IVF Journey: Second IVF day 30

This is my IVF diary. My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for nearly four years now, and have a diagnosis of 'unexplained infertility'. We have finally reached the top of the waiting list for IVF - a form of assisted conception. I'm blogging about what happens as it happens, as a kind of therapy for me and as an awareness raising exercise of what IVF is all about.


I went along for my scan this morning. As usual it was a trek, having had to leave about 7.30am to get there for my 9am appointment. Then I didn't get seen until 9.40am so I could've had a bit longer in bed. Unusual, I don't recall having to wait for a scan before.

The doctor measured my womb lining using an internal scan, and it is currently 3.4mm which at under 4mm is what they are looking for. That's my womb, in the picture.

This means I can move on to the next phase. Yay.

So I had my nurse appointment to get my drugs, and it turns out I have to take some HRT (hormone replacement therapy drugs) for two weeks. I'm absolutely certain that the nurse who explained the frozen embryo cycle protocol to me didn't mention this, she told me I would take progesterone pesseries for two week at this point. And I was pleased, because that meant that the full cycle was 'known' because I have taken all of the drugs before.

So now I am having a small panic about the possible side effects of this new drug.

The nurse gave me a packet of tablets and told me how to take them and that I had to take them for two weeks then I'd have a frozen embryo transfer. Not recognising them, I asked "what are they?" She said "hormones". "No" I clarified, "I meant what's in them." "HRT" she answered. Helpful. So I tried again "the other nurse said I'd be taking progesterone pessaries". "You will" the nurse replied, "after this you'll have to take progesterone pessaries for five days before the embryo transfer." Hmm. "And do most people just take this HRT for the two weeks?" I asked. She replied "Its hard to say, some people can be taking these for six weeks." I commented that I hadn't expected the frozen embryo cycle to last longer than the fresh cycle. "Oh yes" she said, "for some people it can even take six weeks." I'm afraid I corrected her, though politely, that the *shortest* possible time it would take would be six weeks (two weeks of injections then two weeks of injections and tablets then five days of progesterone pessaries then a nine day wait for a pregnancy test) and she was telling me it could be four weeks longer than that. She had to concede that one.

Honestly, they don't give you the whole story unless you really push them and you need to know what questions to ask. That really annoys me as I like to be able to prepare myself for the worst. Their way, I will inevitably be disappointed when things take longer than they told me. And inconvenienced as I'll have arranged my work around what they told me. Again.

I tried to start up a conversation about possible side effects of the new tablets, but the nurse was trying to usher me out the door. I explained that I was worried as I had not been told about these tablets and I had been expecting to be only taking drugs I have taken before. The nurse tried to reassure me that these drugs would make me feel better. Even though I had already told her twice that I didn't feel bad on the current drugs, only tired. I tried again, explaining that when I took the contraceptive pill I felt sick and weepy so I was worried about messing with my hormones. She told me that taking hormones would stop me feeling grotty. I explained again that I didn't feel grotty, and that historically 'hormones' had made me feel crap. I got nowhere, and felt completely misunderstood and not listened to.

So I went swimming, and that helped.

Right, well I've taken the tablets so we'll see how that goes.

I now know that it could be a loooooong slog until we get anywhere with this cycle. Frustrating. Waiting makes me anxious.