All The Medications
Hormone Treatments
Dr. Gurau prescribed a number of hormone medications to help prepare my uterus for the embryo transfer. The specific goal is to thicken the uterine lining to aid implantation. Day one of full flow of my period arrived and I excitedly contacted my fertility clinic as instructed, to get things scheduled!
On Day 3, I was scheduled for another round of bloodwork and a full bladder (ugh, sigh) ultrasound – both pelvic and transvaginal to measure my baseline uterine lining.
Estrace
After this appointment I was prescribed Estrace 2 mg tablets. I was to take one tablet orally each morning, and two tablets vaginally each night for two weeks. These are small little pills and there is no applicator for inserting into the vagina. So imagine inserting these pills as a tiny little OB tampon. I got really good at shoving things up there, and you will too, I promise!
Estradot
This is also the day that I began wearing an Estradot 100 mg transdermal patch. It’s like a small, translucent bandaid that you apply to the skin of your tummy. You can shower with it on, and change it every two to three days. It’s completely painless.
Measuring the Uterine Lining
On Day 13, I was back at the clinic for more bloodwork and an empty bladder ultrasound (thank god for small mercies!) to look for thickening of the uterine lining and elevated levels of estrogen. The uterine lining needs to measure a minimum of 8mm, and mine was at 13mm, bravo uterus, BRAVO!!! Today I reduced my Estrace tablets to just one in the morning orally, and started two new medications.
Endometrin
First, I am now taking Endometrin 100 mg tablets three times a day, administered vaginally. Thankfully these tablets do come with an applicator, so that part is a little easier. However, and it’s a BIG however, the Endometrin tablets are “effervescent”!!! I’ll leave it to your imagination to think about what that means for your poor underwear ladies. This is the time to bust out your good ole granny panties, and invest in some good-coverage panty liners!
Progesterone in Oil
In addition to the Estrace and Endometrin, I’m also now taking Progesterone in Oil, 1mg twice weekly. The progesterone is administered through an intramuscular injection. This is no joke! I was honest with you about acupuncture needles, and I’ll be honest with you about these progesterone injections… they suck! The needle is LONG since it needs to penetrate all layers of your skin and into the muscle tissue.
The nurses at my fertility clinic were great and gave me a personal training session on how to administer the shots, as well as a reference video I could watch again at home. The shots are to be administered to the buttocks, a hard-to-reach location - especially if you’ve got a nice big, round bum like me! For this reason they recommend that you have someone administer the shots for you. B since I live alone, this isn’t really an option for me. My sister did the first shot for me, and I braced myself, anticipating a lot of pain. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t much fun.
I learned to administer the shots myself after that, and most of the time it went smoothly. I did have some instances of minor bleeding upon removing the needle. And your bum stays sore for days… so you have to switch cheeks for each shot. The progesterone shots continue until a pregnancy is confirmed, and then up until week 12 of pregnancy. That’s a lot of shots, and I was sooooo ready for them to be over.
So Many Medications!
So folks, that’s a total of four different hormones being introduced to my system: Estrace, Estradot, Endometrin, and Progesterone in Oil. It’s no wonder we hear stories about women’s emotions being all over the place as they are going through IVF treatments, and that’s not even considering the emotional toll of the entire process! Women undergoing IVF are warriors. Truly. I have so much respect for women who have such drive to become mothers! It’s a lot, but you can do it!!
Big Emotions
Overall, I think I’ve handled the emotional rollercoaster side effects of all these hormone medications pretty well. My stress levels haven’t increased too much, perhaps thanks to my acupuncture treatments.
But I won’t sugarcoat things… I’ve had my moments! There have been a handful of times where my emotions came to the surface quickly, savagely and without warning. I had one day where I felt overwhelmed by something, and literally cried for 30 minutes straight… this is unusual for me, I’m not really much of a crier.
I had another day where I was caught off guard by a surprise visit by my sister. I felt panicked that I didn’t have the opportunity to clean and prepare for her, and I was scheduled to head into a work meeting. I completely lost my shit and yelled at my poor sister, who had only come to drop off some lovely, thoughtful gifts for me. I felt absolutely mortified after the fact, but in the moment I was 1,000% not in control of my emotions. Kinda scary. Thankfully my sister is full of grace and forgiveness, and accepted my profuse apologies!
Total Costs to Date:
$265 Fertility Counseling
$16,000 Donor Eggs (6 eggs)
$700 Donor Sperm (1 vial)
$10,100 Fertility Clinic Treatment Plan
$1,425 Fertility acupuncture
$170 Estrace 2mg tablets
$105 Estradot 100mg transdermal patches
$970 Endometrin 100mg tablets
$90 Progesterone in Oil
$29,825 Total costs to date (CAD$)
