How are you all managing your ivf appointments along with work

[biscuitsndtea]

We are due to start our ivf appointment soon.
Our fertility assessments are completed. The next step is to start the ivf. We are with crgh now ( still in oscillation between kings&crgh).

I found it tough with the initial appointments along with work 😯 I work FT mostly remote. My clinic is 45 mins in public transport.

How do you all manage frequent appointments once the cycle starts ?
How many hospital visits would be required normally?
Any idea how long each visits will be ? I can bring my laptop and try to work in a cafe. Not sure if it will work out though.
How are you managing work, appointments and housework ?

I started panicking thinking about these😨

@biscuitsndtea no idea on the answer but I'm also panicking about this! I work in an office with lots of client meetings, and it's over an hour from the clinic. The idea of trying to juggle the last minute nature of the scans / appointments, plus work, life, etc is causing me quite a lot of stress. Am currently hoping it just magically works it self out, but hopefully someone can come along with more practical suggestions!

I work shifts, so just scheduled everything aroung my shifts.

I would expect to be at the clinic every 2 days until egg collection (take that day off, as you'll be sedated) then 5 days later. Then you're done until your first scan at 6-8 weeks, if you get a BFP.

Appointments are quicks, literally just a scan to check follicles. If there are no delays, you can be in and out in 5/10 minutes.
Egg collection and transfer will take longer.

I didn't go collection, but was at my clinic for around 1h30 for transfer, as they were running late. The actual process was less than 20 mins.

I work from home 3 days per week so made sure I was at home the days for my scans and got the appointments first thing - 9am each time - my clinic were great at arranging these for me. Ended up having 5 scans over about 2 weeks for the egg collection stage and I was only in the clinic around 20 minutes. Then had a day off work for egg collection. Luckily this was a Friday so I could recover over the weekend with no additional time off (although I would have been able to WFH the following day, just a little tired).

I was open with my manager to say I would be having a procedure and had appointments leading up to it for 2 weeks, plus may need to work from home a bit more. Luckily, he was extremely supportive and said to take the time I need. I had about a 45 minute journey each way too. We get fertility / reproductive leave - up to 1 week paid leave per cycle, so I used 1 day of this for my egg collection.

I told my my manager about my treatment, she was also very supportive same with a few close colleagues. That I can take all doctors appointment that I needed. It also helps that the hospital I go to for scan is just at the end of the street where I live. I book my scan just before i start work (around 8:30 am) so I am back at home by 9am.

@fsr111 Worrying about the same here 🤗

Thanks for replying. Its good to know that the appointments are short !

I am not planning to inform my manager about my treatment which adds more complexity.

I am planning to WFH from a cafe/wework near my clinic. Not sure if it will work out though.

@Lebe14 Thanks :) Will you be informed earlier( a week or so) about the egg collection day or will you know just before a day or 2 ?

Are we supposed to do the stimulation and trigger injections by ourselves ? Or should we goto the clinic for the trigger injection ?

@biscuitsndtea I have taken a week off for this cycle, but all gone a bit wrong as I've had to extend my stims for a few days and will now be doing egg collection on Monday next week (should have been today). You only find out a couple of days before at scans. I haven't told my boss, and can wfh, but was just a bit too much hassle trying to manage drop offs at child care for my daughter and all the driving back and forth from my clinic (45 minutes each way).

You do all the injections yourself at home, so it will just be visits for the scans (every two days at my clinic from day 7), egg collection and transfer.

@biscuitsndtea the egg collection date is fully confirmed a couple of days before when they tell you to do the trigger. They will give you an idea of when the collection will be, however I was on stims for 2 days longer. It really depends on how you react to them. And yes you inject your stims and trigger yourself at home. You'll be shown exactly how to do them, or given a video - we had both. You'll also be told exactly when to take them. Your clinic will give all the info to ensure you're fully confident. And they are honestly not that bad - you'll be just fine x

@kirstysmbc thanks :)

@Lebe14 thanks:)

The ivf journey is very stressful and lonely. My DH cannot empathise with my worries.

The mumsnet community is amazing and very much supportive in this journey ❤

@biscuitsndtea I was at CRGH. Once you have your baseline scan, they will book in appointments for all your other scans. That makes it easier to plan work.

That first appointment is long and was the hardest to fit around work as not much planning and same with egg collection and transfer. But if you had any other illness you might have a last minute doctor's appointment so you can treat this the same. I occasionally had to move meetings last minute but it worked out ok most people/clients are fairly ok with this really in my sector anyway.

I did lots of work in the Pret on the corner, the cafe just up the road beyond the clinic and in the waiting room itself. I was the crazy woman always walking around with an open laptop!!! Obviously you can't do meetings in the waiting room but I got loads of other stuff done. Actual appointments are quite short but waiting around can be longer.

It's only for about 2 weeks max.

Best of luck xxx

The best thing I did was tell my manager. I didn't tell anyone else at work and as a Team leader we'd tell my team I had other meetings. I moved meetings around that were critical for me to attend and scaled back my work to complete the stress levels to a minimum. This is your time, if its already causing stress take some time off, check if your employer has a fertility policy to enable you to take time off without cutting into annual leave

@biscuitsndtea I've told my managers, I'm a manager myself so I wanted to be open and honest with them. I've a fertility policy in work so I was protected by that and any appointments/time off were covered with the policy. I can't imagine going through the stress of IVF plus the stress of work not knowing and trying to fit everything around it. It's only 2 weeks but they're quite intense.

@Janefx40 Thanks :) Luckily I dont have much meetings so planning to work from cafe till the appointment.

Is it enough that you take holiday only for the egg collection ? I can wfh for the rest of the days.

Unfortunately recently switched jobs, so cannot inform my manager. I have been waiting in old company for many years , finally got fed up and changed jobs.

Finding the info on this thread helpful. I work in the NHS, I have clinics booked up for the next 2-3 months and am about to start IVF. There's nobody else that can cover my clinics so I've had to tell my manager. I feel awful having to potentially cancel lots of patients but am not sure if there's an alternative. I'm hoping appointment can be early mornings so that I can head to work afterwards

@LemonDrizzle44 Good luck on your journey :)

I had my ORT scan in my clinic which took 10 minutes, I am hoping the scans before egg collection will be quicker as well 😄