The Frozen Egg Diaries #4: The Egg Retrieval and Recovery
On pausing your present life in favor of your future self and what to expect post-retrieval, plus, live Q+A thread on here on November 2nd @ 12:00pm ET
Welcome to #4 of the Frozen Egg Diaries, where I take you with me on my egg freezing journey. If you’re new here, please read the previous posts in the series, including why I am freezing my eggs (PS, it’s not because I’m purposefully delaying motherhood). It is my hope that these entries help you (or someone you know) feel less alone as we battle the issues that face the modern woman today in technology, the romantic landscape, gender, and family.
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On Monday, October 16, 2023, at 9:00 AM Eastern standard time, I went under general anesthesia, and they collected a great number of mature eggs from my ovaries at the fertility clinic on 41st and Bryant Park.
My 33-year-old eggs are now frozen in time, on ice (or, really, in liquid nitrogen), at a fertility facility in New York City, where I live.
I arrived at the appointment an hour early. By that time, my uterus and lower abdomen were very swollen. I would not use the term bloated here—bloat is a very different sensation than the one I was experiencing. I associate “bloat” with digestion. This was straight up organ swelling, which makes sense. All the shots I’d been injecting were done so with the intention of growing as many mature eggss for a cycle in my ovaries as possible, rather than one mature egg per cycle as usual.
The ovary swelling was uncomfortable, but also exciting. I knew what I was doing was super cool; a gift to my future self.
Pre-surgery, I was constipated—but again, I knew this was to be expected. It was uncomfortable, but I didn’t freak out. I knew it would pass. (Also this mindset was a huge shift from my wellness days, for, back then, if I didn’t poo for a day, I thought I had GuT hEaLtH proBlEmS and would take 12 different adaptogens to make my body produce a BM!!!!)
20 minutes before the procedure, I was put into a small room on the surgery floor. There was a heated(!!) massage chair that reclined. The nurse gave me a warm blanket that had been sitting in a fridge-like blanket toaster (how do I get one of those?) and made sure I was comfortable. She hooked me up to an IV to get some fluids into my body as I hadn’t eaten or drank water in a while because I was about to go under general anesthesia.
She stuck the IV in my arm. I winced. By that time, I’d had a needle in my arm every two days for weeks. I was worried I would get scarring from all the needles (but I didn’t). I was uncomfortable, and nervous, but they did a great job. The anesthesiologist came into my room and introduced himself. I asked him questions, like what drugs he’d be putting me on. He was lovely. I thought to myself how I’d like to marry an anesthesiologist. Moving on.
Then the doctor came in, the one who was going to do the retrieval. The doctor who I’d been seeing for every ultrasound leading up to the retrieval day was out of town on a conference on surgery day, so I had to see another doctor. But she was wonderful, and I liked her bedside manner, so I felt comfortable.
Your retrieval day and trigger shot all come down to an exact science. It’s really quite fascinating how they control and time it all. I knew my body was doing miraculous things, yet I was ready for it all to be over.
They wheeled me into the “surgical theatre”. I got hooked up to all these different machines and oxygen. There were eight people in my room, all moving quickly. It was intense. They asked me to repeat my name and birthdate and the reason I was getting surgery. The anesethesiologist was in my ear talking to me, calming me down, saying how we liked my name, and then told me he was turning the medicine on. Maybe we will get married. Moving on.
I’m not going to share the number of eggs they harvested, but I will share that I am happy with my number. (Read more about how comparing fertility treatments can make women feel bad about themselves here). I understand, for many who didn’t get the “number” of eggs they were hoping for, post-surgery can be a heartbreaking time.
Continue reading to hear my thoughts on if I will do another cycle, what to expect post-retrieval, and overall reflections on the emotional toll of the process. Plus, your chance to ask a question for my egg freezing Q+A on here next Thursday, November 2nd, 2023 at 12:00 PM Eastern.