Everything about Egg Freezing

So, after my first magical experience of egg freezing (and given my paltry 6 egg return) I went for round 2 a month later. The second time around: I was a ninja with a needle - I could do those injections one handed with a glass of wine in the other by the end; The impact on my body was entirely different - the second time around the eggs grew much slower, so it was much less painful, but I also had to have 2 extra days of hormones to coax them along; It was far less of an emotional experience, particularly as I had prepared myself for bad news every bloody step of the way; I did not rush back to the office the day after the procedure - I took a few days off to relax and recover.  Once again, despite maximum hormone quantities being injected on a daily basis, specifically targeted positive thoughts, and the universe definitely owing me one, I once again ended up with a measly 6 eggs.  Given my poor returns and the inability to tell at this stage whether the lack of egg numbers...

The Procedure By the time of my retrieval procedure, I was more than ready to have the few follicles I'd managed to muster up whipped out. I knew I would be under light sedation for the procedure and needed someone to drop me off and pick me up, and that I would only be out for an hour or so. However, I was nervous nonetheless.  I was not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight the morning of my procedure, which was scheduled for 8:30am on Sunday morning. I was due at the clinic at 8 so the best friend a girl can ask for picked me up at 7 so we could trek out to Health City.  When we got there, I was taken to a patient recovery room, put on a sexy robe, hat and booties and was set up for my IV. When everyone was ready I went into the procedure room and set myself up on the bed with my legs laid up gracefully on stirrups (It's hard to be graceful with your legs in stirrups but pretty sure I nailed it). I was provided with a sheet to cover my modesty but at this point I ...

Check In No. 1 After 5 days on the hormones I went back to the clinic to check on how they were growing. My lower abdomen felt sore which definitely meant (based on my extensive medical experience) there was a lot of growth happening so I was confident that there would be good news.  I was pretty sure that I would be some sort of miracle patient, the Dr would call in his colleagues and say "look how many follicles this Wonder Woman has generated through sheer force of will!" When the Dr started calling numbers to the nurse, I thought I had been validated.   Dr: "11" Me (thinking): "Ooh, nice job, bumped it up to 11 on one ovary." Dr: "15" Me (thinking): "Man, you are nailing this follicle growing thing." Dr: "13" Me (thinking): "Wait a second, that's not how counting works..."  It turns out he was calling out measurements. A follicle at 18mm is "mature" and viable so we needed to see how many were appro...

From what I gather the side effects of the hormones vary significantly from person to person which may be why I found it difficult to find information online as to what the experience would be like (everything talks about the risk of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome, which is the most extreme outcome, but not the day to day impacts).  My side effects included: Pretty much nothing in the first 2/3 days Minimal bruising around the injection site (I expected much more but only 2 of the 16 or so injection sites bruised) Minor short term rash or redness around the injection site once or twice which faded within 12-24 hours Feeling emotional/teary (as in, crying because a friend invited me for drinks and I was too tired to go) Fatigue - I had to go home and have a nap at lunchtime a few days towards the end Excessive discharge (i know it's a reality but it's a yucky word) - for the love of God stack up on pantyliners.  Bloating - I had been warned about this one and thought it wo...

Self-injecting was the part of the freezing process that I was most concerned about. I grew up with a mortal fear of needles (one of the ancillary duties of the Deputy Head Teacher at my High School was  holding me down when we had our scheduled immunisations at school - fairly sure she had been doing weights in preparation for the BCG when I was in year 10, knowing her work would be cut out for her).   While that fear has diminished somewhat following my hospital stay at 15 where I had to become accustomed to needles, I by no means enjoy injections and the thought of self-administering them was laughable (particularly for my mother whose engagement ring shape is still embedded in her other fingers from my childhood vaccinations).  I was sent a helpful video by the clinic which showed the process for preparing and administering the hormones. Fair warning, the first enormous needle you see is not in fact the one you use to inject - it is the one you use to mix. When I...

Having received the unexpected news that I had Diminished Ovarian Reserve, I realised I did not have a lot of time to wait around for Mr Right to present himself and for things to happen naturally, or equivocate over freezing what measly few eggs I had left. In retrospect, this actually made my decision easier. Had my numbers been OK I might have gone back and forth on the right time to kick start the egg freezing process but my poor prognosis reinforced that I needed to do it sooner rather than later.  I obviously had lots of questions which I had thought about in advance, which my Dr was able to answer with complete empathy and understanding (I realise my default tone is sarcasm but this is genuine - Dr Davis was very good!): Q: How many is a good amount to freeze? This largely depends on age - the older you are the more eggs (oocytes) you want to freeze to maximise your chances. 10 eggs at 32 is very different to 10 eggs at 38. There is a super depressing calculator available on...

Contemplating Egg Freezing   I used to worry about the right age and stage of my career to have kids. Did I want to be a young mum and get kids out of the way before pushing for promotions or wait until my career was established? To be honest, it never really occurred to me that I would ultimately not need to grapple with those questions and that I would reach my mid-30s, with no partner or imminent prospect of one, and be looking at potentially missing my window to have kids.  But, that is where I found myself earlier this year. 34 and single, having separated from my partner a year before. When we went our separate ways I did so knowing what it might mean for me. We had discussed having kids, it was just a question of timing. I thought I'd met my 'person'. But as it became obvious to me that the relationship needed to end I remember being acutely aware of my ovaries. I would never have stayed just to have kids, but I'm fairly sure this wasn’t a consideration of my par...

Welcome to my personal account of the egg freezing process. The purpose of this blog is threefold: (1) firstly, to let people know what it's really like as I struggled to find frank and detailed accounts online before I went through the process; (2) to try and break down misconceptions and myths around egg freezing, who should do it and when and alert women in the younger thirties to the need to monitor their fertility; and (3) to help me to process the physical and mental experience of the egg freezing process which I'm going through solo (so, thanks!).  About Me From what I have gathered, everyone's experience of egg freezing is different and every person and body reacts differently, so this is not intended to be a how to guide. It is simply an overview of my experience. For reference, I am a 34 year old Australia lawyer living and working in the Cayman Islands. I am very healthy, active and sporty but have had various chronic (but not serious) health issues over the year...