#AtoZChallenge: I is for Injections

This is the ninth 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 I for Injections.

I think if you ask the question ‘what does IVF involve?’ about 90% of people would probably reply ‘injections’. And they would be right. IVF or ICSI treatment involves a huge number of injections because that’s how the drugs are delivered to your system.

During my cancelled cycle I learned, with some degree of shock, that my first injection actually came some time before I started stabbing myself in the stomach morning and night. And that first one went in your bum. Let me tell you, the bumpy taxi ride back to the train station was fun that day!

The bulk of your injections will be hormone drugs which help to stimulate the follicle growth and egg production. Different hospitals and clinics use different combinations; some drugs come pre-loaded into pens, others require you to fill up a syringe yourself with the medication. If you’re given the option, I’d highly recommend the pre-loaded pens; it’s a stressful process and it takes a whole lot of stress out of it.

The pens also have the advantage of not really looking a whole lot like needles, which I think makes it easier to kid yourself into things not hurting as much. Your mileage may vary.

The injections need to be done into your stomach, buttocks or thighs. With the cancelled cycle we were advised to do it into the fatty bit of the belly, starting to one side of your belly button and alternating sides, bringing them down to make a smiley face shape. That way you don’t inject into the same site twice, and that helps it to be less painful. Some couples find it’s easier for the partner to do the jabs; personally if something sharp is being stabbed into my belly, I want to be the one doing it.

To be honest, you don’t feel the needle going in much beyond a slight sting, it’s when you pull it out and the skin puckers around the needle that it hurts. I actually quite liked the process of giving myself the injections. If you’ve been in the position where you’ve been told nothing you do is going to make a difference to your chances of getting pregnant then doing something, however uncomfortable, feels kind of good again.

If you’ve got family and friends going through the IVF process, by all means, show sympathy at the whole injection rigmarole. A sympathetic ‘ooh, that sounds sore’ is fine; wide-eyed shock and ‘I could never give myself injections!’ is not. Chances are the person you’re speaking to thought that as well, then IVF happened and they’re just grateful they’re getting an opportunity. If someone told them to stick a hot needle in their eye they’d probably be willing to try it.

Note to my readers: Don’t stick a hot needle in your eye! It’s highly unlikely to help you get pregnant!