IVF Journey: 9w5d pregnant

This is my IVF diary. My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for four years now, and have a diagnosis of 'unexplained infertility'. We have finally reached the top of the waiting list for IVF - a form of assisted conception. I'm blogging about what happens as it happens, as a kind of therapy for me and as an awareness raising exercise of what IVF is all about.

Today marks the ceremonial last insertion of an IVF pessary.

I’ve been taking IVF drugs (2 x progesterone pessaries and 4 x HRT tablets) for many months now, with HRT since 27th September and progesterone since 12th October.

Today is 49 days after embryo transfer which is finally time to stop taking all that.

So far as I can tell this 49 days is a fairly arbitrary figure. Some clinics don’t seem to keep the IVF drugs going at all after a positive pregnancy test, some keep them going up to 12 weeks, some get a person to wean themselves off them slowly. Even in my clinic the nurse questioned the doctor whether a full 49 days was necessary after a blastocyst (day 5) transfer and she seemed to say yes based or erring on the side of caution.

I’ll be glad to be off these drugs. They make a big sticky mess in my pants. Gross.

Plus I’ll then be down to only four pills per day – three of anti nausea drugs and one of folic acid. At my peak I was taking 13 pills and two pessaries each day. Urgh.

So two possible outcomes of this momentous occasion.

One: The pregnancy might fail. I might find that the IVF drugs – being used to support the pregnancy - had been fully supporting the pregnancy. Without them it might give up. I’m thinking this is quite unlikely. But it does play on my mind a little.

Two: If I stop throwing a hell of a lot of artificial hormones into my body I might feel less sick. That’d be good.

Well either way it is an important step, and (touch wood) that’s me completely through IVF and out the other side.