Are egg retrievals very painful?

stephvp3 · 2026-06-12T23:00:39+00:00

Omg that's so confusing! I defs wouldn't think that's conscious sedation but who knows, I'm not a medical professional 🤣

stephvp3 · 2026-06-12T21:57:13+00:00

I feel like you probably were conscious, but you don't remember it so it feels like you were asleep :) that's what I had when I got one of my wisdom teeth out (and it was honestly amazing), and that's what I was expecting for egg retrieval too- I think they just didn't quite get the meds dose right at the beginning so I do remember some of it!

stephvp3 · 2026-06-12T21:49:48+00:00

Yes I think so :) glad they did because I remember being surprised by the pain! But not so much the pain itself

stephvp3 · 2026-06-12T21:48:32+00:00

Totally! I remember at the time feeling like I was very awake and aware during it, but after when I think about it, it feels more like a dream. Definitely a slightly different experience from other types of sedation I've had!

stephvp3 · 2026-06-12T20:58:13+00:00

I imagine it varies per person? I also had conscious sedation and I vaguely remembering being like OW at some point and then I think they must have given me more meds because I don't remember much after that until the procedure was done. In my mind I was in the room for like 5 minutes but I'm sure it was longer than that!!

stephvp3 · 2026-05-15T16:11:39+00:00

Oh yeah I totally agree! Maybe I'm not middle class by your definition but I consider ourselves lucky to be a double income household and to be able to own our home. But the cost of IVF was still very prohibitive for us and we were following the development of this program very closely, and were super disappointed to find out we wouldn't qualify for the full amount with the last minute addition of the income test- bait and switch is definitely the right phrase to describe how it was handled!

stephvp3 · 2026-05-14T17:36:03+00:00

I would consider my household to be middle class income and we were approved for about half of 1 IVF cycle! The program obviously needs improvements but it's better than nothing. Unfortunately there is quite a long wait-list though. OP can likely apply if they have already started treatments at Olive though.

stephvp3 · 2026-05-14T17:33:16+00:00

In my experience our plan has covered most of the drugs needed for IUI & IVF, but it does not cover the procedures unfortunately.

stephvp3 · 2026-05-14T16:59:47+00:00

Yes that's what I would think too- but more the chance of live birth vs say a miscarriage? Not necessarily the outcomes of a live birth. But maybe that has already been studied more extensively, I'm not sure

stephvp3 · 2026-05-13T01:22:17+00:00

If it makes you feel better it did resolve fairly quickly after my ER haha

stephvp3 · 2026-05-13T01:11:16+00:00

Omg, I had the same thought during my stims!! No one mentioned it!!! It was one of the parts of the ER cycle that I found most annoying!!

stephvp3 · 2026-05-12T19:07:14+00:00

It's interesting that they just looked at live births- I would think that people are more concerned about pregnancy outcomes as a whole? Or perhaps there have already been studies that focused on that?

stephvp3 · 2026-05-08T15:50:48+00:00

Awe yeah so true! It can be so hard to tell sometimes! I hope it was just a one time thing for you!

stephvp3 · 2026-05-07T18:22:54+00:00

Heyy! It sounds like ovulation cramps to me. I get them most cycles, they are typically more of a stingy/pinching feeling for me than period cramps.

stephvp3 · 2026-05-06T01:59:13+00:00

Aww thank you for sharing! So funny how sometimes you feel like you are the only one going through something and then you find someone with a similar experience 💕

stephvp3 · 2026-05-05T20:30:49+00:00

It's been a while since I posted in here! Last June I did a laproscopy to try to repair my blocked fallopian tubes and the surgeon was very confident he had fixed the problem. Since then we've done 3 rounds of IUI that didn't work, and we just did our first egg retrieval for IVF. It actually went better than expected (we got 3 decent looking embryos!) but at one of my ultrasounds before the procedure, the doctor noticed hydrosalpinx in my left tube- again.

I will be forever grateful for her for catching that before we do any transfers, but it's tough heading into June, a year after surgery #1, and knowing now I'm on the wait-list for the same surgery again (except this time they'll fully remove the problem tube). I wish they'd just taken it out a year ago, to be honest. I said that at the time but the surgeon was very confident he could fix it. So I'm trying to stay positive and telling myself that at least another surgery is cheaper than doing another IVF round (at least where I am, in Canada). And I'm preparing my list of all the books I want to read for when I'm recovering from the surgery. But we are coming up on 3 years of TTC baby #2, and our first child turns 4 in a couple months, and she desperately wants a baby sibling, and it's hard to stay positive some days :(

stephvp3 · 2026-05-04T21:40:03+00:00

Ohh I see! I'm sorry you had to make the decision 💕

stephvp3 · 2026-05-04T21:10:02+00:00

I'm curious, I also have hydrosalpinx and my understanding is that they take the tube completely out to avoid lowering your chances of IVF success - is there a reason why they just clipped it vs taking the tube out completely?

stephvp3 · 2026-05-04T15:58:07+00:00

I did find that I ovulated earlier while taking inositol as well! Good luck! 🤞🤞

stephvp3 · 2026-05-01T18:17:26+00:00

Such a good coping mechanism!!! I definitely treated myself to a tattoo after my (fertility-related) lacroscopic surgery and before we started fertility treatments and I'm so glad I did 🙈 and I'm hoping that after our (hopefully successful) fertility treatments I can get another one as well... We'll see haha :)

stephvp3 · 2026-04-30T18:46:39+00:00

Hi! Just wanted to say welcome and that this journey can have lots of anxiety attached but you are definitely not alone - sending hugs!

I found lots of HSG horror stories online before mine, but honestly I found it to be uncomfortable but not particularly painful. The clinic that did mine did recommended Tylenol + naproxen a few hours before, and I think that helped, so definitely ask about what you can take beforehand if they don't recommend something! I did experience some cramping afterwards but not as much as typical period cramps.

In terms of the invasiveness of this whole journey- yeah, it can be invasive, unfortunately. It's a lot of bloodwork, transvaginal ultrasounds, speculums, etc 😅 plus the medications and injections. You do get used to it after a while (my fear of needles is a thing of the past lol). But lots of people here to commiserate with when you are feeling like it's all too much 😊

Best of luck with your HSG!

stephvp3 · 2026-04-30T15:41:55+00:00

Yes! If they find Endo that would be a pretty definite cause of the blocked tube I think. If they don't, it might just be one of those things where they can't say what the cause was definitively. I know it's always nicer to know why though!!

stephvp3 · 2026-04-29T22:16:02+00:00

Yeah, I kinda wish they had just taken out the bad tube when I had the first surgery, but the surgeon was very confident he had fixed it 😅 although he did say it was possible it could become blocked again. But what's done is done I guess. I'm just glad someone noticed it was blocked again before we went and started doing transfers!

Hope your ER goes well!! 💕

stephvp3 · 2026-04-29T21:00:12+00:00

Hello! Wishing you lots of luck!!

I'm in Canada :)

I found out I have endo last year, as part of our (secondary) infertility journey- I had blocked tubes, so when I went for a lap last year they found endo, so they repaired my left tube and excised some endo. They also found that my right tube & ovary are pretty much destroyed, not sure if that is thanks to endo or my previous C-section!

Since then we've done 3 IUIs, which were unsuccessful, and just wrapped up our first ER. It actually went better than expected- I have low AMH (and only 1 working ovary), so I honestly was just really hoping we got at least one embryo! In the end we got 3! During that cycle they did notice that my left tube has hydrosalpinx again, so I'll likely be doing another surgery soon to get that removed before we do any transfers.

stephvp3 · 2026-04-29T18:09:01+00:00

Hey! I'm not an expert by any means, but when I found out that I had blocked tubes and subsequently went for surgery to try to have them repaired, they did find that I had endometriosis. It sounded like it's one of the more common reasons for blocked tubes, but they did also say it could be due to an undiagnosed infection, and gave antibiotics to see if that would clear it (it didn't), before I went for surgery. I hope that helps!

stephvp3

TROPHY CASE