IVF Stories: How do you feel during a cycle?

Published by Bethany on January 15, 2019January 15, 2019

Through going public about fertility treatments, I was able to reconnect with people I haven’t spoken to or seen for many years. Also, a lot of questions!

IVF Stories: How do you feel during a cycle?

Here’s what the egg retrieval process looked like during a cycle:

They pump you up full of hormones to hopefully make your body mature a bunch of eggs instead of just one egg. I injected multiple substances into my body day and night. Also, I had to go in for near daily appointments so they can see how things were progressing.

The ‘ideal timeline’ (which I’m finding out more and more means nothing), entails undergoing the stimulation phase for a week or so more, then egg retrieval a few days after that (which is exactly what it sounds like). Then, as soon as five days after, getting implanted with an embryo. Pretty crazy, huh?

Here are some of the most common questions I received about the process:

What does working out on hormones feel like?

It feels totally fine at a moderate level. I feel short of breath, like my heart is going to beat out of my chest  if I tried to do a max effort. I.e. “bad pain.”  I did do one 5k before I was on as many drugs. I ran at about a 5 minute pace going downhill and about a 10 minute pace on flats. Essentially walked on the uphills. I wish I had the file as somehow my watch deleted it! Essentially I felt horribly on the uphills and flats and my HR wouldn’t go above about 10 beats below LTHR. But strength work still felt fine.

When did the process start?

In 2016 I was in my primary care doctors office getting some standard blood tests to check things like AMH level. Initially it was found that I have endometriosis and so I had surgery for that in January.  Then they said to come back in three to six months if I didn’t end up pregnant. To me, post Chattanooga 70.3 was a sort of stopping point at which we would go back and get things rolling. The months ticked by and there was a reason not to go back every month. Finally I realized my 36th birthday is quickly approaching and easily another five or ten years could pass by if we didn’t get things moving.

How did you feel emotionally?

I always assumed I wouldn’t be able to have children anyways. And I also never played with dolls as a kid. I remember for like one second I really wanted an American Girl doll because all my friends have them and my mom reasoned with me that it was unlikely I would just start loving playing with dolls. All those things to say I never had the expectation to have children and my parents never put that expectation on me. But they are excited for me now! Ask me this in a few years assuming things don’t work and see if I feel the same way. But right now at least I feel like I would love to adopt if that’s the way things progress.

Did they tell you to restrict activity?

They basically told me to do what feels comfortable. I have a suspicion that there is a psychological angle to this. If you tell someone they can’t do xyz then they will obsess over doing that. If you tell them to do whatever feels right they usually make the right decision themselves. I can tell you that already it does not feel that great to do certain kinds of exercise.

What are the needles like?

As it turns out, the needles are basically a non- issue. Once we get to the intra muscular ones, I’m sure they will be less fun. But for now I’m trying to see how efficient I can get with managing about four injections a day. As in, how quickly can do I them (while still putting safety first, of course).

Did you gain weight?

No, I haven’t gained a single pound. I have read all sorts of horror stories about gaining weight during IVF but so far so good. I did go primal – esque a few weeks before I started this so I think that helps a lot. I say esque because I didn’t put anything off – limits but haven’t been eating any simple carbs really outside of during or immediately after exercise.

Once you do that for a few weeks carrots taste sweet and you crave things like steak and avocado instead of Chick fil a milkshakes. ( I’m really really trying not to evangelize too much about primal but you should check it out). Anyways, it would be hard to gain weight on a diet like that even with weird hormone balance happening. Plus studies show that a low carb higher protein diet is correlated with IVF success rates.

Note: I did ultimately gain weight to see if it helped improve my results during subsequent egg retrievals.

Next up: Read about the results of my first egg retrievals.

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