First Day of IVF Meds

Tonight was my first day of taking my IVF meds for stimulating my follicles to grow. My protocol is that I take one vial of Menopur (75iu) and 300 iu of Gonal-f.  In my teach class I learned how to mix the meds so I take one injection instead of two.

So basically it's take 1/2 cc of sodium chloride, inject it into the Menopur vial (Menopur comes as a powder that needs to be mixed with sodium chloride). Then add the Gonal-f to the vial, draw everything's up into the syringe, add the proper gage needle and inject. I'm over simplifying as I'm sure if you're doing IVF meds your RE and/or clinic will instruct you as to how to administer yours. 

My nerves about the injection was how much pressure I would need to use for the needle to puncture the skin. As it turns out, very little. I am not squeamish so maybe that's why it was easy for me, but I simple pinched some of my skin on my stomach, inserted the needle, pushed in the meds, held for 3 seconds as instructed, released, and pulled the needle out. There was no pain (the expected feeling from inserting the needle but really it's the same as any injection, probably less so than your typical vaccine which is intramuscular rather than subcutaneous). I had read that Menopur stings/burns, it didn't. The only thing I was surprised by was that there was a bit more blood than I expected and when I say that, I mean that I expected there to be no blood and there was enough that I did need a bandaid. (Whenever getting vaccines I always thought the bandaid was overkill and thought how much blood could there be for a tiny needle. I guess there is actually some.)

So basically that was my first experience with doing my IVF injections. I think as with most things in life, the anticipation and concern about it is more than the reality.