IVF/ICSI - time factors

[Autumnpicnic]

After another BFN, I’m slowly moving towards accepting I’ll need assisted fertility treatment (and I know there are no guarantees.)

What I do need to know is about the timings. The nearest clinic to us is about forty minutes away. My work isn’t flexible at all - I do have two weeks off at Christmas but other than that I have to be there.

Did you need to take any time off / wait for a holiday or can it be done around that?

Unfortunately there are a lot of appointments involved with ivf/icsi you have many scans to check the womb lining to check follicles egg retrieval embryo transfer we were lucky in that my husband was allowed to make the time up at work but he had to have a few days off our clinic was 40 min away too xx

For us we started on a Monday. Appt needed that day lasting about a half hour. Then on the Friday, following Mon, weds and Fri were all appts lasting about 15 mins. Then the Retrival you need a full day off (depending on how well you cope the next day poss too). And then the transfer 6 days after that. And thats if you can transfer immediately.

You may be able to do it over Christmas but you usually have to start on a certain day of your cycle and takes 2.5-3 weeks in total so may be hard to arrange. In addition most clinics close over Christmas as its quieter so they use those weeks for a deep clean.

I had morning scans and blood tests on Fri, Mon, Wed. On Wed they decided I’d need another one on Thurs. Then I had my egg collection on Saturday, you must have the day off work and ideally the day after. Then after the eggs fertilised I found out on a Tues morning that my transfer would be that afternoon. It might have been Thurs afternoon but we decided on a day 3 transfer.

The thing is that all these scans and appointments are out of your hands as it depends how your body is responding to the injections.

In the first place, I started injections on day 2 of my period and my first scan had to be day 5 or 6. And you can’t choose what day your period starts or know what day the clinic will decide to trigger you. It’s important to have an understanding manager (rather than one that berates you for the short notice of appointments )

And yes, many clinics close over Christmas.

Best of luck 🤞🏻

Also, I was on short protocol, or ‘mild IVF.’ If you are on long protocol then I understand you start injections towards the end of your previous cycle so I imagine there’s a clinic visit involved then.

And (finally!) the clinic will likely want to do a baseline scan upon referral. Then you will have a meeting with a consultant to go through everything. I also then had a consultation with the nurse to discuss meds. Both consultations were over Zoom.

I had around 8 scans during the stimulation phase, I used to get the first appointment of the day at 8am so would get to work late, then I needed the day of retrieval off, then took the next couple of days off sick as had mild OHSS and was meant to be working nights. Transfer day I nipped out for a few hours and went straight back to work.

The cycle starts when your period starts, and the drugs they give you can mess with that so there really isn't any way of planning it nicely I'm afraid.

Hi everyone - I had 3 scans over a week and a half during my egg stimulation. The timings of everything I've found the most challenging as you just don't know what your body is going to do and how it's going to react to the medication. We had our egg collection yesterday so rather uncomfortable today!