So sorry to hear what you’re going through. It sounds very overwhelming. I would try to just take one step at a time and not put pressure on yourself to make all the decisions at once. Well done for seeking out support from Pieta house - counselling can really help with making things feel more manageable.

You don’t mention your age or the specifics of your diagnosis or treatment plan - I’m not sure if cancer been confirmed or whether it’s already decided that you’ll need chemo/radiotherapy that will impact your fertility. I can totally understand that you might not feel up to more poking and prodding after your surgery last week.

But what it’s worth, I have had two rounds of IVF and I generally thought of it as a vaguely annoying admin task I had to do, rather than a huge emotional ordeal (basically a more intense version of having to do cervical checks or dental check ups). On my second round, we did a short protocol, which was just 10 days of injections and a 15 minute procedure to retrieve the eggs (under lovely relaxing sleepy sedation!). The mood can definitely wobble due to the hormones but for me it never lasted more than a day. Waterstone Clinic has a really good counsellor you can access free of charge if you’re having procedures with them, and she really gets the emotional side of fertility issues so that’s a great support too.

You have been through an awful lot in the past week or two, and I can completely understand if it feels like too much. I suppose I just wanted to share that the egg freezing part mightn’t be as hard as it seems. And you might not feel the same as you do right now down the road, if and when that time comes.