I’m sure there are going to be people out there that feel like this post isn’t for them and honestly that’s alright. I’m 33 years old and am fortunate to work for a company that helps pay for any fertility treatments. Personally I’m unsure if I want kids and so the whole reason I even decided to start researching fertility was for my own curiosity. I started researching and listening to a few different webinars starting in 2021 I even went in for a consultation once at KindBody. They have a really gorgeous office in SF and everything is run through a portal which makes it super easy!

Anyway, during my consultations and the webinars I attend I wanted some important questions answered. From how much does it cost, how does it work & can I do this while having an IUD just to name a few. Thankfully YES YOU CAN do this without taking out your IUD for anyone who’s worried.

But at the time I went in to start looking into all this I was working as a contractor and couldn’t afford to go through the procedure so I decided to wait till I was hopefully full-time & had a little more money to work with. (Incase you aren’t aware doing egg freezing is VERY EXPENSIVE!!) Fast forward to 2022, I went to a new facility called Spring Fertility which was recommended to me by my insurance company through work called Progyny. They are based in either New York or California unfortunately they do not have offices elsewhere in the United states. I had an ultra sound again to find out how many follicles I have to work with to prep for doing the procedure in the start of 2023.

I am by no means an expert in all of this but hopefully I can answer a few concerns/questions people might have about how it works or just can be relatable for anyone. But, incase people aren’t familiar with the term follicles, well they are referring to our eggs and every women has a wide range of them depending on their age, genetics etc. Kinda crazy how different everyone is! At 33 years old I had a decent amount of follicles not too many but also not a crazy amount either. At least this was what they could tell in the initial ultrasound before we started all the injections. I went in end of January for a few different ultra sounds & blood work to find out where my cycle was before we could get started.

Tip: Make sure you reach out to your insurance company or ask your company you work for if they cover fertility treatments before going all in on your own money.

Pharmacy

I worked with my clinic to order medication through Alto Pharmacy. Honestly the most convenient pharmacy out there & they do service a lot of major cities throughout the US. I love them! I used them while I was on accutane last year and honestly use them for any medication I need for any of my doctors.

When you’re requesting the medication it know it can be hard to determine how much you need but the nurses were very good at estimating for me. One note is make sure you request at least 2 needle disposal boxes as you will fill those up super fast and EVERYTHING has to go in there including the little vials the medication is in. The medication will cost about $8-10K if you’re paying out of pocked so keep that in mind and it might even be safe to assume you’ll go over if you need additional medication.

Starting the procedure

After going in for the initial ultrasound & blood work, my nurse called me later that afternoon to give me my instructions for the first night and throughout my whole journey she was my point of contact. After our calls she’d follow up with a message in the Spring Fertility portal and through their app with all the information she walked me through over the phone.

Day 1

I started that night and it was a little intimidating. I’m not a fan of needles and then you add the fact you have to give it to yourself was just a little nerve-racking, but if you really wanted you can pay a nurse to come in and help you but that cost extra money and well I had enough faith in doing it myself haha. My tip was set up my station with all the medications, needles, syringes, sharps container, etc. & my laptop. On my laptop I made sure to have the note from my nurse pulled up, as I was paranoid I’d administer the wrong amount, in addition to the video with medication and administration instructions. The whole setup and prep does feel a bit overwhelming at first but was really a life saver and a great comfort to have.

Once my ‘station’ was set up I used that every night for the next 12 days. This whole thing really helped me feel confident but the video was also kinda soothing listening to the nurse speak. I did also recorded myself every time I gave myself and injection. Which honestly I struggled to watch back! I’m working on creating an instagram reel so feel free to come back and check that out once’s that’s live.

Day 2-5

The first couple nights were pretty challenging as it was very nerv-racking but as I did it, it kinda became a bit of a routine after a while. My plan consisted of a couple different medications Gonal-F/Follistim at 200IU and Menopur at 150IU for the first few days during 7-9 pm overnight until I was told otherwise. They were pretty upfront with making sure I stuck with the same time every night. There were two different medications you had to administer for this. One of the medications requires you to mix the two powder vials and one liquid together with a syringe and the other was premixed already, which was very nice and easy.

Once I determined where I’d be giving myself the injection, about 4 fingers to the left or right or below the belly button, I cleaned the location with an alcohol pad and then pinch the skin and inject myself. The first time I did it I actually got pretty lightheaded and realized I hadn’t had dinner which was probably why 🙈. So for the next few nights I always made sure I ate or had a snack before administering the injection.

But I’m sure everyone is wondering if it hurts and well, yes it does a little bit. For me personally one of the injections, Menopur, actually hurt more than the Gonal-F I’m going to assume it was because of the different thickness of the needles. However overall both the needles are all very very small.

Tip: Seriously try and alternate the injection sites as it will help with your body bruising and making the injection process hurt a tiny bit less.

As the nights went by it got easier and I made sure to alternate the medications locations on my body so I wasn’t always injecting myself in the same spot. Overall the first few days I felt pretty good no mood swings or bloating and everything seemed to be going well. After probably day 4 I noticed I started to bruise in the locations I was injecting myself which made it hurt a tiny bit more when I administered the medication.

Every 2-3 days I was going in for an ultrasound to the clinic so they could track to the progress of the egg growth and maturity. By doing this and blood work this would help determine when you’d have to trigger and end up having the procedure as well as if they might need to adjust the medication. Thankfully these visits were always super fast somewhere between 15-30 minutes at the most. So when picking a clinic to do this whole process with keep in mind the frequency you’ll need to go in and pick a place that is the most convenient for you.

Anyway, my follicles were a little slow to grow but they were growing at least so they were anticipating I’d be doing the injections for a longer period of time. At around days 4/5 they were not officially advising me to stop doing any HIIT or high intensity workouts as we don’t want to jostle the follicles.

Day 6

On about day 6 I went for another ultrasound and after that call they wanted me to adjust my medication and start giving myself another injection in the mornings. This new medication was called Cetrotide which required me to mix the powder vial with the liquid injection needle in the morning till the day I ‘trigger’. So now I’d be injecting myself 3 times a day till then. But, I’m assuming you aren’t sure what ‘triggering’ is or means so don’t worry I’ll explain that a little later in this post.

Day 9/11

Around the 9/11 day mark was about when I started to feel a little bloated and slightly uncomfortable so wearing jeans was a little challenging haha. But at least the eggs were growing and I wasn’t having any mood swings or becoming overly emotional. Since we were now so far along in the process I was really struggling not being allowed to do any workouts especially anything that involved a lot of motion in your abdominal area. I just really need that to help my mood and just feel overall healthier.

Trigger Day (Day 12)

Heading into what I was hoping to be my last ultrasound, as honestly I was pretty ready to stop having to give myself injections and feeling so bloated. Thankfully after the ultra sound the nurse told me I’d be ‘triggering’ tonight! She asked me to ‘trigger’ around 7:30 pm that night as my procedure was scheduled in two days after that around 7:30 am. So for everyone that doesn’t know what ‘triggering’ means. It’s the final medication you administer to make sure your body and eggs are ready for extraction and stops them from growing or releasing from the body. When you ‘trigger’ that is literally the last time you have to give yourself an injection as you’re requested to stop all over injections by the nurse.

Procedure Day

Finally procedure day was here!! After a total of 14 days I was ready for this process to be done with! So my appointment was bright and early 7 am on Feb 8th. One of the things they tell you before the procedure is that you can’t drive home and someone needs to pick you up because you’re going under general anestheisa. So I had my mum come down from Tahoe to take me and pick me up from the Fertility Clinic.

When I got into the Spring Fertility Clinic that morning they greeted me and had me come into the back to get me prepped for the extraction. I couldn’t resist a selfie of my very sleepy face and the waiting room. (not my best look but oh well haha) Not going to lie I was a little nervous for the procedure as I don’t love doctors offices or going into a clinics. This is probably not super new to anyone who’s had surgery before but they asked me to not drink or eat up to 8 hours before the extraction. They also have you use the bathroom one more time before going in.

After a quick 15 minute procedure and a little resting they woke me up to make sure I feel alright which I thankfully did . A tad groggy but overall good. My mum picked me up and I got discharged and went home to relax! Honestly it was crazy how fast everything went and how smoothly it went.

Later that afternoon they gave me a call to follow up on me to make sure I was feeling alright and say how many follicles they extracted. Then a few days or so later they called again to check in, speak to the doctors and learn how many follicles were actually viable and mature enough to freeze. I had a little bit below average, which was a little disappointing and the doctors recommended me look into going through the egg freezing process again to have more viable follicles to freeze for potential future use. But she did say I had a good amount just it’s of course better to have more options especially as I’m getting older. I took a few days to think about it and told her if I considered doing it again I’d look into it later this year and honestlyI’m still thinking about it as it was a lot of work and hard on the body.

A couple other things I wanted to just bring up is I did ask friends who’d also gone through the process what their follicle count was and as interesting and informative it was it was also a bummer to hear how many they got over me. That to say I did get about the average amount and it was still great so just when discussing with friends take that into account if you might be sensitive to hearing what other people got.

They did also encourage me to avoid physical activity for about a week after the procedure incase of potential bleeding, which was tough as I was ready to get back into my routine! So hopefully this little post was helpful and informative! If you’re considering doing it and need a little moral support I’m here for it! Excited for you and your journey!

Fertility & Egg Freezing Journey