My Egg Donor Experience

My experience donating my eggs for the first time!

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Thank you for going on this adventure with me and wanting to learn more about egg donation! If you have any questions, comments, concerns - please reach out to me! Keep in mind, I’m not a doctor - I don’t know all the ins and outs of egg donation but I’ll do my best to help give you the answers you’re looking for! 

I’m feeling great, and even though thing’s didn’t go quite as easy as I had hoped I am planning on donating again in the future! This experience has meant to the world to me, and I’m grateful I was able to help a family - or two - have the children they’ve always wanted. This experience was near and dear to my heart. I am really happy I went through with it and that I had the support I needed from my fiance, family, and friends.

Thank you thank you ❤❤

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The Recovery Process

Day One - Crampy, tired, starting to bloat. It hurt when I moved, coughed, sneezed, etc. My body was so tired and my heating pad became my best friend.

Day Two - Super bad abdominal pain in the evening/night. I was awake from about 2-5am extremely uncomfortable and cramping a lot. I had some spotting but that stopped extremely quickly. My eyelids were twitching I was so tired, which I found slightly entertaining but also extremely annoying. Camping, bloating, sweating - just generally super duper uncomfortable. Again, heating pad=bff

Day Three - Evening of day 2/morning of day 3 was easily the worst. Around 1am I started to have the most severe abdominal pain I’ve ever experienced, minus the one time I had kidney stones. The room was spinning, I was extremely hot but shivering, and I felt like I was getting stabbed in the belly. I was minutes away from telling my fiance that we needed to go to the emergency room - luckily the Tylenol kicked in and I was able to get it under control but I did end up sleeping downstairs in our guest room. I was able to call the fertility center and touch base with them - they let me know that everyone’s experience is different (of course) but that days 3-5 are usually the worst. They were right.  

Day Four - Day four was fairly identical to day three - though I did have more relief than I did previously. 

Day Five - Day five was a LOT like day one - but muchhhh more bloated. I was super puffy and I could feel it. Wearing pants/underwear was extremely uncomfortable just from the pressure it put on my belly - even sweatpants!  

Day Six - I felt almost completely normal - still some tenderness in my tummy and bloating but no pain or nausea! The night of the fifth day I was actually able to sleep through the night for the first time without the pain waking me up or keeping me up! I had some almost pain in the evening, but was able to take some ibuprofen and that got on top of it fairly quickly.  

Day Seven - Back to normal! Almost - still no sex or high impact work outs but no pain at all, bloating has almost completely gone away, energy level is back to normal, appetite is back to normal! 

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Bloated belly - day 3 vs day 7

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Post Egg Retrieval Instructions -

Do not drive within 24 hours of your egg retrieval

It is common to have light spotting for 1-2 days 

Do not use a tampon until your next period

General pelvic tenderness is not uncommon - take up to 800mg of ibuprofen and 1000mg of Tylenol as needed - report any temperature above 100 degrees.

No sex or high impact exercise until your next period 

Take antibiotics as instructed

Rest as much as possible with your legs elecated

Only drink elecrrolyte filled fluits - Smart Water, Gatorade/Powerade, Vitamin Water, etc.

Take 30g of Whey Protein twice a day

Increase sodium intake - soup, ramen, broth

Avoid carbs and sugar as much as possible

If constipation occurs, start taking a stool softener

Call the office and report the first day of your next period

If you were using contraception before the donation cycle, restart the same form of contraception on the third day of your next period

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Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS)

After my procedure, they warned me about Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS).  this syndrome sometimes occurs when the ovaries are intentionally over-stimulated to obtain a maximum number of mature eggs. The ovarian stimulation process causes the blood vessels in the body to become a little leaky and sometimes the protein leaks out into places like the abdomen and lungs. It’s fairly rare but can become serious pretty quickly.

Mild symptoms are pretty common and include:

Lower abdominal discomfort

Abdominal distention (bloating)

Mild nausea

Moderate or severe symptoms include:

Vomiting

Severe pelvic pain

Severe abdominal bloating

Weight gain of 4-5 pounds per day for more than 2 days

Difficulty breathing

Decreased urination despite usual or increased fluid intake

Chest pain

OHSS  normally resolves on its own but can be managed by resting with your legs elevated, monitoring fluid and electrolyte balance, and managing any pain symptoms.

 In order to prevent it they recommend you rest as much as possible ideally laying down with your legs elevated, drinking lots of electrolytes filled fluids -  and really avoiding any fluids that don't have electrolytes in them, taking whey protein twice-daily for a total of about 60 grams of protein a day, increasing sodium intake and avoiding sugars and carbohydrates, and  Taking over the counter medication to prevent constipation.

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In recovery at the fertility center! As I sat, slowly waking up, the doctor came in and let me know that out of the 33 follicles that had matured, there were 15 eggs ready to be retrieved and they got them all.

Though this is a ‘typical’ amount, some women that go through the egg donation process can mature and donate 40+ eggs at a time!

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As soon as I walked in there was someone up front waiting for me,  they got me checked in and introduced me to the anesthesiologist who promptly took me back into the procedure room. He had me use the restroom and told me to undress and put a gown on -  I was allowed to leave my socks on and was very grateful that I had worn extra fuzzy socks that day. He quickly put an IV into my arm and told me that he was going to give me some medication to help me relax a little bit…  the next thing I knew I was awake and the procedure was over!

He helped me sit up from the chair and walked me into the recovery room.  I was comfortably sitting with a heating pad on my belly,  a little stoned,  and waiting for my fiance to come in to wait with me until I got discharged. after I was all cleared to go we headed out and went home -  my fiancee tucked me into bed and went to get takeout because I was starving - it was now about noon and I hadn’t been able to eat or drink since the night before! I slept for about four hours and then started to try to move around a bit but wasn’t doing a whole lot of anything!

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The night before and the morning of the egg donation I had to use an ‘extra cleansing vinegar and water’ douche from summer’s eve. I had never used a douche before so this was a very interesting process that I would recommend doing in the shower if you ever have to do one…  and maybe warm it up beforehand!  I was able to get it done pretty early and went to bed at a reasonable time the night before my donation.

The morning of my donation I woke up took a shower used another vinegar and water douche and got dressed in extra comfy clothes as recommended by the Fertility Center.  My fiance took the day off and we drove to the fertility center a bit early because it was supposed to snow -  luckily we didn't get stuck in any though.  when we arrived at the Fertility Center I texted them to let them know that I had arrived and we went through some covid-19 screening questions and when they were ready for me they called me into the office.

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Morning of donation!

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The Trigger!

On the Monday and Tuesday before my egg donation, I went in and got a transvaginal ultrasound, as well as blood work, done.  they tested all my levels and measure the size of the follicles on my ovaries -  everything was looking great and on Tuesday afternoon I got the notification that I needed to give myself a trigger shot 9 p.m. for a 9 a.m. egg retrieval that coming Thursday!  My fiance and I drove down to the office and picked up the trigger kit and he gave me my last shot in my belly at 9 p.m. on Tuesday!

Because it was the last shot and not a shot I had had before I was pretty anxious and wasn't exactly sure what to expect but it was a fairly easy shot -  and then it was done!

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So I rested and I rested and I rested and I rested. 

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And then I got sick...

After 6 days of shots and well into the process of getting ready to donate my eggs I ended up getting extremely sick.  I don't believe it was related to the egg donation process at all but there was a period of time where I was pretty nervous that I may have contracted covid-19.  Lucky enough for me I did not,  but I was pretty ill for about 5 days and between the hormones and whatever cold or flu I had contracted I spent most of the time in bed and just trying to rest up the best I could -  at this point egg donation was less than a week away!

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Here are two pictures after a shower of my belly - this was day 5 of injections! 

Lots of bloat and irritation due to the shots!

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Injections!

My experience was generally positive with the injections. That being said they freaked me out everyday -  my hands will get sweaty,  I would get flushed,  I may even shiver from time to time -  But they were okay.

The only injection I really had any issue with was the Menopur injection -  particularly when I went from one powder to two powders.  It burned so badly -  and one injection in particular accidentally got put into a vein and ended up popping that vein causing a really large and painful bruise. 

All the other injections were pretty easy, the needle is very thin and when you give the injection you pinch the skin on your belly and insert the needle so you pretty much just feel a tiny prick. after you have the skin pinched and the needle in your belly skin you unpinch the skin and slowly inject the medication,  then count to five after you're done injecting the medication and pull the needle out,  immediately putting pressure on that spot with some gauze. 

 I switched injection sites every day going from one side of my belly button to the other to try to reduce irritation and pain. However after several days of injections I ended up getting a rash on my belly and I was really bloated and started to become pretty tender to the touch on my abdomen. 

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For the next five days my injections looked like this! 

From left to right 

- Ganirelix Injection - 1 syringe, Follistim Injection - 150mg, and Menopur Injection - 2 Powder

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For the first five days - these are what my injections looked like! 

The smaller syringe is the Menopur Injection - 1 Powder and the larger pen is the Follistim Injection - 100mg - I do have some additional medications, I am happy to show you how to prepare them in a video if requested! 

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During every US visit, the nurse practitioner used a transvaginal ultrasound wand to look at my uterus, ovaries, and follicles - they measure how healthy everything is and how much they’ve grown from appointment to appointment - this is also partially how they determine what change in medications you need and where you are in the process. 

I really liked that I could see what they were doing while they were doing it! The screen on the wall displayed everything that the NP was seeing on their end. I could see them move around and measure the follicles and ovary sizes!