even tougher for the oil to get into the muscle. I warmed the syringe of Progesterone by holding it for a little while in my hand – stabbed myself – and then grabbed a hand warmer and kept it on my booty for a bit. When injecting into your muscle every single day you should expect more soreness and some bruising.
Phase Five: Embryo Transfer
About 5 days after my egg retrieval, we did the embryo transfer. It felt very similar to an IUI and is performed similarly to a pap smear. We transferred two of the best embryos and froze the other three. I felt so good about this number. I was concerned I would have 30 embryos to freeze or something – I know, crazy – but three is great!
You can expect to be in a similar position to a regular gynecology appointment and you’re required to have a very full bladder. The embryologist brought my embryos into the room and showed me each of them on a big monitor screen. Then, the doctor put them in a catheter that he then put up into my uterus. With an ultrasound over my tummy, I watched the little white flash on the screen as the embryos went into the correct spot. The embryologist then runs a little test to be sure the embryos didn’t get stuck on the side of the catheter. The white flash we see on the ultrasound is actually just fluid the embryo is much too small to see.
All was good and they wheeled me out. My bladder was super full now but I had to lay flat for 30 minutes. That was probably the most uncomfortable part of the whole procedure! They gave me a picture of our embryos and the petri dish that they grew in :).
People in the fertility world may call you PUPO now (pregnant until proven otherwise).
I wasn’t really into that. But, you do have to make every decision based on the fact that you are pregnant — for the safety of your embryo(s).
Loren was gone now, so I drove myself home and was supposed to be on pretty strict bed rest for a day or so. Well, my puppy decided to start her first heat cycle that same day – of course! So I stuck to bedrest, but there were a few more ups than I would have liked — gotta do what you gotta do!
Two days after my embryo transfer, I had another giant migraine followed by non-stop vomiting. This was bad. Loren was gone. I never really got migraines before these two, but hormones and headache just kind of go together I guess. It was bad. For about 12 hours — bad. The migraine turned to a dull headache for three days – and then it was back to my normal dull headache every so often throughout the day. No more migraines since then. IVF is crazy.
Phase Six: Waiting
It depends on your clinic and your doctor, but after your transfer, you are just kind of on your own until your first blood draw to confirm or deny pregnancy. This is new because you are used to going to your clinic every other day. You can expect to do your daily Progesterone Injections and change your Estradiol (estrogen) patches every other day and take good care of yourself.
You’re in what most refer to as the “two week wait” because that is usually the length of time until they will do a blood test to confirm pregnancy.
You probably feel pregnant because you have been pumping your body full of pregnancy hormones for weeks now, but you just don’t know. You will have cramping, but you’ve just been through many procedures and your ovaries may still be giants. My chest [boobs] was sore right after transfer and never stopped. The fatigue I felt the week of the transfer seemed to never stop.
I visualized,
meditated,
and prayed.
We welcome our little Roux in January 2017. Every injection, appointment, and prayer was worth it.
Do you have any questions about IVF? I would love to hear about your journey in the comments below!
I enjoyed reading your experience and can’t wait to know the outcome ☺️
I will be going through this process in the near future (I wanted to take a break after all those IUI appointments) and I feel more prepared after reading your story so thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Brittany, for sharing your story! My husband and I also have unexplained infertility, we’ve been trying for four years with two miscarriages and seven unsuccessful IUIs. We are scheduled for IVF in September and to be honest, the whole process seems so daunting and I’ve been a nervous wreck! Your step-by-step explanation is more helpful than you’ll ever know. Thank you so much for sharing this, I appreciate your words so very much.
Thank you so much for sharing your story! We just did our transfer yesterday with our two babies!!! Praying for good news all around!
What tracker did you use? Great Blog, thnks!
I just edited this blog & put it in the post!! Sorry about that, I forgot! 🙂
Im praying and sending postive vibes your way i hope all your baby dreams come true this time….please let us know I’m so sorry for your hardships but will bless your delegance…and perseverance….don’t personally know you but wishing the best in prayer
Means the world, Ashley. THANK YOU!! 🙂
Thank you Brittany! I love the amount of detail you have included here…it really gives me peace of mind. Thanks for sharing your story…can’t wait to hear that you are pregnant! Sending love, luck, prayers, and baby dust! ❤️🍀🙏🏻✨
Thank you for sharing all the details. We are doing iui in July and have plans to prepare ourselves incase we need Ivf. Everyone around me is pregnant and some days are so hard. Keeping you I my prayers I love following your journey
Wishing you all the best in your journey & PEACE the whole way through Kelli!
Thanks for sharing! Your blog brought back many memories and feelings about my own IVF experience. Good luck and I hope IVF works for you! We are expecting our little boy in 2 weeks! Dreams do come true!
oh thats awesome!!!!! CONGRATS Allison!!!!! 🙂 We are officially expecting 😉 THANKS GIRL!!
Wow. Thank you for sharing. I was just talking to my coach about my current fertility issues and she shared your name with me to check out your story. I’m glad I did. I’m still terrified (we just had our first appointment for IVF, none of the other procedures was an option for us). I used to be jealous of other people telling me they were pregnant, but now I’m at peace and know that I’m doing what’s best to grow our family. I will be thinking of you and praying that you have all the babies your heart desires.
Same to you Tiffany!!!! Thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing! I had a miscarriage 13 months ago and have been trying for another pregnancy ever since. I just received the results of my HSG and found we have 3 female factors against us — we’re meeting with specialists soon to determine next steps. Do you have any advice on how to prepare your body {+mind} to go through IVF?
hey Steph – I’m so sorry to hear about your miscarriage. Modern medicine is amazing though – and I hope you have a great team of doctors to help you navigate through this. My advice is to invest in your personal growth. If you are a person of faith – cling to the Word & prayer. I’m big on personal growth and I believe my time invested there equipped me to deal with the stresses of infertility & that entire process. I visualized & meditated. I exercised & fueled my body with healthy foods. I rested. It all matters. If you’re new to personal growth – I highly recommend the book 15 INVALUABLE LAWS OF GROWTH by John C Maxwell. Wishing you the best, girl!!
Brittany –
Thank you so much for posting and sharing the details of your journey! I had tears of joy in my eyes while reading it ( I saw your Baby post on instagram yesterday ) My husband and I start our journey in August and I am all kinds of emotions that usually only someone going through this or has gone through this process understands. Thank you for your tips with the injections and how you felt during the procedures. It makes me feel a bit more at ease. So happy that Gob Bless you all with a wonderful bundle of joy from your embabies!!!
oh this is awesome. I’m happy to hear it’s helped you. August is going to be here before you know it!! Wishing you the best Jenny!!!!!
Your blog is so detailed and honest. My husband and I are just about to start the first part on birth control and i felt ill prepared for whats ahead beforw reading this. How long did the whole process take from burth control to retrieval?
Thanks
Wishing you the very best Rachel!! A couple months from start to transfer 🙂 XOXO
Ditto on that comment! Thank you Brittany. My song of choice, “Thy Will be Done” by Hilary Scott 🙂
Hi Brittany–I’m a fellow beachbody coach and follow you…I love how open you are about IVF (as I was too)…hope you are pregnant!!!
Thanks so much Laura! 🙂 We are! 🙂
Brittany! Oh my goodness…. Everything that I feel you wrote so eloquently. I begin my injections on Saturday. Reading your blog has put me at ease… reading so many negative stories about IVF can be discouraging but you are so positive and I love that. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your incredible journey. Congratulations on the baby cub 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this with us ..u made me stronger & gave me the power to try it .
Hello Brittany — My daughter sent me the link to your blog. I have been privy to all 5 of her IUI procedures. My husband, her daddy is a physician and gave her all of her injections (lucky for her cause I’m a needle wimp.) Now my daughter and her hubby are beginning the IVF. Your blog has helped me to better understand what the doctor explained. God bless you and Loren for sharing your journey. I especially appreciate the advice you gave to those of us supporting the woman going through the IVF. My daughter knows that she has our full support.
Again, THANK YOU. All Gods blessings to you, Loren, and your baby(ies) :-).
Sharon
I wish your family the very best!!!!!!
Thank you!! Our doctor told us this morning that IVF is essentially the only way we have a possibility of conceiving, and I’ve been scared ever since. You’ve answered some of my questions and taken the guesswork out of it. I appreciate your candor and your advice. Sometimes the scariest part is just not knowing what it’s going to be like, and you’ve taken a lot of the fear away. Thank you so much!
I am so glad I found this post and blog! We start IVF this month and it’s so scary. No one understands what we’ve been through so it’s nice to find something like this!
Thanks for sharing the best posts they very help us. I am very satisfied with your site and your posts they very good. I got such a good information on this topic it’s very important one
Hi,thankyou for sharing your experience… i wasted for 13 years to have a baby naturally but without luck… now thinking of IVF way…want to give it my all to have a little bundle of joy in my arms too… learned a lot from your blog…te only thinking holding me back are the injections …your video helped though… thankyou once again…best wishes to you and your family ..cheers!!
waited* (typo errror) 😛
Reading this on 3/19/17. My husband and I have just started our first IVF cycle and today is day 3 of stims. Really loved this blog post!
Thanks for sharing the best posts they amazing and very useful to us. You made a good site it’s very interesting one. I am very satisfied with your site and your posts they amazing I got such a good information on this topic it’s very interesting one
Hi. Just a question did you worl through this process pr take time off?
Megan, I work from home – so I continued to work but with a flexible schedule for all the appointments etc.
Thanks so much for sharing your story Brittany! I see you did end up pregnant too which was awesome to read about. I’m going through ivf in a month and I’m in that excited/nervous phase which will probably last until I find out I’m preggers…then start again. Lol
I’ve been going through infertility for almost 5 years and we’ve been through 2 surgeries for it since I have endometriosis and those are covered. It’s definitely time for the next step. I found your blog to be very inspiring and the positive outlook really helped me. I have to pay out of pocket for my ivf too but family is helping and my husbands side business will as well. It seems that God is helping us to financially make it doable. I’m a little concerned about the pain but your blog helped so much with that and understanding what comes next. Thank you so much!
Your story is so inspiring I’ve been following it for a little while. We have tried for two years on our own and two IUI’s and unfortunately did not have success. So we have decided to persue IVF. Reading your story somehow makes it a little less scary. I do have one question….. how did you deal with comments like….”just relax it’ll happen and oh when you stop trying it’ll happen” I try so hard to be easy going but sometimes these really get to me.
Thank you a million times over for writing this! It popped up today on my feed and I’m so glad it did!!! We were told the only thing that would work for us is IVF so we said OKAY! I knew the price of it but I didn’t realize how fast it adds up! We are doing the trigger shot on Sunday and Tuesday is our retrievel day! I am sooo nervous but so many people go through it. The doctor kept saying that when you get pregnant we are going to party and then 2 days later he said that my “nest” looks the best out of everyone else this round but that actually makes me WAYYY more nervous! I was cool, calm, and collected and if it didn’t work the first time like we would do it again! But now he has my hopes SO high. I wish he had never said anything!
I hope IVF worked for you!
Well, very clear explanation about this topic, You did a good job and giving us such a useful information that you have shared with us. Thanks for sharing the best and useful information. I am very satisfied with your site and also with your information.
Fantastic article and useful information that your shared with us. Thank you for giving us the best suggestions and tips they very nice and very useful to us. You made a good site it very help us.
You made a good site and giving us such a great and useful information physiotherapy and mastitis, it very help us.I am very impressed with your site and also with your informative articles.
Please don’t stop writing! Good or bad I love learning from you. You are a very strong women and I’m so happy to have stumbled on your blog! You are positive and a good person! We need more like you in this world. You can do this!
Thank you for posting I did the journey 8 years ago we have one beautiful daughter who is 7! 3 years of trying 3 IUIs and 4 IVF’s. I hope you had a miracle of an outcome!
Now I deal with people asking why we only have one child! Ugh people!!
Great blog worth reading each and piece of it.I really appreciate your efforts of sharing and creating awareness about IVF.I loved those pictures of on the blog. My daughter was going through the same condition a few years ago, but now with the help of IVF treatment, she has been blessed with a baby boy a year ago. I am glad that people like you are there who share their stories and becomes the inspiration for others.Thank you so much for sharing your journey and inspiring many others.
we have read your article and very impressed with your information so Thanks you all for your support. You made a good site it very help us. I am satisfied with your site.
nice information about ivf cycle
Great Post…..
I found your site on google and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
Thanks for sharing…
Thanks for explaining that it’s important to choose a positive and supportive doctor because IVF can be scary. My sister is interested in getting IVF because she’s had trouble conceiving by natural means. I’m glad I read your article because now I can help her find the right doctor for the job!
Hey,
I noticed your article and read it. I just loved the way you wrote.
Thanks for sharing this post.
Hi,
Very much informative blog post. Thank you for sharing the information. And we are also offering the similar services. IVF advanced is one of the most excellent centers in Asia Pacific, with Techniques, genuine Treatment, and Research & Training. The IVF advanced is the leading Test Tube Centre in the country with modern world-class scientific technologies.
Hi Brittany! Thank you so much for sharing your experience my husband and I start IVF this month and this article was real and raw and so helpful.
I have a question about the acupuncture is there a time during the process that you find it most valuable or beneficial to receive acupuncture prior to egg retrieval or prior to transfer ?
Thank you!
so, it’s all “ALTERNATIVE” and for me personally I continued with acupuncture up UNTIL the embryo transfer. I stopped going NOT because I was worried about interference but at that point I was looking to minimize appointments on my schedule & make room for more downtime! I think if you read as much as you can and talk to people you trust you will find what works best for you! XOXO Thinking of you and praying for the BEST outcome for you!!
I’m not that much of an internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road.
nice blog loved the content you have on your page
Thank you soo much for providing the information, It will help me a lot.