• Question: does IVF treatment hirt ????????? xx

    Asked by emma12 to Vicki, Nuruz, Jo, Jane, Greg, Claire on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by gsampson07, megandearing.
    • Photo: Claire O'Donnell

      Claire O'Donnell answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Not if you’re the bloke!!!!!! Yes if you’re the woman.
      You have to have daily injections which you do yourself (or your partner does) usually into the big muscle in your thigh. When the drugs have helped the ovaries to make a lot of eggs they have to eb ‘harvested’. For this the woman is heavily sedated in an operating theatre and a needle is inserted through the top of the wall of the vagina near the cervix the needle is then pushed into the part of the ovary containing the ripe eggs and they are sucked out into a syringe. They are then mixed with the sperm in a special dish and kept in an incubator. This last part doesn’t hurt :). you can see that people must want a child very badly to be willing to go throuth this.

    • Photo: Greg FitzHarris

      Greg FitzHarris answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Yes, it can. The process of getting the eggs from the woman is pretty invasive (its a proper surgical procedure). Certainly there can be some discomfort. There can also be unwanted ‘after-effects’ such as hyperstimulatiion syndrome. I imagine that many women who sucessfully then give birth to a healthy baby would say it was worth it… but certainly the process of having IVF is a big deal.

    • Photo: Vicki Onions

      Vicki Onions answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Hi Emma
      I may not be the best person to answer this as I do not work directly in IVF. However from my understanding, there is little physical pain involved – though i think egg retrival can be painful for the woman. Also some women are given hormone treatment which involves daily injections, so some minor pain. Emotionally though, IVF can be very very traumatic for the couples involved

    • Photo: Jo Broadbent

      Jo Broadbent answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      HI Emma

      IVF can be a bit uncomfortable for the woman. She has to inject herself every day with hormones for a month, before a number of eggs are collected from her ovaries. The eggs are collected under a local anaesthetic.

      The hormone injections can make the woman feel unwell, especially if too many eggs start to develop. This can be so serious that she has to go into hospital, but this is quite rare.

      I think the hardest thing about IVF though is the emotional stress of wanting a baby but not being able to get pregnant . And going through all the hormone injections and discomfort only to discover very often that it hasn’t worked and you’re not pregnant. Only about a quarter of IVF cycles result in a baby. It must be very upsetting if you’re in the three quarters where it doesn’t work.

      Jo

    • Photo: Jane Cleal

      Jane Cleal answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi Emma,
      The injections hurt a bit, but just like any other injection. When the eggs are taken you are a sleep so you don’t feel anything and then when the embryos are put back in you have pain relief tablets so don’t feel anything.
      J x

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