IVF journey begins!

Best of luck!
There’s so much I wish I knew before I started my IVF journey. It’s something that you don’t/cant really understand until you go through it, but here is some of my learnings:

The process takes way longer than you think. It’s a marathon not a sprint and one of the hardest/most surprising thing I found about IVF was all the waiting. Waiting to start a cycle, waiting for phone calls during a cycle, having to wait to get your second period after a cycle to start another, waiting for test results etc. It’s incredibly frustrating especially as getting pregnant is something you want to happen right now.

Do your research and advocate for yourself. No two IVF journeys will look the same so it’s hard to compare to other people but I found peanut invaluable in terms of seeing other women’s experiences and asking my doctor if certain tests would be relevant in my situation (after a couple of failed cycles) and pushing to make sure I got them done.

Choose your support circle. I was pretty open with my wider circle that I was doing IVF but only my husband and parents knew the details of what was going on in any point in time with us. We had originally included my MIL in that circle of trust but quickly learned that she was not a source of support so we took a step back from sharing information.

Be kind to yourself. The process is mentally/physically/emotionally hard and then on top of that you’re being pumped with hormones so make sure you make time for self care. Celebrate the wins, it’s good to lean into hope sometimes

I agree with everyone else so far:

It’s a marathon not a sprint

Do your research and advocate for yourself (Reddit r/IVf was a great help to me)

Don’t worry too much about slight differences in how clinics do things. This is all so very personal that it’s impossible to truly know what is the exact right approach.

Stick to your hobbies, they will keep you sane

Tell a few trusted people. If you can trust your line manager at work telling them helped me get a lot of flexibility with a “no questions asked” approach. He arguably is a good one though.

Me and my husband both took Impryl. It’s expensive but I feel it made a difference between our first and second try in the quality of blastocysts we got.

Your mental health is important! The waiting and hoping and losses and wins will all wear you down. Get good and if possible professional support for that.

Are you going nhs? If your hospital offers this, I’d pay for a consultant led process (ours cost about £1k more than standard nhs after we’d done our free round). Worth every penny. Standard nhs doesn’t really change protocol based on the patient. I’d advocate for everyone going consultant led from the start if they can.

Deffo marathon not a sprint. Every embryo transfer has a 33% chance of live birth.

Pre transfer take 1-2 Brazil nuts daily (no more) until test day. And google the watermelon beetroot ginger conception smoothie, worked for me. Actual studies for how beetroot helps conception. Taste nice I promise 🤣 best of luck!

Hey Mellissa ,
So i’m currently taking the injections and will be doing the egg retrieval in the next couple of days. i’ve responded pretty well so far on the treatment no harsh side effects and am just really focussed on being positive and doing my level best not to “over-engineer” life.

Since Feb (2 months leading up to the treatment cycle ):
- I have gone for accupuncture sessions weekly, which i’ve found beneficial, from an overall wellbeing .
- I recently cut out alcohol to optimise my sleep and feel much better for it.
- Vitamins wise - taking a prenatal supplement , high dose of folate , co-enzyme Q10 and a fish oil supplement .

As a Christian , I meditate on a beautiful scripture in Jeremiah 1:5 🫶🏽 which has been a good reminder that at the end of the day it’s God’s divine plan and to trust Him X

Best of luck- you’ll be more than fine 😊