Has anyone had egg collection with anaesthesia

[Petitepoi]

Hi guys, I’m just wanting to know if anyone has had an egg collection with anaesthetic anywhere near Sheffield? I had 2 rounds of IVF last year at Jessops and the egg collections were what I can only describe as horrifying. I was screaming so much one of the nurses was crying. My consultant told me a small amount of women do have a lot of pain however they can’t put us to sleep as they don’t have the means (I find this barbaric tbh). I have since been diagnosed with endometriosis (left ovary had a large endometrioma and this was the most painful side). We are looking into going again next year however unsure who to go with and cannot find anywhere online that puts you to sleep for egg collection. Does anyone have any experiences/answers? TIA xxx

@SamVan the thing is, Jessops in Sheffield is actually a very reputable hospital! So I have no idea why they don’t offer it. I just assumed it was the same everywhere (other than some places in London I have heard of)

@WooWooWinnie hmm this sounds about right!

Remember when a lot of people are saying general they may well mean IV sedation. Because the feeling of being totally knocked out is often exactly the same. I think it is pretty rare for a clinic or even hospital to do a general anaesthetic due to the risk as they need to breathe for you with a general so you get intubated. IV sedation would be a lot more common. I've had 3 egg collections at 2 different clinics and a general was never even mentioned. Only IV sedation and i was told I wouldn't know a thing about it as I would be asleep and they were right. So I think a lot of people may say they had a general as it feels like that.

@PaperSheet yeah I think you’re prob right tbh! Well it’s safe to say I will look for clinics that provide IV SEDATION now lol. I’ve looked on Jessops website again and it says ‘mild sedation’ with local anaesthetic, which apparently is adequate for most people….

I think you’re right: general is being confused with sedation. As a patient they feel similar but they are executed differently

Being out (whether general or heavy sedation) is definitely not a London thing. A friend of mine had it in Yorkshire when she had a few rounds of IVF. I also had it when l had IVF abroad. It’s so standard that no one even talks about it, as it’s just the protocol

@TruthorDie do you know where your friend had general in Yorkshire? I honestly can’t find anywhere! Only IV sedation like you say x

It was heavy sedation but honestly as a patient you can’t tell the difference and l have had both. General will be more expensive as it’s more risky (theoretically). I vote stick with heavy sedation. It is very heavy and still have no memory of what happened now years down the line

To clarify, my IVF at Guys London, was IV sedation also called twilight sedation. I was cannulated, I kept breathing on my own and the anesthetist was there to monitor my breathing- which was just via a mask. I wasn't intubated with a tube down my throat. I actually don't know of anywhere that offers a full, general anesthetic due to the risks, but I didn't feel a thing and just woke up afterwards with no recollection.

Hi all,

I’ve had egg collection at Jessop too just recently and it was horrifying! Even though I was maxed out on sedation I could feel it every single time
a needle entered a follicle and I was crying throughout the entire procedure. When I raised this I was told “most people do fine” and reading through forums this clearly isn’t the case. I have a pretty high pain threshold and recovering from an open myomectomy where they cut my uterus multiple times to remove15 fibroids was a breeze compared to this.

What we need to collectively is raise that this isn’t good enough. Women been ignored for far too long in healthcare and Jessop have clearly been banking on the fact that we are backed into a corner and are desperate. If the roles were reversed and men had to do it, they’d be unconscious every single time it happened.

I’ve raised this through channels like the medical
director, PALS and with the local MP and if we get more women saying the same thing then it will
be harder to ignore us. The only thing they need to make us unconscious ie be out during the entire procedure is give us deeper sedation with propofol like other hospitals in Manchester and London do is an anaesthetist and an anaesthetic machine.

Im hoping if we all write in then it means that they can’t say “the majority are happy with it”

Take care ladies and giving everyone sticky baby dust!

@Prozachigh I completely agree this is unacceptable and barbaric and I’m so glad you are raising this. They really are taking advantage of infertility desperation. I’m so sorry you had such an awful experience. Could I ask what kind of sedation/anaesthetic you had? I am only being offered local with gas and air at my NHS and I just don’t know if I can go through with it. My HSG was excruciating and I have a bad needle phobia. I’m now in a position where I have to decide whether to go private and spend almost £10k per cycle just to avoid a traumatic procedure, and I’m not happy about it.

@somelikeithaute i ended up getting fentanyl which and a local cervical block which helped with some of the pain but i could feel the needle everytime they positioned it to drain the follicle if that makes sense. The gas and air helped in the sense it gave you something to bite down on and makes you lightheaded so you lose sense of time but to be honest if men were having this done everyone would have deep sedation!

I’m sorry to hear about your local nhs trust and good luck whichever way you decide to go with. It maybe worth raising this with your local PALS team to see if there was anything they could do. Mine couldn’t do very much unfortunately and I’m at the age where I’m running out of free NHS cycles (39) so I had to just put up with it.

but we shouldn’t! 😢

Nottingham Care I’ve sedation. Was asleep, totally unaware. Had to pay for it.

I had 4 rounds of IVF in total- one on the NHS at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester and 3 (3 cycle package) at CREATE’s Manchester clinic (Wilmslow). On each occasion I had IV sedation and it was like having a GA, it put me to sleep each time. I thought that was pretty much standard procedure wherever you have IVF. If you have endometrioma in your ovaries they should be discussing all options with you even if ‘mild’ sedation is the norm in that clinic, which seems surprising.

@Prozachigh thanks for sharing your experience, yikes it sounds bad I’m sorry. It’s crazy that they just expect us to put up with the pain. I’ve questioned it with my NHS and asked if I can pay for the sedation but they say they just don’t have the facilities for sedation at this clinic and crash team if anything goes wrong etc, it’s just not an option. Also some rubbish about how they tested both methods and there was no difference in pain between the two (sedation vs local and gas&air). But I have seen a study that says it is 2.5 times more painful without sedation. I’m in same position - 39 so this is my only chance on NHS.

@FloraSpoke could I ask how was your experience with the NHS vs Create? That’s the decision I’m trying to make right now, but the Bristol clinic.

I don't even know if mine was sedation or anaesthetic. Sedation I would assume. It was done e by an anesthetist who attached all the monitors etc and on both occasions once the cannula was in my arm and something injected I have no memory if anything for an hour or so after the collection was done
And I had been moved back to bed in a bay.
My husband has had lots of surgery under sedation and on every occasion has no memory of anything .I don't think you should have been aware like you were, Assuming you had an anesthetist providing the sedation you should always tell them if you have reddish hair or are excessively hypermobile asthis can make anaesthetic and sedation less effective and different drugs are required.