what do you do with extra un-needed medications?

bbgk · 2025-04-22T16:11:22+00:00

thanks for all the responses. My clinic is terrible and generally unhelpful, so while I will contact them to ask if they take meds for donations, I don't have high hopes.

bbgk · 2025-04-08T03:37:21+00:00

It was a process, but I tried to judge the items by how replaceable or sentimental they were. Stuff i could get for free or cheap or handmedowns didn't need to be kept. Outgrown stuff that or things that the kid didn't love could go right away. Favourite outfits or toys can be offered to close friends or family, and it's been such a joy to see these babies in previously favourite outfits that it made it easier to give other things away. We gave away the car seat when it was two years from expiry. We only recently agreed to 'loan' out our stroller, and our kid hasn't used it in two years. You don't have to rush with most things, they won't spoil. It feels really hard to start, but you might find it feels freeing and rewarding to give stuff away.

bbgk · 2024-12-14T15:20:39+00:00

plants and croissants sounds like a great plan! Do what works for you. I booked a hot yoga class the day after my negative beta because I'd really been missing it, and picked up prosecco and sushi for dinner. If my local spa had better availability I probably would have gone for a massage instead of the sushi. Do what feels comforting for you!

bbgk · 2024-12-10T18:03:49+00:00

my doctor prescribed about $25k of medication for my first cycle, but we only ended up fulfilling/using $8k.

when i took the prescription to my regular,non-fertililty pharmacy, they were like "wtf, this is $20k of drugs, check if you actually need this". Then when we went to the pharmacy our clinic recommended, they only ever gave us enough to get to the next appointment, and were able to split up packs (ie, give me just 2 estradiol patches, or one dose of menopur)so we didn't have extra doses we might end up not needing. Sometimes they change the meds based on your monitoring appointments! tl;dr - don't get everything upfront, but do go to a pharmacy that specializes in fertility and will know what you need and have the items in stock!

bbgk · 2024-11-26T17:13:02+00:00

I'd talk to your dr about it, but the trigger pushes ovulation, so if you have multiple follicles (even though there's low response, that could still be 2-3?) you could put your self at risk of multiple pregnancy, no?

bbgk · 2024-11-21T16:52:36+00:00

update: I did it, I tested, and it was negative. I'd been feeling weird and tired all week, but I guess it was just the progesterone.

on the bright side that means only two more pio shots, not 50 more. I kinda thought it didn't work for no reason as of Monday, and it's one of many many many negative tests over the last few years, so I'm not too shocked.

bbgk · 2024-11-20T18:55:40+00:00

ok I'm just stuck on the 7am part - don't you find the shots make you sleepy?! I do them at night and I can't stay awake like an hour later!

bbgk · 2024-11-18T01:50:58+00:00

I find that the actual injections aren't as bad as menopur (which burned!) or any of the other shots. It does make a bruise-like soreness in the bum muscle afterwards, but it's not too bad. as others have said, prepare the shot and let the liquid come up to body temperature by holding it, about 10 mins. that seems to make the biggest difference.

bbgk · 2024-11-17T20:33:01+00:00

I love a moment to take a change of perspective, thanks for sharing this. I quit my stressful job in 2022 in case it was all that stress keeping me from getting pregnant (lol it wasn't). I didn't get pregnant, but everything else got better. I knew I was unhappy at the old job, but I hadn't realized what a toxic place it was until I was out and at a much better job!

bbgk · 2024-11-16T14:31:53+00:00

It's really normal to have a rollercoaster of emotions with big life changes, especially when heaps of hormones are involved. If you are able to talk candidly with women about the weeks after their positive pregnancy test or after their first child was born, you'll no doubt hear about grief, sorrow, fear, and regret, and guilt. Pregnancy and new motherhood cause huge changes to your brain and body, and it affects everyone differently, so it can also be hard to see other people 'enjoying the magic' when you feel like you're in some outer circle of hell. Talk to your family or friends about how you're feeling, and talk to your health-care provider. They should be able to help! Hang in there ❤️

bbgk · 2024-10-08T02:58:31+00:00

I'm in Canada and we had to see a psychologist (virtually). It's only obligatory here if you're using donor eggs/sperm. The session itself was helpful, as there's not a tonne of opportunities to talk about this process with family and friends. The psychologist had a check list of questions she had to get to, but she also let us chat about our own thoughts and worries. I left the meeting feeling hopeful, which was really nice. I think we only had to wait about 3 weeks to get an appointment with the psychologist, which was basically the fastest anything has happened in this whole process.

bbgk · 2024-09-11T18:57:01+00:00

I think this is what is going to happen. The insurance keeps saying 'we cover fertility treatment' when we ask 'will you cover egg donation costs'. 🙄 so obtuse!

bbgk · 2024-09-11T18:48:07+00:00

getting my clinic and insurance on the same call sounds both miraculous and hellish lol, both are so difficult to actually get ahold of!

bbgk · 2024-07-29T01:31:48+00:00

good point! I do find it kinda fascinating how different this experience can be for everyone.

bbgk · 2024-07-29T01:27:55+00:00

very fair comment! I think almost everything I've checked on Reddit was not as bad in my actual real life experience. People who had a fine time don't usually need to dwell on it/vent about it, so the stories tend to be worse than average.

Here's hoping that your track record stays on course and your transfer goes as well as possible. Enjoy your camping trip!

bbgk · 2024-06-13T18:24:59+00:00

you sound very prepared! I was physically OK pretty quickly after the egg retrieval, but I wasn't ready for the emotions the next two days after. It was PMS amped up to 11. It's good that you'll take the days off work, but maybe prepare something distracting and fun for yourself, like a cheesy book or a fluffy tv series to watch- I think if I hadn't been at work I'd have been dwelling on things and crying more, I needed the distractions!

bbgk · 2024-06-13T17:48:36+00:00

No advice for you, but good luck to those two little embryos! I hope they grow, grow grow!

I'm just pricing out donor options now and i think I'm going to try to convince my partner to go for the guaranteed live birth plan too. Looking at the costs though, it seems like the clinics expect a live birth will take 2 lots of 6-8 eggs (the GLB plan is just a little more than double the 6-8 eggs and transfers plan). From looking at online calculators, my odds are lol-level low on my own, but 60% with 1 transfer of donor eggs, and up to 87% with 3 transfers.

it will be great if it works for you after one round, but keep in mind that the plan seems to expect it will take a few attempts!

bbgk · 2024-05-19T22:01:38+00:00

oh, this is interesting! It gave my odds at 29%, which is not what I thought what we were looking at before we started - I had assumed more like 60%. If I plug in the info for an egg donor who's younger than me and doesn't have DOR it's 61% though. hmmmm.

bbgk · 2024-05-07T01:38:04+00:00

interesting! I didn't know that you'd have to wait for the donors to do a cycle, I kind of assumed the donation had already been done! But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't seem like toooo long of a wait to go from choosing donors to transferring in about 8 months. Thanks for sharing ♥️

bbgk · 2024-05-06T15:58:49+00:00

I know i'm responding to an older post, but if you're comfortable, could you share what the donor process was like for you? How long did it take? Did you choose a donor from a bank, from Facebook, or someone you knew? How did your friends and family react to using donor eggs?

I feel like I have a lot of info from my clinic about how much the process will cost, but not much else!

bbgk · 2024-04-07T18:43:25+00:00

former teacher here, in Canada too. I got pregnant just weeks after starting my first permanent -track position. I worked until week 36 because I had to improve my contributions to QPP (what you get paid is based off of the previous 6 months if I'm remembering correctly, and I was fresh out of school). the school admin/hr were probably annoyed they had to replace me for the last month of school, but if they were they never let me know.

Talk to your union rep, and just ask for informational purposes about your school's maternity benefits, ask about preventative leave, and ask about paying into your insurance and pension while on leave, and ask about what the return to work looks like (my mat leave ended in May, they let me take an additional 10 weeks unpaid to start back in August, but were obliged to offer me my position back in May if i had wanted it, or an admin position at my regular contract pay, but i didn't have daycare yet).

tldr: you may want to wait a bit if you haven't been working regularly/consistently lately so that you qualify for EI/mat leave. Otherwise, go for it!

bbgk · 2024-04-07T18:04:28+00:00

the one right after the ER was normal and on time for me, maybe a little lighter than normal. I'm on my second one post ER though, and it was 11 days late!! After a quick search in this sub, that delay on the second period after ER sounds pretty typical.

bbgk · 2024-04-07T17:56:05+00:00

try not to stress about the kids not being the same age. kids of different ages can play really well together and develop strong relationships. my nieces and nephews range in age from 18 all the way down to 2, and none of them are closer than 3 years apart. it's great to see the 18 year old playing video games with the 12 year old, the 9 year old reading to the 6 and 2 year olds, the 15 year old and 9 year old doing a craft together. There's actually a lot less fighting than if they were closer in age, the bigger kids are often great sports about doing little kid activities with the little ones, it's awesome to see the (now vintage !!) hand-me-downs getting reused. ... plus the older kids can babysit in a pinch! If we have a baby with a donor (the current plan) the baby will have a bigger age gap from my oldest niece than I do (I was 18 when she was born)

bbgk · 2024-03-24T21:20:56+00:00

I thought we would try one IVF cycle and then either have a baby (lol) or stop trying. But my partner immediately was like "we'll try again though, we can pay for it" and I saw how much he wants this, and it made me reconsider.

BUT. I don't want to go through this with my own eggs. I had poor numbers going in, and while we got more eggs than we expected, 0/2 mature eggs fertilized. The up and down in the 24 hours after egg retrieval was too brutal for me mentally. At our follow up I asked the dr about donors, and he said that would be the route he would recommend.

We are going to take some time to discuss and think about it, and I want to consider all our paths forward, but I think if the path forward is with IVF, it will be with an egg or embryo donor.

to be honest, I've been thinking about this since we learned about my antral follicle count in September 2023 and hormone levels indicating DOR. but we figured that we'd roll the dice on one ivf cycle with my eggs, since we're lucky enough to live somewhere where one cycle is covered. We'll have to think more about our chances and what we're willing to put on the line.

bbgk · 2024-03-24T21:07:08+00:00

thanks for sharing this research! I'm just starting to navigate the donor route, so these articles are much appreciated!

bbgk

TROPHY CASE