The Dark Side of IVF

**TMI ALERT**

Everyone knows that the IVF process isn't exactly a cakewalk. But nobody ever talks about it. Maybe they don't want to feel whiny since so many other women have gone through it before. But I'm going to discuss the really nasty parts about IVF.

I'm pretty overweight. In fact, I'm technically considered obese for my height and weight category. I knew I would gain some more weight after starting the meds but I never expected to gain TWO pounds in just one day! The medications make you bloat up like a whale. During the entire stim week I was impatiently waiting to dump these eggs into a petri dish so I could start feeling better. Boy was I wrong.

One of the other IVF girls staying at the Fisher House mentioned that the anesthesia would make you extremely constipated. We were given stool softeners which I took once or twice a day. Four days after retrieval I still had not gone #2. I was getting a little uncomfortable. I called the nurse who suggested I take Metamucil, milk of magnesia or magnesium citrate. I opted for the Metamucil. That helped me produce a VERY small bowel movement. I was starting to get in a lot of pain. My stomach was hard and distended. I looked like an Ethiopian who swallowed a marble. It hurt to yawn or breath deeply because I felt like my stomach muscles and skin could not stretch any further and my organs would explode. My IVF friend gave me a bottle of magnesium citrate. Again, it helped just a TINY bit. I called the nurse again because I was getting very concerned. She told me to take an enema and if that didn't work then I'd have to come in for an appointment (not sure what the doctors would have been able to do though). I tried the enema and finally had success. However, after having six days of a completely stretched stomach my muscles are very sore to the touch. I felt like I've done 1,000 sit-ups. It still hurts to eat a large meal or breathe very deeply and my stomach is still protruding quite a bit, although it's no longer hard.

The magnesium citrate and stool softeners worked for the other girls but my advice is that if you're going through IVF and get very constipated after the retrieval, DON'T wait six days to try something. The mag citrate tastes like total crap and the enema wasn't fun either but I wish I had done both earlier in the process so I wouldn't have felt so miserable. And if you're in pain from the constipation, don't take the Percocet to relieve that pain. That only makes you more constipated. I learned that the hard way. If we ever decide to do a fresh IVF cycle again that I'll be bringing TWO enemas with me....just in case!