Our first IVF treatment was quite the adventure, as it is for most. There are lots of emotions, and so many new things you learn about your body, reproduction, and infertility – you know, the things you aren’t taught in your fifth grade sex-ed class. Like most things in life, the IVF experience is unique to each person, each couple, and the details of your fertility journey. We were blessed to have a fairly easy first IVF cycle, and we owe that all to our specialist and his team of professionals who walked this process with us!
So, what are the first couple weeks of an IVF cycle like?
What can you expect?
The first few weeks of the IVF process are SUPER simple. For most patients, the first few weeks are as simple as taking birth control pills. Yep, that’s it.
If you’ve traveled deep into the world of fertility treatments, this doesn’t come as a surprise to you; but, if you’re fairly new to infertility you might be surprised to learn that almost every IVF cycle begins with taking birth control pills. Seem counterproductive? Don’t worry, you don’t take them long!
This is called the Ovarian Suppression stage.
We talked about this in our IVF Basics post. Birth control pills during this stage of IVF is to keep you from releasing eggs on your own and/or releasing mature eggs to be fertilized naturally. Birth control pills will help your doctor be able to control the cycle bleed before your egg retrieval and/or embryo transfer, and have more control over the timing of both your egg retrieval and embryo transfer dates. The goal of ovarian suppression is also to hopefully “build up” extra eggs so that your ovarian stimulation phase is even more successful.
Our doctor used a birth control pill that contained an even dose of progesterone and estrogen, and yours may do the same.
That’s it. Pretty simple.
During the end of our suppression stage, I was also scheduled for a hysteroscopy, which you can read more about here. Your doctor may or may not recommend a hysteroscopy, or you may have had one prior to beginning your IVF treatment. You can read about my experience here! I wasn’t expecting this addition to our IVF cycle, but I am SO GLAD I had it done!
What were your first weeks of IVF like? Tell us about your experience below!
Want a fun way to document your infertility journey? Check out our Infertility Journey Milestone cards you can print and use as photo props on your blog or to share your journey with friends and family on social media, or you can even print these and journal on the back for a special keepsake of all the special moments in your journey!
