Behind the Scenes of our IVF Egg Retrieval

As soon as we knew IVF was our path, we dove right in.  We didn’t leave any time for doubt or worry and made an appointment for a consultation with a fertility clinic before we had even been to our post-surgery appointment. If you’re new to Allie Laurynn’s story - take a minute and check out why we are doing IVF. The egg retrieval is the first part of the process and before we knew it - it was time. Throughout this process, my husband and I have tried to maintain a positive attitude and express gratitude where we can for the journey we are on. Read a bit more about how we’ve turned some pretty sour lemons into lemonade on our infertility journey. If you’re new to IVF you can read up on the technical aspects of IVF here >

Preparing for the Egg Retrieval

Let’s be real here. Getting ready for your egg retrieval is the bulk of the entire process. All the work is up front with an egg retrieval and it can feel really overwhelming when it starts. After you’ve been instructed to start your medication by the clinic, it all happens pretty fast. There are many appointments before the retrieval where you will have ultrasounds and blood work. They are checking your hormone levels with the blood tests, and counting follicles on your ovaries during the ultrasounds. One of the biggest things I learned from my ultrasound appointments is that the number of growing or mature follicles you have is not the same every month. I was a bit disappointed after my initial ultrasound to discover that I only had 14 mature follicles in a normal cycle. Without asking, I made the assumption that I wouldn’t be able to grow more than 14 mature eggs, best case scenario, during our egg retrieval cycle. I was really excited to learn at my first in-cycle ultrasound that I was growing 14 follicles on each side!  After so many ultrasound and blood retrieval appointments, they become routine and you don’t worry about them quite as much. At most of the appointments, you won’t be getting much of an update other than on-track or not. My husband and I were traveling out of state for our treatment and we had to coordinate time away from work for our appointments, as well as travel with our medication and our pets. If you don’t have to do this, your egg retrieval will definitely be a bit easier.

If you are preparing to take your stimulation medication for the first time - don’t worry, you’ve got this! It’s really scary the first time you have to put a needle in your stomach but after about day 3 you settle in. I think my husband had a harder time watching me than I did giving myself the shots. During the beginning, you might only be taking 2-3 injections a day, and towards the end of your egg retrieval preparation you may be taking as many as 5 injections a day. It sounds really intimidating - I had plenty of anxiety for this part. But as soon as you get through the first few you realize that even though they aren’t fun, they’re doable. Most fertility clinics will print out a medication schedule for you that shows exactly what you need to take every day. It is helpful to set an alarm on your phone for the time you need to do the injections daily, likely both in the morning and evening. Taking your medication within a 30 minute window each day should be okay, but check with your clinic first.

Some injections, such as your trigger shot, will need to be taken at an exact time. Make sure you set an early timer for that injection so you have time to prepare your medication. My husband and I were at the local sports bar watching the Vegas Knights hockey game when my timer went off, and I had to rush home to get ready for the injection. Luckily I had set my timer 15 minutes early and I was just barely able to make it.

Preparing for your egg retrieval can be a bit stressful. At this point, there are a lot of upcoming unknowns in your infertility journey, and it can feel very overwhelming. This is completely normal and you will get through it. Just remember, every day is a step closer to having your answers. My clinic discouraged me from doing much physical activity during my stimulation cycle because I was marked as high risk for both OHSS and ovarian torsion. This didn’t help much with my stress management because I like to be a busy person. My husband and I resorted to walking our dogs in the morning and evening, and I read a few books during this time as well. Mental wellness is just as important as all the physical aspects of your egg retrieval, so make sure you talk to your clinic and find out what you are able to do.

The Day of the Egg Retrieval

Our egg retrieval day couldn’t come soon enough. Not only was I anxious to find out how many eggs we retrieved, but I was starting to feel pretty crappy. I am a person who is often likely to experience side effects from medication and in the last few days before the retrieval they changed my medication schedule. The nurse was worried that I was overly-responsive to the medication and at risk for OHSS. The change in my medication schedule brought a new round of side effects and I was basically stuck on the couch sleeping for the entire day before my retrieval. The bloating was out of hand - none of my jeans would button and I resorted to wearing dresses simply for abdominal comfort. I took a blanket with me in the car to the clinic because I was so nauseous and laid my head down for the entire drive. I may have been more anxious if I felt better, so I arrived at the clinic eager to get those eggs out and with minimal anxiety. At the clinic, everything happened really quick. My husband was allowed to come back with me for a bit while I got ready for the procedure, and he helped me get into my gown and get settled on the bed. Both the nurse and doctor came and talked to me before the procedure, as well as the anesthesiologist and a phlebotomist who put in an IV. Then the nurse came back and took my husband to another room so he could do his part to prepare for our embryo creation, and they wheeled my bed into the procedure room. I moved myself onto the procedure table and talked to the doctor as they got ready. It’s a little awkward to have your legs up and butt out while there are so many people in the room and I tried to remind myself that they do this regularly. The last thing I remember was the anesthesiologist asking if I prefer my margaritas in Cancun or Las Vegas. I said “Cancun, definitely. That’s where my husband proposed to me.” In unison, all the doctors and nurses said “awwww”, and then lights out!

Here I am on retrieval day! Surprisingly, I don’t look as nauseous and bloated as I felt going into this procedure. Everything happened really fast from this point.

Recovering from the Egg Retrieval

I woke up from the egg retrieval back in the little room where I had gotten ready. When the nurse realized I was awake, she left to get my husband from the waiting room. The doctor came in before my husband got there to talk to me briefly about the next steps and results from the retrieval. My husband came in shortly after, helped me dress, we received some discharge instructions, and we left. From start to finish we were at the clinic for about 2 hours and I think I was only out for 30-45 minutes. I slept in the car on the 2 hour drive home, and slept again at home. My abdomen felt as if I was just recovering from a bad episode of menstrual cramps - there was a heavy, aching feeling across my entire stomach. I was under the impression that the recovery from the egg retrieval would be pretty quick, and had even heard stories of women going to work or going rollerblading after their retrieval. This was not the case for me. It took 2-3 days before I could walk normally without abdominal aching and pain. This could have been caused by my high responsiveness to the medication, my very recent abdominal surgery, or my own personal pain limits. I spent most of the next few days sleeping and reading, and was back on my feet feeling much better after 3 days.

How many eggs did we retrieve?

Fortunately for all our sanity, many fertility clinics will inform their patients before they leave on the procedure day what the results of the retrieval were. Due to my high response to the stimulation medication, we retrieved 36 eggs at our first retrieval. Even the doctor was surprised, and made a joke that I have “super ovaries”. We would later find out that the price we paid for 36 eggs was poor embryo quality. Often in egg retrievals, high numbers correspond to lower egg quality. This is not always the case but it was for us. We also found out before we left the clinic that 26 of the 36 eggs retrieved were mature and would be fertilized that day. Our clinic gave us a 24-hour update on the fertilization of our eggs and 19 had successfully fertilized. I am not sure if all clinics give this update so make sure to check with yours!

After the 24-hour update it’s a waiting game. We had to wait 6 more days to find out how many of those fertilized eggs would grow to normal and healthy-looking blastocysts.I was absolutely ecstatic about the numbers from our egg retrieval but this week-long wait was still extremely hard. At this point I started to wonder if we would be so fortunate as to build our entire family from one egg retrieval - a thought that I hadn’t dared to think before the procedure. This turned out to be the stage where we lost the most of our embryos. Of the 19 embryos fertilized, 8 successfully reached the blastocyst phase in the 6-day window. Our 8 embryos would be biopsied for PGT-A testing and then frozen for our future frozen embryo transfers (FETs). I was anticipating loss of embryos at this stage and felt okay with 8. I realize that 8 is a wonderful embryo number from an egg retrieval, but hearing 36 had gotten my hopes a little high. Initially, when I was worried I wouldn’t have more than 14, 8 didn’t even seem like a possibility. My husband and I are grateful for our 8 embryos, and feel hopeful that we will still have our entire family from this one egg retrieval. Gratitude keeps us going when we have a hard time being positive. Read more about our gratitude strategy. If you are considering PGT-A genetic testing for your embryos, read about the factors that helped us decide to PTG-A test our embryos.

The Emotional Aspects of Egg Retrieval

Egg retrieval is a huge milestone in the IVF process and therefore you will feel different emotions throughout this process. Going into the egg retrieval I had so many questions about what our family would look like in the future, if we would ever have kids, if I would need to do an egg retrieval more than once, and even concerns about not being able to give the injections to myself. It was a time that was filled with anxiety, worry, fear and doubt. There was some relief after I started the stimulation injections because at that point I knew I would survive the egg retrieval process, but I carried anxiety and doubt about the outcome through the entire process. After the retrieval I felt reserved excitement. I really wanted to be excited and optimistic but there was lingering doubt for sure. This is where it became really hard to wait for phone calls about results, because I was tempted to be excited and wanted to share good news with people. After the retrieval was done and we had our results, I felt immense relief and also felt like a very hard part of our journey was past. When you’re starting at the beginning, staring into the unknown, it is a heavy feeling. After the egg retrieval we could see our path ahead, and even though we don’t know exactly where the path will go, we are grateful to be able to see our next steps.

What Comes Next?

My husband and I decided that we would have our first frozen embryo transfer as soon as we were able to. For us, this meant a 30-day waiting period while we waited for those PGT-A test results to come back. This was a nice break from the intense medication schedule for me as well. When the test results come back, we will know how many embryos we have that are chromosomally normal, and what the gender of each embryo is. This will be an exciting time for us to have a conversation about how we want to build our family. What comes next for you completely depends on your own journey, but many people will plan embryo transfers around their ideal time for birth (or if you’re like us, around a not-ideal time). I also have heard of people doing another egg retrieval if their results are not what they were expecting. It is beneficial to retrieve your eggs while you are still young - younger than you will be if you decide to wait. My husband and I have talked about doing another egg retrieval if we have multiple failed transfers. We would rather get those eggs out while I am in my early thirties, and have them available for later years if needed.

Gratitude & Moving Forward

We don’t know where this path is taking us, but we know we are moving forward. The egg retrieval was a big milestone in our IVF journey and we are glad to be past that hurdle. Taking time to feel grateful for where we are and how far we have come is an important part of our recovery, and it helps us move forward. The future doesn’t seem as intimidating as it did before our egg retrieval and we are ready to take it on!