Part 2: The Experience
This post is about my experience freezing my eggs following a cancer diagnosis, after the events I shared about in the previous post.
Here I’m sharing what the egg freezing experience was like for me personally. I’d never heard anybody share it not being challenging, which is also feedback I got when I discussed my experience with other women in real life.
I’m not sharing this to at all tell women who are considering egg freezing what their experience will necessarily be like, but more as another perspective among many, to give you another practical window into the process and what it could be like.
In the final post (after this one), I’ll share broader reflections about life and faith that were prompted by the experience.
Meeting My Fertility Doctor
After I told the doctor who met with me after my breast cancer diagnosis, a breast surgeon in her mid-30s, that I wanted to consider freezing my eggs, I remember her texting a fertility doctor that she referred me to right in that appointment. The doctor was at Shady Grove Fertility, which has gotten attention for being the most successful fertility clinic in the country. (In 2017, the Washingtonian Magazine had done a story about the “baby boom” from the once tiny Maryland clinic that now has offices across the country.)
I liked the fertility doctor I got set up with immediately. I first met her during a virtual visit a couple days after my initial diagnosis. She had a calming presence and voice. She said her job was to help determine how we could best work toward my goal of ensuring I could still birth children at some point after treatment if it turned out I’d need chemotherapy (as I shared in my last post, I ultimately didn’t need it since my cancer was later confirmed to be Stage 0. However, at the time I started freezing my eggs, chemo was still a possibility).
My first question for my fertility doctor was if it was even possible that I could, in fact, freeze my eggs through the clinic. I’d seen marketing materials for Shady Grove indicating they may not do at least elective freezing past 40, and I was about to turn 41. “There isn’t a blanket stop at 40,” she clarified. “We work with what’s best in your situation.” She did acknowledge that not all women my age are able to egg freeze, and, if I wasn’t a candidate, we’d be able to explore different options. Regardless of the outcome, I thought in that moment, even just this first conversation is a relief.
The first step would be for me to get the fertility assessment that I hadn’t done up to that point. We planned for me to come in on the first or second full day of my period, which I knew would be in a couple weeks. It was explained that it’s easiest to assess fertility at that period through an ultrasound and bloodwork, and to start the egg freezing process if I was a candidate. In the interim, I was also given videos to watch about the egg freezing process.
The First Appointment
When I got my period a couple weeks later, I went in for my fertility evaluation to hopefully start the egg freezing process. I remember walking into the clinic early on a weekday morning, checking in and then going to sit down in the waiting room, which, at around 7:30 am, already had about a dozen women, along with a few men who looked to be with their significant others. There was also a guy or two there alone. My human curiosity — probably intensified some by the journalist and advocate in me — wondered what the individual stories in the room were. What had people gone through to end up there? I’m sure the reasons were as myriad as the diverse faces in the room. I remember then glancing at the TV that blared — on that day either HGTV or a network morning show — I would be in that — or another — Shady Grove Fertility waiting room many times in the coming weeks that I can’t recall which show it was.
After a few more minutes of waiting, I was called into an open room where I was weighed, my blood pressure taken and my blood drawn for hormone testing. I won’t go into detail on that here, but there are a number of tests that can be done as part of assessing your fertility. However, it’s looking at the cumulative data that ultimately helps make the decision about egg freezing.
Once I finished vitals and blood drawing, a few minutes later I was called into another examination room for an ultrasound. The cheery sonographer that morning informed me that she’d be checking to see how many follicles could be seen on my ovaries that may be responsive to stimulation for egg freezing. (This is probably basic, but, personally, I needed a refresher on the science to connect all the dots for this process: During the menstrual cycle, pre-menopausal women prepare to ultimately release one mature egg monthly. However, before that happens, immature eggs — i.e., follicles, form on the ovaries, only one of which “wins” so to speak to become the mature egg that releases that month, which we know as ovulation. Egg freezing manipulates that process by feeding those immature follicles that ordinarily would not release to grow large enough so that, ideally, multiple mature eggs form that can be retrieved for freezing.)
As I laid on the examination bed and waited for the response from the sonographer, I remember holding my breath.
“I see some follicles,” she said after a few moments. She started counting the follicles on one ovary, and then the next. She moved the monitor she was looking at toward me a little so I could have a more favorable view.
“You have a really good number that would be responsive,” she finally said, and provided me a number. I remember breathing another sigh of relief. I asked more questions and learned that most of the women they see at the clinic (for any fertility reason, not just egg freezing) range across the reproductive age spectrum — at the higher end, usually the mid-40s.
For egg freezing, they typically want to see at least a few follicles on each ovary before starting the process. Some women have more than that; some have less. During the process, additional follicles than what are initially seen on the ultrasound may grow and become more visible in future ultrasounds (and the ones that they see that first time are also stimulated to grow larger).
After I finished there, I was connected with a fertility nurse I’d end up working with during the whole process. I was assigned to her explicitly as a cancer patient. One of the first things she did was hand me a bag of medications for egg freezing, explaining that she was giving me these so I could get started on the process (and not delay my cancer treatment). She said I’d also be getting more info about programs that could potentially cover my medication for free as a cancer patient. Some of the programs were income based; others just required that you meet certain basic medical requirements and be cleared by your doctor. I ended up getting all of my medications covered through Walgreens Alliance’s Heartbeat Program for female cancer patients, which had no income qualifications (even if you’re not a cancer patient, there are programs that assist women with qualifying income levels).
This was one of the tangible ways I saw God answer my prayer. Egg freezing isn’t cheap (medication alone isn’t usually covered by insurance, even if a cycle may be covered. From googling, the national average is about $15,000 per cycle, including medication). Although thankfully I could have afforded it without assistance, I don’t have endless resources, and I wondered if it was worth it to spend that much money on something I may never use. (Statistically, more women who freeze their eggs don’t actually use them than do.) Having medication paid for — which usually costs somewhere between $3,000-$6,000 per cycle — was significant. It also turned out that my company would cover one cycle, so I ended up just having to pay for one cycle out of pocket, minus medication (in my case, between $6,000–8,000).
The nurse also showed me how I’d be injecting the egg freezing medications, primarily through shots to the belly, which she demonstrated using an inflatable half ball that mimicked a belly, which she pinched and simulated injecting. Not the best at figuring these kinds of things out initially, I was thankful when she told me that there was a third-party service started by a Shady Grove nurse through which I could send a nurse to my house to assist with the injections. She noted that a lot of people use the service on the first night to ensure they’re comfortable injecting the medication, and on the last day, for the “trigger shot” — i.e., the one you take 36 hours before egg retrieval that is the last major hormonal push to prepare your eggs for retrieval. The cost for the service was $90 for each visit for the regular shots, and $150 for the trigger shot (I spent $330 on three visits the first cycle — two regular shot visits and one trigger shot; $150 on one visit for the trigger shot in the second cycle).
Before I left, I was also given a schedule for my egg freezing cycle, which I was told could take anywhere from 10–14 days. The schedule listed my medication doses for the first two days, the projected days for me to come into the office for monitoring — every other day to start, and the projected egg retrieval date. I was told that the afternoon after each monitoring appointment I would be getting a call informing me of bloodwork results (e.g., if my estrogen level was rising, which was necessary for follicle growth) and if there were any changes to my medication dosage, and an updated egg freezing schedule.
I was also given instructions that I’d get a final call about starting the process that afternoon if everything checked out, and I left the office.
That afternoon, I got the call to start the process. Another sigh of relief!
THE EXPERIENCE
I will say at the outset that I had a surprisingly easy time with the process. I say surprisingly because the only stories I’d heard from people I knew were at best just bearable but challenging — horror stories at worst. I don’t discount those stories — they are real — but they did obscure my perception of the process overall.
Given how more than manageable my time was egg freezing — I felt about 95% of myself the whole time — I asked my fertility doctor if my experience was within the norm, or an outlier. She said it was within the norm, and spoke both from her experience treating patients, as well as her own past egg freezing experience.
“Most people tend to tolerate the process well,” I recall her saying. “You may feel slightly off from yourself. I remember being a little less motivated to do really active things like work out, but I couldn’t do that then anyway. You also have a lot going on right now [with my cancer diagnosis], so you’re probably also less likely to notice any subtle changes.”
Granted, I did have a couple times across two cycles where I felt a burn sensation on my stomach for a few minutes — once when I fell on the stairs (just being my clumsy self — thankfully it wasn’t a major fall!), and the other time I don’t recall exactly when or why, just that it happened.
(That reminds me of another note — as you’d probably guess, rigorous physical activity was restricted, especially after the first few days when follicle growth becomes more pronounced. My fertility doctor gave me side-eye when I asked if I could perhaps roller skate with padding during those first few days. I was used to exercising 4–5 times a week, usually a combination of strength training and cardio. I knew lifting weights and doing anything that puts pressure on my stomach muscles was out, but I wanted to see if there was anything I could get away with aside from walking! The lawyer in me needed to argue for activity that, at least in theory, seemed to fit within the movement parameters for the first few days. “What if you fall?” she had asked in response to my question. That was enough to relegate me to walking, lol.)
I also wondered the impact of taking injections involving hormones. I hadn’t taken any hormone-related medication before then — including birth control (which, as women, we know gets prescribed for almost anything!). I was afraid of the potential impact being on hormones could have on my overall wellbeing — including weight, for example — or impact to my relatively easy and very predictable menstrual cycle. I also thought that perhaps my best shot at pregnancy in the future is staying very healthy, and hesitancy over hormone taking as potentially impacting that health was yet another reason I was hesitant.
While in retrospect, I don’t think my concerns over hormones were completely baseless, most of them were somehow misaligned with reality and differed from my actual experience.
I learned from a pre-freezing video that it was common to gain 2–5 pounds of water weight during the process — especially toward the end — that goes away shortly after egg retrieval. I might have gained a couple pounds — I definitely had a looser stomach that I noticed toward the end of each cycle, especially when I wore short sweaters that ordinarily wouldn’t show any of my stomach but, at that time, caused it to peek out — but I can’t honestly say I gained any meaningful weight during the cycle. My temporary tummy also went back to normal shortly after egg freezing — by a week after, I didn’t notice it. Also, thankfully, I did not need the highest dosages of the medication to complete each cycle, which I’ll explain more below. That said, how much medication you’d need to complete the process is a good consideration to make in deciding whether to complete it.
My First Cycle
As mentioned, each cycle usually lasts 10–14 days, depending on how long it takes your follicles to grow to the ideal size for retrieval (i.e., between 18–21 millimeters). Throughout each cycle, there were a few medications, all intended to assist with some aspect of the egg freezing process — growing the follicles, supporting ovulation and preparing for retrieval. The consistent medications in the process were two that I injected into my belly each night, along with taking a pill, Letrozole. The evening injections, the medications Menopur and Gonal F, needed to be taken at about the same time each evening, give or take an hour. I chose 7:00 pm as my injection time, so I always made sure I completed the injections by 8:00 pm at the latest.
I had a nurse come assist me with the injections the first couple nights. The hardest was Menopur, which required mixing vials of powder with a liquid solution, draining into a syringe, and then injecting into the stomach. The other medications I injected were either pre-mixed and just required drawing into a syringe to inject, or were pre-filled and already in a syringe for injecting. Although mixing Menopur seemed a challenge to me at first, after the first couple times, it actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought! The second night that I requested a nurse come to assist me I had her watch me mix Menopur just to ensure I had it right — I did not want me getting an injection wrong to be the only reason the process failed! She reassured me that I was doing fine. By the end of the first cycle, I felt like a pro — I could mix and inject everything in just a few minutes. The first time, it took me close to a half hour.
I went in for monitoring appointments in the mornings, every other day to start. Each time, the same process that was done for the initial evaluation was completed: vitals taken, bloodwork drawn and ultrasound completed. During the ultrasound, each of my ovaries was examined to see how the follicles were growing.
For the first few days, follicle growth is expected to be minimal while your body is still absorbing the medications. However, after this period, the follicles should start growing significantly, ideally, 1–3 millimeters (per follicle) daily. The ultimate goal was for the majority of the follicles to grow into mature eggs of between 18–21 millimeters by the end of the 10–14 day cycle. A complication of the process could be the follicles not growing, or not growing at similar rates. This could require adjusting medication dosages (hence the monitoring every 1–2 days) or, in some cases, stopping the cycle before completion.
I came to enjoy going into the monitoring appointments. At first it was nerve-wracking getting ultrasounds, but once the follicles got into the growth stage, it was cool being able to see how they were ballooning. As they were measured on the ultrasound, there was always a monitor facing where I laid down for it, so I could watch and see the measurements being recorded. Sometimes the sonographer or doctor would also print them out for me to take home if I wanted. Before I left an appointment, I’d book the next one at the front desk if needed (and they were easy to change or cancel, depending on your progress).
I also enjoyed going to morning appointments because sometimes it gave me an excuse to stop at a familiar or new coffee shop for a latte, especially after years of mostly working from home during Covid (I also paused going into the office a couple times a week while I had so many doctors appointments, for both egg freezing and cancer related)! As you’ve probably heard, for fertility treatment or trying to get pregnant, it’s often recommended to limit caffeine to no more than 200 milligrams daily. Some people also stop caffeine altogether. I never got any directions to do either. My general lifestyle is not to consume caffeinated drinks more than 2–3 times weekly and no more than 150 milligrams a day, so, based on general recommendations, I wasn’t required to make any changes for egg freezing. I did decide to do caffeine just 1–2 days weekly and under 100 milligrams so I didn’t have to totally deprive myself, but wanted to be a little more cautious.)
After the first few days of the cycle and seeing the follicles visibly growing, a morning injection for me to take was added, Cetrotide, also to the stomach. I stuck to taking it within the same hour daily also — I chose 7:00 am.
For the first cycle, my injections leading up to the retrieval went without incident. Once I started on the medications, the egg growth happened evenly and throughout the process — so much so that I never needed to have my medication dosage increased during the cycle to speed up follicle growth (added medication during the cycle isn’t an unusual occurrence). Things went well enough that I triggered a couple days earlier than expected, meaning enough of my follicles were at or above the mature egg stage of at least 18 millimeters to warrant the “trigger” shot — that last boost of hormones to the follicles that you take 36 hours before the eggs are retrieved.
That trigger shot is a much larger one than the others, and it’s injected at the top of your bottom. l didn’t want to do that shot myself (like a lot of people, lol). The shot needed to be taken as precisely as possible at that 36-hour mark before retrieval, based on the retrieval surgery time you’re given by the late afternoon that you trigger. For example, if you get a call that your egg retrieval time is 7:30 am on Monday, you need to have your trigger shot injected at 7:30 pm on Saturday (i.e., 36 hours before).
It just so happened that I triggered on my birthday and was supposed to be at a spa resort celebrating with a good friend with the same birthday. It worked out so I could have the nurse assisting me with the trigger shot just come to the resort to administer it — gratefully, it went flawlessly! Even after the trigger shot, I didn’t feel demonstrably different than before it — I did have that couple pounds or so of water weight that I mentioned as the cycle progressed — but not much else. I felt fine too — perhaps a little more bloated, but not as significant as knowing you’re on your period.
Retrieval Day
On retrieval day, I had to arrive at 6:00 am, 1.5 hours before my scheduled retrieval time of 7:30 am, since I was the first surgery of the day. (I was told anyone else later time would need to arrive an hour earlier than their scheduled time.) I had to come with identification and another adult who would be nearby during the procedure for updates and to drive me home after, since I’d be under general anesthesia for it (a family member came with me each time).
Once I was checked in, I was taken to the pre-operative patient area, where I was assigned a semi-private station with a bed and curtains. A nurse came back to get me set up with a gown, consent forms to go over and sign, and got my vitals. I was told the procedure itself — from anesthesia to retrieval — would take about 30 minutes.
About 20 minutes before going back into the operating room, an anesthesiologist came by to start my IV with anesthesia. I also met the surgeon who would be performing the retrieval, who it turned out had the same birthday as me (which had been a couple days earlier). We exchanged stories about how we celebrated, and I mentioned that I’d celebrated with another birthday twin (a good friend)! I hadn’t been nervous or tense that morning, but it was still a memorable moment that put me further at ease. One of the nurses who had assisted me with my first home injection was also on the operating team, which was another reassuring moment.
A few minutes before I was taken back to the operating room, I was told to empty my bladder. I’d also been told to stop eating or drinking anything after midnight — both measures to ensure the retrieval was smooth. After going to the bathroom, I was walked back to the operating room (with my hooked IV), where there was an operating team of several people. The surgeon I’d met earlier pointed me to a monitor and explained more about how the retrieval would go. That was the last thing I remember before I was knocked out!
When I woke up after surgery, I was back at my original pre-operating station, with the nurse I first met right there. She said everything had gone well, and asked me if I wanted water or juice, and crackers. She also said the surgeon would be by soon to give me a preliminary count of how many eggs they’d retrieved. Within the next couple days, I’d also get a call from my fertility doctor or nurse informing me how many of the eggs were mature (i.e., the goal for future pregnancy).
I haven’t forgotten that moment. The surgeon walked over excitedly with another medical professional who didn’t say anything, only stood in the background and smiled. “That went amazing,” he conveyed, explaining that I’d gotten significantly more eggs than what they typically see for retrieval. He reinforced that I’d get an official count on the maturity of the eggs and what was frozen within the next day or so.
I remember it being an especially encouraging moment because at the time, I was still dealing with news that my first cancer doctors had given that they believed further testing of samples from my biopsy for the cancerous breast looked to be invasive cancer — and not the Stage 0 “pre-cancer” just in the milk duct that I’d been originally diagnosed as having, and they were recommending that I start with chemotherapy to shrink my tumor before having surgery. I was experiencing a lot of emotions — coming to terms with the fact that I’d likely lose my hair and other potential side effects of chemo, including permanent or temporary infertility. My oncologist at the time had said that because all the testing had shown my ovarian function was good and bested my age, he’d estimated that, statistically, I’d probably be in a category of women with a higher expectation that they would go back to normal ovarian function — including their menstrual cycle — within six months after treatment. Still, that was not guaranteed, and having to do chemo was not the news I’d wanted to hear. However, God had used both the encouraging egg freezing cycle and the news about chemo likely not meaning the end of my fertility to encourage me that whatever happened, He was still working out this detail of my life. I marveled at yet another way I had seen God show up in a challenging moment.
I did later get the call confirming the number of eggs I’d gotten was what the surgeon had provided. Also, thankfully, all but a few of them were mature eggs, which was the goal. For elective freezing under normal circumstances, often only mature eggs would be frozen. (It’s not unusual to have at least some immature eggs.) However, since I was a cancer patient with a chance that my fertility could be permanently impacted, it’s customary to freeze pretty much all eggs collected.
Generally, mature eggs are the top quality of eggs that could result in a future pregnancy, also called “Metaphase 2 (M2)” eggs. The next level category, M1, are eggs that are not mature at the time they are frozen, but could have matured with a little more time in the lab — e.g., an additional hour or two — or may mature after they are unfrozen. The final category is an immature egg, i.e., Geminal vesicle (GV). I was told that the few eggs I had that weren’t mature were M1, so they also have the possibility of being viable when they are unfrozen.
The recovery from egg freezing also was not bad for me. After I woke up after that first retrieval, I felt fatigued for the first hour or so — during that time, I had trouble walking for too long, and when we were leaving, I remember needing to sit down when we stopped at the pharmacy in the same building to pick up the optional painkillers I’d been prescribed. (I ultimately did not end up using them — I never felt any actual pain.) Thankfully, things got progressively better after that first hour — within another hour, I could walk fine without needing to sit and no longer felt fatigued, just a bit tired.
All told, I was in the facility for egg retrieval for about 3 hours (from 6:00–9:00 am). I was told not to drive and take it easy for the next 24 hours while the anesthesia wore off, and avoid eating greasy, heavy or spicy foods. Soup and Gatorade were recommended.
Start to finish, my first cycle was 10 days (as previously noted, egg freezing cycles are generally 10–14 days).
I was glad I started feeling normal within an hour, because I had another biopsy scheduled that day at noon that I did not want to miss — it was the second opinion biopsy that my then hospital wanted to do after another hospital I had requested a second opinion from, Johns Hopkins, had tested some or all of the original biopsy slides and determined that the samples implicated only Stage 0, and not invasive cancer, which would mean I would not need chemotherapy after all (which ultimately ended up being my final diagnosis and the hospital I switched to, after getting three second opinions all disagreeing with my first doctors, albeit in varying degrees).
Although I generally felt fine after the first egg retrieval, that time I felt mildly constipated for a couple days. I don’t know if it was exacerbated by what I ate after surgery, which I can’t completely recall, but just remember it being stronger than the recommended soup! I was more cautious with food the second time around, and that did not happen. I was also told not to exercise for another week while my ovaries recovered (I had to explicitly ask about this, lol!).
That was not the end of the egg freezing story. As I mentioned, I ended up doing one more cycle.
The decision to do one more cycle was not one I was sure I’d get to make when I started the first. Because at that point the plan with my first doctors was starting with chemotherapy (before I switched), I had to get clearance from them to do another cycle, which they granted.
For any cancer patient who wants to egg freeze, there could be a situation where the nature of the tumor could mean that treatment may need to be started before the optimal number of eggs are frozen. Or, other treatment — including surgery, could be recommended before that number is hit. In cases where chemotherapy does not have to be the first step — e.g., if surgery and possibly radiation are happening beforehand, a patient might start with one cycle before then, and then do one or more additional cycle(s) after surgery or radiation. (Radiation to the breast or surrounding area isn’t known to impact fertility since it’s targeted to the localized area and is nowhere near the reproductive organs.)
“Let’s see if we can get to the optimal number of eggs with one more cycle,” my fertility doctor said. I recalled that when we got the final numbers for the first cycle, I had detected what came across to me as some surprise in her voice, especially compared to our first conversation in which she noted the potential that, especially given my age, there was a possibility that I wouldn’t be a good candidate for egg freezing.
Although the cycle had gone really well — perhaps the very best it could have — it would have been impossible for me to get the optimal number of eggs for my age in one cycle. Statistically, the quality of women’s eggs are known to decrease (along with the overall decrease in fertility) as they age. If a woman freezes her eggs by the age of 37 or so, the recommendation is to freeze 15 mature eggs to result in at least a 75 percent chance of pregnancy. For women at about 38 to their earliest 40s, it’s recommended that they freeze at least 25 to 30 eggs for that same chance. Although at this point the data we had indicated that my fertility was, overall, better than my age, quality was a separate assessment — you can’t know that until the eggs are unfrozen to use them, and it was safest to try to get at least the number recommended for my age.
Given how well the first cycle went, I was enthusiastic about doing another cycle. However, I had to wait until my next period. I was told that, typically, you get your period about 14 days after egg retrieval. I got mine exactly 14 days after, and we started the second cycle a few days later, when I got back into town from a wedding.
THE SECOND CYCLE
The second cycle did not start smoothly. I felt fine, but my ovaries were still recovering from the last cycle. My fertility doctor later told me that, ideally, we would have waited another week or two to allow some temporary cysts that are not unusual to form at that point in the monthly cycle to resolve, perhaps also with birth control for a couple weeks. However, since I needed to move forward with treatment and everything had gone so well the first time, it made sense to keep going.
It was determined at the initial ultrasound that I actually had more follicles that would be responsive to the medication than the first time, but they stayed at that initial, immature size for longer. A few days into my cycle, by my third monitoring appointment, the follicles had not seemed to be growing at the same rate as they had the first time. As noted previously, for the first few days, it’s not atypical for the follicles to have not yet responded to the medication and not yet be measurable. However, it was getting close to the end of those first few days, and not much had changed. My estrogen levels also were not climbing as significantly as they had at that point during the last cycle, also indicating limited growth.
By my second monitoring appointment, five days in, my doctor recommended that we increase my dosage for one of the medications, Menopur, to an additional vial (which, as I noted discussing the first cycle, is not unusual — and is a reason you’re monitored. However, for my first cycle, I had not needed my initial medication dosage increased throughout the process).
I remember at that point asking my doctor if the difference in the start of the two cycles was normal. “I can’t always say for sure at this point,” I recall her responding. “It could just be that you’re not having as great a response to the medication as you did the first time — which can happen, but we’ll keep monitoring for now.”
I remember being reminded to pray again about the process. I had still been praying up to that point — and had friends in more than one small and prayer group doing so also — but, since things had been going so well, I hadn’t thought to consider again God’s hand in the process. It was a reminder not to forget.
Thankfully, the medication finally kicked in, and I started to see growth, and more quickly. My doctor did prescribe an additional vial of Menopur again at my next monitoring appointment. It was ultimately double the initial amount I’d had the first cycle, but still not an unusual amount to be prescribed, and lower than the highest dosage. That did mean that, had I needed to pay for medication that cycle, it would have been more than the previous one.
Thankfully, I still had extra medication from the previous cycle, and, when it took an extra day for me to get approval for more Menopur from Walgreens Alliance would have meant I’d have no Menopur for my required evening injection, Walgreens Alliance had someone drive down from Pennsylvania to deliver the medication to me before my 7:00 pm injection time. Yet another way God showed up in the process!
My second cycle, start to finish, was 14 days. This also was significant because the timing ensured I did not have to cancel an early doctor’s appointments with one of my surgeons (I had then switched to Johns Hopkins) that had taken three weeks to get, and was needed before I could get scheduled for my breast cancer surgery. Because my second egg retrieval cycle was longer, there was a possibility that I’d need my eggs retrieved at the same time as that breast appointment that I did not want to miss. I remember praying — and asking others to pray — that the appointments didn’t conflict. God worked it out so that my eggs were retrieved one day before that appointment, so I never had to cancel it and reschedule.
After the rocky start, in the end, the second cycle was just as successful as the previous. I had about the same number of mature eggs, and MU1 eggs that could mature after thawing. From some internet research, it had appeared that, ideally, the best number for retrieving the best quality eggs is somewhere around 15 in a cycle, but I was also told that was not a hard and fast rule. However, in doing some of that research, I could feel my obsession starting to creep in a bit.
“Do you think I need to do a third cycle?” I remember asking my fertility doctor when we discussed my second cycle results.
“Not unless you want to have four kids,” she replied (just a few moments before then, I’d answered her question about how many I wanted, which was definitely under four!).
I remember laughing — and being reminded still that freezing my eggs wasn’t the end of trusting God for the ultimate outcome of wanting to have children (and what I’ll do with them).
POST CYCLES
After the second cycle, I got my period 12 days later. It’s been three months now, and everything went back to normal cycle wise. I did decide to take a couple weeks off from exercising (instead of just one week off) after that second cycle to give my body a little bit of a break, since they were back-to-back! The only thing still trying to catch up is my cycle tracking app, lol — it’s been a little off in predicting my period, but my actual cycle length has not changed (nor have my periods).
After finishing the process, I got updated info about the storage of my eggs. In case it’s helpful info for anyone, my yearly storage fees will be around $1,000. (That’s similar to other insurance premiums I have, such as homeowner’s insurance, so I’m comfortable with that cost.) The contract allows me to store the eggs until age 51 (or use them before then). There’s an option to donate unused eggs (and, at this point, I don’t know yet if I will need to use them).
I officially finished the egg freezing process the first week of March, which meant start to finish for two cycles was six weeks. From all that I can gather, that was a marathon — and, as far I know, a miracle! The way God showed up to accomplish something I had no idea could happen was another reminder of who He is, and how He works — in the most unexpected — and even challenging — times and ways. However, walking with God for decades now, I can’t say that I was at all surprised. I could never have imagined the circumstances under which I completed the process — especially given the years where it loomed over my head — but I can say I knew that, in some way, God would show up to direct me at the right moment.
POST FREEZING
Having finished this process — and going through cancer diagnosis and surgery (and now cancer free) — I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. My first feelings are of gratitude. The road could have been a lot more challenging, and I’m grateful for all the ways God showed up for me to have an easier time with both egg freezing and my diagnosis than I could have. It’s caused me to reflect on God’s character, principles that I’ve tried to live by for a long time, and has been what’s come to mind when people have also asked me how I’ve approached this and other life challenges — including ongoing unknowns.
In my final post on this topic, I share faith reflections connected to my egg freezing journey — and beyond.
