hi today i'm gonna share with you some tips on the progestogen injections for IVF. how to make
the injections more comfortable more tolerable um i am the biggest chicken in regards to needles
and i have been taking these daily for over a week now and i have come together with some tips which
i have learned from some medical professionals as well so let's get straight into today's video
so just a quick bit of background i am on attempt number three for baby number three
so due to the last two miscarriages i have been prescribed daily injections of the progestogen
okay and these were the injections that were initially in my packaging which
when i post about on instagram everyone said that that's wrong that is not the correct needles these
are for just taking off the medications so i went back to the pharmacy and convinced them to give me
much smaller needles that are about half the size okay and then i consulted my clinic to
confirm that it's the small needles because i need a prescription to get the needles
and the clinic came back to me nope i was wrong it's not the small needles it is the
big needles because these are intermuscular injections it needs to be the long one to go
into the muscle so so then i started to panic and i contacted jared's mom my husband's mom who
is a nurse and she gave me lots of advice and they have made a huge difference the number one thing i
will say to you is okay i had this small injection for the first few days was totally tolerable and
i was completely panicked when it came to this injection all right what my mother-in-law said to
me is it's not down to the size the needle it's all about how it's done and how you keep your
muscles relaxed okay i thought that she was just bsing me but actually she's right there is not
a big difference in the feel between these two needles okay i it's very hard to put a number on
pain level but if i absolutely had put a number to it i would say that this is only 20 more painful
than this if you're like me and you're panicked about the size the needle don't be this size and
needle is not what makes a difference it's all down to the technique okay welcome to my room
i'm gonna show you the best position for you to be in and this again was shown to me by a nurse okay
ideally um you should be lying flat so the bedroom may be the most appropriate for this and
you lie with your back facing you lie on your side with your back facing whoever's going to be doing
the injection to you injection for you to you okay so if i am going to be injected on my right side
oh here to inject me on my right side i should be lying on my left side
okay and have a cushion to bring your for the right side bring your right leg up
get yourself comfortable maybe have a pillow underneath your head
again this is my right side i don't know i get confused with the cameras but my right leg up
and then i like to have um a cushion in my arms but here is where i get to grab on something so
the most important thing is to keep this muscle relaxed
so when i focus on keeping this relaxed um my hands all tense up so i just transfer all the
anxious energy i have into my arms and into my cushion so that i can
and make sure or to focus on making sure this is relaxed so in this position is where you will get
injected so how you position yourself and the technique for the injecting the needle are the
two most important tips in this whole entire video so if you get nothing else just remember to make
sure you remember these two and that should make a huge difference so tip number one is to alternate
on the bone cheeks okay it's not quite on the bone cheeks but that's what people say
is on the bunches but alternate and to help me alternate to help me remember which cheek it is
i have told myself that on even days i will do the right cheap because the right is the right number
so that's how i remember it but i am approaching the end of the month now which has 31 days meaning
on the first that rule won't apply anymore so i can either do the same cheat twice in a row
to stick with that and little memory trick or i can change over and do
odd on the right bum for that month and then that's actually what i'm going to do so um i'm
in may now so in june i'm actually gonna write on the top of the package june right um odd so that
i know on the odd date of the month then i'm doing the right bum cheek and that's what i've switched
it in case if i forget on any of the days tip number three isn't actually one that i do myself
because i'm so nervous i don't like to prolong the before but a lot of people have highly recommended
numbing the area first okay with ice or a cold call and putting on the area for correction do
not use ice on the area it will cause your muscles to seize up and can cause more pain in the end
tip number four and is to keep it simple so now double check this with your doctor first
we have double checked with my mother-in-law who is a nurse but she says that there is no need to
draw up um when you have the needle inside you so to draw up and see if there's any
blood coming in to i think it's called aspiration i'll have the correct word in here
which says that for there's no need to do it unless um maybe for someone who is quite slim
i'm not quite slim anymore unfortunately so um it's most likely going to stay in the fat zone
well there's no need to draw the needle up to and check if you've hit a blood vessel you could just
put the needle in and just inject because this is most likely going to be done by a partner rather
than an experienced professional who's done this hundreds of thousands of time they've literally
only done it one to 60 times on you as a human pin cushion test um they're not going to be that
experience with kind of injecting and then drawing up and pushing in so when my husband first did it
i needed the drawing up and all it was um it was quite painful so double check with your medical
call and with your clinic first if you do need to drop whatever you they say oh you could just
inject away and you don't need to draw up see if you've hit a blood vessel then just inject away
it's better to keep it simple if it's not being done by a medical professional on a daily basis
okay tip number five is this is the most important tip okay it's all about technique okay to
minimize pain i'm gonna grab something i'm gonna come right up to the screen i wish i had a tomato
to demonstrate on but i don't okay so i only have an apple here okay you need to go in gently okay
do not jab in like a dart because your muscle will retract it's like what the heck is going on here
and once it seizes up it just becomes a lot more painful you need to go in gently
and then you inject i will try to record a demo of my husband injecting me okay but you go in gently
okay you do not jab in do not try to go in as quick as possible gently makes all the difference
here is my husband injecting me in real time as you can see he's taking his time
finding the right spot and then gently easing the needle in there's no need to rush it if
you rush it it's just harder for your body and muscles to adjust and they'll seize up and it'll
hurt more when it's eased in your body will adjust a bit easier and it's far less painful
tip number six if you are nervous about um the injection and doing it yourself is to get
a demonstration so our clinic um claimed they have videos online on how to do it on that
for us to go look at these videos instead ourselves when i looked it up all they had
was um part one was on how to prep and the needle and get all the medication in it stopped at that
it didn't show you how to actually inject it and then we went online to do our own research and
there's just so many videos anyone can put up a video i can put up a video so anyone can
so um what we did was um we asked my husband's mom is a nurse to do the injection but for
my husband to watch and i got her to do it twice and to talk him through it that way a
he's more confident in what he's doing and b because he's more confident i'm more confident
and same because i'm more confident in him he's more confident in himself
and it's just a circle of confidence tip number seven is to me massage the area afterwards
ideally um there's a little warm massage or a lot of rubbing so just good rub on the area to
rub the the medication around and relax the muscle but i have this heat massager from
shawl and it has a nice warm vibrating massage and it actually makes a huge difference i keep it on a
around five minutes after if i'm busy then two minutes it has made such a huge difference to
discomfort for after um there's a couple of days where i didn't get to use it and i really noticed
the difference so if you have anything like a heated massager brilliant um maybe put a heat pack
on or a vibrating massager but otherwise just give it a good rub for a little while tip number eight
is comfy underwear okay so i have this one that i made using the pattern from made by jack's mom
and i use organic cotton okay hey this is nice and loose so it just sits comfortably on
kind of the injection site and um it's just nice and wide and be the fab the feel of the fabric
and the organic cotton is just so much softer um there's we just spent so much money on ivf
a few these little luxuries help make a difference i've actually only used organic cotton underwear
for this time around round six and our transfer number six um frozen embryo transfer number
six i haven't used it before and yeah it makes a huge difference and makes a huge difference with
down there as well in terms of comfort and itching i go through um a lot of tips on how to increase
day-to-day comfort and during the ivf journey in another video i'll link that in my description box
i'll try to put it in at the end of this video as well and tip number nine um so i keep all my
um injection type stuff in this special pouch in the the one pouch but within it i also keep
a little jar for all the sharks just um i do get my injections done in the living room and just
saves having to go to the kitchen to go to the edge of reach area to put the sharps and then
because we'll transfer it somewhere else later but it's just it's handy to be able to keep
everything in one area okay because it does involve two people doing it so someone else
can be busy as well so the quicker and easier you can make everything um so the other person
can go back to work or whatever it's just that bit handier tip number 10 if you have children
then i'd highly recommend keeping everything into the one pouch and keeping us locked um we keep
ours under the coffee table which actually has a child lock on it anyway but because i access
it all the time um i there is a small risk that may be left unlocked by accident of course so
i'm using this jujube beast set large set piece pouch which has an interlocking overlapping
yeah and then um i have this lock here um all the links will all the product links
will be in the video description box below but i just put a lot on it and keep things simple
i just have the combination as the original combination of zero zero zero but once it's locked
i just um twist it off so the kids can't easily unlock it okay it's just for my own peace of mind
i like to keep it in a very handy area again just to make the whole process as quick and
easy as possible because you do need to do this at the same time every day and when you need a
second person to come do it for you they might be in the middle of something and they want to
go back to what they're doing as well so all this helps make things that bit easier i'd love to know
if you will be trying any of these tips if you will please do let me know in the comment section
down below if you have any questions at all any comments kind comments ideally please do
leave them in the comment section down below i really wish you the absolute best on your
ivf journey it is just such an emotional rollercoaster and be kind to yourself okay