Hi averil, we're just going through first round of IVF so please give me a shout if I can help with anything. The drugs and timing differ from person to person, and between hospitals too, but to give you an idea, ours was...
- 4 march- initial consultation
- Phone clinic when period arrives
- Daily progesterone tablets (norethisterone) to delay next period (these played havoc with sugars, struggled to get them below 13 most days, went back to normal within 48hrs of stopping tablets though)
- Period started 4 days after stopping tablets (much heavier than normal)
- Baseline scan following day to check lining, counted as day 1
- Daily fsh injections (bit sore, I take insulin 5 times a day without batting eyelid but I was black and blue from fsh ones!)
- Daily injections to prevent ovulation from day 5,
- Scan day 6 to check how follicles are progressing
- Day 7 - started to feel effects of drugs, monster headaches, really bloated and nauseous so eating little and often to keep sugars under control (drink plenty water to minimise side effects)
- Scan day 8 - ditto ( was also scheduled to have progress scan on day 11 but had developed 30 follicles by day 8 so egg collection brought forward, doc worried about ohss so swapped fsh injections for downreg ones, HCG injection had originally been planned for 36 hrs before collection)
- 28 April - Egg collection. fast from midnight but first appt (8:15) so no dramas. Apple juice 2 hours before if you think sugars might go low before collection. Paracetamol and ibroprofen 1 hour before, tamazepan (sp?) when you arrive and IV painkillers just before EC (and another dose during procedure in my case, endometiomas on both ovaries and both enlarged due to hyper stimulation meant very painful but some women feel very little apparently). Spent most of day in bed then next few days taking it easy (your body will tell you what's too much, hoovering stairs in my case!)
- Next step would be transfer between day 3 and 5 depending on how your embryos develop and pessaries to support them, but we haven't reached that stage yet.
So all in all, it moved very quickly for us up to EC stage. 19 eggs fertilised but only 6 embryos made it to day 5 (all frozen). Just waiting for ovaries to calm down and we'll try frozen transfer in 2-3 months if any blastocysts survive the thaw (fingers crossed). Diabetes wise, it's been ok bar the 13 days of progesterone at the start. I was fortunate to get almost 3 weeks off work (well, bar a few calls and emails!) which has really helped. Don't know how I would have controlled sugars with work stress in the equation.
Best of luck xx
Ps, reason for visiting site... Trying to find out how many appointments you have during pregnancy ( ever the optimist) - had a pre-preg consultation years ago and seemed to remember them saying fortnightly, but not sure if that was just at end or right through - may I ask what your experience was?
