As Sue says, “There have been so many extra steps” and every one comes with a price ticket: transferring the eggs out of storage, thawing them, fertilizing them, monitoring your cycle, transferring the embryo(s) into the uterus, extra monitoring. Stephanie had a invoice of $41,600 for her three egg freezing cycles and 5 years of storage. When she and her husband determined to thaw the eggs and do IVF, one embryo switch cycle was an extra $11,199.
Reality #5: Egg freezing can include unintended effects, some extra fleeting than others.
Bloating, nausea, complications, and constipation are all widespread in the course of the roughly two-week strategy of hormonal stimulation and normally subside inside days following the retrieval process. However two of the ladies we spoke with skilled ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). “Proper after the egg retrieval process, I couldn’t eat or drink for over eight days with out throwing up bile,” says Amanda, who froze her eggs at 34, and had an excessive case of OHSS. “Every day, my boyfriend and two buddies would take turns driving me to the physician’s workplace throughout city the place I might lie at nighttime for eight hours hooked as much as an IV to get some vitamins whereas nonetheless throwing up.”
The danger of creating extreme OHSS throughout an egg retrieval cycle is about 1%, says Paula Amato, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Well being and Science College and the president of the American Society for Reproductive Drugs. These circumstances are normally characterised by stomach swelling, extreme ache, and chronic nausea. A case as excessive as Amanda’s is “exceedingly uncommon,” says Fortunate Sekhon, MD, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Reproductive Drugs Associates of New York. Nonetheless, “if I had recognized what occurred to me was potential, I wouldn’t have achieved it,” says Amanda.
One other girl we interviewed, 36-year-old Rachael, gained 60 kilos following her egg retrieval process and developed Hashimoto’s illness, an autoimmune dysfunction that impacts the thyroid. After taking thyroid treatment, she’s now on Wegovy to convey her weight again down. “Even so, I 100% assume this was price it,” she says. ”I now have a backup plan for my future and am extremely grateful for that.” (We spoke to 2 docs about Rachael’s expertise and each stated that whereas some weight achieve could be a part of the egg freezing course of, it’s normally non permanent and this expertise is extremely uncommon. And “ovarian stimulation has by no means been proven to impress autoimmune illness,” says Dr. Sekhon.)
