IVF break points

When you hear that someone is having IVF, it is quite easy to assume that they will actually have IVF. I’m not making myself very clear am I? IVF isn’t like taking a pill, or a one-off operation. It evolves over about six weeks and throughout the whole process there are break points, which can delay it, or stop it entirely.

The first scan, which you get just after you start your period, is to check there are no cysts on the ovaries (these are common and often go unnoticed). But they can stop treatment happening for the whole month, until the ovaries calm down whilst you de-cyst (geddit? Like desist... oh never mind.)

You pass that hurdle and you can start getting drugged-up. The drugs can be taken in a variety of ways - I’ve been injecting myself in the stomach for the last fortnight. Prior to my first IVF I really thought this would be the worst bit - I was petrified by the idea of injecting myself, but it is amazing how quickly you get used to it. The worst thing is wondering what might go wrong and when.

During a normal cycle you only produce one egg at a time, occasionally two (hence some twins). With IVF they want you to produce a whole hen-house full of eggs, which is why you get all the drugs. After eight or so days you really start to feel them - it’s like when you carry a bottle of water in your pocket you feel it moving - only imagine the bottle is sewn into your stomach. It can get pretty painful. And as for the hormones, well - you may find yourself having a cup of tea with a friend and bursting into tears for no apparent reason (um... sorry about that Lucy).

The doctors, however, don’t measure the effectiveness of their drugs by number of times you dissolve into tears and your (literal) gut feeling. You are constantly monitored with blood tests and scans. The blood tests check your hormone levels and the scans monitor your ovaries to see if they are producing eggs, and at each stage your results determine whether you can continue with the treatment or get jettisoned back to square one.

If you aren’t producing enough eggs your dosage might be tweaked. However, in the worst case the whole cycle might be called off. Despite a worrying start to this round of IVF, when the doctor couldn’t even find my ovaries - let alone count how many follicles (which contain the eggs) there were - I managed to side step this with a late surge. I ended up on Sunday with 18 eggs being retrieved. Which is fantastic.