For many women, dealing with all the medications that come with IVF is one of the toughest parts. If you've never liked needles and are scared to deal with them during your treatments, you might just need some IVF help from other women who have been there and done that. No matter what kinds of medications you're taking, there are other women out there who have been through the exact same pain, so there are tons of tips floating around on how to best take your medications. Here are just a few of those hints to help you out.
The best and first tip is to keep your goal in mind. It doesn't do to obsess too much about the end result of your IVF treatments, but what you want to do is more of a visualization technique. Just picture the eggs being fertilized and taking root inside of you, and then picture the beautiful baby you'll get for all this pain. You have to go through a bit more to make a baby than some other women do, but it will all be even more worthwhile in the end!
Tips to Deaden the Pain
If you're afraid of your injections, remember that not everyone finds them painful. Some women do, though, but these women have found numerous ways to deaden or cope with the pain. Here are a few things that you can do before, during, and after an injection to lessen the pain you feel or to distract yourself from it:
*Tap on the injection site or press down on it hard with your alcohol swab for about a minute before inserting the needle.
*Treat the injection site with a numbing solution. Something super basic like ice often works, but women who have lots of trouble with injection pain might be able to get a prescription for a skin-numbing medication, as well.
*Experiment, experiment, experiment! Work with different gauges and brands of needles. Try different injection spots if you are able. Work with different numbing techniques before the injection. You're going to be doing these shots for a while, so take time at first to try different things to see what works for you.
*Give yourself something to look forward to after shots, such as a warm bath, a cup of hot tea, or bedtime with a good book. Focus on that small reward to get through the medication process.
*If you're working with progesterone injections, it's best to warm them up before your shot, since it will make them flow more freely and usually will ease the pain.
Keeping Track of It All
One difficult part about getting shots during the IVF process is that there are just so many to keep straight. Certain medications need to be taken at certain hours of the day, and certain injections should be kept at particular temperatures. Here is some advice to help you keep all of this straight so that you don't have to worry about getting things out of order and messing up the shot process:
*Talk to your nurse! Be sure that you are absolutely clear on every single piece of instruction for taking your shots and keeping your medications at the proper temperature. It's vital that you spend time asking lots of questions if you have them so that you know what you're doing when you get home. If you get home and forget, call the clinic and ask again! They would rather get ten phone calls from you then have you sitting at home worried about doing it all right.
*Learn how to do the shots yourself, and make sure that your partner knows, too. Sometimes your partner may not be around to give you a shot, so you need to be sure that you know how to work the system on your own, too.
*Make a chart or a list that shows the name of each medication, how it is to be stored, where or how it needs to be injected, and when it needs to be injected. You can also leave some room for notes so that you can keep track of which techniques, needles, or spots are less painful when injecting which medications.
The best and first tip is to keep your goal in mind. It doesn't do to obsess too much about the end result of your IVF treatments, but what you want to do is more of a visualization technique. Just picture the eggs being fertilized and taking root inside of you, and then picture the beautiful baby you'll get for all this pain. You have to go through a bit more to make a baby than some other women do, but it will all be even more worthwhile in the end!
Tips to Deaden the Pain
If you're afraid of your injections, remember that not everyone finds them painful. Some women do, though, but these women have found numerous ways to deaden or cope with the pain. Here are a few things that you can do before, during, and after an injection to lessen the pain you feel or to distract yourself from it:
*Tap on the injection site or press down on it hard with your alcohol swab for about a minute before inserting the needle.
*Treat the injection site with a numbing solution. Something super basic like ice often works, but women who have lots of trouble with injection pain might be able to get a prescription for a skin-numbing medication, as well.
*Experiment, experiment, experiment! Work with different gauges and brands of needles. Try different injection spots if you are able. Work with different numbing techniques before the injection. You're going to be doing these shots for a while, so take time at first to try different things to see what works for you.
*Give yourself something to look forward to after shots, such as a warm bath, a cup of hot tea, or bedtime with a good book. Focus on that small reward to get through the medication process.
*If you're working with progesterone injections, it's best to warm them up before your shot, since it will make them flow more freely and usually will ease the pain.
Keeping Track of It All
One difficult part about getting shots during the IVF process is that there are just so many to keep straight. Certain medications need to be taken at certain hours of the day, and certain injections should be kept at particular temperatures. Here is some advice to help you keep all of this straight so that you don't have to worry about getting things out of order and messing up the shot process:
*Talk to your nurse! Be sure that you are absolutely clear on every single piece of instruction for taking your shots and keeping your medications at the proper temperature. It's vital that you spend time asking lots of questions if you have them so that you know what you're doing when you get home. If you get home and forget, call the clinic and ask again! They would rather get ten phone calls from you then have you sitting at home worried about doing it all right.
*Learn how to do the shots yourself, and make sure that your partner knows, too. Sometimes your partner may not be around to give you a shot, so you need to be sure that you know how to work the system on your own, too.
*Make a chart or a list that shows the name of each medication, how it is to be stored, where or how it needs to be injected, and when it needs to be injected. You can also leave some room for notes so that you can keep track of which techniques, needles, or spots are less painful when injecting which medications.
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