Preparing for the embryo transfer

Now we are approaching the most physically painful part of the process - the progesterone shots.

On March 3, I went through a baseline check ultrasound to see how thick the uterine lining was. At this time, as I was on Nuvaring, my lining measured 4 mm which is pretty thin. From March 7, my Delestrogen shots started. They are basically the hormone estrogen that thickens our uterine lining in preparation for a cozy spot for the embryo to snuggle up to. For an embryo transfer, they expect the lining to be around 8-13 mm thick. The way to do that is by the estrogen shots. These intramuscular shots go in the butt and if you were one of those people who was taking the subcutaneous ones by yourself, now you would need someone to give you these ones. These are water soluble injections, so they are not that heavy. Also, I had to give them twice a week. 

On March 23, I had another ultrasound to check how my uterine lining has thickened up. In the mean time, I ate normal healthy food, walked everyday for more than a mile, and swam twice a week. I wanted to make sure that my uterus is getting good amount of blood circulation. If you are on this boat, you may hear about pineapple and its advantages in thickening the uterine lining. However, I tend not to focus on one particular food, rather increase the spectrum of good food that I eat. My uterine lining was found to be 11 mm and the ARNP (Nurse) was very happy about it. It also gave me a positive approach towards the upcoming transfer because I know that a successful implantation is a teamwork between the embryo and the uterine lining.

After a series of progesterone shots, that helps in holding the uterine lining up, I was ready for the transfer on March 28.

The transfer was a very simple process that is done without anesthesia. That is unless you specifically require it for certain reasons. I had no bleeding and no cramping. After a 15 min rest, I came home.