IVF meds and safety critical job help??

[Scottish80]

Hiya

I have been looking on these boards for a while about the above, can any of you help please??

I have to report to the clinic for my first round of IVF when my period is due to start next week..eek!! However, I started a new job a couple of months back and the job itself is safety critical with complete concentration and any form of prescribed drugs need to be declared.

I don’t want my employer to know about the fertility treatment but if something goes wrong on the job then I automatically have to do a urine test and any drugs found (which I failed to report) leads to automatic dismissal.
Obviously I’ll be starting the jabs to start egg stimulation do they make you drowsy? I love my new job but clueless how to approach this.

Any help would be appreciated thank you for reading!

[CritterTamer]

Hi OP

I would suggest you check with your clinic to be sure but a couple of things to think about:

1. Are you on long or short protocol IVF? Long protocol involves sever l weeks of down regulation which can produce menopausal and other unpleasant symptoms so this might be an issue. Short protocol is different as you stimulate and down reg at the same time so most unpleasant symptoms are avoided (I actually felt great whilst stimming during both of my short protocol cycles).
2. The stims are basically just large doses of naturally occurring hormones so may not need to be declared as a prescribed drug, but definitely check with your clinic.
3. As a health and safety manager I know that the sort of tests carried out at random checks and after incidents are looking for recreational drugs and things like opiate, morphine and codeine based painkillers so it's very unlikely IVF mess would be picked up. Again check with your clinic though as I've not come across this exact scenario and could be wrong.

Good luck with your cycle 😊

[Scottish80]

Thanks @CritterTamer!! Really helpful!

Yeah I’m long protocol and I’ll definitely speak to the doctor when I see them soon..thank you for your reply and good luck to you too! 😊

[CritterTamer]

No problem, I hope you get all your questions answered. My main worry would be the down reg phase of the long protocol to be honest, some women suffer headaches, fatigue, mood swings etc. Do you mind me asking what your job is (because I'm nosey!)?

Thanks for the good luck wishes - cycle 2 was (so far) successful and currently almost 17 weeks pregnant with twins 😊

[Scottish80]

Yeah the side effects do worry me a lot for the job..petrified I make a mistake not taking anything nevermind IVF treatment!! Oh your not being nosy, I didn’t expect a reply on this to be honest so I don’t mind saying I’m a guard on the trains. If it helps anyone else on here then it’s a bonus too!

Oh wow congratulations! How lovely! Love to see the success stories and hope your pregnancy is going as smooth as it can! 🤞🏼

[CritterTamer]

@Scottish80 - thank you so much 😊 do keep me updated if you can with what your clinic say about declaring the IVF meds - I'm really interested (from a professional point of view!)

Good luck with everything 🤞

[ellesbellesxxx]

I was going to say about the down reg stage being tiring too. I was getting hot sweats in the night and and in the day, awake and restless and so emotional!

Good luck with it all... we have twins from our first cycle xxx

[MynameisJune]

I work for the railway too, you need to declare them or you’re putting your job at risk.

I know too many people dismissed because they failed drugs tests on prescription meds they didn’t think they needed to declare.

[eurochick]

Downregging affected me to the extent where I had to stop the cycle. I was at the extreme end of side effects but I think the drugs should be declared.