Froze Pergoveris by mistake!!! 😵‍💫

[Kelb79]

Hoping someone else may have experience of this total f.up and reassure me!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼

im just starting IVF protocol with a clinic in Spain. Got the meds whilst in Spain for the consultation and the pharmacist told me the Pergoveris had to be kept in the freezer.
Had a few worries about keeping the meds in a freezer when going back to Spain for retrieval and found out during that conversation that we’d had a language issue in the instructions and the meds should’ve been kept in the fridge!!!
ive googled instructions online - they all say “do not freeze”….. but no info as to whether the meds are screwed if they’ve been in a freezer for 2 weeks already!! 😩😩
my assistant has asked me to send pics/videos of the meds for the pharmacy to check (doing this tomorrow when they’ve properly defrosted!!)
but I’m nervous as hell!! even if they say it’s fine I’m gonna be injecting this stuff into me!!
and it’s waaaay too expensive for me to afford buying new 😩😩
has anyone else done this????
if so, what happened???

Can you contact the manufacturer of the drug to ask them? Will the pharmacist take responsibility for telling you the wrong storage information? I think I would buy the prescription again tbh. It says do not freeze. No point using it if it is damaged. I’d check with the manufacturer or your clinic as to the implications of using it after it’s been frozen. How much is the cost to replace?

@SpringSparrow yep, I’ve contacted the manufacturer and they’ve said the pharmacist should advise. My clinic has contacted them and they’ve asked for a video of the vials for checking….. I’m jumping the gun as I don’t have all the info but it’s causing me major anxiety!! 😵‍💫😵‍💫 The cost to replace is about £1,200 😩😩😩 but I will really put pressure on the pharmacy if it comes to that!!

The pharmacy messed up and gave you the wrong instructions. The person should not have tried to give you instructions in English for a medication if they didn’t know how to express it correctly. The role of a pharmacist is so vital (some mistakes could potentially be fatal, although of course not in this case) so they should have asked someone else to translate or told you to speak to a doctor if they weren’t completely sure how to explain it to you.

I do feel really bad for the pharmacist as it was such a simple mistake to make, but you should probably demand that the pharmacy replace the medication.

By the way, I was just remembering that there was this episode of (I think it was) ER years ago where a Spanish speaking mother had been given a vial of pills for her baby where the instructions said something like ‘Once a day’ so the story was that she had absentmindedly given him eleven pills because once means eleven in Spanish.

It’s so important to make sure that instructions for medications can’t be misunderstood or mistranslated. Poor you! I know how stressful the whole temperature control thing with the meds is.

Sorry you're going through so much stress. We had a similar situation in our last cycle. I was on Menophur and my fridge stoped working and froze the medication. We had to throw it out and buy it again, it cost about £900. We were advised that it wouldn't be dangerous but would affect the efficiency of the drug. I didn't want to risk having a poor response and wasting complete cycle. Hope your pharmacy takes responsibility for giving you the wrong information!

Oh how awful. I'd be so upset. If it makes you feel any better I have a stupid story. I had a left over large unopened vial of expensive menopur. Bought a mini fridge to make sure it stayed at the right temp (we only have an ancient under the counter little fridge!). Unplugged it for the lawnmower cable, thinking it was the microwave and forgot to plug it back in for 2 days. Was SO annoyed at myself!

Thanks guys!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
my clinic asked me to send photos and videos of the vials for them and the pharmacy to look at. They’ve come back to me saying that they’re sure the drug is stable and good to use 😅 thank god!! The pharmacy has had their lab look at it. I’m honestly still a touch apprehensive though 🫣🫣🫣

Oh phew!!! What a great result

Hi @Kelb79
How did you go with the medication? Was it still effective?
My husband changed the temperature of our fridge to 0 and I just realised after a few days. My first test is in 2 days and I’m worried about the effectiveness of the Medicine now, also Pergoveris.

@E113N it was all perfectly fine 👍🏼👍🏼
when I first got it out of the freezer there were lots of air bubbles in it but once it hit back to the right temperature they mostly disappeared. Just double check for air before you inject and get any out that you need to 👌🏼
the effectiveness definitely didn’t change! I’ve done 3 rounds since then and the one with those meds had the best results!! 🤣🤣