My Experience

A cycle of in vitro fertilization requires several weeks of hormone injections, which must be administered at the same time each evening. The doctor performing my IVF determined the protocol and provided me with prescriptions for the hormones and needles. In advance of my IVF cycle, I took a class taught by a nurse where I learned how to mix the medications (they come in powdered form and must be reconstituted with diluent to make an injectable liquid) and to do my own subcutaneous injections into my abdomen.

When the day came to begin the shots, I mixed the medications as I had been taught. I wiped a small area on my abdomen with an alcohol swab and stuck the needle into the skin 1-2 inches below my belly button. Later in the IVF process, I also did intramuscular injections in my buttocks. These were more painful as the medication was injected with a longer needle and deposited into the muscle. A nurse had taught me the proper area of the buttocks for these injections and I did them looking over my shoulder in front of a mirror.

After each injection I felt fine and there was no recovery.