hi i'm Shen and welcome back to my channel at mama banana where i share hacks tips and
fun for mom product reviews. today i actually wanted to share something different with you
so i i've been doing ivf. i think my journey started about four and a half years ago
and today i've had my sixth frozen embryo transfer (FET) so i thought i'd talk about my
experience and hopefully that may help someone else who is going through the same so that you
know what to expect based on my personal experience so let's get straight into it
so today is day 22. so the days are counted from the first day of my period
so the first part of the ivf for me is just taking the the fematab tablets it's effectively the pill
and i take three them three times a day now i take one three times a day so it's three tablets a day
then at around day 14 i go and get an endometrical scan and they'll let me know if um and i do blood
tests and then let me know if the lining hormones now seem right and if it is from day 14 i start
taking the pedestrian it's the estrogen and tablets i take two of those twice a day and about
12 hours apart so it's a vaginal suppository that you pop internally and then on day 22 um which is
today i went in for a frozen embryo transfer okay so this is my sixth frozen embryo transfer i have
had two live births and so four pregnancies in total two of those pregnancies ended in
a miscarriage so i am trying for a third child so um i've had two miscarriages trying for this
third baby um so this is our third goal for the third baby
so for today um normally i would pop in my Uestrogen/Progestrone tablet and around midday
so i do 12 and 12. so i like to do 112 midday and then one around 12 just at bedtime um my transfer
was uh two o'clock i didn't take the midday Uestrogen obviously follow and your own guidance
your own protocol but then take that tablet i guess to keep the area clear for easy entry and
i went in half an hour before my transfer time in terms of preparation there was nothing to prepare
i just made sure i was showered on the day it's not something that they require but obviously
i'd be a lot less self-conscious if i am freshly showered just beforehand and no perfumes no nail
polish and that's all what i was instructed to do i'm not sure if they feel that the chemicals could
affect this very sensitive nature of the tiny little embryo being moved from one
place to the next well i go into the clinic and then i had to change into um you know the
teeter outfits the ones where your ethanol is hanging out kept my top on so just take
off my knickers my pants put on the robe put on a hair net and then they give me these um little
uh hotel like troll way slippers they're so funny with the slippers um when i'm in the theater if
any of the slippers pop off which i don't really care about they go straight on to put the slippers
on my feet to make sure my feet are warm i think it's so cute and it's quite endearing really it's
because it's the least of my concerns actually um when i'm parking in the car park i'm roughly
40 minutes away from the actual transfer i take a valium now um my for my first few transfers i was
sedated and via iv that is not the norm but i just get really um nervous there's really nothing to be
nervous about because um everyone's so kind and the procedure is very fast but i personally get
extremely nervous with all of this type of stuff so on a personal side notes only my own personal
thing but as a child i was beaten quite badly by my mother where i'm not allowed to flinch or
move i have to stay still to be beaten so like any of these situations where i
am where i cannot move or i die i get really scared so um i was sedated first few times
but because you have to sedate me via iv that just made me know more nervous so um they prescribed
a volume this time and i highly recommend and requesting for something like that if you would
get nervous in that type of situation or if you feel anxiety towards that situation just relaxes
it relaxes me a lot and just makes the whole process so much easier because if you're more
relaxed then it just makes it much easier for the doctors and nurses to help pop in the embryo okay
oh and the other thing is i am i had to go in with a full bladder i guess a full bladder helps push
i know the uterus or whatever else so that they can see what they need to see um pop in the embryo
normally and my husband would be allowed into the theater but of course during culvert he
wasn't allowed in but this time around he was allowed into the pre-teaser waiting room the
last time around he wasn't even allowed in to um the pre-t-show waiting room so i i guess that's um
a applause so you if it's something that your partner would like to and be a part of
then you need to check with your clinic if they are generally allowed into the theatre so i go
into the pre-tutor waiting room and the nurse goes through everything with me and how i need to be
behaving as if i am pregnant after the transfer so um no alcohol no smoking all the general stuff
you know take it easy rest up and all that and um answer if i have any questions she'll answer
it there and then but otherwise i get myself ready and then they bring me into the theatre and
um they will get the embryo ready and they'll bring it up on the uh on a screen to show me
and which is actually really nice so the embryo i had today was a
tutu so beacon curve versatility they grade the embryo and the t2 is supposedly quite good
so see here that's like hatching out okay and you can basically see the shell it's kind of it's
called the zone it's kind of like a shell of an egg okay that's where it's hatching out of so the
part here that's touching out is the inner cell mask and that's the part that's coming to the baby
down the line fingers crossed okay and the rest of it those cells here yeah and then all around the
edges there they're called trifecta themselves and they're the ones that are presented down the line
and it looks really nice at the moment so hopefully fingers crossed that's the look okay
a monitor over here that the doctors look at and they can see
how they insert the embryo and it's something that i can watch as well as far as i'm concerned
i really can't see anything all i see is a big black shadow and then a tiny little white
line going through i'll try to insert it down here so you can see the process um takes about
five minutes but i lie down i have my legs open and then they remove um the little
blanket that they call rummy and they put a smaller blanket with a hole in the center
so that i'm not as fully exposed to be honest by that stage i don't really care because once you've
seen down there what's the matter about everything else but um so they put this other tick blankie on
you where there's only a rectangle open and then um the embryologists are then the doctor will
have everything ready they'll put the little duck and vaginal opening thing inside you it's
exactly like i'm getting a smear test so you just feel um discomfort and pressure down there and
then once everything is set up there then the embryologist will come out with the embryo on this
big long um like dropper tool obviously there is a fancy medical term for it i don't know what it is
and they will pop right in and then you're done so it's i would say it feels like um it's around
three to five minutes that the um the duck bill vaginal opening tool is inserted yeah
it's uncomfortable but it is not painful and it's all very tolerable especially um
with the volume that i have to help relax me i am quite relaxed the only thing is and the full
bladders have been uncomfortable as well with all of that if your bladder is too full and what i've
done before because this is my seventh go at this and the first being for harvesting if the bladder
is too full and it's quite uncomfortable i do ask them if i can go to relieve myself a bit
so um when the batter is too full i just go to the bathroom and do a quick way to release some of it
and then stop stopping then is the hardest thing but once you come away and you lie down again
it's a lot more comfortable so it's very hard to kind of do part way and stuff
but making sure that your blood are still full and then stop and going back to lying down
it it makes the rest of the process a lot more comfortable if there's anything that they can do
to make you more comfortable i won't be afraid to ask them it's
paying a huge sum of money and they're there to help you and help you out with babies obviously
and there's anything that you think could make you a bit more comfortable and won't delay things then
i wouldn't be afraid to ask so after the transfer they re wheeled me back into the same pre-tutor
waiting room where i lie down for 10 minutes but um since i've missed my time for the estrogen
i always actually um bring it with me if it's in around that time and it usually is around the
that time for me and i go to the bathroom empty my bladder and then i pop in the eastridge and
tablets i it just feels um they've never said this but for me it feels like it's a good thing
to do because it makes everything a bit tacky or whatever it feels like um by popping these in
after a transfer it might help with success rate i don't know if that helps but um
i'm supposed to lie down for 10 minutes after but because i've popped in my um eustachian tablet i
go and lie down for 20 minutes afterwards and then um head home and take it easy so there's
nothing else to do now but um keep taking all the medications that i'm taking and in two weeks time
i'm given this exact date in two weeks time i will take a pregnancy test and fingers crossed it will
come out positive everything is based on my own personal experience so i am not an expert i'm
not scientist i don't read up much on it because there's just too much information out there but
if you've any questions please do ask and i will answer to the best of my ability i think the most
important thing while going through ivf is try to stay positive no matter what the outcome and
and and try to talk to someone else who's been true i think a lot of times if you can be open
about it it really helps um i've never kept it a secret i've always been very vocal that um all my
my two girls have been conceived through ivf
and because i've been open about it a lot of other women have been very open to me about her and
it's shocking how many women have gone through ivf by talking about it it normalizes it
and it's just i think when you can't talk about it um it makes it a bit harder because you can't
share and it's such a roller coaster emotional journey it makes it harder keeping it all inside
where you can only talk about it to just your partner or one or two best friends
to me i find it easier to let it out and just say everything and share everything and i think
or at least i hope it helps other women by um sharing and help manage the expectations
so that you know what to expect when you're expecting to be expecting via ivf and again
if you'd like if you would like more information on anything or me to do a video to cover anything
else let me know if you'd like to follow my ivf journey then you can find me on instagram at some
mama banana i post all my updates there because i do like to share i like to put all the miscarriage
information out there or the ivf journey out there to normalize it and if you are going through your
ivf journey i'd love to hear what say you're at just share with me in the comments down below
wish you all the very best um if you i do actually have some tips and tricks around the ivf how to
be a bit more comfortable with all the discharge how to remember take all the tablets and so that
you don't miss any if you're interested in that let me know in the comments down below
and i'll put together another quick video so anyway best of luck on your ivf baby journey
and i wish everyone the best possible happiness stay safe wash your hands thank you and goodbye
you