Thinking Fecund Thoughts

I managed to get my Puregon doses from the pharmacy in Nelson during the 9am-10am window on Sunday without incident. From Sunday/Monday I’ve been feeling a bit uncomfortable and bloaty in my abdomen – like I’m tight/full from eating too much but in a slightly different place. This is a common side effect from the ovary stimulating medications. Yesterday I headed down to Christchurch in time to collect my next Puregon dose from St George’s Hospital (they are associated with Fertility Associates but are open a little later). They only dispense as much medication as you need as they cannot accept returns due to them being refrigerated products, and they are very pricey. A Puregon 900 injection pen (contains 900 units, my dose was 300 units so three injections for me) costs $1035. While it has been quite stressful trying to make sure I had each dose in time, at ~$345 per dose I can see why they only dispense what you need, as you need it!

An image from my scan today. This is one view of one ovary. The dark, round objects clumped together to the centre left are follicles, each which should contain an egg.

First thing this morning I had another blood sample taken, and an appointment for a scan at Fertility Associates in Christchurch. My scan showed several follicles in each ovary that were measured and met the size criteria to have egg collection this week, as well as a few smaller ones. From what I could tell, ideal size is 18mm or larger in diameter, and a few of mine were at least 20mm, some around 18mm, and a few around the 13-14mm mark, although several overlapped each other so were a little difficult to get an accurate measurement. All in all, they seemed very happy with what they saw, and there were enough suitably-sized follicles to go ahead with collection this Friday. In preparation for this, a nurse dispensed to me the trigger injection Ovidrel, which contains human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG) and is used to trigger ovulation. They talked me through how to use it – it’s another injection pen similar to the Puregon. It’s pre-loaded with the medication vial ready to use, all you need to do is dial it to the 250iu dose. They advised me that Fertility Associates would phone me this afternoon when they had received the results from my blood test to advise me when our appointment on Friday will be, and when to administer the Ovidrel – it needs to be 36 hours before egg collection. In the meantime, I do not need to inject any more Buserelin or Puregon. 

The tools of the trade. From top: case with Puregon injection pen with vial and needles, Buserelin vial with syringe/needle, Ovidrel injection pen.

The nurse called at 3:30pm, and advised that I need to have my Ovidrel injection at 10:30pm sharp tonight, in preparation for egg collection at 10:30am Friday. I am not allowed to eat anything for six hours before the procedure, and can drink clear fluids for up until two hours prior. I am also instructed to take three paracetamol one hour before the appointment, and Dave must provide a fresh semen sample for the appointment on Friday too. Interestingly, we are not allowed to wear perfume or anything overly strong-scented (though deodorant is ok as long as not too strong) as the eggs and embryos are very sensitive to chemicals and strong odours.

In the meantime, I'll just keep thinking fecund thoughts as we hope for a successful collection procedure yielding a good number of healthy eggs on Friday.