Drugs Part Two: Stimulation

The night I got home from my baseline scan, I was instructed to start taking my daily evening injections: my stimulation drugs. I was put on a 150iu dose of Bemfola. Other stimulation drugs can include Gonal-F, Menopur, Lupron, and Pregnyl, to name a few. 150iu seems to be the starting dose for patients embarking on IVF – the dosage can go all the way up to 450iu! Unfortunately, this is the thing about IVF... the first try is kind of like a “test” try – until they put you on the basic drugs and see what happens, they won’t know what works best with your body and what doesn’t.  

I was really happy taking Bemfola, as it comes in a pre-filled pen that you just have to inject a needle in to and then administer and throw away. I’ve read about – and later used – drugs that you have to mix yourself using all sorts of instruments, and it can be so much more daunting on top of everything else! But more on that later... 

After my baseline scan, I started my evening injections - stims!

So, what do the stimulation drugs actually do? Well, normally what happens for women is that every month their ovaries produce one mature egg, and release it ready to be fertilised. This is called ovulation. For women going through IVF, the stims actually induce something we call “superovulation”. The drug I was taking was a form of Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) which encourages my lining and the follicles on each ovary to grow, and grow BIG! Inside each follicle, an egg should grow. Like I said, normally each month only one follicle produces one egg. And we were gonna do this artificially, and on a BIG scale.  

After a few days of taking my stims injections, I was back in the clinic for another date with Wanda. This time was to check to see how the follicles were growing. Now, it’s important to say here that every woman and every case is different, so there’s no use going into it saying “oh, there’s only five follicles! That's shit!” Remember, it only takes one, and comparison to others will get you NOWHERE (must remember, must remember...)! After 6 days of stims injections, my lining had shot up to 7.5mm, and I had 11 follicles growing between 6-11mm. This was good, they said. They wanted the follicles to get to around 17-19mm, as this is usually the optimum size for a mature egg to be retrieved from it. I was sent home with instructions to keep doing what I was doing.  

In the meantime, I was still taking my morning down regulation drug, as this prevents ovulation from happening too early – we didn’t want those all-important eggs to be released too soon! Thankfully, at this point I was also glad to say that the side effects of the down regulation injections were also starting to wear off! On the flip side, I was starting to feel uncomfortable from what was happening deep down inside me. I would picture each ovary like a bunch of grapes growing on them – and my belly was showing it, too! 

A couple of days after this, I had yet another scan. The reason why the scans are so often and so close together is to monitor the speed at which the follicles are growing, which can give the doctors a good idea of when they’ll be mature enough for egg collection and get me booked in. Again, my lining had shot up to 10.4mm, and there were now 17 follicles between 9-17mm. Apparently, my acupuncturist tells me that this “second wave” of eggs is what’s really important, because these are the follicles most likely to house those shiny, golden eggs. Too small, and the egg in them will be immature. Too big, and the egg is likely to be too mature! 

At this stage, I was aware that the following week would be optimum for my egg collection, and so scheduled the next two weeks off for annual leave. In my work, there isn’t an IVF policy when it comes to time off etc. I’m very fortunate though, that my manager is extremely supportive of my choice and allows time off for appointments etc. without causing a fuss or eating into my sick allowance. Opening up to my manager about our situation was one of the best things I could’ve done – whilst I know a lot of people want to keep this whole thing a big secret (and I don’t blame you, at all!) I knew I would need the support of my employer. It’s sad to know that a lot of women don’t tell their employer what they’re going through due to fear of discrimination... In other words, if it works then they think that their job/promotion etc is in trouble because they’re pregnant :( 

Unfortunately, after that third scan I wasn’t quite cooked to perfection, and the clinic requested a fourth scan a few days later. I delayed my annual leave until I knew when egg collection would be, and after visiting Wanda that day they were happy for me to take my final injection: The Trigger Shot, ready for collection in 36 hours time! I was feeling very full, so I was so ready for this! 

KEB x