We’ve now been taking 75 IU of FSH for 7 days, and I had a scan on Tuesday to check progress. This was an extra bonus scan for us, as I’m at high risk of OHSS. This stands for Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome which, according to Wikipedia, is “a medical condition affecting the ovaries of some women who take fertility medication to stimulate egg growth. Most cases are mild, but rarely the condition is severe and can lead to serious illness or death.” It is a rare condition, and someone without polycystic ovaries (PCOS) could get it, but because I’ve got PCOS I’m at a much higher risk.
The nurse explained it to me like this, and I like the analogy so I’m going to steal it: Think of the FSH [we inject as part of IVF] like a big FSH-cake circulating your body. For people without PCOS, one lead follicle will take that whole cake and grow big and fat, ready for release. But for people like me, we already have lots and lots of smaller follicles that are really hungry for cake. So each takes a small slice of the FSH-cake which appears to have little effect on their size until **BOOM** one day they all get fat at once and we have OHSS.
So for this reason they’re taking it slowly and giving us extra scans. Tuesday’s scan showed no measurable changes in any of the follicles after 7 days at 75 IU of FSH. They decided to stick at this dose until Friday, which will be day 10. If nothing has changed by then, they will review the dose.
In the meantime, we’ve had a spell of the flu, and it’s really wiped us out. A quick Google search tells us this shouldn’t impact on the IVF cycle, but you can’t help but feel it’s suboptimal.
I’m feeling rather fed up with being sick, and quite despondent about the IVF at the moment. I’m scared about OHSS, and I’m worried about miscarriage and how I’ll feel if after all this we still get a negative pregnancy test. My mind has started cycling the possible outcomes. Last night I dreamt I had a miscarriage. So it’s clearly starting to weigh on my mind. I don’t think being ill has helped, I need to get my positive mojo back. After all, the hardest bit is still to come – that 2 week wait…
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