Ivf - invasive as it sounds?

[MrsChicken89]

After 18 months of trying, I'm considering the reality that we might need ivf. After reading up on it, it sounds very invasive and tbh I'm not sure I want to go down that route.
Can anyone that's had ivf share their stories?

It's not exactly invasive? Yeah the scans are internal ones and obviously egg collection and transfer are internal....I did short protocol mild ivf so I was only on medication for about 11 days compared to 6 weeks for full ivf so I found mine really easy. My clinic also starts scans at 730am which meant that I could go before work without my employer seeing an impact on my work

It's emotionally a roller coaster though -stress about follicle growth and number of follicles and then the 5 days waiting to see how many blastocysts we got was incredibly emotional and stressful

It's invasive, it's scary and no, I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy, but it does work (sometimes, eventually). If you are really determined and you're lucky enough to be one of those for whom it works (and let's face it, even with the best doctors and treatment, it's mostly down to luck) then it's totally worth it. However, nobody can tell you if it will work and if it doesn't in the end, I'm pretty sure that it's beyond heartbreaking.

I didn't know any of this before starting but once I did, I persevered because I just didn't know how to stop (and then it worked). Just go into it with open eyes and brace yourself.

It is an emotional experience.
I also became so tired I fell asleep at my desk once.
I would have told you I could never have injected myself but it turns out I could when I wanted something badly enough.

When I got to my first NHS scan 12 weeks, I automatically started taking my clothes off, the sonographer laughed and said ivf girls were always doing that.

But although it is emotional, invasive and expensive you experience much less of all of these things than you do as a parent. I choose to think of it as practice for what was to come. I have never regretted doing it.

Yes totally invasive, highly medicalised and a complete emotional rollercoaster. But then sometimes pregnancy isn’t much different in certain respect when it comes to the invasive side of things? So go in with the knowledge of all these things and if it works it’s the best thing in the world! I’m very very grateful for it.

It's pretty vaginally invasive if that's what you mean. Lots of vaginal scans, egg collection and embryo transfer done vaginally, etc. It changes your body too - for example I was so bloated I was offered seats on the train. But then pregnancy and childbirth are similar in that respect.

I found the emotional effects much harder to deal with than the physical ones. Constant seesawing between glorious hope and crushing devastation. I've never been more heartbroken than by the failure of our first cycle or more ecstatic than by the success of our second. I really was all over the place. You have to really way birth child to put yourself through it.

It is a bit invasive physically as it often involves internal scans (we had alt days during stimulation phase) plus the surgical egg collection and then embryo transfer. Drugs wise we had stomach injections and different pessaries (vaginal and anal). Emotionally it's tough as you put so much in an it might all be for nowt.
If we could've conceived without it, I certainly wouldn't have missed the process. It's hard and physically and emotionally draining. But I didn't find it that bad that I wouldn't do it again now. And we did have to do it more than once as it didn't work out initially. Maybe it makes a difference that ours was successful eventually. So a bit like labour, you forget after how tough it was once you get the outcome you want. I wish you all the best with it whatever your decision may be

Yes it is, but you do become less sensitive about it. It's the emotional side that's hard.

@pumkinspicetime is right...I got so used all the examinations that I had to stop myself dropping my knickers every time I saw a white coat!

Dd1 was after six years trying, and our second attempt at IVF, a with frozen embryo. And then we were very lucky and we had twins from frozen embryos 2 years later.

I don't know if I was a bit ambivalent about the whole thing but I didn't find it as bad as I expected. The daily injections are easy enough, the egg collection was uncomfortable and subsequently painful but okay. I did stress I was doing some wrong but I obviously didn't because now I have twins at secondary school. If you don't stress and take it as it comes, it is not too bad. Good luck to you. It can and does work sometimes.

I had my nurse appt yesterday to run through my protocol. Stimulation injections from day 2 of cycle, another injection from day 6 to egg collection (around day 10) and 2 trigger shots. Internal scans from day 6 every other day until egg collection. Progesterone suppositories from egg collection until 12 weeks pregnant.
So, not not invasive, but relatively quick and 50% chance of working. I keep telling myself it will be worth it if it works!

It's hard, but the thought of not ever having a child was harder. So I would have tried anything that gave me a chance of success. It was worth it. I was devastated and terrified when my first transfer failed. But my second transfer is now snoring in my ear and has been for the past two years. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

I wouldn’t wish ivf on anyone. I found it to be bloody awful, but I did have issues with blood tests and well, anything medical really so that wasn’t great, and the emotional side of things traumatised me.

I do think I found it so difficult partially because I hadn’t fully realised my fear of medical stuff beforehand and so hadn’t addressed it, and also because I was naive and hadn’t understood the emotional aspect of things, and got so wrapped up in presenting as though it was no big deal to the few who knew that I had nobody to talk to.

I got so bloody lucky on the first round, and my DTs are now 18 months old. I’d gladly go through the ivf process (jabs, bloods and vag scans etc) daily for the rest of my life for them.

Good luck 💐

i found ivf less stressful than TTC naturally. you have some control and you know there is a plan. it's tough if you don't respond well. it's tough if you have low eggs. if they don't become an embryo and the TWO WEEK WAIT is hell!

if money was no issue it would be a procedure like any other but mix finance with desperation and it's VERY tough...

i didn't feel it's invasive physically - oh god psychologically though it's a struggle if it doesn't just work ...

it's great when u do have a positive test!

i wouldn't put it off too long if u need it - good luck