Pregnancy symptoms during the two-week-wait

I haven’t posted in nearly a week for good reason: I’m tired. Like really tired. So tired that I had to skip the Gay Pride Parade in Amsterdam this past weekend, which I was TOTALLY looking forward to. Why? Because I was so exhausted from being awake for 2 hours that it apparently necessitated a 3.5-hour nap. (This is really not helping my reputation with my husband as ‘the most ridiculous human being ever’.)

If you aren’t familiar with the IVF process, this may sound really hopeful. After all, I’m nine days past my 5-day transfer (9dp5dt if you want to be hip with the lingo), and well past the point where the embryo should have implanted in my uterine lining (if it has decided to grace us with its continued presence). So…maybe the exhaustion is a promising sign…meaning that I’m pregnant!

That would be *awesome* if it were the case. Unfortunately, there’s no way to distinguish real pregnancy symptoms from those caused by the hormone supplementation that is also required at this stage. In particular, in addition to the estrogen pills I’ve been taking three times a day for over a month, progesterone is also necessary in the second half of the cycle to help prepare the uterine lining for implantation and potential pregnancy. It’s started right after the egg retrieval by both ‘regular’ (non-donor-egg) IVF patients as well as by the recipients of egg-donor IVF embryos, and honestly — I think it’s the worst part of the whole damn process (injections & vaginal surgery included). My progesterone comes in the form of vaginal suppositories that must be inserted three times a day*, and which manage to leak out even after the requisite 30-min period lying down. Because women facing infertility treatment clearly don’t have enough to deal with already, so now we also get to have leaky vaginas!**

‘Pregnancy symptoms’ on progesterone

The bigger problem with taking progesterone during the two-week-wait is that it it’s exactly the hormone you would be making naturally if you were, in fact, pregnant. This means that many of the side effects we associate with pregnancy are actually due to progesterone, and that taking additional progesterone during the two-week-wait can be a total mindf@$k. As a result, here is an incomplete list of just some of the ‘pregnancy symptoms’ I’ve experienced during my previous (failed) two-week-waits while on progesterone:

• Cramping
• Bloating
• Nausea
• Gas
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Headache
• Backache
• Dizziness
• Sore boobs
• Vivid dreams
• Fatigue/drowsiness
• Mood swings
• Loss of appetite
• Increase in appetite
• Shortness of breath

As I mentioned, those cycles failed, so these symptoms were definitely side effects of the progesterone (or just fabricated by my anxious brain). But when there’s finally a real chance you might actually be pregnant, and when you are experiencing any/all of these symptoms, it’s really hard to just dismiss them as false alarms.

Is there any way to tell between progesterone side effects and actual pregnancy symptoms?

So is there really no way to tell the difference? No small, previously overlooked symptom (e.g., a twinge in the pelvis!) which might finally and conclusively spell the difference between progesterone side effects and real pregnancy symptoms? (“Siri, are pelvic twinges a side effect of progesterone?!”)

Spoiler alert: basically every possible symptom can be a side effect of the progesterone. Having ZERO symptoms can also still mean you’re pregnant, or not! Different women respond differently to both the medication and actual pregnancy, and women can also respond differently during cycles, even if they have the same outcome. I’ve had sore boobs one cycle and not the next, and they both resulted in Big Fat Negatives (BFNs). There’s literally NO WAY to tell besides a pregnancy test, which for me, at least, is still several days away.

In future cycles (should it come to that), I hope that I will finally take my own advice and give up the symptom-spotting once and for all. For now, I’m going to google “9dp5dt cramping backache success stories”. Because for the next couple days at least, there’s still hope.

xx

*If you ever see a sticky note on my office door that says ‘telecon’, now you know what I’m really doing.

**Leaky Vaginas is going to be the name of my new FemRock band.