egg freezing, week 1
mishaps, marvels, and misguided google maps
I wrote the initial post about freezing my eggs back in February of 2024. Over a year has passed and I’m finally starting the cycle.
The first week wasn’t exactly seamless, but I made it through with fewer side effects than I would’ve predicted.
In this post, I’m recapping the first week.
If you are someone currently experiencing infertility, just know my thoughts are deeply with you and this may be a post to skip.
Here we go!
Mentioned in this post:
grounding habits
I talk to other people about their healthy habits all day long, and while there are general tenets that may be applicable for some, the emphasis is most often on individualization.
on timing
Ever since writing about contemplating egg freezing back in February and August, I’ve been hesitant to commit to a date. There’s been travel or other plans, and I’ve been waiting for the exact *right* moment. And then of course realized there is no perfect time. So with that in mind, I’m finally organized enough to start everything in a few weeks, at the end of February (if all goes to plan).
Day 1 (Saturday)
I had labs drawn in the early morning and was waiting for a call from the nurse to review next steps. I got the call mid-day and everything was a go. She notified me that for the next four days I’d be doing 2 injections - 300 IU of Follistim and 1 vile of Menopur.
I confirmed I had all of the medications, and she then walked me through next steps.
She mentioned the average timeline for injections was 10-14 days total. During this time, she advised no travel, and avoiding use of all NSAIDs (Ibuprofen, Motrin, Advil, Aleve, Naproxen, etc). Also of note - no unprotected intercourse and no aerobic exercising including twisting, bouncing, or core-focused movement.
Both medications would be injected subcutaneously (under the skin) within the same two hour window every day. Injections can be in the lower abdomen or thigh, alternating injection sites each day (one day in the right lower abdomen, the next in the left lower abdomen, etc). After doing this for four days, I’d get additional labs done to determine next course of action.
I chose 8pm as my time for the next 4 days. When 8pm rolled around, I got out the materials I needed. I started with Follistim, which came with its own pen injector. I had to load the medication into the pen injector, and adjust the pen until it reached 300 units (the amount for the injection). The video was straightforward and easy to follow.
I cleaned the right lower part of my abdomen with isopropyl alcohol that I picked up earlier (should have grabbed alcohol swabs from work on Friday, but forgot). I pinched the skin of my lower abdomen and…hesitated! I was a little spooked! Despite being around needles quite often at work, and injecting others during procedures, I noticed some fear. Which of course is normal!
Though to be honest, the most scared out of everyone was Red, who immediately thought he was at the vet and was cowering in the corner until Mike picked him up and cradled him like a baby.
I took a deep breath and did the injection. It was surprisingly painless though there was a very brief moment of burning afterwards. It was gone within seconds.
Injection one, done!
I then moved on to the video for the medication called Menopur. As I unboxed everything, I saw this one was a bit more involved. It required puncturing the top of a small vile of saline, using a syringe to draw up 1 cc of saline, puncturing the top of the active medication (Menopur, which is a powder), transferring the saline to the Menopur vile, mixing it together, drawing up the combined saline and Menopur, then injecting.
I regularly draw up medications at work so I wasn’t overly anxious about this part.
Until I realized that there were no syringes that came with Menopur. Nor was there an injection needle to actually inject the medication.
Surely you are thinking to yourself, ‘Katie. You MUST have watched all the videos and checked to ensure you had all the materials before starting the injections.’
And to that I say - I went in overconfident HAHA.
Everyone talks about making sure you have all the medications. But I assumed all materials for said medications would be included in the prescriptions.
It was already 8pm so I started worrying pharmacies would be closing. I drove over to the nearest CVS as their website said the pharmacy was open until 10pm. However, the pharmacy was closed by the time I got there.
I asked the person at the register if they had any syringes sold over the counter. They shouted over to ask the person next to them, gesticulating by slapping the inside of their elbow. In that moment, all other customers looked over at me.
And I didn’t care!! Needles/syringes should be included in pharmacies over the counter for harm reduction. Or for anyone at all who needs them for medications.
Anyways!!!
An unexpected perk of my job is having a memorized Rolodex of most pharmacies and their hours within a 5 mile radius. I quickly drove to another nearby pharmacy that’s open 24 hours. I spoke to the pharmacist and after watching the video together, he found me a syringe and a needle that I could do the injection with.
(THANK YOU, JOEY!!! YOU WILL NEVER READ THIS BUT YOU LITERALLY SAVED ME AND I WILL BE CALLING YOUR SUPERVISOR TO SING YOUR PRAISES! I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU! AND ALL PHARMACISTS!!!)
To anyone going through this process, it’s a 3 cc string with a 27 gauge or 30 gauge 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch needle. The only thing CVS had was a 25 gauge so I knew it’d be slightly more painful as it’s a slightly bigger/thicker needle.
But oh well. Better than nothing.
I drove home while watching the clock, and somehow not even an hour had passed during this whole fiasco.
I got in, watched the video, drew up the saline, transferred it to the Menopur vile, mixed it together, and drew everything up into the syringe. I then attached the needle for the injection and thought to myself, “hm. This looks like more medication than in the videos.”
Mistake number 2 (LOL): I drew up ALL the saline from the saline vile, which is 2ccs rather than the recommended 1cc.
hahahah what is happening!
This doesn’t really matter because it’s the same amount of medication just diluted in more saline, but I wasn’t thrilled about having to do more of an injection (takes longer to inject), especially with the slightly bigger needle.
BUT OH WELL!!
It wasn’t the most comfortable but it was fine.
Night one complete.
I ate emotional support gummy peach rings and then crawled into bed and read a book.
I felt okay with no side effects other than berating myself (and laughing) that the first night of injections was so chaotic.