You have got up early on a Monday morning, a bit bleary-eyed because you didn’t sleep well the night before. Today is the day you are going to the clinic to have embryos implanted. You are both optimistic and excited. You might pick loose clothing because you read somewhere that it’s good to wear loose clothes.
You could be waking up in a hotel room in another country. Quite a lot of couples are taking this option. To go abroad for IVF treatment, due to financial reasons. Sometimes for egg donation especially if the woman’s eggs are not good quality. Taking healthy eggs from a female donor is becoming much more common or sperm from a male donor.
Your husband has made you breakfast. But the two of you are not able eat. You are both excited, the day you have dreamed of, starting your own family has arrived. All your pillow talk has finally coming true.
Arriving at the clinic at 11am you are welcomed by the receptionist. Both of you take a seat, but you can’t touch the tea offered to you, you are too nervous. Your partner holds your hand because he knows you’ve been through so much. Taking medication and injecting yourself. It’s been very hard for him to watch you go through it. Next you are taken through to the treatment room and told about the procedure. Your doctors are very happy with the embryos, telling you that your eggs have graded very well. You have two new embryos implanted. Luckily the embryos have gone to blastocysts stage. They give you a pregnancy test and tell you to contact them in 2 weeks. Happy days!
You leave the clinic very happy, with advice not to lift anything heavy. Do not take any strenuous exercise. Do not fly. Make sure you take folic acid. Also make sure you continue to eat a well balanced diet. Very important to rest and not get stressed. With all my ladies going for the embryo implantation, I send a good luck text and ask them just to send me a quick message to let me know that all went well. I find I get quite anxious hoping things go well for them.
That night you both sleep well. Full of excitement of what might be. Or if you’ve been through IVF before you are a little bit more cautious. Knowing how long the next two weeks will be, waiting to do a pregnancy test. The next few days are usually ok, you are positive.
There can be lots of funny sensations going on in your abdomen. This can be quite worrying because you are not sure if you are going to miscarry. Between days five and seven days after transfer it is recommend that you have an acupuncture treatment. Day 6 has arrived and you have your acupuncture appointment to help strengthen and hold your pregnancy in place, calm the mind, build up your energy, help with sleep. It’s good to speak to a professional acupuncturist who can help put your mind at ease. This helps to keep you focused and stay positive. Meditation is very good for you at this point, to visualise yourself with a healthy foetus growing day by day, getting stronger, growing into a healthy baby. When you leave my clinic I am waiting for the call that tells me that it’s a positive pregnancy test, or if it’s negative to comfort and help with the grieving process that you go through.
This can be one of the hardest parts of my job. I think that it’s good to know that other women are going through the same thing as you. Fertility is such is a taboo subject. People just don’t talk about it, most of the time the couples have the same anxieties and worries, and blame themselves if a pregnancy doesn’t occur. The two week wait can be the hardest time. Your partner, who can do very little apart from being very supportive, He has to be so strong if the pregnancy fails. Hold you as you cry for the loss of the child that you both wanted. When all he wants to do is bury his head in his hands and shout why us! Or silently weep for the loss of the dream of a family. On the occasions when it hasn’t worked, I have to hold back my tears, because I know having children is one the best experiences in life.
The best days are when I get the call to say it has worked, you are pregnant. That is the reason I do this job! The next time I see you, you are telling me you are pregnant, in fact six weeks pregnant!
Lots of love
Lucy x
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