@kimberly810, thank you for all of the advice. I really appreciate it! 💗

Hi!!! I’m a little late to add my answer, but here goes:

-Buy yourself some comfy clothes, especially pants. The meds make you feel bloated, and some people are high responders and develop a lot of eggs. I had 35 retrieved.

-Get yourself a hot pack. It helps the discomfort.

-If you’re high risk for developing OHSS, get lots of Gatorade and other foods that are high in salt and protein. I bought some canned soups and added 1 tsp of table salt to each bowl. I had to choke it down because it was so bad taste-wise, but it did help me feel better. Don’t drink a ton of water if you get this.

-A calendar to chart out meds can be really helpful.

-Remember, this phase doesn’t last forever.

I was surprised how quickly numbers drop. Out of 35 eggs, only 18 were mature. Of those 18, only 8 fertilized (no indications for ICSI before we started, although RE recommends it if we have to do this again). We were lucky that all 8 made it to blastocyst (7 graded AA, 1 graded AB). We transferred 1, became pregnant, and miscarried. We just did a FET, transferring 1, and are pregnant again.

With my fresh cycle, we did progesterone suppositories. This time, I am doing injections of PIO. My RE said they did a study, and they had to stop it early because those doing injections were over 30% more successful than suppositories. I’ll be honest, the shots aren’t fun. The subcutaneous shots of hormones before the egg retrieval are a breeze compared to the PIO shots that are intramuscular (in your butt). BUT they’re not as messy, so there’s that.

Good luck!! We are all rooting for you! ❤️

I wish I knew more about shared risk programs and had chosen one. I assumed we had good odds with IVF, now we are getting ready to start our 5th round of stims. We could have saved so much money doing a shared risk program.

I wish I knew to expect something to go wrong every step that would extend the whole process.

Did you do the diagnosis part yet?