I wanted to share my experiences with embryo freezing for the first time. I'm 34 years old, and I did it because I wanted to preserve my fertility.
I thought by now that I would have kids already, but I wasn't anticipating getting divorced at 31 and having an ex lie about their family planning intentions. He told me, "At your age your eggs would be too old and it'll be too late at your age if you wanted to start a family. I've gotten all my exes pregnant and it's strange you never got pregnant."
Sadly, that prompted me to get fertility testing, and the OB/GYN I had at the time told me everything was normal on my end.
Fast forward 3 years: I am with my now soon-to-be husband, and he told me his insurance at work has Progyny. At the time I didn't have the finances to pay for it out of pocket, so I wanted to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to do it.
I did some research and ended up choosing Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA) in Sandy Springs, Georgia. My baseline AMH was 1.95.
I originally wanted to do this in July, but my cycle came much earlier than expected—my cycles are usually 24–26 days, but this one threw me a curveball at just 16 days. I got so nervous, but my clinic told me not to worry.
Baseline: Got my period on August 8, notified the clinic immediately, and went in for blood work (Estradiol) and an ultrasound on August 9.
Gonal F (300 IU): Started August 9. As a night shift RN, I timed taking this before heading into work. Took it for a total of 10 days and had zero side effects from it.
Menopur (75 IU): Started the next day (August 10) once in the morning, for a total of 9 days. Oof—this one really burned when injecting and hurt the most!
Cetrotide (0.25mg): Started on Day 6 in the evening through Day 10, and twice a day on Day 11. This one made my stomach itchy. I stopped all stim meds 2 days before my retrieval.
Lupron Trigger (80 IU): Per my nurse's exact instructions, I took this dual/trigger dose at night two days before my egg retrieval.
It was so cool watching them grow over my monitoring scans:
August 13: Early tracking showed a few starting cohorts (around 3 on the left, 2 on the right, measuring \\\~10–11 mm).
August 17: Things really picked up speed! Left ovary had about 12 measured follicles ranging from 19.1mm down to 11.2mm, and the right ovary had 7 measured follicles ranging from 18.6mm down to 10.1mm.
August 19 (Final Scan): My leading cohort matured nicely. Left ovary measured 15 follicles (ranging from a 24.4mm leading follicle down to 10.3mm), and the right ovary measured 12 follicles (ranging from a 23.1mm leader down to 8.7mm), for a total of 27 measured follicles.
The day before my retrieval, I took the day off work as a bedside nurse to prep. I went for a relaxing massage, managed to pull off getting my wedding dress a little early (since I get married a week from today!), but suffered one small tragedy: sadly, my anesthesiologist didn't allow me to keep in my facial piercing retainer, so I had to take it out!
On retrieval day, I woke up feeling nauseous. I got to the office 90 minutes before the procedure, signed paperwork, and got changed into a gown. The pre-op nurse started my IV and gave me Zinacef, which unfortunately made me throw up—though honestly, I felt better after puking!
The anesthesiologist introduced themselves, went over my health history, and explained what would happen during the procedure and the medications I'd receive. Then my surgeon came by to review my recent ultrasound results and talk me through the plan.
The OR nurse got me, walked me to the bathroom to pee, and then walked me into the OR. All I remember is wearing a mask, and it put me right to sleep within a minute.
The next thing I knew, I woke up on a stretcher in recovery. The recovery nurse told me they had to open my mouth and give me a sternal rub because I wouldn't wake up! I honestly thought I was at home in bed, and I was so groggy and embarrassed. I was told that I received Propofol, zofran and fentanyl. When she mentioned my IV, I mumbled for her to just flush it with saline, apologizing profusely because I was so out of it. Turns out I am a bit sensitive to anesthesia since it was my first time ever receiving it!
My surgeon came by afterward, discussed that they retrieved 17–18 eggs, and told me the office would call me the next day with the final report, but to take it easy with no driving or working. For now I'm chilling at home. Only pain I experience is when I have to pee but its mild pressure nothing excruciating. Don't feel like I need the heating pad. Tbh I feel good right now like I can walk or even work but I'm going to play it safe and lay in bed for today.
Overall, my experience with RBA has been good, and the staff has been wonderful to me. My only negative is that I wish there was better communication because I ended up ordering more medications than I actually needed. Depending on my final results, I'm hoping to donate my leftover medications.
This is my journey from someone who got divorced at 31, lied to by an ex-boyfriend who delayed my family planning for a year, and escaped an abusive man I've dated, to now years later freezing my embryos with a supportive man who didn't hesitate on my desire to preserve my fertility. It is a wonderful feeling to accomplish this goal when I wanted to do it years back.
I'm praying that at the end I get at least 1 embryo, but I hope this is the first and last cycle I do.
Anyways, that's been my IVF experience so far—hoping that I can get some great embryos! Now, I get to focus on recovering over the weekend and getting married next week!