In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the Drugs Teach which is part of the initial stages of your IVF journey. We’re speaking with Kate Pleace, a fertility nurse who works in my Kate’s practice at Your Fertility Journey. I met Kate a good few years ago whilst I was touring clinics for a special series I made for Access Fertility and she was so lovely.
I knew she would be great talking about this and of course, she was. Kate talks us through how it all works when it comes to taking your drugs for IVF. Unfortunately, the majority are injections and you following a plan and dosages. Kate explained how important it was to talk through the different injections, how they work, when you need to do them, how to draw them up and prepare them, and they have mock ones to practice with.
How it all works?
You get to practice with a fake skin pin cushion which is good to know if you have a fear of needles, you get to feel more and get to see the needle, which is tiny. If you’re scared, it’s important to spend time with your fertility nurse, have a look and a practice and find out what works. You can get your partner and have them shown. Kate mentioned breathing techniques and meditations.
It may sound terrifying for people but you soon get the hang of it. Trust me, I was needle phobic and set up a whole fancy set up on day one with candles, music, numbing cream!!! By day 3 I was in the loo doing it, as I was hosting an event!
We talked about the following:
- Where should you inject?
- What about if you miss your injection?
- What about air bubbles?
- Ways to help partner feel more involved?
- What about nose sprays?
- Side effects of drugs?
- The Trigger Injection – what if you can’t do it in time?
I also decided to share what happened to me during my treatment. Having been making this podcast for 7 years it had gone to the very back of my mind, yet after talking about this particular process for this episode it all came flooding back. As I share what happened to me, we talk about how rare it was so please don’t worry. But do get in touch if it happened to you!
Kate was amazing and we’ve spoken with her before so do listen here and of course, you can hear this week’s episode here.
We’re nearly at the end of this series and would love your thoughts, if you can spend two minutes leaving us a review https://kite.link/fertility that would be smashing!
