What Is It Like to Be Going Through Fertility Treatments?

What is it like to be going through fertility treatments?

Here is a description of a typical 2-months:

• I get my period

• Start injections

• Get an ultrasound and bloodwork every two days

• Raise the injection dosage

• Bloodwork and ultrasound

• Add another injection and some pills

• Time to go to to the mikveh

Doctor’s instructions: don’t have sexual relations until eggs are retreived. (As if waiting for the mikveh day itself wasn‘t enough). Oh yeah, and at 3:00 a.m. exactly you need to have an injection. – Does the specific time matter? – Yes

• Night before egg retrieval – fasting

• Arrive at the clinic

• Full anesthesia (the fun part)

• Wake up

• Nausea 

• Vomiting

Doctor’s instructions: don’t have sexual relations until the beta HCG pregnancy test. — What, wait, a whole month with no relations? – Yes. 

• Vaginal pills that feel like cottage cheese in my underpants (Sorry )

• Nerve-wracking waiting period until the results come back

• Extremely painful stomach pains

• Rushing to the emergency room

• Infection in my uterus

• Hospitalization

• Negative beta test

• Period

• I want to start another round without waiting. No, you have to wait, your uterus is infected, a fetus is precious and you need optimal conditions for the treatments. We still can’t have relations (you know niddah and so on…). Wow – it’s already been a month and a half with no relations!

• Waiting for the next period

And repeat — God forbid!!!