Hi to all,
I have signed up to this website because at school we have been asked to produce a 20 minute drama piece about anything we liked. My group chose to show ivf treatment and to contrast this a pregnant teenager following both sides and their struggles.
I was just wondering whether anyone could explain to me about what goes on from personal experience, and how ivf can make you feel and how it effects your life. As i am acting as the lady who cannot have children, i would like to be as realistic as possible, and really get into role understanding fully what the process is.
Any messages will be appreciated,
Thank You,
R
IVF Treatment, i need information
Hi Rhian. How are you?
Very interesting what you are doing!
It is important to know what is the reason why you cannot have children (in that play,of course). Is it a female or a male factor? Is the due to age, lifestyle etc.?
Let me tell you about my experience. I’m 31 and my husband 33. We both don’t smoke and drink.
IVF it's a roller coaster. It plays a lot with your emotions.
It all begins when you can't fall pregnant naturally. You get to a point where you don't know what's happening (or what is not...). You don't know if it is you or your partner. The frustration is always there specially when your friends or family ask you: "So? when r u having babies? for how long have you been married? you are getting older...."bla bla bla....."
This feeling is horrible makes you feel guilty but on the other hand it's not your fault...
Only you and God know what you are going through. It is so difficult to give answers to all these people. You have to come with some kind of excuse like we are not ready or something...
The first and difficult part is to accept that, for some reason, you can't be a mother naturally.
Then starts the investigation: why? is it you or your partner or both? What is the solution? It’s difficult for man and woman this process. If the problem is a male factor then he may feel guilty and vice-versa.
Once the result is there, it’s the beginning of the treatment. Many couples face another problem such as choosing the clinic.
The whole process seems to take an eternity. Once you have your period your clinic gives you drugs (in my case were injections that i had to take everyday on my tummy) to down regulate your system: to stop the functions of your hormones and to thicken the lining of your womb. You get scanned to see if everything is ok. This process can be painful for some woman. The side effects can be very bad! Hot flush, mood swings etc. It is important to drink plenty of water.
After 2 weeks of down reg. you start with other injection which is to stimulate the production of follicles which will contain eggs. Again it is very important to drink plenty of water to avoid bloated tummy and OHSS (ovary hiperstimulation syndrome). The side effects of OHSS can be very bad sometimes. You get scanned often to see how the follicles develop.
Then is set a date for egg collection and embryo transfer. This could be a tense moment: how many eggs will there be? How many will be fertilized? How many embryo to transfer? After the transfer is the “endless” 2ww (two week wait) to do the pregnancy test. If it is negative then you can imagine how terrible a woman would feel. To go again all the procedure…. the emotional side of it and also the financial because this is not cheap. Unless you get paid with your insurance or NHS (UK). If it is positive then great news but take it easy. Unfortunately there are many chemical pregnancies and/or miscarriage.
On my first try I had 6 eggs. We’ve done IVF but none of the eggs were fertilized. On my 2nd cycle we did ICSI. I had 18 eggs, 17 were mature, 12 were fertilized, 2 were top quality to put back and 2 got to the 5th day (blaystocyst…..not sure about the spelling) which are now frozen. So, if you see, from 18 eggs only 4 are ok. This means that just because you have big number of eggs it doesn’t mean you will be successful. My pregnancy test was negative. I learn that you can never be fully content with the results until all scans are done and you get to 12weeks (or is it 14weeks?).
So, as you can see, it is a long process that feels like an eternity….
Anie
Very interesting what you are doing!
It is important to know what is the reason why you cannot have children (in that play,of course). Is it a female or a male factor? Is the due to age, lifestyle etc.?
Let me tell you about my experience. I’m 31 and my husband 33. We both don’t smoke and drink.
IVF it's a roller coaster. It plays a lot with your emotions.
It all begins when you can't fall pregnant naturally. You get to a point where you don't know what's happening (or what is not...). You don't know if it is you or your partner. The frustration is always there specially when your friends or family ask you: "So? when r u having babies? for how long have you been married? you are getting older...."bla bla bla....."
This feeling is horrible makes you feel guilty but on the other hand it's not your fault...
Only you and God know what you are going through. It is so difficult to give answers to all these people. You have to come with some kind of excuse like we are not ready or something...
The first and difficult part is to accept that, for some reason, you can't be a mother naturally.
Then starts the investigation: why? is it you or your partner or both? What is the solution? It’s difficult for man and woman this process. If the problem is a male factor then he may feel guilty and vice-versa.
Once the result is there, it’s the beginning of the treatment. Many couples face another problem such as choosing the clinic.
The whole process seems to take an eternity. Once you have your period your clinic gives you drugs (in my case were injections that i had to take everyday on my tummy) to down regulate your system: to stop the functions of your hormones and to thicken the lining of your womb. You get scanned to see if everything is ok. This process can be painful for some woman. The side effects can be very bad! Hot flush, mood swings etc. It is important to drink plenty of water.
After 2 weeks of down reg. you start with other injection which is to stimulate the production of follicles which will contain eggs. Again it is very important to drink plenty of water to avoid bloated tummy and OHSS (ovary hiperstimulation syndrome). The side effects of OHSS can be very bad sometimes. You get scanned often to see how the follicles develop.
Then is set a date for egg collection and embryo transfer. This could be a tense moment: how many eggs will there be? How many will be fertilized? How many embryo to transfer? After the transfer is the “endless” 2ww (two week wait) to do the pregnancy test. If it is negative then you can imagine how terrible a woman would feel. To go again all the procedure…. the emotional side of it and also the financial because this is not cheap. Unless you get paid with your insurance or NHS (UK). If it is positive then great news but take it easy. Unfortunately there are many chemical pregnancies and/or miscarriage.
On my first try I had 6 eggs. We’ve done IVF but none of the eggs were fertilized. On my 2nd cycle we did ICSI. I had 18 eggs, 17 were mature, 12 were fertilized, 2 were top quality to put back and 2 got to the 5th day (blaystocyst…..not sure about the spelling) which are now frozen. So, if you see, from 18 eggs only 4 are ok. This means that just because you have big number of eggs it doesn’t mean you will be successful. My pregnancy test was negative. I learn that you can never be fully content with the results until all scans are done and you get to 12weeks (or is it 14weeks?).
So, as you can see, it is a long process that feels like an eternity….
Anie
Anie :) Me 32, DH 34
1st IVF : Aug/07 - 6eggs but no fertilization :(
2nd ICSI: Oct/07 - test:22/Nov=BFN :(
3th ICSI: July/08; Testing:5th Sept-BFP :D
[img]http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/1;18;34/st/20090515/dt/5/k/dc49/preg.png[/img]
1st IVF : Aug/07 - 6eggs but no fertilization :(
2nd ICSI: Oct/07 - test:22/Nov=BFN :(
3th ICSI: July/08; Testing:5th Sept-BFP :D
[img]http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/1;18;34/st/20090515/dt/5/k/dc49/preg.png[/img]
Just like Anie.... I am 30 and so is my husband we have been married for almost 7 years. We had been trying to get PG soon after we got married, well make a long story into a shorter one. After test and test it was unexplained why we could not get PG and the doctor suggested that we try IVF. So two years ago we tried IVF, it of course did not work and it was unexplained on the failed IVF. And yes it is the biggest roller coaster plus you have friends that are having babies left and right and people asking you when you are going to have kids. But what do you say to people that are asking you that question with out going into a long story.. Geeze... Well Anyway here it is 2 years later and yet we are still lost on what to do. We are not getting younger and the cost of IVF is crazy, we had spent around $13,000 for one cycle of IVF. We dont have that kind of money laying around and adoption cost is out right crazy too.