Ivf and work commitments

[BewilderedBee]

How do you all plan for fitting in scans etc in the lead up to egg collection and then egg transfer day, with your employers? This is on the basis that you're not telling them about your treatment. At the moment I'm feeling I don't want to tell my manager but no idea how I'm going to get the days off if it angen last minute etc. Am I right I thinking the scans are kind of unpredictable depending on growth? Would a week off be sufficient for scans and egg collection? X

It’s not quite as easy as taking a week off. The scans are totally dependent on what protocol you are on and how your own body reacts and they can add extra if you are not reacting in the way they expected. Then there’s egg collection and egg transfer day which are two separate days and both can move depending on again how your body or the development of the embryos works out or if you need to have a frozen embryo transplant (FET) or multiple transfers to achieve your dream. I took a day off for collection and a day off for each transfer (had 3 transfers until I got my success) and also needed a day for an operation to correct a tilted uterus but with scans I would’ve felt I wasted holidays taking the days off rather than working back the time. In my protocol I sometimes had to have scans on day 1 and then 21 and onwards of same cycle so you couldn’t just take a specific week and you also had to sniff a nasal spray at very set times during the day and we work a job with little let up so I had to do it at my desk. If you are not comfortable with saying it’s ivf could you tell them you are waiting on an operation for a medical issue that could have variable dates where they need to do checks in the run up to make sure your condition doesn’t deteriorate? None of that is a lie it’s just horrendously vague.

@LouiseTrees if you don't mind me asking how did the op come about for the tilted uterus. Did you discover it tho IVF why did you get op for to help with IVF. I ask these questions as I have always known I have a real bad tilted uterus through smers . We are going to do IVF and been trying for 3 years . X

I had short protocol and had to go in for scans every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two and a half weeks. Then I needed one full day for egg collection and they recommended taking the next day off too for recuperation from the general anesthetic, and same again for egg transfer (most people don't have that under general anesthetic like I did though). So a week probably won't cut it. I told my manager who was very discrete about it all and I was able to take my scans as medical appointments and just come back to work once they were done. My manager knowing was helpful for me, meant that I didn't have to worry about work as he knew what was going on.

I've had IVF in the UK on the NHS, there were appointments before treatment to discuss protocol and teach how to do injections. When treatment started scans were very early in the morning so I went to work a bit late. The clinic only did 2 scans while taking stimulation drugs. Not saying this is good but it was their policy. They also decided egg collection date at the beginning and did not deviate from that which I feel is not optimal but again it was their policy, and purely from a planning perspective made things easier in terms of booking time off.

I took a day off sick for egg collection saying I had a gynae procedure and I used leave for transfer as I had booked acupuncture before and after.
I've also had treatment abroad.
Work don't know about any of it. Back at the start of infertility journey I had HSG in my lunch break (longer lunch than usual but hours are quite flexible).
It is possible to do IVF without telling work but you may need to be prepared to be vague. My work actually has an IVF policy and I would be entitled to paid time off (also for male staff to do their bit) so you could check if that exists if it would make things easier.
For me personally I'd rather not discuss it at work.

My boss is aware but he is a lovely bloke and has daughters himself so treats me how he hopes his own daughters will be treated in the workplace someday

My clinic starts scans at 730am in the morning so I would do mine on the way to work - not so much of an issue though this time since unlikely I'll be back in the office full time for months to come due to Covid

I've always done short protocol or natural
Modified so from first scan to egg collection it's over in less than 10 days

I stimmed for 12 days and had about 6 scans in that time. However my clinic did all scans between 7 and 9am and it was on my way to work so it didn’t impact at all. For my ec I told my manager I had a gynae procedure and so I took it as a sick day and self certified. My transfer was around 4pm so I said I had a dr appt and left early.

Have a chat with your clinic to see how they are setup as you may be able to fit your scans around work. If you book a week off I would suggest the second week as my scans were more frequent then. At the start of treatment I was given a three day window for when my ec would likely be so you could book the week off that those fall in. Also I ended up at risk of ohss and had to do a freeze all. If I’d booked a load of time off to cover the transfer I would have felt it was a waste.

On short protocol my scans were pretty fixed so I took a mixture of annual leave/appointments. Then annual leave for EC and ET. There was one FET cycle when things didn't go according to plan dates wise so I called in sick for embryo transfer New clinic is near work so I was managing to fit appointments in on the way and annual leave for the rest

@Pinktruffle @Betsyboo87 just out of curiosity can I ask if you were at private clinics?
When I had NHS treatment I enquired what would be different in terms of treatment, more scans or more flexibility and they proudly said that there was no difference, which for me ruled out the possibility of doing any self-funded treatment there as they were very set on the 2 scans and fixed egg collection date. They booked your theatre slot in the day procedure unit and that was that.

@JeNeBaguetteRien I was with an NHS clinic, it was my first funded round. They didn't decide on my egg collection date till my follicles were the right size. I needed more than the usual 2 weeks for short protocol and was giving an extra 5 days medication to help them along towards the end of my initial 2 weeks.

As they say, it's a postcode lottery with IVF, we only get one funded round in my area but they were very good.

@JeNeBaguetteRien I was at a private clinic and I don’t live in the UK so that could make a difference too. I was told stims would be 8-12 days and the trigger would be decided by the scans/blood tests along the way. Thinking about it I actually stimmed for 11 days with trigger on the 12th. Scans were around days 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 so they got more frequent. My dosage was only adjusted once. My clinic may well be on the over cautious side as is common over here.

Thanks both!
@Pinktruffle glad your NHS round was very thorough, mine was really not good, to the point where I feel they are not using the CCG funding correctly, just to get paid for providing their very one size fits all service.
I had long protocol which was cancelled due to not responding, whereas another clinic may have tweaked doses they just stopped, but it did mean that I was eligible for a short protocol attempt as I hadn't got to egg collection.

@Betsyboo87 I've had my further treatment in Spain and they have been much more thorough, but I think that lots of UK clinics are thorough and I was unlucky with the one I got.

Sorry for slight derailment OP!

@jenebaguetterien

I'm private and it was standard to do scans every other day once you started stimming - depending on how the weekend fell there might be a scan on two consecutive days

Hi @ivfgottostaypositive thanks, that has been my experience in Spain with more frequent scans, and occasional blood tests.

I'm pleased it seems to be the case in other public and private settings in the UK.

I'm happy enough for dosage not to be tweaked when scans show things are progressing as expected but my experience of UK NHS treatment was that the clinic were not really interested in monitoring at all, even before getting to IVF there was no monitoring when on Clomid, I paid for scans for my own information.
I know this compares unfavourably with other people who've had NHS treatment never mind private.

@Hoping1 hi no problem at all to answer. Was only discovered when they were trying to do a fresh implantation during ivf that was so painful for me they had to stop. The reason I was referred originally was that I barely had periods and we then found slight issues with my husband too, we had no idea about the tilt before.

@LouiseTrees thanks for reply it interesting mine has been mentioned every smear I have had when they do it have to have 3 cushions under me bum xxx