The first 3 months of IVF pregnancy are not fun to say the least. Continuing the medications, shots and vaginal inserts seems like eternity and then on top of that I started to get all of the pregnancy side effects around 7 weeks through about week 11. Around 12 weeks, I started to feel like myself again. Around 12 weeks was also when I got to discontinue all of my medications, so I’m not sure if it was making it through my first trimester or stopping the medication that made me start to feel better, but either way … I’m glad I made it through that!
So here I am, nearly 4 months along. Graduated from the fertility clinic and just going in every 3 weeks to my regular OBGYN. Almost like a regular pregnancy at this point. The only difference at this point will be the “high risk” anatomy scan at 20 weeks and the fetal echocardiogram at 22-24 weeks. These are recommended for all IVF pregnancies and are just to be cautious and catch any possible congenital defects early on. Being an IVF pregnancy also puts me at higher risk for things like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, pre term labor and congenital defects.
Nothing about this process has been “natural” or felt anything close to how a normal pregnancy should feel, however I am grateful for the opportunity to have a healthy baby and the chance to prevent passing along the BRCA1 gene mutation to our children. Yes, IVF is expensive. No, it is not fun. But neither is having cancer, and if I can prevent that for my future children. This will all be worth it.
Mandafit 