IVF – anyone gone through the egg harvesting thing without general anaesthetic?

[saturdaykid]

I'm going through IVF and nearly at the stage for egg collection and I know I'm being a total wuss but I'm so scared that it's going to HURT. My hospital doesn't offer GA for this procedure, only sedation and painkillers, and I'm terrified!! Has anyone done this and can offer me any words of encouragement? It all sounds a bit barbaric and I'm starting to have nightmares about it already and am worried that by the time I have to go in for the procedure I'll be a nervous wreck.... anyone?

Please don't worry - you will be given a mixture of painkillers and sedatives and probably won't be aware of a thing. The most painful bit for me is when they put the needle thing in the back of my hand, and once that is in I just wait for the lovely drugs. No pain, just lovely floating away.

It can be odd, as you are sort of aware of what is going on and can get off the table at the end, but 95% of you is well away with the fairies. I always have to ask how many eggs they got as I forget as soon as they tell me each time. All the drugs wear off after a short time, you have tea and cake, have a wee, get dressed and get taken home.

Oh PHEW. Thank you so much that is so good to read!

And the clinic will expect you to be nervous anyway, so they should be nice to you. I've always found the nurses and anaethetists just lovely, a bit of chatting, and then you are away.

Best of luck anyway, with EC and afterwards. The worst bit for me is waiting for the call the following day to tell me how many eggs have fertilised.

saturday, I had my ECs under sedation rather than GA - virtually the same IME. Was hardly aware of anything. You'll be fine .

Good luck and fingers crossed for some top embies .

Thanks spongebrain, and Onlyaphase again, feel so much better now. Quite looking forward to the lovely floating away drugs in fact and have now moved on to fretting about how many embryos they'll manage to dig up instead

london, good luck for ET tomorrow.

i did this just with sedation twice.

i find that any kind of sedative has quite an effect on me, and slept peacefully throughout the whole thing. it was nice to get a rest after the stress of IVF. I did wake up towards the end the 2nd time, and heard myself snoring & mumbling, but felt absolutely no pain.

The next day was a little odd as I forgot & tried running to catch someone up, then realised htat i flet a bit sore 'inside'.

Good luck.

Just in case there's a prob, we had 0 fertilisation the first time, then did ICSI successfully.

Thank you all for your stories and reassurance, and good luck to all of you who are going through it

THis is all good news - glad to have found this post - trying to prepare myself for my first cycle at the moment (I get the drugs on Tuesday!)

I noticed someone got the bus home - eek that sounds intense! I'm arranging someone to come and collect me as my DH doesn't drive...

Stevie