I was so excited taking the stimming medication each day (Gonal-F) because I felt like now my body was actually going to be working towards making me a baby.
I didn’t have any problems or side effects with the medication, and after a few days went in for an internal scan to check on the size and amount of follicles. I was told I was progressing faster than average, which was a good sign and that they didn’t think it would take very much longer for me to be ready for my egg collection.
After a couple more scans, I was still doing well and they decided I would be ready for my egg collection on day nine after starting with the Gonal-F (the average I am told is around day 12). I would need to wake up at exactly 2:30 in the morning, 36 hours before the egg collection to take what is called a trigger shot (a boost of HCG hormone to help the eggs mature and encourage your body to ovulate). When you think about it, it really is so clever how effectively your body’s natural processes can be so precisely controlled in order to make IVF possible.
Early on the morning of egg collection, we travelled to the clinic. My husband needed to provide his sample and of course I needed to get ready for collection. I will be honest and admit I was terrified at this point, having never had any sort of treatment or sedation before. The doctors and anaesthetist took their time explaining everything to me and I was wheeled away and given anaesthetic directly into my vein.
Before I realised it I was back with my husband, and in no pain at all, I just felt a bit groggy. I remember asking the doctor how many eggs they had collected as soon as I was with it enough to talk and was told 11. My husband and I were thrilled!
I vomited a couple of times after the anaesthetic wore off, but had been warned that it could happen so I wasn’t worried. I felt groggy for the rest of that day but was still on a high about having had 11 eggs collected, which is a great number!
The next part, although only a 24 hour one, is perhaps the most difficult wait of all, because I would need to wait until the next day for a phone call to find out how many of my 11 eggs successfully fertilised into embryos.
Because I had to wait for the news on my embryos, so can you! Next time I’ll begin with the moment that phone call arrived and the next step in my journey and perhaps the most exciting: embryo transfer.
