IVF when you work 12 hour shifts?

[thatismahogany]

Hi, just hoping to find somebody who has managed to do IVF while doing a job that requires doing long shifts?

Me and my husband are now looking at doing IVF but, with my limited knowledge, it seems like it will be really difficult to do if there are entire days where I can't go to the clinic for morning or afternoon appointments for scans, treatments etc. because my shift starts before opening and ends after closing.

I have a nice manager who I get on well with, and would consider telling her what is going on, but I wonder how flexible she could really be with my schedule, and I don't think short shifts would be an option unless I drastically reduced my hours...

Feeling a bit hopeless at the moment, I don't really want to become almost completely dependent on my husband's income, but it seems like it will be impossible to juggle everything. I also have quite a physically demanding job. We have a call scheduled with a clinic to discuss our concerns, but I guess I'm just looking for advice and (hopefully!) success stories from anyone who has made it work.

Thank you for reading!

I don't work shifts but I do work a demanding job requiring travel anywhere between the south coast and north of Scotland out of the house often from 5am to 7pm

I decided to do short protocol and natural modified IVF only so whole thing over in around 2 weeks - that way if I needed to I could take annual leave ( my cycles are very regular and predictable) to cover the whole process

I also chose a clinic close to home so I could be there in 15 mins before making onward journey to wherever in the country

I also chose a clinic that started scans at 730 am and who were part of a group so If I had a meeting in Manchester I could do the scan there or in London if I had to be there that day. They were really helpful about accommodating that and it massively took the pressure off

I also did tell my boss who was great and we worked together to schedule the worst of the meetings in my favour so that I could do injections somewhere safe and clean (not always possible in my job)

I'm a nurse and work 13 hour days and I manage. My manager is fab and my colleagues are flexible and swap shifts with me when I need it. I do find it stressful though as I am reliant on them helping me - but they alway do. I've therefore needed to be honest with them about what's going on which I haven't liked, it's hard people knowing something so personal, but for them to swap their lives around at short notice for me, I felt like I owe them that. I've always done a short protocol, so on the first day of my period, I call the clinic and they register my treatment request and then tell me which day to start my injections on. 8 days from that, I have a monitoring scan - so I know at that point that I need that day as a day off, it's gives me time to swap if needed. Then from that scan, they usually book one in for 2 days time - so again, I usually know I need day 8 and 10 as days off. On day 10 I usually trigger (you won't know this but I've done 4 cycles now so know how I react to this medication!) but usually women trigger on day 10-13 and then 36 hours after that trigger need the day off for egg collection. Then after that, ideally you'll have a day 5 transfer so will need day off 5 days after the egg collection for the transfer. And that's it.

So for me - it's 4 days off needed. For example, I started my injections on Friday 22nd Oct. had the first monitoring scan on Friday 29th Oct (day off needed) second monitoring scan Sunday 31st October (day off needed) triggered that night and had egg collection on Tuesday 2nd Nov (day off needed) then had the transfer on Saturday 6th Nov (day 4 transfer as they don't do transfers on a Sunday).

Hope I've not confused you there - but it's definitely doable.

I also take my injections at night at 9pm so that I'm home (finish at 20:30) so not needing to take injections at work

@tiggerwhocamefortea thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately 7:30am would be a bit late for me on days I'm working, as I would already be on shift. It's wonderful to hear though, that your clinic and boss have been so accommodating!

And I will have the ask about natural modified IVF during our call, to see if it may be an option. Maybe it could make the whole thing more manageable, I hope so!

@MrsC2018 I won't pretend I'm not a little confused simply because it's all so new to me! But you've made it seem so much more manageable, 4 days off doesn't seem completely unreasonable and I may even get lucky with my rota!

I do feel funny about telling colleagues something so personal, especially since the only person I've shared all this with so far is my mum! But they're all lovely and I'm sure they'd try to help me with shift swaps. Thanks for your reply.

@thatismahogany sorry 😂 my advice would be tell your colleagues what's going on so they want to help you and do lots of favours in the run up to IVF so people owe you shift changes! Works for me!

I would definitely check your work places sickness and maternity policies regarding IVF. I work for the NHS and my trust entitles you to your entire first cycle off work so reduced any stress of swapping shifts etc as I was just booked off the rota completely.

@thatismahogany I was very nervous about telling my work about IVF but I'm glad I did as they were so understanding! I work in a higher risk setting re covid and I ended up doing a mix of working from home and taking some annual and unpaid leave in the 2 weeks prior to egg collection. I think particularly if it's your first cycle you might not know exactly how many days of injections you'll need and if you need extra scans etc and there might be days you need time off last minute, so either some time off or your employer letting you take time out to attend might be helpful! IVF is stressful enough so anything you can do to minimise stress is a bonus! Xx

@CEH1305 that's amazing, must have really taken the pressure off! I have had a look at all the relevant policies but can't see anything like that unfortunately :(

@Roo45 your workplace sounds great in their approach! I think, once I've spoken to the clinic and have all the facts, I will just have to be honest with my manager. Hopefully they are willing to be flexible even if there is no official guidance in place...