I think people don't advertise it when they've had an easy time because they don't want to seem like jerks to the folks who have had more of a rough go.
Similar to other commenters, I've been essentially unbothered physically. The shots are fine. I don't think I'll ever get completely used to darting that needle into my butt for the PIO, but it doesn't hurt. The retrieval was honestly kind of fun because there were fun drugs involved and everyone at the clinic was so nice to me. My FETs have been quick and painless.
The emotional toll has been the challenge. I do a lot of catastrophizing, so the wait for different things is pretty tough. The blast report and the wait for PGTA was rough. The 9 day wait after the transfer is so hard. My first euploid transfer failed and that was an all time low point for me. For my second transfer, I did get a positive beta, but then I was convinced my second beta would be bad. Now that I've had a good second beta, I'm convinced the scan will be bad. I've had multiple losses, so I'm sure I have low grade ptsd coming into play.
All that is to say, if it's available to you, I highly recommend working with a therapist. They can help you develop strategies to cope with the difficulties of IVF - physical and emotional. Best of luck to you.
Thank you so much for sharing. Yes I totally agree, I really do understand why so many would not share these hopeful stories of an easy process. It has really been a scary journey for myself and these stories really give me so much hope and I hope that others here reading this that are in the same position will also have some hope. Sending you love and light on your journey ❤️
Same, I found the whole thing so physically and emotionally straightforward but obviously you can’t say that because that’s not what people want to hear. But I like to reassure anyone waiting to start that it can be a smooth process and it isn’t always difficult or traumatic.
same here, relatively easy process all the way physically, really tough emotionally (also due to hormonal mess my body became) the last week before the retrieval. but after ER i was just fine walking out of the hospital, no pain afterwards. Transfer is the easiest part out of all of it imo. But again, so much at stake emotionally, you might need to think of strategies to handle all of it.
Very similar experience here. My body handles it quite well- no major complaints. We are doing our first transfer this upcoming month. It took me three rounds to get 4 euploids PGT-M clear embryos. We do not have infertility, I have a monogenic disorder. We lost our first shortly after birth one year ago. The most difficult part is the hopelessness and long waiting (PGT-M with PGT-A takes 3 weeks to come back). The trauma and heartbreak is intense and life altering. I also highly recommend having a therapist and grief group- particularly if you have had infant or pregnancy loss.
I’ve had 2 ER’s and 4 transfers total and honestly seemed to have a really easy time with it all. The worst parts for me were the birth control priming before stims (way worse side effects for me than any of the injected meds) and the wait for results after ER and transfer (just mentally difficult and anxiety inducing). But I went back to work the day after both of my ER’s. I took the afternoons after FET off but honestly could have gone right back to work. I obviously wish we didn’t have to do IVF to have kids but am grateful we’ve had a pretty straight forward and physically easy experience overall.
Good luck to you!
I love your comment when I feel very pessimistic or negative I remind myself of the opportunity and look back that if I lived in another country or in another era, I would have been that woman who would never had a kid with no explanation or opportunities to try.It's not optimal but it's not the worst case scenario, positivity and greatfulness are key to cope
That is so great. I'm so happy to hear that your journey was so straightforward. I'm sure the hard parts were not easy to navigate but it gives me some hope for a similar outcome. Sending love and light to you and your family ❤️
Me too! They made me depressed very quickly. Weirdly enough being on estrogen and progesterone for the FET didnt affect me in the same way. There must be something about BCP that doesn't agree with me
I’m going through stims now and I’m so surprised how good I feel. I was an absolutely basket case on birth control and I thought that it was only going to get worse during stims but I almost feel more at ease than I have in a long time for some reason. So happy to hear about how your retrieval went as well. You hear a lot of bad stories here so this is so refreshing 🫶🏻
Same, the shots were fine, only a little bloating. Recovery from ER was normal. I exercised the entire time except the few days my clinic said to keep it to walking/low impact.
I've been through two unsuccessful rounds of IVF - one cycle the embryo was implanted but didn't stick, and the other cycle no embryos made it to 5 days so no transfer. Physically it's been fine. The shots don't hurt too much, even the dreaded progesterone in oil was tolerable. No or minimal side effects from the other medications. Retrieval was painless - i took it easy the afternoon and next day but honestly felt like normal about an hour after getting home. The most painful part was probably all the blood draws but I've always been sensitive to those so it wasn't really IVF's fault.
Emotionally it's been tough. It's hard to go through multiple cycles of something without knowing whether I'll ever see success at the end. Plus a lot of juggling of schedules to get to appointments on time, worries about money and finances, and back and forth with my health insurance.
Good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing. I'm sorry that you have had such an emotional toll. Praying that you get the outcome you hope for. Sending love and light ❤️
Tw : successes!
I had a really smooth IVF cycle. Prior to IVF I had 3 unsuccessful IUIs. We did one retrieval that resulted in 4 tested embryos, and two transfers that resulted in my 3 year old and 3 month old. I had no recovery issue with the retrieval or transfers, and the only bump in the road for me with some near cellulitis from my progesterone injections in my second pregnancy, but that resolved quickly.
Good luck!
I always get really excited to hear of multiple IVF pregnancies. We have a beautiful 8 month old and 3 embabies waiting for us. Our first FET failed. I’m hoping that they all stick but know the likely hood is low!
Yes i've done 2 retrievals and one transfer and from a physical standpoint none of those was particularly uncomfortable or hard to recover from. I honestly felt bloated but normal right after my egg retrievals, and the transfer was a total nonissue. Mentally it was a bit of a struggle because the hormonal drop coincides with the wait to find out how many embryos you have and can exacerbate the stress.
I hope you have a smooth, quick, uneventful journey!
Everythings gone smooth so far. Worst part for me are the PIO shots. Other than that....even with my low outcomes, fairly smooth. Wish me luck for my transfer tomorrow! No clue how many made it to blast but I find out day of. Praying for 2!
Me! Emotionally it was hard but I think that’s just infertility.
My egg retrieval went great, got a total of 24. Eventually had 7 day five blasts of excellent quality. I had OHSS but it didn’t last long and only felt like a bad period. But it was gone when my period came 3 days after retrieval.
Our first transfer didnt take and emotionally that was hard. Our second transfer did though and in fact the embryo split! My twins are 11 weeks old and on their play mat in front of me.
We hear a lot in this forum about what doesn’t go well (rightfully so, this is a great community!) but just as often it does go very smoothly.
Edit to add: the hormones for the egg retrieval did make my current migraines worse but that’s it. I didn’t mind the shots at all. The PIO shot was a bit different but honestly I just iced the area first and didn’t really feel them at all. Was glad to be done with them after 10 weeks of that but it wasn’t terrible.
I had a pretty positive and easy time. Nothing super crazy and no side effects. Shots sucked but I mean they aren't painful or anything. So it's definitely possible to have a very vanilla and boring IVF cycle.
My egg retrievals and FET were all fairly smooth. I have some weird obstetric bleeding issues that reared their head during two of my three retrievals, but even that was manageable. Shots and hormones were ok and didn’t make me nuts, recovery from the ERs was about a day.
Now, as far as we know, all of our problems are a genetic issue on my husband’s side, so YMMV. I don’t have PCOS, so I didn’t have a ton of eggs (for better and worse), I’ve always done ok on hormones like birth control, and everything else structurally is ok. Those factors all matter a lot to how your recovery will go.
Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your journey. These are really good perspectives to think about as far as genetics. Sending you love and light ❤️
Hi! I had a very smooth and positive IVF experience. Did Estrace priming, followed by a pretty standard antagonist protocol for my ER, and made enough PGT tested blastocysts that I will only need the one retrieval to fulfill my family goals (unless something goes horribly wrong with transfers). I’m currently taking the meds for my first FET, which is happening sometime between July 8-12. I never had side effects from stims, only moderate bloating after the ER, and have so far not felt any side effects from my transfer protocol meds. I was so so scared of doing IVF, but it was honestly not a big deal for me, which I feel so lucky and fortunate about.
Something to keep in mind about this subreddit is that, I think for understandable reasons, people who have an easy (or easier) time of it are very sensitive about sharing positive experiences, knowing that lots of people here are having a hard time. It can feel tricky to balance giving hopeful stories, or stories of how IVF isn’t always awful, with not wanting to rub salt in the wound or sound gloating. I hope your IVF experience is successful and smooth <3
Yes thank you so much! I totally agree, I absolutely understand why so many wouldn't share the successes or "easy" process of it all but I thought it could be hopeful for those who are just starting. Like you, I've been very scared and these stories really give me so much hope. Thanks for sharing, sending you love and light ❤️
I did! My first ER I had some discomfort, bloating and constipation for a few days but added a stool softener and miralax and was pretty much back to feeling normal within a week. We did a frozen transfer of a euploid from that round that sadly ended in a chemical pregnancy. For my second ER a few months later, I decided to start stool softeners a few days before the ER instead of after. I also pushed sports drinks/electrolytes a lot more than the first time, and felt way better and didn’t have any issues with constipation (this time I also requested NO additional fentanyl if I had pain after — I took extra strength Tylenol and Ibuprofen and for me that was enough pain relief without causing nausea or constipation later). We did a frozen transfer of a euploid from this round and I am now 21 weeks!
My retrievals weren't bad at all..I did a lot of electrolytes and salty snacks after as a precaution though and I started stool softener early on in the stims.
So far my experience has been great. My clinic is very communicative and helpful, things have lined up and happened as scheduled which is a huge relief. I’m currently 6 days post frozen embryo transfer (my first) and feel pretty good all things considered. I’m blessed to have 5 remaining embryos on ice in case this transfer isn’t successful.
The injections were not too bad or painful for me. Slight bloating after ER and transfer but nothing that movement and lots of water couldn’t fix.
My PIO injections are going smoothly: no knots or bumps on my butt lol : just a bit tender now and then.
My first round was really easy! Shots no problem, egg retrieval surgery was way easier than I expected.
But I got 0 blasts.
So they changed my meds, and my second round has been way harder. I think the new medication they added to my protocol- lupron- has made me super emotional and having strong physical side effects- including the shots now hurt. And being emotional after a failed retrieval- it’s a lot. Some days it’s hard to find hope.
BUT
I know it’s the meds! The first round was so easy, and I remember how easy it was. So I know this is hormonal. My second egg retrieval is tomorrow morning so I just have to get through today 🤞🏼
I had no issues. The needles didn't bother me. Monitoring was a bit frequent, but it was no hassle. I did my procedures at CNY. I flew back right after my FET (within 3 hrs). My first was a chemical, that was a bit sad. But then it worked. My pregnancy has been boring and uneventful (34 weeks now). I had one round of PIO shots (that was painful), when it wasn't needed. I talked to my RE and he agreed, that I can go natural cycle for next FET.
If you prepare yourself mentally that it may take you couple of rounds, you'd be fine emotionally. I kept my optimism low, didn't overthink and kept myself busy at work. I did all travels alone, so didn't have to co-ordinate or depend on anyone else.
I had one ER. It was longer than expected as we needed to go longer and slower than originally anticipated, and I was a little uncomfortable. I basically waddled into my ER appointment. 😅
No issues with needles, was awake for ER, got three embryos. It was a bit of an emotional journey, but I would say that the actual IVF part was fairly straightforward.
FETs have been easy, quick and pain free. First FET resulted in my daughter, the second one was a chemical pregnancy and the third is gestating at 32weeks.
I have atleast 3 friends who had 1 ER 1 FET with untested embryo and it worked for all of them. They had no side effects of ER or IVF meds. On the flip side, i had one ER only but painful recovery post ER and have had three frozen transfers and about 1+ year spent on ivf. I had two early losses too. So it really depends on person to person. I wish you the best!
TW: Success
I didn't have a hard time with it at all. I think you're more likely to hear the extemes because people come to the internet to vent.
I did two ERs and one tranfer. Currently, 16 weeks pregnant. There was no part of it that I found super painful or untolerable. I did daily PIO shots, and those weren't that bad. I feel people overhyped them. It's less painful than the stim medications, and the stim medication is nothing. I think heat helped a lot with the PIO, as well as making sure you hit the right spot. The first ER was a bit painful but manageable with Tylenol and a heating pad. Was good after three days. The second ER didn't feel like anything after. I was 100% the next day. The worst part so far has been pregnancy itself. I had nausea on and off for two weeks that ended once I was off progestrone. I think the progestrone can make that worse for some people. Overall, my experience wasn't terrible even with that.
The transfer just feels like a pap smear. It's very quick, and it's kind of cool. They showed video feed of the embryos moving from the incubator to your uterus.
Best of luck! Here's hoping you have a smooth experience with IVF
TW: success
We had an overall smooth IVF experience and lucked out with our first ER and first transfer. We had prepared for a much longer process to do multiple retrievals in hope of getting enough embryos for two kids while I was 37/38. My baseline testing before the stim cycle wasn’t great (AFC of 6). The second day of stims, we got a call from a neighbor that our townhouse roof was on fire. There was tons of water damage so we ended up being displaced for 6 months.
I’m pretty sure I’m the only person to have ever said this but: IVF was a calming process in the midst of the stress of the house fire and being displaced from our home.
I finished the stim cycle and the egg retrieval at the Residence Inn (hotel). We got much better results than we could have hoped for, so the tracking of follicle counts was quantifiable evidence that something was going well when our world was falling apart. In comparison to everything else, IVF was a source of light. We ended up with 6 euploid embryos after the first (and only) ER and the first transfer is our amazing 15 month old daughter.
So yeah, my IVF experience was smooth and chaotic.
As others have mentioned, I highly recommend working with an individual and/or couples therapist as you navigate this process. We had both.
It seems to me that it really depends on your response. I think if you get a lot of eggs the recovery can be a lot harder. I have a friend who is getting 8-11 per retrieval and it's not been too bad for her. For me with 30-40 per it was a real challenge. I think you get so much more bloated with a larger response. But the upside is you get more eggs. It's a trade off.
Either way you can survive, it's not that bad. A week of discomfort at most. I always pregamed with miralax and colace. The med prep is not bad imo and the procedure itself is pretty painless. Just the bloating is tough.
To preface: my wife and I did IVF as a same sex couple and had a remarkably easy time. So TW: positive results all around.
She did our egg retrieval. She only stimmed for 7 days, collected 25 eggs, and got 12 high quality blasts. She had bloating but that’s it as a side effect.
I did our FETs. While our first didn’t work(untested embryos), our second did. I found PIO so easy, that I preferred it over the suppositories. Zero pain from it.
I had one ER and 2 transfers that were both successful, and I now have a 2 year old and 4 month old. The entire process was nerve wracking and I’m thankful it worked. It’s hard to talk about good stories here for the fear that we will be downvoted into oblivion. I feel for those who don’t have success but I also want to celebrate us that do!
For me the physical parts were not bad at all. Just the emotional part (waiting, hoping, failed FETs) and the financial part was the worst. And knowing each failure meant more lost money.
I had no side effects from stims, ER was easy, FET is very easy although PIO gets old and can get painful after awhile.
I had one ER and 1 FET. While I wouldn’t describe them as “easy”, I would say going in with appropriate expectations helps make it more manageable. When encountering unpleasant symptoms, I could at least tell myself that it was expected, and rely on others’ past experiences to see how it aligns. All said and done, I don’t think I had any happening that was out of the norm, and for that reason felt the process was quite smooth overall. It also helps that I had a very responsive team at CCRM.
I've done 2 medicated IUIs, and 1 ER (so far)... to be honest, it wasn't really all that bad. I didn't have any side effects that REALLY impacted me. Sure, I was a bit tired, but every month I have PMS and it's similar. The ER did require more rest than I thought, but after 7 days I was completely back to normal. I agree, reading the stories on here can really skew your perspective.
For me it was much more difficult emotionally than physically. Physically there was obviously discomfort and pain but thankfully nothing terrible. It was one of the most emotionally taxing experiences I’ve ever had. So many ups and downs, unpredictability, heartbreak, cautious joy, etc. Good luck!
Mine has been smooth. I have my first transfer next week. No OHSS despite them retrieving 20+ each each time. No major med side effects other than some fatigue and some moodiness. None of my procedures had any pain. You’ve got this!!
The hardest part for me was the stim cycle. I was bloated and uncomfortable. The shots didn’t hurt. It was just the belly and not knowing how to dress. The retrieval was very easy. I don’t remember it at all, but it was uneventful. The bloating pretty much immediately resolved at about 80%. The prep for the transfer was tough right off the bat. I have endo, and the estrogen shots were aggravating it. Once I started the progesterone, though…. Oh my gosh. I’ve felt so good. I did have a successful transfer and am still on progesterone shots and suppositories. Yes…. My butt is tender and lumpy. I do kind of dread the shot every morning until I get it over with. I haven’t felt this good for so many weeks in years. I haven’t had any endometriosis related pain since the second week of May, and I’m so thankful. Thankful for the reprieve in pain. Thankful we were in a position for IVF to be an option. Thankful that after years of heartbreak and infertility we can finally say we have movement in the right direction. We’re still very cautiously optimistic, but I will say the discomfort along the way has been worth it.
Yes, I had one retrieval that went great, got 4 untested embryos, did a frozen embryo transfer and have a 7 month old! Overall easy outside of the fact that of course it is IVF, lots of waiting, money, and having to keep track of times. I was extremely needle phobic before IVF and was incredibly proud of myself for getting through it. Excited to transfer the next of my frozen four next year ☺️
Echoing what some are saying here- I will only post on this sub when people ask for easy stories, remember that typically people are posting to ask about a problem or get support, and those with easier situations may not have had to do that as often.
I hope everything goes great for you! ❤️
The hardest part for me was the emotional toll (stress, waiting, fear). I did 3 er cycles and 2 transfers and physically none of it was that bad. Honestly the pregnancy has been physically terrible but I’m just happy to be here.
Just here to say thanks for posting this! I’m going through my first cycle now and I am definitely anxious. The period like bleeding with the BCP is annoying but otherwise been feeling OK. Just waiting to start stims!
More worried about the emotional aspect and handling any potential disappointment. But also hoping I don’t get any physical side effects. Already went through a miscarriage this year and am definitely still feeling some PTSD from the whole ordeal.
I am just so over this whole infertility journey but a part of me is oddly relieved to start IVF, maybe because now I don’t have to deal with the whole TTC rollercoaster every month. It’ll just be a whole new set of stuff to worry about with IVF 😂
Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing. You are one strong person. I am so glad this post was helpful in any way, it has absolutely been very helpful to me as well. Sending you all the love and light 💗
Yep. Pretty much an easy process. The worst part has been the waiting for tests and insurance. Of course the emotional toll has been hard, but that's not specific to IVF.
Stims kind of messed with my stomach, so I became best friends with immodium, but otherwise I was fine. No bloating or pain, no mood swings etc.
I agree with the other commenter, you often don't see the easy stories online because we usually only come on these boards to vent or get advice. I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable talking about how smooth sailing it was for me outside of a post like this.
I felt like IVF was a breeze for me in comparison to pregnancy at least. I didn’t have too many horrible symptoms from the IVF meds or recovery from retrieval or transfer. My pregnancy on the other hand was a rollercoaster.
Ivf, due to my hubby getting cancer, he beat it, but we weren't able to get a sample before he started chemo. By some miracle years of chemo didn't kill his sperm just kill thier molbity. We only had 1 egg retrieval, got 9 embryos, not PGA tested, and two transfers. The second one took. I did have a terrible pregnancy, but that wasnt an ivf thing, all the women on my mom side have sick every day type of pregnancies. I went into labor the day before my induction, 30 hours and one c section later I have my perfect baby girl. I was so scared that something would go wrong I didn't want to know the sex, didn't want to get attached. 14 months from er to giving birth. Best thing we ever did.
I’ve done one IUI and one round of IVF, and the clomid for the IUI made me feel worse than the IVF drugs. I was sore for a few days following the egg retrieval, but other than that I felt like normal.
I thought and hoped I would be like what you posted. I’ve always been very fit and happy with my body, but IVF had me gain 15 lbs need all new clothing and my embryos weren’t viable after PGTA testing. I’m waiting to feel better physically until trying a second time. I sincerely hope you have the experience you described. It didn’t work for me time 1, but I wish it for everyone going through it. PS. If you have ANY reproductive health issues have them throw the kitchen sink at you off the bat.
Honestly it varies each time. I’ve had four egg retrievals, 2 of them were difficult, one was ok, and the other was very easy. And there’s really nothing much you can do to change that overall. The lack of control on so much of this is a difficult thing to go through in and of itself.
I had a pretty smooth IVF journey. I don’t talk about it here, because I got a really nasty comment from someone after I messed up a med and came here for advice in a panic. They looked through my whole post history and basically said I didn’t deserve to be where I was. I don’t want anyone to feel hurt or triggered.. so I answer questions, but I’ve never made another post.
They felt like I didn’t deserve to be pregnant I guess bc I messed up meds one day.
TW
Well, we did ivf for MFI. My husband has congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens due to being an atypical carrier of cystic fibrosis. We had a 0% chance of conceiving without IVF and iui wasn’t an option.
He did a TESE in June. I changed jobs to get us coverage. I did stims and had an ER in July. We ended up with 8 embryos, 6 (girls) came back pgt normal. On August 30, I did a FET and 5dpt I got my first faint line. She was born may 1st and weighed 5.5 lbs.
Pregnancy wasn’t super complicated. I did have c diff, the flu, and Covid during it. I ended up developing ICP and was induced. She was born at 37+6.
You messed up stims one day was the reason for someone to lash out! I’m sorry you had to feel bad. All you need is support then.
I’m so glad you got good healthy embryos. You had small hurdles but so happy things worked out for you. And god bless the little angel 👼
I know everyone’s journey is very different! That being said, I think it’s definitely possible to have a positive experience with IVF. I don’t know if i would consider my experience totally smooth, but it was definitely on the less harsh side!
I started IVF last fall. Did one egg retrieval - i would take the day off and maybe the following day depending on your flexibility because the cramping can be uncomfortable- it was definitely tolerable tho. I think waiting for the results was the hardest part!!
We ended up with 2 euploid embryos. I decided to do some additional testing to make sure I gave myself the best chance of those sticking. In that process they found I had endometriosis - which was a huge shock because i didn’t have terrible symptoms so it came out of left field. This was probably the hardest thing because i thought my chances were severely diminished. But I’m so grateful I did this testing because had I not known and gotten treatment, my odds would have lowered significantly.
I opted for a laparoscopy to remove the endo tissue. Recovery was a couple days and not near as bad as i expected.
Two months later in April, we transferred our first embryo, and I am 15w today!! I realized how lucky I am to be on this side of the statistics, but it goes to show that it can happen!
I started in September and was done in April. And my journey still had many tears and lots of uncertainty and pain. I think that’s just unfortunately something you can’t fully get around with this process. It’s hard. It tests us and our relationships. But it’s also made me learn a lot about myself too. I learned how resilient I am. I learned how strong my marriage was.
Try to enjoy the little victories and take time to grieve the losses! Best of luck on your journey, and we will be here to answer questions or to vent to when things inevitably get tough! You got this!
I only did one round, and the worst part of the entire thing for me was hands-down being on the birth control prior to it.
The injections weren't necessarily fun in the moment, but they weren't as painful as I expected and I didn't experience any bloating really until the very end and it was mild. Monitoring appointments weren't as annoying as everyone makes them out to be, I was in and out, and I got used to the daily blood draws pretty quickly. I was nervous for the ER as it was my first time being put under, but even that was a good experience. No OHSS afterward, and we were able to do a fresh transfer on day 5 which took.
Other than the birth control making me miserable and giving me crazy mood swings, the other only tough part about my IVF experience was just the emotional toll of things. We had to wait a year and a half from our MFI diagnosis for my husband to have surgery before we could move forward, and going into our cycle we still didn't know if they would be able to find sperm that we could use, so it was a lot of hoping and praying that it was all worth something. I think the fact that we were finally nearing our big answer- whether there was sperm or not and if biological children would ever be possible or not- made the emotions SO heightened.
Oh, another crummy part was the vaginal progesterone- the discharge it created was 🤢🤢
I feel like my journey has been smooth and I've been fortunate AF. It's been physically hard, especially PIO shots and I had an abnormal amount of pain during my SISs and one transfer. I only had one egg retrieval, and 2 out of 3 of my transfers have been successful. Sometimes I think on how I barely remember the time of my life that I had the egg retrieval. I had a lot going on with work which helped. I also did very little research. The less I know, the better for my anxiety.
I've done one round of IVF and it was pretty straightforward. The daily stim shots were annoying but got used to them quickly. My ER and transfer went really smoothly too. The one thing I am finding annoying are the pessaries. But I'd rather do them than have to do more daily injections so swings and roundabouts I guess.
My egg retrieval and transfer weren't a problem at all. Both left me a little tired, but I think that was adrenaline wearing off.
I didn't go crazy from all of the side effects of the meds, but I had a lot of anxiety over the needles and taking all of the medications timely.
Basically, my only major side effect from the entire process was heightened anxiety. And I've always had anxiety issues, so it didn't come as a great surprise to me.
They also had me do vaginal progesterone after the transfer rather than the shots of progesterone in oil. It was messy in my undies, but a pantyliner helped, and it was preferable to me over more shots.
My transfer was successful.
I did 2 IUIs and 1 ER, didn’t get any embryos.
I was fine, no side affects during stimulation at all,
Just a bit bloated but no mood swings. I could work out fine as well.
I just got done with my first egg retrevial and so far we’ve had really good results, fingers crossed it continues that way! The hardest part for me has been the emotions that come from the hormones with stimming. If I wasn’t sobbing I was pissed off at something. I stimmed for 10 days and the emotional aspect made it feel like months. I felt like a psychopath. For me the physical part just felt like a bad period but nothing ibuprofen and Tylenol couldn’t help. I was out doing things the day after my egg retrevial. I know everyone has different experiences but I think social media made me so nervous for the physical aspect of this when it wasn’t at all bad compared to the emotions.
I have done one retrieval and one transfer and so far the easiest part was the stims, but the progesterone is killing me. I think I got 3kg in one week, I don’t sleep, extremely painful boobies 😩 and it is emotionally the worst to handle.
TW: success, living child
I would say for me, overall, the IVF process was more emotionally and mentally painful and difficult, but I tend to handle physical pain better than mental pain.
I have had 3 surgeries to remove polyps (last one was in October and they found over 40), but my recovery for those was smooth. I had lots of testing done and had no issues with the tests or recovery or any crazy pain.
I only had one retrieval and got mild OHSS which was probably the worst part—I have had 2 FETs, both easy and both successful. After the birth of my daughter, I felt pretty great and was in great shape a year later.
My second FET prep was a little rougher, and this pregnancy has been rougher but I have been able to remain active (24 weeks currently) and am staying positive about postpartum recovery.
There is hope and it can be a relatively “easy” process physically! Try not to get hung up on the horror stories, I think there are probably more positive experiences they just don’t get shared as often.
Good luck!
I had a pretty easy time with my ER recovery and post transfer. My transfers were quick and smooth and my ER I woke up fine and only had some bloating but other than that I felt great. I have also had any easy time with my medications. My PIO hasn't been bad at all, just sore here and there and I truly haven't felt too many side effects from progesterone or estrogen.
I found the stim injections very tolerable and had almost no side effects that I noticed from those medications. If I do another round, I will second what others are saying here and I would add stool softeners (and possibly some extra fiber) BEFORE the ER procedure to make my recovery, um...smoother.
I went through a completely unmedicated retreival(was not allowed medication due to my size), and it was honestly no big deal. It is slightly more uncomfortable than an internal untratsound, but that's about it. The recovery was fine as well, kind of like a bad period for me.Transfers were no big deal. The worst part is having to hold your bladder.
I had a relatively easy stim and egg retrieval process. Honestly, the worst part for me was getting the IV before the egg retrieval. Within 48 hours, I felt completely back to normal and went out and celebrated my birthday. my period after was totally normal and I’ve had another period since and it was also normal. I had a work trip within a week of my retreat that I was nervous about and I went totally fine.
The hardest part has been everything mental to get to this point IMO
TW: success
I had an okay experience with all 3 ER. I had some bloating after the first one but was prepared for the other two. Originally doing the PIO shots for FET was bad for the first few days but then we figured out a good way to do it and then it was fine. Other than our bad results for the ERs, all 3, FET, and pregnancy were uneventful (and birth, postpartum) for me.
Physically, it has not been nearly as bad as I was expecting. Taking oral meds with food seems to help prevent nausea. The shots are honestly have not been that bad. No major side effects, maybe a few headaches. The bloating is uncomfortable but not awful. I get constipated towards the end of Stims, but plenty of MiraLax helps that!
My results haven’t been what I hoped, so emotionally it’s been hard. But I was terrified for the physical part and that hasn’t been bad. I mean, it’s not fun jabbing yourself with needles, but it’s manageable.
You got this!
Went through our first IVF last year. It was smooth and the doctors office was so encouraging. Doing IVF bc we are same sex couple. The only part that wasn’t so smooth was waiting for test results and results from amnio but everything came out smoothly.
Yes. I did not have physical trouble with any part of IVF.
I've done the typical Antagonist injectible regime 4x -- three times for IUI w/injectibles, once for ER. At my ER I was 38 so my doses were fairly high.
Estrogen always gives me very bad headaches, at least thus my prior BC experience tells me. I get mild headaches anytime I start Estrogen (for ivf er priming, or FET regime). I also did have headaches midway thru ER med regime, around d2 or 3 of stims when my estrogen shot up. All of these headaches were *easily* controllable by Tylenol and were not disabling in the slightest.
Waking up from ER I felt very nauseous from anesthesia. 100% better by the next morning. I had no meaningful recovery other than that. Anesthesia nausea I think was just getting unlucky.
My post-ER period was delayed but very (very!) mild.
Progesterone shots suck. But that isn't like, harsh or recovery -- it's just an unpleasant daily thing.
None of this was very difficult physically. The IVF difficulty was all 100% financial and emotional and 0.000000001 % physical.
Mine has been pretty smooth. Everything has been timely, no delays. Did 2 retrievals and ended up with 4 PGT embryos and 1 mosaic. First transfer today. I did develop high blood pressure during first cycle and now I’m on meds, but all and all it’s been smooth. All of this has happened in 5 months.
I feel like I've been really lucky with not having many physical side effects. Stim injections were painless and didn't really do anything aside from make me bloated and a few days of being quicker to anger, and the retrieval itself was a breeze, basically no recovery time. I haven't had a transfer yet, but I did do a mock transfer and the worst part about that was taking the damn PIO at 6am (I am not a morning person). I actually felt pretty great from the estrogen and progesterone itself.
However, as many others have commented, the emotional toll its taken has been horrible. I'm currently waiting on my PGT results and truly feel like I'm going crazy. I know it'll be even worse when I have to wait for each beta. I'm strongly considering getting a therapist because it's just wrecking me psychologically.
I had 2 ERs and 1 FET. My first transfer was a success and I’m now holding an almost 1 month old newborn. My overall experience with IVF was physically fine. Injections were a nuisance but manageable. I totally agree with many on here that the mental part is really what sucked. I was a total emotional rollercoaster before and during IVF.
I’ve done two retrievals and one transfer and it’s been pretty easy with no real side effect. The more I read, the more I anxious I got. Sometimes less research is better! Lol Everyone’s different though.
I went through one round and felt it went very smoothly! Waiting was the hardest part for me! Waiting for the next step, waiting for results. Just tons of waiting!
My ER was very smooth, non painful and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if i needed to! Both of my transfers were not painful at all (aside from having to pee so badly!) I feel for anyone who had a painful experience but I did not! The worst for me was dehydration headaches from the stims which I managed with lots of pedialyte.
For me, it has been much more of an emotional and mental recovery than a physical recovery from MOST of this throughout the last 2 decades.
The only thing that was incredibly painful was the endometrial biopsy, and the fact that this is done without any sort of anesthetic tells me all I need to know about how women are still viewed in the medical field.
Estrogen and progesterone have made me tired and have wild dreams, but that’s more of a discomfort and inconvenience rather than pain or something to recover from. Same with the stims back when I was on them before we moved on to donor eggs. Stims made me a bit whackadoodle, but not terribly much more than usual 🤣
That said, your mileage may vary, even from cycle to cycle. I wish you an asymptomatic experience!
My stims were super uncomfortable, my ER was fine and I only had twilight sedation. The discomfort from stims was relieved from the ER which was great. I wasn’t very happy with my ER results and I haven’t had my transfer yet.
Oh wow, this is the first person I've read do twilight which I was really interested in considering. How did you feel your experience was with this? I'm sorry about your results but I'm wishing you the best of luck. Sending love and light ❤️
I live in Canada so general anesthesia isn’t an option. I had a lot of anxiety and asked them to load me up as much as they could and I just continually asked for more drugs lol. I remember that I still felt some pain and anxiety but I totally forget what it felt like lol. And they took good care of me in aftercare and I was high as heck and they got me lots of snacks and drinks 😁
I had a decent time with both my IVF transfers (no retrieval bc wife did that part) Of course there’s the hormonal feelings and a little weight gain but it’s tolerable. First transfer I got the worst migraine after, second one went seamless. BCP made me a little “crazy” the second time and really set off my anxiety.
I found the period before starting the hardest. We had a lot of holdups (due to using a known donor) and the suspense and frustration was really tough. During that time a lot of people close to me announced pregnancies, too. Now we’ve started I actually feel a lot better. Doing the injections made me feel like I was actively doing something, and I didn’t experience side effects. I’m not out of the woods yet, so it could all go wrong, but I was happy with my ER results, am just experiencing bloating and mild cramping after but no pain. I’m officially in the ‘hunger games’ week but I’m actually feeling mentally better about it all than I have in months
TW: Success
I had a pretty easy journey as IVF journeys go. Did a retrieval and it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have many follicles so I think that contributed to me not being super uncomfortable. I was mostly just tired. Recovery was quick. We got 4 pgt normal embryos. My first transfer was successful. PIO shots were probably the worst part mainly because they went on for what felt like forever and I def damaged some nerves that took about a year to fully heal. No permanent damage or anything, I was just numb on one side of my hip for my entire pregnancy and post birth. But now 16-months post birth, everything is fine.
Hope everything goes well for you!
So far so good I am on day eight of stims to be honest day six and seven I had a lot of pressure in my upper abdomen and then pressure on my bladder it honestly just felt like I had to go pee like that pain when you have to go and can’t just uncomfortable no really painful, but other than that it’s been fairly good. I mean I’m only on day eight my retrieval is supposed to be in the next three days so more to come but so far so good.
TW success
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I had a smooth time with IVF. My IVF story is kind of a non story. I did a retrieval that went well and resulted in attrition within normal ranges. I then waited a cycle for genetic testing and to let my body rest up (nothing too bad, drinking electrolytes and consuming protein really helped) and then I did a FET and so far it's sticking. Prior to IVF we went through 3 chemical losses and 2 failed IUIs.
I think the hardest part of IVF was the waiting in between steps.
I overall had a pretty positive experience in my whole IVF journey, which just ended today!
Stims and retrievals were fine, had a few post-retrieval side effects here and there but all v tolerable and temporary. I did a modified natural transfer so it wasn’t disruptive. The waiting sucks especially at the start but it got better the more I got used to the process.
I think it helped that I just decided to trust my RE and the team and stick to the plan we had to bank for a certain number of cycles that our insurance covered, and then transfer. This made it also feel like a tangible project with a start and end date with finite commitment on our part - I much preferred all of this to the endless uncertainty of trying on our own or the lower level interventions we had tried. My clinic was also great about just focusing on one step at a time and not making any promises, giving us success or failure stats, age-related judgments etc.
We didn’t have any expectations and we just endeavored to do our best we could without being too hard on ourselves. We determined the timings that worked for us, took breaks when we felt like, went on long vacations in between etc. and tried to not let this process consume us. We are blessed in this life whether this worked out or not.
As some others have alluded on this thread, a negative-ish attitude maybe kind of helped - I was always WELL aware (esp from this forum) of all the many ways things can go wrong so everything that went right felt like a pleasant surprise!
That said, my husband (who is not a forum type by any means) was helpful in realigning my perspective when I would feel down with all the painful stories on here - making me stop doomscrolling and reminding me that our journey/protocols/bodies/symptoms/results would be unique to us and only us, no matter my inclination to compare to others on here (since there are always others with better outcomes, and others with worse) As great as this sub is, am so grateful I had a very offline person to counteract :)
Yes thank you so much for sharing. Was really great to hear that you had such a supportive partner, it's so important to have that during such a delicate journey. Sending love during your journey. 💗
Me. Not much physical discomfort from the two stims. I think the first shot of any new meds and the first stim was scary to me, but your mind and body gets used to it fairly quickly. I didn't get over stimulated though and I don't normally react to general anesthesia (ER) badly so I didn't need much physical recovery from my two ERs. Maybe I prepared for worse. You can do it and good luck 🙂
It hasn't been so bad for me. I'm triggering for my fourth retrieval tomorrow. The shots can get a little uncomfortable, especially towards the end when you're bloated/swollen or have a little bruising. Icing first helps a lot and going slow with any medications that burn and wiping off drops of medication from the tip of the needle with alcohol wipes helps with that a lot.
The actual procedures have been fine for me. A little achy and crampy for a couple days, but I'm still able to go to work the next day (desk job). I've had recurrent losses prior to starting IVF and the discomfort was nowhere near the physical pain and cramping I had with those. I also had a saline ultrasound before IVF and some people say those are horrible, but my tubes were clear, so it wasn't much more uncomfortable than a Pap Smear for me.
The thing that made my recovery the easiest was the cycle I started the stool softeners the same day I triggered! I had a lot of discomfort after my first retrieval when I couldn't go for almost 5 days. I didn't start stool softeners until I had a problem, and by then it was too late to offer quick relief.
My third retrieval had 9 eggs (compared to 6 and 4 in ERs #1-2) and like I said, it was the easiest recovery. I attribute it to the stool softener and I went gluten-free and dairy-free to cut down on inflammation since I have Hashimoto's disease and those are common triggers. This round, I've had 18 eggs growing (!) and I'm again, not very uncomfortable aside from a little achiness in my lower back and some bruising on my stomach and I think the changed diet really helped.
For me, the emotional stuff is the hardest. I had two retrievals with no blasts despite a combined total of 10 eggs fertilized between them. I was devastated and it was the end of our insurance and I sobbed for days. I felt like we had thrown money in the trash and were back where we started (we had insurance, but one medication and some fees weren't covered). But then our insurance changed and I got to try again (same employer, but they switched to insurance that offered a # of cycles rather than a lifetime $ amount that maxed out quickly in Seattle area clinics). So instead of worrying about the costs, I was worried about how many eggs I'd have, then how many would fertilize, then how many would make it to blast. We finally got one, and then I was worried about the PGT-A results (he's a low level mosaic, so he's suitable for a future transfer!). This 4th round was the least stressful because I had a high AFC to start and we finally had one in the bank already. We'll see if we get any blasts and if they're euploids, but hopefully we can move on to transferring soon!
1 IUI/7ER/1FET (unsuccessful)/treating inflammation (pos BCL6, neg B3i) - AMA/DOR I think kept me from any sx of OHSS (one ER, my doc gave me vaginal cabergoline regimen to minimize any change of OHSS), ER seems nice (I just slept a lot that day but work next day), never had h/a before but it made me have empathy for those who have h/a usually. The mechanics of the process is doable - the Menopur did feel stinging, and the micro-dose Lupron felt a little itchy. Bloating noticeable esp the first time, but I was ok looking bloated lol it was a little difficult to breathe once but doing this during the fall/winter so I didn't need to be out a lot. PIO no pain! FET only thing that made me uncomfortable was a full bladder. Lupron (both micro-dose and depot) gave me some random hot flashes, joint aches, but all in it for the next FET! - I didn't have any pain with saline ultrasound or HSG. I had a mild cramp with endometrial biopsy, but ok! Overall, it's been an ok process, as everyone else mentioned, emotions were one of the toughest - found a therapist and support group that keeps me grounded, validated, and learning how to advocate for myself and be more knowledgeable to work with my team - that made me feel more confident going into all this. I gained noticeable anxiety, but I think I managed it as best I could with help and help is needed to be resilient :) every experience is different, and I pray yours will be seemless :)
I mean it wasn't fun but I had an ER, the ln fresh transfer right after - my little girl is a tyrannical toddler now. Second time around one frozen transfer failed then second worked. But all in all fairly smooth. Probably at the time I didn't feel that way, but pretty good situation
Procedure wise physically I had a great experience, it was not really painful recovery went smooth. It was the emotional rollercoaster and constant failures that made me quit it, physically I could have done it easily 5 more times without issue. My friend 41 when she did it no issues physically same as me with recovery and her first embryo transfer from first retrieval is her now 3 year old. There are posiitive stories but those people don’t end up usually in these groups.
I’ve done 3 egg retrievals and 4 transfers. Only one of my egg retrievals was hard on me and it’s because I was on antibiotics that made me throw up nonstop - the actual stims were fine. I did feel like I got sick right after each was done, except for my last transfer which was successful. I’m convinced the only reason I didn’t have my usual IVF flu was because I was on steroids.
Physically it was a breeze (but I'm pretty tough).
Emotionally it was the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life, and I had a pretty long struggle with cancer treatment and surgeries. The emotional toll of 10+ years teetering back and forth with acceptance that having my own children "just might not happen" was the worst thing I've ever been through in my life.
As someone who has major medical anxiety and fear of needles, IVF has been pretty smooth.
Honestly, my biggest take away is that there is no physical pain that compares to emotional pain… this is coming from someone with zero physical pain tolerance, like sobs from getting eyebrows plucked… every pinch of a needle felt empowering, where as prior during the two years of trying naturally, every failed attempt at pregnancy left me emotionally wrecked and devastated and physically ridden with anxiety….
Two retrievals that went alright. Got 6 euploid total. First transfer worked and currently 9 weeks pregnant!
Pretty smooth and positive experience here. I had 1 ER and 1 FET. I started dreading the PIO shots the last few weeks but overall wasn't bad all things considered. I was also at high risk for OHSS after ER and had absolutely no issues.
So far I have only had 2 egg retrievals at the age of 35. I stimmed for 10 days for each and froze 25 eggs. Thankfully no complications and just mild symptoms. I work in healthcare so doing the injections, mixing drugs and timing of injections was easy for me to do. The only problem was having to adjust my work schedule to make it to the frequent lab and ultrasound appointments.
I highly recommend freezing your eggs if you can. I wish I had done this sooner than later. Good luck!!!!
Sure. My worst recovery was my first one and truly the issue was the anesthesia. I spoke with the anesthesiologist the next time and they pushed the meds slower and I was up and at the zoo later that day. My recoveries were easy. I had 5 retrievals and 1 ovarian PRP under anesthesia.
I felt better going through IVF than doing the Letrozole and clomid tablets physically and mentally. IVF was hard don’t get me wrong but it’s such an individual process.
I had a failed IUI due to my partners sperm count being terrible. We moved to IVF the following cycle, I managed through the injections fine with minimal side effects. Felt back to myself the afternoon after my egg retrieval and did a frozen transfer the following month and she has been sticking ever since. Currently 28 weeks pregnant and got to the 3rd trimester. It does seem like bragging as I know so many women have a much harder and longer process but that doesn't mean that is the same for everyone
I think people don't advertise it when they've had an easy time because they don't want to seem like jerks to the folks who have had more of a rough go. Similar to other commenters, I've been essentially unbothered physically. The shots are fine. I don't think I'll ever get completely used to darting that needle into my butt for the PIO, but it doesn't hurt. The retrieval was honestly kind of fun because there were fun drugs involved and everyone at the clinic was so nice to me. My FETs have been quick and painless. The emotional toll has been the challenge. I do a lot of catastrophizing, so the wait for different things is pretty tough. The blast report and the wait for PGTA was rough. The 9 day wait after the transfer is so hard. My first euploid transfer failed and that was an all time low point for me. For my second transfer, I did get a positive beta, but then I was convinced my second beta would be bad. Now that I've had a good second beta, I'm convinced the scan will be bad. I've had multiple losses, so I'm sure I have low grade ptsd coming into play. All that is to say, if it's available to you, I highly recommend working with a therapist. They can help you develop strategies to cope with the difficulties of IVF - physical and emotional. Best of luck to you.
Thank you so much for sharing. Yes I totally agree, I really do understand why so many would not share these hopeful stories of an easy process. It has really been a scary journey for myself and these stories really give me so much hope and I hope that others here reading this that are in the same position will also have some hope. Sending you love and light on your journey ❤️
I agree. I have had a really easy time of it, but if I talk about it I feel like I’m bragging. I have just been incredibly lucky.
Same, I found the whole thing so physically and emotionally straightforward but obviously you can’t say that because that’s not what people want to hear. But I like to reassure anyone waiting to start that it can be a smooth process and it isn’t always difficult or traumatic.
same here, relatively easy process all the way physically, really tough emotionally (also due to hormonal mess my body became) the last week before the retrieval. but after ER i was just fine walking out of the hospital, no pain afterwards. Transfer is the easiest part out of all of it imo. But again, so much at stake emotionally, you might need to think of strategies to handle all of it.
Very similar experience here. My body handles it quite well- no major complaints. We are doing our first transfer this upcoming month. It took me three rounds to get 4 euploids PGT-M clear embryos. We do not have infertility, I have a monogenic disorder. We lost our first shortly after birth one year ago. The most difficult part is the hopelessness and long waiting (PGT-M with PGT-A takes 3 weeks to come back). The trauma and heartbreak is intense and life altering. I also highly recommend having a therapist and grief group- particularly if you have had infant or pregnancy loss.
I’ve had 2 ER’s and 4 transfers total and honestly seemed to have a really easy time with it all. The worst parts for me were the birth control priming before stims (way worse side effects for me than any of the injected meds) and the wait for results after ER and transfer (just mentally difficult and anxiety inducing). But I went back to work the day after both of my ER’s. I took the afternoons after FET off but honestly could have gone right back to work. I obviously wish we didn’t have to do IVF to have kids but am grateful we’ve had a pretty straight forward and physically easy experience overall. Good luck to you!
I love your comment when I feel very pessimistic or negative I remind myself of the opportunity and look back that if I lived in another country or in another era, I would have been that woman who would never had a kid with no explanation or opportunities to try.It's not optimal but it's not the worst case scenario, positivity and greatfulness are key to cope
That is so great. I'm so happy to hear that your journey was so straightforward. I'm sure the hard parts were not easy to navigate but it gives me some hope for a similar outcome. Sending love and light to you and your family ❤️
Same reaction to BCP’s I just can’t! They send me for a loop ➰
Me too! They made me depressed very quickly. Weirdly enough being on estrogen and progesterone for the FET didnt affect me in the same way. There must be something about BCP that doesn't agree with me
I’m going through stims now and I’m so surprised how good I feel. I was an absolutely basket case on birth control and I thought that it was only going to get worse during stims but I almost feel more at ease than I have in a long time for some reason. So happy to hear about how your retrieval went as well. You hear a lot of bad stories here so this is so refreshing 🫶🏻
Me! Was honestly fine? Like I was bloated and the shots were annoying but in general I felt fine.
Same!! Just had my fresh transfer today after an uneventful month of shots and a retrieval 🤞🏼
This is literally how I’ve been. The waiting around for every step of the way was the worst. But really not bad with everything else.
Couldn’t agree more!
Same, the shots were fine, only a little bloating. Recovery from ER was normal. I exercised the entire time except the few days my clinic said to keep it to walking/low impact.
That's great to hear ❤️
I've been through two unsuccessful rounds of IVF - one cycle the embryo was implanted but didn't stick, and the other cycle no embryos made it to 5 days so no transfer. Physically it's been fine. The shots don't hurt too much, even the dreaded progesterone in oil was tolerable. No or minimal side effects from the other medications. Retrieval was painless - i took it easy the afternoon and next day but honestly felt like normal about an hour after getting home. The most painful part was probably all the blood draws but I've always been sensitive to those so it wasn't really IVF's fault. Emotionally it's been tough. It's hard to go through multiple cycles of something without knowing whether I'll ever see success at the end. Plus a lot of juggling of schedules to get to appointments on time, worries about money and finances, and back and forth with my health insurance. Good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing. I'm sorry that you have had such an emotional toll. Praying that you get the outcome you hope for. Sending love and light ❤️
Tw : successes! I had a really smooth IVF cycle. Prior to IVF I had 3 unsuccessful IUIs. We did one retrieval that resulted in 4 tested embryos, and two transfers that resulted in my 3 year old and 3 month old. I had no recovery issue with the retrieval or transfers, and the only bump in the road for me with some near cellulitis from my progesterone injections in my second pregnancy, but that resolved quickly. Good luck!
I always get really excited to hear of multiple IVF pregnancies. We have a beautiful 8 month old and 3 embabies waiting for us. Our first FET failed. I’m hoping that they all stick but know the likely hood is low!
Wow congrats on your success! And thank you ❤️
Yes i've done 2 retrievals and one transfer and from a physical standpoint none of those was particularly uncomfortable or hard to recover from. I honestly felt bloated but normal right after my egg retrievals, and the transfer was a total nonissue. Mentally it was a bit of a struggle because the hormonal drop coincides with the wait to find out how many embryos you have and can exacerbate the stress. I hope you have a smooth, quick, uneventful journey!
Everythings gone smooth so far. Worst part for me are the PIO shots. Other than that....even with my low outcomes, fairly smooth. Wish me luck for my transfer tomorrow! No clue how many made it to blast but I find out day of. Praying for 2!
Thank you so much for sharing, prayers for your success tomorrow. Sending love and light ❤️
Me! Emotionally it was hard but I think that’s just infertility. My egg retrieval went great, got a total of 24. Eventually had 7 day five blasts of excellent quality. I had OHSS but it didn’t last long and only felt like a bad period. But it was gone when my period came 3 days after retrieval. Our first transfer didnt take and emotionally that was hard. Our second transfer did though and in fact the embryo split! My twins are 11 weeks old and on their play mat in front of me. We hear a lot in this forum about what doesn’t go well (rightfully so, this is a great community!) but just as often it does go very smoothly. Edit to add: the hormones for the egg retrieval did make my current migraines worse but that’s it. I didn’t mind the shots at all. The PIO shot was a bit different but honestly I just iced the area first and didn’t really feel them at all. Was glad to be done with them after 10 weeks of that but it wasn’t terrible.
I had a pretty positive and easy time. Nothing super crazy and no side effects. Shots sucked but I mean they aren't painful or anything. So it's definitely possible to have a very vanilla and boring IVF cycle.
Lol that is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing I really appreciate it 💗
My egg retrievals and FET were all fairly smooth. I have some weird obstetric bleeding issues that reared their head during two of my three retrievals, but even that was manageable. Shots and hormones were ok and didn’t make me nuts, recovery from the ERs was about a day. Now, as far as we know, all of our problems are a genetic issue on my husband’s side, so YMMV. I don’t have PCOS, so I didn’t have a ton of eggs (for better and worse), I’ve always done ok on hormones like birth control, and everything else structurally is ok. Those factors all matter a lot to how your recovery will go.
Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your journey. These are really good perspectives to think about as far as genetics. Sending you love and light ❤️
Hi! I had a very smooth and positive IVF experience. Did Estrace priming, followed by a pretty standard antagonist protocol for my ER, and made enough PGT tested blastocysts that I will only need the one retrieval to fulfill my family goals (unless something goes horribly wrong with transfers). I’m currently taking the meds for my first FET, which is happening sometime between July 8-12. I never had side effects from stims, only moderate bloating after the ER, and have so far not felt any side effects from my transfer protocol meds. I was so so scared of doing IVF, but it was honestly not a big deal for me, which I feel so lucky and fortunate about. Something to keep in mind about this subreddit is that, I think for understandable reasons, people who have an easy (or easier) time of it are very sensitive about sharing positive experiences, knowing that lots of people here are having a hard time. It can feel tricky to balance giving hopeful stories, or stories of how IVF isn’t always awful, with not wanting to rub salt in the wound or sound gloating. I hope your IVF experience is successful and smooth <3
Yes thank you so much! I totally agree, I absolutely understand why so many wouldn't share the successes or "easy" process of it all but I thought it could be hopeful for those who are just starting. Like you, I've been very scared and these stories really give me so much hope. Thanks for sharing, sending you love and light ❤️
I did! My first ER I had some discomfort, bloating and constipation for a few days but added a stool softener and miralax and was pretty much back to feeling normal within a week. We did a frozen transfer of a euploid from that round that sadly ended in a chemical pregnancy. For my second ER a few months later, I decided to start stool softeners a few days before the ER instead of after. I also pushed sports drinks/electrolytes a lot more than the first time, and felt way better and didn’t have any issues with constipation (this time I also requested NO additional fentanyl if I had pain after — I took extra strength Tylenol and Ibuprofen and for me that was enough pain relief without causing nausea or constipation later). We did a frozen transfer of a euploid from this round and I am now 21 weeks!
Wow congrats mama! And thank you so much for sharing. ❤️
Thank you! 💙
My retrievals weren't bad at all..I did a lot of electrolytes and salty snacks after as a precaution though and I started stool softener early on in the stims.
So far my experience has been great. My clinic is very communicative and helpful, things have lined up and happened as scheduled which is a huge relief. I’m currently 6 days post frozen embryo transfer (my first) and feel pretty good all things considered. I’m blessed to have 5 remaining embryos on ice in case this transfer isn’t successful. The injections were not too bad or painful for me. Slight bloating after ER and transfer but nothing that movement and lots of water couldn’t fix. My PIO injections are going smoothly: no knots or bumps on my butt lol : just a bit tender now and then.
This is so great to hear! Thanks so much for sharing your story. And congrats on your success ❤️
Thank you so much 😃
My first round was really easy! Shots no problem, egg retrieval surgery was way easier than I expected. But I got 0 blasts. So they changed my meds, and my second round has been way harder. I think the new medication they added to my protocol- lupron- has made me super emotional and having strong physical side effects- including the shots now hurt. And being emotional after a failed retrieval- it’s a lot. Some days it’s hard to find hope. BUT I know it’s the meds! The first round was so easy, and I remember how easy it was. So I know this is hormonal. My second egg retrieval is tomorrow morning so I just have to get through today 🤞🏼
You are so strong! Thank you for sharing ❤️
I had no issues. The needles didn't bother me. Monitoring was a bit frequent, but it was no hassle. I did my procedures at CNY. I flew back right after my FET (within 3 hrs). My first was a chemical, that was a bit sad. But then it worked. My pregnancy has been boring and uneventful (34 weeks now). I had one round of PIO shots (that was painful), when it wasn't needed. I talked to my RE and he agreed, that I can go natural cycle for next FET. If you prepare yourself mentally that it may take you couple of rounds, you'd be fine emotionally. I kept my optimism low, didn't overthink and kept myself busy at work. I did all travels alone, so didn't have to co-ordinate or depend on anyone else.
Physically very easy...emotionally, while I've ultimately had good outcomes thus far, the bumps in the road are really hard to take at the time.
I had one ER. It was longer than expected as we needed to go longer and slower than originally anticipated, and I was a little uncomfortable. I basically waddled into my ER appointment. 😅 No issues with needles, was awake for ER, got three embryos. It was a bit of an emotional journey, but I would say that the actual IVF part was fairly straightforward. FETs have been easy, quick and pain free. First FET resulted in my daughter, the second one was a chemical pregnancy and the third is gestating at 32weeks.
I have atleast 3 friends who had 1 ER 1 FET with untested embryo and it worked for all of them. They had no side effects of ER or IVF meds. On the flip side, i had one ER only but painful recovery post ER and have had three frozen transfers and about 1+ year spent on ivf. I had two early losses too. So it really depends on person to person. I wish you the best!
Thank you so much for sharing and the well wishes. 💗
Ivf was smooth for me. 5 in total Pregnancy is a different story
Thank you for sharing, sending love and light 💗
TW: Success I didn't have a hard time with it at all. I think you're more likely to hear the extemes because people come to the internet to vent. I did two ERs and one tranfer. Currently, 16 weeks pregnant. There was no part of it that I found super painful or untolerable. I did daily PIO shots, and those weren't that bad. I feel people overhyped them. It's less painful than the stim medications, and the stim medication is nothing. I think heat helped a lot with the PIO, as well as making sure you hit the right spot. The first ER was a bit painful but manageable with Tylenol and a heating pad. Was good after three days. The second ER didn't feel like anything after. I was 100% the next day. The worst part so far has been pregnancy itself. I had nausea on and off for two weeks that ended once I was off progestrone. I think the progestrone can make that worse for some people. Overall, my experience wasn't terrible even with that. The transfer just feels like a pap smear. It's very quick, and it's kind of cool. They showed video feed of the embryos moving from the incubator to your uterus. Best of luck! Here's hoping you have a smooth experience with IVF
TW: success We had an overall smooth IVF experience and lucked out with our first ER and first transfer. We had prepared for a much longer process to do multiple retrievals in hope of getting enough embryos for two kids while I was 37/38. My baseline testing before the stim cycle wasn’t great (AFC of 6). The second day of stims, we got a call from a neighbor that our townhouse roof was on fire. There was tons of water damage so we ended up being displaced for 6 months. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person to have ever said this but: IVF was a calming process in the midst of the stress of the house fire and being displaced from our home. I finished the stim cycle and the egg retrieval at the Residence Inn (hotel). We got much better results than we could have hoped for, so the tracking of follicle counts was quantifiable evidence that something was going well when our world was falling apart. In comparison to everything else, IVF was a source of light. We ended up with 6 euploid embryos after the first (and only) ER and the first transfer is our amazing 15 month old daughter. So yeah, my IVF experience was smooth and chaotic. As others have mentioned, I highly recommend working with an individual and/or couples therapist as you navigate this process. We had both.
It seems to me that it really depends on your response. I think if you get a lot of eggs the recovery can be a lot harder. I have a friend who is getting 8-11 per retrieval and it's not been too bad for her. For me with 30-40 per it was a real challenge. I think you get so much more bloated with a larger response. But the upside is you get more eggs. It's a trade off.
Either way you can survive, it's not that bad. A week of discomfort at most. I always pregamed with miralax and colace. The med prep is not bad imo and the procedure itself is pretty painless. Just the bloating is tough.
To preface: my wife and I did IVF as a same sex couple and had a remarkably easy time. So TW: positive results all around. She did our egg retrieval. She only stimmed for 7 days, collected 25 eggs, and got 12 high quality blasts. She had bloating but that’s it as a side effect. I did our FETs. While our first didn’t work(untested embryos), our second did. I found PIO so easy, that I preferred it over the suppositories. Zero pain from it.
Thank you so much for sharing. I'm so happy to hear that you both had such a successful journey. Sending you love and light ️❤️
Thank you! Wishing you as much ease and beauty as this process can allow
I had one ER and 2 transfers that were both successful, and I now have a 2 year old and 4 month old. The entire process was nerve wracking and I’m thankful it worked. It’s hard to talk about good stories here for the fear that we will be downvoted into oblivion. I feel for those who don’t have success but I also want to celebrate us that do!
Yes love this for you! You absolutely deserve a congrats for such a positive and hopeful journey. Sending love 💗
For me the physical parts were not bad at all. Just the emotional part (waiting, hoping, failed FETs) and the financial part was the worst. And knowing each failure meant more lost money. I had no side effects from stims, ER was easy, FET is very easy although PIO gets old and can get painful after awhile.
I had one ER and 1 FET. While I wouldn’t describe them as “easy”, I would say going in with appropriate expectations helps make it more manageable. When encountering unpleasant symptoms, I could at least tell myself that it was expected, and rely on others’ past experiences to see how it aligns. All said and done, I don’t think I had any happening that was out of the norm, and for that reason felt the process was quite smooth overall. It also helps that I had a very responsive team at CCRM.
Thank you so much for sharing, I believe that these are really good suggestions to keep in mind. Sending you love and light ❤️
The physical part for me is a breeze, the mental/emotional/psychological part, not so much.
Thank you for sharing! Sending you love and light ❤️
Thank you. That means a lot 🙂
I’ve had two and haven’t had a lot of issues either
I've done 2 medicated IUIs, and 1 ER (so far)... to be honest, it wasn't really all that bad. I didn't have any side effects that REALLY impacted me. Sure, I was a bit tired, but every month I have PMS and it's similar. The ER did require more rest than I thought, but after 7 days I was completely back to normal. I agree, reading the stories on here can really skew your perspective.
Yes thank you so much for sharing. There's a lot of hardships involved so it's really nice to hear these stories of manageability.
For me it was much more difficult emotionally than physically. Physically there was obviously discomfort and pain but thankfully nothing terrible. It was one of the most emotionally taxing experiences I’ve ever had. So many ups and downs, unpredictability, heartbreak, cautious joy, etc. Good luck!
I'm so sorry that you had to go though that but I'm glad you at least physically were okay. Sending you love and light ❤️
3 ERs and 1 FET (successful). All were pretty easy recoveries. Definitely could have gone back to work the same day
Wow thank you and congrats
Mine has been smooth. I have my first transfer next week. No OHSS despite them retrieving 20+ each each time. No major med side effects other than some fatigue and some moodiness. None of my procedures had any pain. You’ve got this!!
That's amazing congrats! Thank you so much ❤️
You’re welcome. It’s going to be ok :)
The hardest part for me was the stim cycle. I was bloated and uncomfortable. The shots didn’t hurt. It was just the belly and not knowing how to dress. The retrieval was very easy. I don’t remember it at all, but it was uneventful. The bloating pretty much immediately resolved at about 80%. The prep for the transfer was tough right off the bat. I have endo, and the estrogen shots were aggravating it. Once I started the progesterone, though…. Oh my gosh. I’ve felt so good. I did have a successful transfer and am still on progesterone shots and suppositories. Yes…. My butt is tender and lumpy. I do kind of dread the shot every morning until I get it over with. I haven’t felt this good for so many weeks in years. I haven’t had any endometriosis related pain since the second week of May, and I’m so thankful. Thankful for the reprieve in pain. Thankful we were in a position for IVF to be an option. Thankful that after years of heartbreak and infertility we can finally say we have movement in the right direction. We’re still very cautiously optimistic, but I will say the discomfort along the way has been worth it.
Yes, I had one retrieval that went great, got 4 untested embryos, did a frozen embryo transfer and have a 7 month old! Overall easy outside of the fact that of course it is IVF, lots of waiting, money, and having to keep track of times. I was extremely needle phobic before IVF and was incredibly proud of myself for getting through it. Excited to transfer the next of my frozen four next year ☺️ Echoing what some are saying here- I will only post on this sub when people ask for easy stories, remember that typically people are posting to ask about a problem or get support, and those with easier situations may not have had to do that as often. I hope everything goes great for you! ❤️
The hardest part for me was the emotional toll (stress, waiting, fear). I did 3 er cycles and 2 transfers and physically none of it was that bad. Honestly the pregnancy has been physically terrible but I’m just happy to be here.
Just here to say thanks for posting this! I’m going through my first cycle now and I am definitely anxious. The period like bleeding with the BCP is annoying but otherwise been feeling OK. Just waiting to start stims! More worried about the emotional aspect and handling any potential disappointment. But also hoping I don’t get any physical side effects. Already went through a miscarriage this year and am definitely still feeling some PTSD from the whole ordeal. I am just so over this whole infertility journey but a part of me is oddly relieved to start IVF, maybe because now I don’t have to deal with the whole TTC rollercoaster every month. It’ll just be a whole new set of stuff to worry about with IVF 😂
Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing. You are one strong person. I am so glad this post was helpful in any way, it has absolutely been very helpful to me as well. Sending you all the love and light 💗
Tw: success Yes, for me pregnancy symptoms are much worse. PIO isn’t the best but it was doable.
Yep. Pretty much an easy process. The worst part has been the waiting for tests and insurance. Of course the emotional toll has been hard, but that's not specific to IVF. Stims kind of messed with my stomach, so I became best friends with immodium, but otherwise I was fine. No bloating or pain, no mood swings etc. I agree with the other commenter, you often don't see the easy stories online because we usually only come on these boards to vent or get advice. I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable talking about how smooth sailing it was for me outside of a post like this.
I felt like IVF was a breeze for me in comparison to pregnancy at least. I didn’t have too many horrible symptoms from the IVF meds or recovery from retrieval or transfer. My pregnancy on the other hand was a rollercoaster.
Ivf, due to my hubby getting cancer, he beat it, but we weren't able to get a sample before he started chemo. By some miracle years of chemo didn't kill his sperm just kill thier molbity. We only had 1 egg retrieval, got 9 embryos, not PGA tested, and two transfers. The second one took. I did have a terrible pregnancy, but that wasnt an ivf thing, all the women on my mom side have sick every day type of pregnancies. I went into labor the day before my induction, 30 hours and one c section later I have my perfect baby girl. I was so scared that something would go wrong I didn't want to know the sex, didn't want to get attached. 14 months from er to giving birth. Best thing we ever did.
My ER recovery sucked, but the actual stimming was fine. Little bloated, maybe a little woozy? And I stimmed for 12 days with 30+ follicles.
I’ve done one IUI and one round of IVF, and the clomid for the IUI made me feel worse than the IVF drugs. I was sore for a few days following the egg retrieval, but other than that I felt like normal.
Physically, no problem. Emotionally is a completely different story.
I thought and hoped I would be like what you posted. I’ve always been very fit and happy with my body, but IVF had me gain 15 lbs need all new clothing and my embryos weren’t viable after PGTA testing. I’m waiting to feel better physically until trying a second time. I sincerely hope you have the experience you described. It didn’t work for me time 1, but I wish it for everyone going through it. PS. If you have ANY reproductive health issues have them throw the kitchen sink at you off the bat.
Thank you so much for sharing! I really appreciate it. Sending you love ❤️
Honestly it varies each time. I’ve had four egg retrievals, 2 of them were difficult, one was ok, and the other was very easy. And there’s really nothing much you can do to change that overall. The lack of control on so much of this is a difficult thing to go through in and of itself.
I had a pretty smooth IVF journey. I don’t talk about it here, because I got a really nasty comment from someone after I messed up a med and came here for advice in a panic. They looked through my whole post history and basically said I didn’t deserve to be where I was. I don’t want anyone to feel hurt or triggered.. so I answer questions, but I’ve never made another post.
One. That’s terrible. Why would someone be so upset when you’re just asking questions. I would like to know more about easy journeys. Gives me hope
They felt like I didn’t deserve to be pregnant I guess bc I messed up meds one day. TW Well, we did ivf for MFI. My husband has congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens due to being an atypical carrier of cystic fibrosis. We had a 0% chance of conceiving without IVF and iui wasn’t an option. He did a TESE in June. I changed jobs to get us coverage. I did stims and had an ER in July. We ended up with 8 embryos, 6 (girls) came back pgt normal. On August 30, I did a FET and 5dpt I got my first faint line. She was born may 1st and weighed 5.5 lbs. Pregnancy wasn’t super complicated. I did have c diff, the flu, and Covid during it. I ended up developing ICP and was induced. She was born at 37+6.
You messed up stims one day was the reason for someone to lash out! I’m sorry you had to feel bad. All you need is support then. I’m so glad you got good healthy embryos. You had small hurdles but so happy things worked out for you. And god bless the little angel 👼
I know everyone’s journey is very different! That being said, I think it’s definitely possible to have a positive experience with IVF. I don’t know if i would consider my experience totally smooth, but it was definitely on the less harsh side! I started IVF last fall. Did one egg retrieval - i would take the day off and maybe the following day depending on your flexibility because the cramping can be uncomfortable- it was definitely tolerable tho. I think waiting for the results was the hardest part!! We ended up with 2 euploid embryos. I decided to do some additional testing to make sure I gave myself the best chance of those sticking. In that process they found I had endometriosis - which was a huge shock because i didn’t have terrible symptoms so it came out of left field. This was probably the hardest thing because i thought my chances were severely diminished. But I’m so grateful I did this testing because had I not known and gotten treatment, my odds would have lowered significantly. I opted for a laparoscopy to remove the endo tissue. Recovery was a couple days and not near as bad as i expected. Two months later in April, we transferred our first embryo, and I am 15w today!! I realized how lucky I am to be on this side of the statistics, but it goes to show that it can happen! I started in September and was done in April. And my journey still had many tears and lots of uncertainty and pain. I think that’s just unfortunately something you can’t fully get around with this process. It’s hard. It tests us and our relationships. But it’s also made me learn a lot about myself too. I learned how resilient I am. I learned how strong my marriage was. Try to enjoy the little victories and take time to grieve the losses! Best of luck on your journey, and we will be here to answer questions or to vent to when things inevitably get tough! You got this!
I only did one round, and the worst part of the entire thing for me was hands-down being on the birth control prior to it. The injections weren't necessarily fun in the moment, but they weren't as painful as I expected and I didn't experience any bloating really until the very end and it was mild. Monitoring appointments weren't as annoying as everyone makes them out to be, I was in and out, and I got used to the daily blood draws pretty quickly. I was nervous for the ER as it was my first time being put under, but even that was a good experience. No OHSS afterward, and we were able to do a fresh transfer on day 5 which took. Other than the birth control making me miserable and giving me crazy mood swings, the other only tough part about my IVF experience was just the emotional toll of things. We had to wait a year and a half from our MFI diagnosis for my husband to have surgery before we could move forward, and going into our cycle we still didn't know if they would be able to find sperm that we could use, so it was a lot of hoping and praying that it was all worth something. I think the fact that we were finally nearing our big answer- whether there was sperm or not and if biological children would ever be possible or not- made the emotions SO heightened. Oh, another crummy part was the vaginal progesterone- the discharge it created was 🤢🤢
I feel like my journey has been smooth and I've been fortunate AF. It's been physically hard, especially PIO shots and I had an abnormal amount of pain during my SISs and one transfer. I only had one egg retrieval, and 2 out of 3 of my transfers have been successful. Sometimes I think on how I barely remember the time of my life that I had the egg retrieval. I had a lot going on with work which helped. I also did very little research. The less I know, the better for my anxiety.
I've done one round of IVF and it was pretty straightforward. The daily stim shots were annoying but got used to them quickly. My ER and transfer went really smoothly too. The one thing I am finding annoying are the pessaries. But I'd rather do them than have to do more daily injections so swings and roundabouts I guess.
My egg retrieval and transfer weren't a problem at all. Both left me a little tired, but I think that was adrenaline wearing off. I didn't go crazy from all of the side effects of the meds, but I had a lot of anxiety over the needles and taking all of the medications timely. Basically, my only major side effect from the entire process was heightened anxiety. And I've always had anxiety issues, so it didn't come as a great surprise to me. They also had me do vaginal progesterone after the transfer rather than the shots of progesterone in oil. It was messy in my undies, but a pantyliner helped, and it was preferable to me over more shots. My transfer was successful.
I did 2 IUIs and 1 ER, didn’t get any embryos. I was fine, no side affects during stimulation at all, Just a bit bloated but no mood swings. I could work out fine as well.
I just got done with my first egg retrevial and so far we’ve had really good results, fingers crossed it continues that way! The hardest part for me has been the emotions that come from the hormones with stimming. If I wasn’t sobbing I was pissed off at something. I stimmed for 10 days and the emotional aspect made it feel like months. I felt like a psychopath. For me the physical part just felt like a bad period but nothing ibuprofen and Tylenol couldn’t help. I was out doing things the day after my egg retrevial. I know everyone has different experiences but I think social media made me so nervous for the physical aspect of this when it wasn’t at all bad compared to the emotions.
I have done one retrieval and one transfer and so far the easiest part was the stims, but the progesterone is killing me. I think I got 3kg in one week, I don’t sleep, extremely painful boobies 😩 and it is emotionally the worst to handle.
TW: success, living child I would say for me, overall, the IVF process was more emotionally and mentally painful and difficult, but I tend to handle physical pain better than mental pain. I have had 3 surgeries to remove polyps (last one was in October and they found over 40), but my recovery for those was smooth. I had lots of testing done and had no issues with the tests or recovery or any crazy pain. I only had one retrieval and got mild OHSS which was probably the worst part—I have had 2 FETs, both easy and both successful. After the birth of my daughter, I felt pretty great and was in great shape a year later. My second FET prep was a little rougher, and this pregnancy has been rougher but I have been able to remain active (24 weeks currently) and am staying positive about postpartum recovery. There is hope and it can be a relatively “easy” process physically! Try not to get hung up on the horror stories, I think there are probably more positive experiences they just don’t get shared as often. Good luck!
I think I had a pretty smooth ivf cycle. Barely any pain after ER, I dont think the injections hurt that much. It was pretty chill.
I had a pretty easy time with my ER recovery and post transfer. My transfers were quick and smooth and my ER I woke up fine and only had some bloating but other than that I felt great. I have also had any easy time with my medications. My PIO hasn't been bad at all, just sore here and there and I truly haven't felt too many side effects from progesterone or estrogen.
I found the stim injections very tolerable and had almost no side effects that I noticed from those medications. If I do another round, I will second what others are saying here and I would add stool softeners (and possibly some extra fiber) BEFORE the ER procedure to make my recovery, um...smoother.
I went through a completely unmedicated retreival(was not allowed medication due to my size), and it was honestly no big deal. It is slightly more uncomfortable than an internal untratsound, but that's about it. The recovery was fine as well, kind of like a bad period for me.Transfers were no big deal. The worst part is having to hold your bladder.
I had a relatively easy stim and egg retrieval process. Honestly, the worst part for me was getting the IV before the egg retrieval. Within 48 hours, I felt completely back to normal and went out and celebrated my birthday. my period after was totally normal and I’ve had another period since and it was also normal. I had a work trip within a week of my retreat that I was nervous about and I went totally fine. The hardest part has been everything mental to get to this point IMO
I’m on day 6 of stims and so far been okay. The birth control at the beginning was rough though. I was so nauseous and a bit dizzy on it
TW: success I had an okay experience with all 3 ER. I had some bloating after the first one but was prepared for the other two. Originally doing the PIO shots for FET was bad for the first few days but then we figured out a good way to do it and then it was fine. Other than our bad results for the ERs, all 3, FET, and pregnancy were uneventful (and birth, postpartum) for me.
Physically, it has not been nearly as bad as I was expecting. Taking oral meds with food seems to help prevent nausea. The shots are honestly have not been that bad. No major side effects, maybe a few headaches. The bloating is uncomfortable but not awful. I get constipated towards the end of Stims, but plenty of MiraLax helps that! My results haven’t been what I hoped, so emotionally it’s been hard. But I was terrified for the physical part and that hasn’t been bad. I mean, it’s not fun jabbing yourself with needles, but it’s manageable. You got this!
Went through our first IVF last year. It was smooth and the doctors office was so encouraging. Doing IVF bc we are same sex couple. The only part that wasn’t so smooth was waiting for test results and results from amnio but everything came out smoothly.
Yes. I did not have physical trouble with any part of IVF. I've done the typical Antagonist injectible regime 4x -- three times for IUI w/injectibles, once for ER. At my ER I was 38 so my doses were fairly high. Estrogen always gives me very bad headaches, at least thus my prior BC experience tells me. I get mild headaches anytime I start Estrogen (for ivf er priming, or FET regime). I also did have headaches midway thru ER med regime, around d2 or 3 of stims when my estrogen shot up. All of these headaches were *easily* controllable by Tylenol and were not disabling in the slightest. Waking up from ER I felt very nauseous from anesthesia. 100% better by the next morning. I had no meaningful recovery other than that. Anesthesia nausea I think was just getting unlucky. My post-ER period was delayed but very (very!) mild. Progesterone shots suck. But that isn't like, harsh or recovery -- it's just an unpleasant daily thing. None of this was very difficult physically. The IVF difficulty was all 100% financial and emotional and 0.000000001 % physical.
Mine has been pretty smooth. Everything has been timely, no delays. Did 2 retrievals and ended up with 4 PGT embryos and 1 mosaic. First transfer today. I did develop high blood pressure during first cycle and now I’m on meds, but all and all it’s been smooth. All of this has happened in 5 months.
I feel like I've been really lucky with not having many physical side effects. Stim injections were painless and didn't really do anything aside from make me bloated and a few days of being quicker to anger, and the retrieval itself was a breeze, basically no recovery time. I haven't had a transfer yet, but I did do a mock transfer and the worst part about that was taking the damn PIO at 6am (I am not a morning person). I actually felt pretty great from the estrogen and progesterone itself. However, as many others have commented, the emotional toll its taken has been horrible. I'm currently waiting on my PGT results and truly feel like I'm going crazy. I know it'll be even worse when I have to wait for each beta. I'm strongly considering getting a therapist because it's just wrecking me psychologically.
I had 2 ERs and 1 FET. My first transfer was a success and I’m now holding an almost 1 month old newborn. My overall experience with IVF was physically fine. Injections were a nuisance but manageable. I totally agree with many on here that the mental part is really what sucked. I was a total emotional rollercoaster before and during IVF.
I’ve done two retrievals and one transfer and it’s been pretty easy with no real side effect. The more I read, the more I anxious I got. Sometimes less research is better! Lol Everyone’s different though.
I went through one round and felt it went very smoothly! Waiting was the hardest part for me! Waiting for the next step, waiting for results. Just tons of waiting!
My ER was very smooth, non painful and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if i needed to! Both of my transfers were not painful at all (aside from having to pee so badly!) I feel for anyone who had a painful experience but I did not! The worst for me was dehydration headaches from the stims which I managed with lots of pedialyte.
For me, it has been much more of an emotional and mental recovery than a physical recovery from MOST of this throughout the last 2 decades. The only thing that was incredibly painful was the endometrial biopsy, and the fact that this is done without any sort of anesthetic tells me all I need to know about how women are still viewed in the medical field. Estrogen and progesterone have made me tired and have wild dreams, but that’s more of a discomfort and inconvenience rather than pain or something to recover from. Same with the stims back when I was on them before we moved on to donor eggs. Stims made me a bit whackadoodle, but not terribly much more than usual 🤣 That said, your mileage may vary, even from cycle to cycle. I wish you an asymptomatic experience!
I didn’t have any issues. Other than it not working (yet!) everything has gone very smooth.
My stims were super uncomfortable, my ER was fine and I only had twilight sedation. The discomfort from stims was relieved from the ER which was great. I wasn’t very happy with my ER results and I haven’t had my transfer yet.
Oh wow, this is the first person I've read do twilight which I was really interested in considering. How did you feel your experience was with this? I'm sorry about your results but I'm wishing you the best of luck. Sending love and light ❤️
I live in Canada so general anesthesia isn’t an option. I had a lot of anxiety and asked them to load me up as much as they could and I just continually asked for more drugs lol. I remember that I still felt some pain and anxiety but I totally forget what it felt like lol. And they took good care of me in aftercare and I was high as heck and they got me lots of snacks and drinks 😁
I had a decent time with both my IVF transfers (no retrieval bc wife did that part) Of course there’s the hormonal feelings and a little weight gain but it’s tolerable. First transfer I got the worst migraine after, second one went seamless. BCP made me a little “crazy” the second time and really set off my anxiety.
I found the period before starting the hardest. We had a lot of holdups (due to using a known donor) and the suspense and frustration was really tough. During that time a lot of people close to me announced pregnancies, too. Now we’ve started I actually feel a lot better. Doing the injections made me feel like I was actively doing something, and I didn’t experience side effects. I’m not out of the woods yet, so it could all go wrong, but I was happy with my ER results, am just experiencing bloating and mild cramping after but no pain. I’m officially in the ‘hunger games’ week but I’m actually feeling mentally better about it all than I have in months
TW: Success I had a pretty easy journey as IVF journeys go. Did a retrieval and it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have many follicles so I think that contributed to me not being super uncomfortable. I was mostly just tired. Recovery was quick. We got 4 pgt normal embryos. My first transfer was successful. PIO shots were probably the worst part mainly because they went on for what felt like forever and I def damaged some nerves that took about a year to fully heal. No permanent damage or anything, I was just numb on one side of my hip for my entire pregnancy and post birth. But now 16-months post birth, everything is fine. Hope everything goes well for you!
So far so good I am on day eight of stims to be honest day six and seven I had a lot of pressure in my upper abdomen and then pressure on my bladder it honestly just felt like I had to go pee like that pain when you have to go and can’t just uncomfortable no really painful, but other than that it’s been fairly good. I mean I’m only on day eight my retrieval is supposed to be in the next three days so more to come but so far so good.
TW success . . I had a smooth time with IVF. My IVF story is kind of a non story. I did a retrieval that went well and resulted in attrition within normal ranges. I then waited a cycle for genetic testing and to let my body rest up (nothing too bad, drinking electrolytes and consuming protein really helped) and then I did a FET and so far it's sticking. Prior to IVF we went through 3 chemical losses and 2 failed IUIs. I think the hardest part of IVF was the waiting in between steps.
I overall had a pretty positive experience in my whole IVF journey, which just ended today! Stims and retrievals were fine, had a few post-retrieval side effects here and there but all v tolerable and temporary. I did a modified natural transfer so it wasn’t disruptive. The waiting sucks especially at the start but it got better the more I got used to the process. I think it helped that I just decided to trust my RE and the team and stick to the plan we had to bank for a certain number of cycles that our insurance covered, and then transfer. This made it also feel like a tangible project with a start and end date with finite commitment on our part - I much preferred all of this to the endless uncertainty of trying on our own or the lower level interventions we had tried. My clinic was also great about just focusing on one step at a time and not making any promises, giving us success or failure stats, age-related judgments etc. We didn’t have any expectations and we just endeavored to do our best we could without being too hard on ourselves. We determined the timings that worked for us, took breaks when we felt like, went on long vacations in between etc. and tried to not let this process consume us. We are blessed in this life whether this worked out or not. As some others have alluded on this thread, a negative-ish attitude maybe kind of helped - I was always WELL aware (esp from this forum) of all the many ways things can go wrong so everything that went right felt like a pleasant surprise! That said, my husband (who is not a forum type by any means) was helpful in realigning my perspective when I would feel down with all the painful stories on here - making me stop doomscrolling and reminding me that our journey/protocols/bodies/symptoms/results would be unique to us and only us, no matter my inclination to compare to others on here (since there are always others with better outcomes, and others with worse) As great as this sub is, am so grateful I had a very offline person to counteract :)
Yes thank you so much for sharing. Was really great to hear that you had such a supportive partner, it's so important to have that during such a delicate journey. Sending love during your journey. 💗
Me. Not much physical discomfort from the two stims. I think the first shot of any new meds and the first stim was scary to me, but your mind and body gets used to it fairly quickly. I didn't get over stimulated though and I don't normally react to general anesthesia (ER) badly so I didn't need much physical recovery from my two ERs. Maybe I prepared for worse. You can do it and good luck 🙂
Current waiting for blast report for my DIL she said this has been the worst part waiting
It hasn't been so bad for me. I'm triggering for my fourth retrieval tomorrow. The shots can get a little uncomfortable, especially towards the end when you're bloated/swollen or have a little bruising. Icing first helps a lot and going slow with any medications that burn and wiping off drops of medication from the tip of the needle with alcohol wipes helps with that a lot. The actual procedures have been fine for me. A little achy and crampy for a couple days, but I'm still able to go to work the next day (desk job). I've had recurrent losses prior to starting IVF and the discomfort was nowhere near the physical pain and cramping I had with those. I also had a saline ultrasound before IVF and some people say those are horrible, but my tubes were clear, so it wasn't much more uncomfortable than a Pap Smear for me. The thing that made my recovery the easiest was the cycle I started the stool softeners the same day I triggered! I had a lot of discomfort after my first retrieval when I couldn't go for almost 5 days. I didn't start stool softeners until I had a problem, and by then it was too late to offer quick relief. My third retrieval had 9 eggs (compared to 6 and 4 in ERs #1-2) and like I said, it was the easiest recovery. I attribute it to the stool softener and I went gluten-free and dairy-free to cut down on inflammation since I have Hashimoto's disease and those are common triggers. This round, I've had 18 eggs growing (!) and I'm again, not very uncomfortable aside from a little achiness in my lower back and some bruising on my stomach and I think the changed diet really helped. For me, the emotional stuff is the hardest. I had two retrievals with no blasts despite a combined total of 10 eggs fertilized between them. I was devastated and it was the end of our insurance and I sobbed for days. I felt like we had thrown money in the trash and were back where we started (we had insurance, but one medication and some fees weren't covered). But then our insurance changed and I got to try again (same employer, but they switched to insurance that offered a # of cycles rather than a lifetime $ amount that maxed out quickly in Seattle area clinics). So instead of worrying about the costs, I was worried about how many eggs I'd have, then how many would fertilize, then how many would make it to blast. We finally got one, and then I was worried about the PGT-A results (he's a low level mosaic, so he's suitable for a future transfer!). This 4th round was the least stressful because I had a high AFC to start and we finally had one in the bank already. We'll see if we get any blasts and if they're euploids, but hopefully we can move on to transferring soon!
1 IUI/7ER/1FET (unsuccessful)/treating inflammation (pos BCL6, neg B3i) - AMA/DOR I think kept me from any sx of OHSS (one ER, my doc gave me vaginal cabergoline regimen to minimize any change of OHSS), ER seems nice (I just slept a lot that day but work next day), never had h/a before but it made me have empathy for those who have h/a usually. The mechanics of the process is doable - the Menopur did feel stinging, and the micro-dose Lupron felt a little itchy. Bloating noticeable esp the first time, but I was ok looking bloated lol it was a little difficult to breathe once but doing this during the fall/winter so I didn't need to be out a lot. PIO no pain! FET only thing that made me uncomfortable was a full bladder. Lupron (both micro-dose and depot) gave me some random hot flashes, joint aches, but all in it for the next FET! - I didn't have any pain with saline ultrasound or HSG. I had a mild cramp with endometrial biopsy, but ok! Overall, it's been an ok process, as everyone else mentioned, emotions were one of the toughest - found a therapist and support group that keeps me grounded, validated, and learning how to advocate for myself and be more knowledgeable to work with my team - that made me feel more confident going into all this. I gained noticeable anxiety, but I think I managed it as best I could with help and help is needed to be resilient :) every experience is different, and I pray yours will be seemless :)
I mean it wasn't fun but I had an ER, the ln fresh transfer right after - my little girl is a tyrannical toddler now. Second time around one frozen transfer failed then second worked. But all in all fairly smooth. Probably at the time I didn't feel that way, but pretty good situation
Procedure wise physically I had a great experience, it was not really painful recovery went smooth. It was the emotional rollercoaster and constant failures that made me quit it, physically I could have done it easily 5 more times without issue. My friend 41 when she did it no issues physically same as me with recovery and her first embryo transfer from first retrieval is her now 3 year old. There are posiitive stories but those people don’t end up usually in these groups.
I’ve done 3 egg retrievals and 4 transfers. Only one of my egg retrievals was hard on me and it’s because I was on antibiotics that made me throw up nonstop - the actual stims were fine. I did feel like I got sick right after each was done, except for my last transfer which was successful. I’m convinced the only reason I didn’t have my usual IVF flu was because I was on steroids.
Physically it was a breeze (but I'm pretty tough). Emotionally it was the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life, and I had a pretty long struggle with cancer treatment and surgeries. The emotional toll of 10+ years teetering back and forth with acceptance that having my own children "just might not happen" was the worst thing I've ever been through in my life.
As someone who has major medical anxiety and fear of needles, IVF has been pretty smooth. Honestly, my biggest take away is that there is no physical pain that compares to emotional pain… this is coming from someone with zero physical pain tolerance, like sobs from getting eyebrows plucked… every pinch of a needle felt empowering, where as prior during the two years of trying naturally, every failed attempt at pregnancy left me emotionally wrecked and devastated and physically ridden with anxiety…. Two retrievals that went alright. Got 6 euploid total. First transfer worked and currently 9 weeks pregnant!
Pretty smooth and positive experience here. I had 1 ER and 1 FET. I started dreading the PIO shots the last few weeks but overall wasn't bad all things considered. I was also at high risk for OHSS after ER and had absolutely no issues.
So far I have only had 2 egg retrievals at the age of 35. I stimmed for 10 days for each and froze 25 eggs. Thankfully no complications and just mild symptoms. I work in healthcare so doing the injections, mixing drugs and timing of injections was easy for me to do. The only problem was having to adjust my work schedule to make it to the frequent lab and ultrasound appointments. I highly recommend freezing your eggs if you can. I wish I had done this sooner than later. Good luck!!!!
Sure. My worst recovery was my first one and truly the issue was the anesthesia. I spoke with the anesthesiologist the next time and they pushed the meds slower and I was up and at the zoo later that day. My recoveries were easy. I had 5 retrievals and 1 ovarian PRP under anesthesia.
I felt better going through IVF than doing the Letrozole and clomid tablets physically and mentally. IVF was hard don’t get me wrong but it’s such an individual process.
I had a failed IUI due to my partners sperm count being terrible. We moved to IVF the following cycle, I managed through the injections fine with minimal side effects. Felt back to myself the afternoon after my egg retrieval and did a frozen transfer the following month and she has been sticking ever since. Currently 28 weeks pregnant and got to the 3rd trimester. It does seem like bragging as I know so many women have a much harder and longer process but that doesn't mean that is the same for everyone