#AtoZChallenge: B is for Blood Tests

This is the second of a series of posts that I’m posting during the A to Z Challenge; that’s a blogging challenge where you aim to post a blog post for each letter of the alphabet throughout the month of April (with Sundays off for good behaviour). During my first A to Z Challenge I wrote about infertility, which I’m sort of revisiting during A to Z Challenge 2015.

My theme this year is IVF/ICSI, a process we’re starting at the moment and today it’s B for Blood Tests.

I mentioned yesterday that you’ll obviously have a lot of hospital appointments. Well, one of the things you get used to having at these appointments is blood tests. Actually, if you’ve had issues conceiving up to the point of needing to have IVF/ICSI you’ll probably already have had a couple of blood draws (depending on your doctor).

Before this point I’d had blood tests to check I’d had all the vaccines I needed (specifically against Rubella which can be particularly harmful for pregnant women). I also had one which is known as the ‘Day 21 Bloods’; this is a test which is done on the 21st day of your cycle which checks you’re ovulating. I was actually lucky enough to get mine done three times as the lab very helpfully didn’t do the test they were supposed to do the first two times (more about that in tomorrow’s post).

Once you’ve had all the blood tests to establish that everything is (or isn’t working) correctly, as well as a whole host of other tests and procedures, and finally get that golden ticket for your IVF or ICSI treatment.

And that’s when the blood tests really start!

First you get to have tests to check you don’t have any STDs or blood born diseases like hepatitis or HIV. This can be a little bit awkward because no one really wants to share that they’re having tests for these kinds of things; you don’t want people to get the wrong idea about you or your partner. And then when you do get the results back you can’t really share them with anyone. Maybe it’s just me but I just don’t feel right posting ‘Yay! I don’t have any STDs!’ on Facebook. Again, it kind of prompts awkward questions.

But those aren’t the only blood tests you get. You’ll also get one to check your egg quality. This helps to work out the best treatment protocol for you. I’ll explain more about protocols way ahead on the 18th. Men are lucky suckers and can keep producing their little swimmers for pretty much as long as they want to, but as with so many other things, women get the short end of the stick and ours degrade over time. The higher your number from the AMH blood test, the better.

And then it doesn’t end there. Throughout your treatment cycle you’ll have regular blood tests (read: each appointment) to keep track of how you’re responding to treatment and to check when you’ll be ready for egg collection. Your arms will start to look like you have a bit of a problem from all the track marks down them, but you won’t be too concerned about that since the appointments will involve some other things that’ll be far more uncomfortable (more about that on Saturday).

So if you’re going through the treatment, this is a good excuse to take it a bit easy. Another good excuse not to do any heavy lifting (since bending your arms will be sore – along with other bits of you of course). Ask your other half to look after you. ;-)

And if you’ve got a friend or family member going through the joys of assisted conception, sympathise with them, don’t comment on the needle marks and bruises on their arms, and if they need something up on the top shelf, maybe take pity and lift it down for them.