I did IVF. Ask me anything.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 5:42 pm

When someone tells me that saying "doing IVF" is like saying "taking a blood test" , meaning there are many different types, what is she referring to? I thought IVF is in vitro fertilization. Is there really a few diff types of IVF?

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:28 pm

amother wrote:

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the blood test analogy. There are different variables in IVF, but the main procedures stay the same. Basically the women takes all sorts of medications (many of them injectibels) for the 2 weeks after her period in attempt to grow a lot of eggs. When these eggs are mature there is a 'retrieval' in which the eggs are removed (it's a small surgical procedure) and then the eggs are mixed with the dh's sperm, which he produced prior (usually a few hours earlier). Hopefully some of these eggs fertilize and then a few days later they are 'transferred' back into the uterus.

There is also frozen IVF, during which they use the embroys that were frozen from a previous 'fresh' IVF, and that entails much fewer medications and no retrival.

There are also dozens of other procedures that can be done in conjunction with the basic IVF, to combat different issues the couple might have. Much too extensive to detail here.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:29 pm

amother wrote:

Did you find it humiliating?
After how many years of IF did you go for it?
Did you do IUI and injectables etc. first?

The only part I found humiliating was the transfer procedure. Had three so far, hated all three, am scheduled for a fourth soon and am dreading it.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:31 pm

amother wrote:

Did you find it humiliating?
After how many years of IF did you go for it?
Did you do IUI and injectables etc. first?

The only part I found humiliating was the transfer procedure. Had three so far, hated all three, am scheduled for a fourth soon and am dreading it.

Sorry, forgot to answer the other two questions.

I did IVF for the first time after three years of marriage. We had done a year and a half of other types of treatment first, like pills and injectible IUIs until we found out DH had the majority of the IF issues, for which only IVF would work.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:32 pm

amother wrote:

Did you find it humiliating?
After how many years of IF did you go for it?
Did you do IUI and injectables etc. first?

The only part I found humiliating was the transfer procedure. Had three so far, hated all three, am scheduled for a fourth soon and am dreading it.

Was the procedure painful?

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:32 pm

amother wrote:

Do you have nightmares from it?

I did 3 IVFs this year plus one D&C and I have nightmares from it.

Nope, no nightmares at all B"H, not sure what part of the procedure would cause that. Though I never had a D&C, maybe that is more horrific.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:49 pm

I'm going through IF, so this is something that I struggle with daily, but how do you come to terms with knowing that your child won't be conceived the natural way, but instead, will be created in a lab somewhere. Does that bother you?

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:56 pm

amother wrote:

Honestly, I just try not to think about it. At the end of the day, they are the same delicious yummy children. Who really cares where exactly the sperm met the egg. It's mine and dh's genetic material and they are the most delicious children in the world, so who cares? I like to think of the relations we had the morning of retrieval to produce the sperm sample as the moment of conception (and have holy thoughts, etc) and not what occurred later in the lab.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:57 pm

amother wrote:

Did you find it humiliating?
After how many years of IF did you go for it?
Did you do IUI and injectables etc. first?

The only part I found humiliating was the transfer procedure. Had three so far, hated all three, am scheduled for a fourth soon and am dreading it.

Was the procedure painful?

The transfer is not particularly painful, but you have to have a VERY full bladder and then they press super hard on the bladder and you just want to burst. I hate that part.

The retrieval is more painful, but is under general anesthesia so it's not so bad.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 6:58 pm

amother wrote:

We did IVF/TESE.

We have severe MF so it was the only treatment that we could try

Any questions?

-purple amother

Were you successful, do you have children yet? What is the TESE procedure like?

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 7:03 pm

amother wrote:

Do you have nightmares from it?

I did 3 IVFs this year plus one D&C and I have nightmares from it.

Nope, no nightmares at all B"H, not sure what part of the procedure would cause that. Though I never had a D&C, maybe that is more horrific.

I was physically abused as a child by both of my parents, so I was terrified of the anesthesia. I don't trust anyone, even a doctor.

Mama Bear

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 8:22 pm

ah yes, the transfer is the most humiliating procedure of anything... bc usually at any kind of pelvic exam you have a sheet covering you, but at the transfer, they leave you pretty much exposed from the hips down, it's so uch. I had quite a few transfers (six in total) and remember feeling so horribly exposed.

amother

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 8:24 pm

Mama Bear wrote:

Mama Bear, right before each of my retreivals, even though I had a hospital gown on, they put my legs up in stirrups and I could feel the cold air at my private parts, so I felt exposed to everyone walking in and out of that operating room.

Clarissa

Sun, Apr 21 2013, 8:30 pm

I did IVF a bunch of times, and I never found it particularly humiliating. They see crotches all day long, the only thing they're thinking about is getting the embryos in the right place at the right speed.