Hi guys. I usually don’t write posts this personal, but after having gone through an egg freezing cycle and not finding very many blogs chronicling the experience, I thought writing this could be helpful to other people and serve as a resource. I honestly wish there were more people writing about it this past month to guide me along all of the questions, emotions, etc. that come with egg freezing and eventually IVF.
I’m lucky to have an amazing group of girlfriends who talk openly about everything. These are bankers, lawyers, doctors, etc. who are high powered and put their career first and settled down a little later than other parts of the country. Over the last few years, infertility has creeped into the conversation more and more often, and caused me to think about my own odds of getting pregnant. I’m 33, healthy, in a serious relationship but having so many friends in similar shoes struggle with fertility, I decided to get all of my testing done and do a round of egg freezing as a measure of security for my second or third child.
Cut to my blood test and sonogram which revealed that my egg reserves are very low. News of this was a blow to me since I am the type to eat healthy, work out six times a week and do everything in my power to be a generally healthy person. With my egg reserves so low, this was an indicator that I might not have a long window to get pregnant and could have trouble down the line. It also meant that we had to look at the eggs I would be freezing not as my backup eggs in case of emergency, but possibly my only means to eventually getting pregnant.
Next came the scramble to learn the very confusing, expensive process of egg freezing and IVF. I’m extremely fortunate to have amazing insurance that will cover the bulk of my costs, but many women aren’t in the same scenario. Freezing alone could cost around $20,000 after the cost of medicine, surgery, monitoring and anaesthesia.
I went into this process hoping to freeze 20 eggs in one go, but my low numbers reduced those odds significantly. The doctor thought I would be lucky to have around 6 eggs. Egg freezing is a total numbers game because once the eggs are removed, some will die and some won’t be mature enough to use. So, the more you start with, the more you have for potential embryos. Starting with just 6 isn’t ideal, so I would likely have to have three egg freezing surgeries this year.
After starting with an estrogen patch for 8 days, we moved onto needles, which was scary at first. Below, I chronicle my day-by-day experience. I wrote these in real time at the end of each day.
Day 1 stims (stimulations):
After going in for blood work for day 2s (second day after your period) in the morning, the doctor told me I’d likely be starting my shots this evening. Once shots start, you have to stop exercising because it can cause you to lose an ovary. I rush to the gym after the doctor to get one good workout in before shots start.
This was on Valentine’s Day. We rushed home from dinner and a play and watched videos the entire cab ride home to prepare for two shots: Gonal 300 and Menopur 150. (The videos we watched on how to administer the medicines are on Freedom MedTeach) This was TRICKY. The first “shot” of Gonal didn’t take. Luckily we realized that none of the medicine went in, so we put the needle back in my stomach and tried it again. This time it worked. The menopur requires manually mixing it, so we watched a lot of videos and my boyfriend injected it. It hurt a bit, but was doable. No other side effects except some redness.
Day 2:
Morning: We did another 300 of Gonal. This time it stung and I bled a bit.
Night: We started introducing a hype song into the situation. It’s Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. The boyfriend had an event after work that he came home for to give me my meds. After watching the video just once this time we did the shot. The menopur really stings, and when he took the needle out a giant drop of blood came out and rolled down my stomach. Other than that, it was fine.
Day 3:
Morning: Had to drag myself out of bed for my shots this morning. Am so sleepy. Boyfriend gave me the Gonal shot and it was super easy. He left for work and then I climbed back into bed for another half an hour. Am so exhausted and starting to feel really emotional for no reason. I was convinced I wasn’t going to be hormonal during this but I may be wrong. Already cried at my desk at work once today :/ Work is kind of the only thing that makes me happy and feel normal at this point, it’s also a good distraction away from the shots.
Night: We saw a comedy show tonight and then rushed home to take my Menopur shot. It wasn’t horrible. I felt really badly that my best friend was in town from DC and I couldnt even meet up with her because of the shots. Throughout this process I missed a lot of things I would have liked to attend.
Day 4:
Morning: holy hormones. My hormones are officially out of whack. About an hour after taking the Gonal shot I burst into tears on the couch in the fetal position leaving my boyfriend to questions what went wrong. This wore off after a bit, and we laughed about it after.
Night: We’re getting better at this. We switched up the music to listen to Hamilton’s “My Shot.” The boyfriend quickly got the needle ready and injected it pain free! He’s been a total rock during this entire process and I am super lucky.
Day 5:
This morning I went in for blood work and a sonogram and they told me to skip my shot while we await results to see if we need to change up the dosages. The sonogram only showed 5 follicles and my estrogen came back on the low side. When the nurse called, she changed my routine to my 300 of Gonal and 150 of Menopur both at night, with nothing in the morning.
Evening: We did both shots the night in between binge watching the Olympics and a Handmaiden’s Tale (Which, admittedly, is a weird show to watch while doing all of this). We’re definitely getting better at this as we did it quickly with watching the video once and got back to binge watching.
Day 6:
PM: We spent all day with my 1-year-old nephew and then went home. We did both shots without watching the video! (It’s the small things that make you excited during this process). We also changed up our music to LFMAO’s “Shots.” I didn’t have any side effects the last two days, which was nice.
Day 7:
AM: morning monitoring. My follicles are still pretty small for this stage of my medicine, so we can’t introduce a third shot: Cetrotide, just yet. Using it too early would risk the eggs so we have to wait until the are more mature.
PM: More Gonal and Menopur
Day 8:
PM: We did both shots without any videos very quickly. We are officially getting the hang of this and my boyfriend is a total champ at doing this mostly painlessly. Menopur has even stopped stinging as much. I’m definitely missing the gym, like a lot. I would pretty much kill to go to SoulCycle. I also don’t feel like socializing at all, which is really, really unlike me. I’ve pretty much become an expert at hygge.
Day 9:
PM: We had to rush home from a magic show in Brooklyn tonight to do the shots on time. I was super nervous in the Uber home that we wouldn’t get home in time (They suggest giving the shots before 11pm each night). We run into the apartment and each of us picked a syringe to prep. The boyfriend then stabbed me with both right before 11! It was the quickest we ever did this. A lot of friends have asked me about side effects, and everyone reacts differently. I haven’t had any bloating or weight gain, most likely in part because I don’t have very many eggs brewing. In the beginning, I was pretty emotional, but even that has worn off and I feel more like myself. I’m still pretty tired and drained from all of this.
Day 10:
AM: I go in this morning for my bloodwork and sonogram. The eggs are growing and one is finally big enough that I can take a third shot called Cetrotide. When eggs get bigger, they risk ovulating and we don’t want that to happen until after my surgery because then I could lose the eggs we are harvesting. So, Cetrotide prevents ovulation. The nurse gives me this shot after my sonogram and shows me how to use it so that we can start doing it each morning before work. They call later in the day with my blood test results and any revisions to medicine. Because I am a low responder to medicine, it seems I will take additional days of shots and that means ordering medicine refills, which I’ve been on hold with for an hour with my insurance as I write this!
PM: We have drinks with friends visiting from LA after work, grab a quick dinner and head home for our shots. We mean to watch a show called “Dark” on Netflix, but we both fell asleep on the couch. I don’t think either of us have ever watched so much TV in our entire lives, but having a 10pm curfew because we need to do the shots around that time means a ton of Netflix and chilling (minus the chilling part).
Day 11:
AM: We wake up early and do the Cetrotide on our own after watching the video. It’s harder to mix than the other drugs we’ve been doing because it has a giant mixing needle you use to mix it all up you then have to change the needle to inject, and that needle is a bit long, too. We’ve begun to joke about the bf shooting me up like some sort of junkie. We then meet up with a bestie and her boyfriend to go to a sample sale and grab juices.
PM: We have a close call tonight because the boyfriend was out with a friend and lost track of time. I nervously watched videos thinking I was going to have to give myself the shots. Luckily he got home in time.
Day 12:
AM: We get up at 7am to sleepily administer Cetrotide and then it’s off to morning monitoring. My boyfriend came with me this morning and it’s a good thing he did because I got some awful news. After blood work, I went in for my sonogram which showed that only two follicles were really growing. The other four remain very small. The doctor leveled with me saying that the best case scenario is that I get two eggs from surgery, but that there’s a chance we get none. I immediately burst into tears because all of the shots and lifestyle changes have been in vain. The doctor says that most women decide not to go through with the surgery with such slim odds and try again in a few months and hope for a better cycle. I come out of the examination room in tears and go home and explain what happened to my boyfriend. We then call the billing center to see if this would count as a full egg freeze if we cancel now. If i don’t get the surgery, it seems i would still have a full egg freeze left, so, we are pulling the plug on this for now.
The next few days were a blur. I pretty much sat on my couch for a few good hours crying because we had just pumped more than $20,000 worth of medicine into my body only for it not to produce enough mature eggs. I then spent hours on end talking to my doctors, insurance provider etc. to figure everything out. After regrouping, we are going to try again next month. I’ll continue to share the journey as I’ve found reading other bloggers’ stories really helped me and hopefully this can help others.
As always, if you have found our IVF coverage helpful, we would love if you would consider making a donation at our Patreon page to support our journalism!
Read More of Our IVF Coverage:
IVF Diary: My First, Unsuccessful Round of Egg Freezing
IVF Diary: My Second Round of Egg Freezing
IVF Diary: Egg Retrieval, Recovery & Embryo Results
IVF Diary: My Third Round of Egg Freezing
IVF Diary: Successful Results From Our Third Round of IVF
The Supplements I Take To Improve Egg Quality
Improving Egg Quality With “It Starts With The Egg”
Eliminating Toxins & Chemicals for IVF
This was very brave of you to share!. You are definitely breaking ground here for other women. I will keep you in my prayers!