Does In Vitro Fertilization hurt?

Does in vitro fertilization hurt? Why?

• Answer:

  In vitro fertilization, i.e. fertilizing an egg in a petri dish, does not hurt per se, but mostly because the egg does not have a nervous system or a brain. However, getting that egg out may hurt. The amount of pain will largely depend on your individual propensity for ovarian pain and the number of eggs being taken out. I have talked to women to had over 30 eggs extracted, and they felt fine. My limit seems to be around 20. Both are large numbers. An average fresh egg IVF cycle produces 10 to 15 eggs. There are different types of pain you are likely to experience. Your ovaries may hurt as they grow (not every one's do). This pain is largely tolerable and lasts 5-9 days before retrieval. There is pain during retrieval and immediately after as it is a surgical procedure. This will greatly depend on the number of follicles/eggs. There are different way to anesthetize you for retrieval, and I have had different types for all of my three retrievals. I took the one with smallest number of eggs (13 follicles aspirated) with nothing but some acetaminophen, and ~15 was probably all I could take. The pain afterwards was not bad. I took the biggest one with a narcotic shot, and 22 follicles were aspirated before I turned screaming (there were likely 3-5 more), and the pain afterwards was so bad they had to take me out on a wheelchair. I took one with 21 follicles under general anesthesia, and it was fine, and the pain immediately afterwards was not bad. The pain in the next few days post retrieval, again, depends on the number of follicles and individual tolerance. The worst that I had was two days of not doing much. On the third day, I had to take a breather when walking from my car to the office. There is also pain associated with OHSS, which is a condition when you get fluid in the abdomen after the retrieval/transfer. It can be quite painful, and is somewhat dangerous, however, only 5-10% of women get moderate OHSS, and even fewer get severe OHSS. The factors increasing risk of this condition include a large number of eggs, PCOS, and getting pregnant. If you are not having an egg retrieval (i.e using a frozen embryo or a donor egg), then the amount of pain in IVF is none to minimal. The last thing I have to say that while getting that embryo in can be painful, you just wait until it grows and ready to come out. Now, that's some pain!