I'm going to be an egg donor! Would anyone like to share their experience with IVF, either as a donor or a recipient?

I haven’t, but I’ve met many women who have and I have to say I admire you for making this decision. I wish all the best!

My ex and I went through years of infertility treatment until we finally did two rounds of IVF, which failed, but we got pregnant in the off month before the third round. (The doctor wouldn’t do it every month, gave her body a month to rest.)

To get you ready, you’ll be injected with some hormones every day for a few weeks before hand. I can’t remember how long it was, but I would wake her every morning before I went to work and give her an injection in the butt. This was to promote egg production. And then when she ovulated, we went into the lab and the eggs were harvested with a tube that went up near the opening of the fallopian tubes. My ex said it felt like a small pinch, not painful but unusual.

The only real caution is to let people around you know you will be hormonal in excels is when you get the shots, so depending on how you react naturally through your cycle, you might have exagerrated mood swings.

Make sure they put you out for the egg retrieval. Some doctors use twilight like stuff and some use a drug like diprovan. I recommend go for the drug like diprivan. From what I understand you need an anesthesiologist present for the diprivan (might vary by state). I wasn’t given the choice and I am still angry about it years later. Egg retrieval is very painful if you aren’t out.

The rest of it isn’t very scary. Some people worry about the shots, but as long as you aren’t freaked out about needles, it isn’t bad at all.

Oh sorry I have no personal experience with being an egg donor but that’s a very nice thing you’re doing. When my friend went through it, I remember having a conversation with her about the effect of hormones on her mental state, it was negative.

I had it years ago, very easy, successful, no problems. My best friend had three failed cycles, she and her husband were doing it with his brother and his wife, all using my friend’s eggs. My friend was not successful but the brother and wife were. After the birth of twin girls, the brother’s wife cut my friend out of their lives because she did not want the girls to know. When they were 17 or 18 (they just thought she was their aunt, one of them resembles my friend very much) my friend took them for a walk and explained it all. Shit hit the fan anyway my friend and the girls are close, the brother and his wife have divorced, these kids are young women now. It was very positive in the end.

I’ve been through this as well, but in order to save eggs and embryos for later (two cycles, one eggs and one embryos). What I remember most was feeling like a pregnant kangaroo, especially the second time around – I couldn’t walk without what felt like my giant bloated bobblehead ovaries bouncing around inside. Driving over speed bumps etc? Hah no. Oh my, it was quite silly and deeply uncomfortable – the more cycles you do the more you’re prone to developing cysts in your ovaries that may persist for six months+, in my case. Even sleeping was difficult – the pressure of it pulling prevented sleep. Everywhere I went I’d be cradling the underneath of my abdomen (and I’d been a daily runner and I was in my twenties at the time), it was ridiculous.

The shots in the behind thing, yep I remember that, the nurse drew a bull’s eye on my behind so that my partner wouldn’t screw it up, heh. Even so I asked someone else to do that bit in the end, it was only for the trigger shot. The daily shots I did myself, sticking needles into my abdomen. The drugs were fairly expensive I remember, the process was mostly fine though other than the cysts and having to be at the clinic at like 7am crack of dawn time every day for days. Also some of the faces and stories that were in that clinic were quite something :(

I will agree with the above bit about being put out though…my first cycle, I was put under conscious sedation for the retrieval, and I don’t know what drug it was but it was fine, or at least I can’t remember it if it wasn’t fine. My partner was allowed to watch (in scrubs). The second cycle, I needed to have ovarian cysts drained a few times before the retrieval, and sometimes they wouldn’t have whatever knock-out drugs around when I came in and it was a haphazard thing – and holy mother of God did the draining ever fucking hurt! Sorry but I can’t even begin to describe it! Do not let them go anywhere near there for any reason without appropriate pain meds. Jeez it was beyond the pale.

It’s a wonderful thing you’re doing – I may be in your sister’s situation someday and for related reasons I won’t get into, I know a lot of sweet-souled young women who are in it now as well. This is the type of thing that will bond the two of you together absolutely forever and I bet she cried her eyes out when you said yes…I had a similar conversation with my younger sister about “if”, and I certainly did. This will mean the world to her, really it will. sniff I can’t express it in a way that conveys the….sacredness…of this, so I’ll just say thank you so much for adding this kind of hope to the world.

Thanks for your input, everyone. I won’t be completely out for the retrieval, but I’m not too worried. My sister will be there with me and she explained everything that she went through during her first IVF cycle in great detail… it doesn’t seem too bad to me.

I wasn’t really looking for cautionary tales, anyhow. I just wanted to share this exciting experience and talk to others who had been through something similar :)

Thanks again!