The full procedure took about 2 hours total: 1 hour prep, 30 minutes for retrieval and 30 minutes for recovery. You are under full anesthesia so they advise that you do not drive yourself. Looking back I think it would be perfectly fine to Uber or Lyft there and back, but it’s always better to err on the side of caution and have a friend/loved one take you if possible. 

My appointment was early Sunday morning, the clinic was only open on Sundays for egg retrieval as the hormones can’t be stopped! My mom dropped me off, and the clinic was really calm and peaceful. For the prep and intake, the nurse asked me questions on medical history, took vitals, and explained what was going to happen. I went to the restroom right before and then it was go time. The operation room itself was quite small, there was a chair with stirrups, and an ultrasound machine. The Dr. was there, along with an anesthesiologist and at least 1 nurse. The Dr. performed the time out, where she introduced the embryologist, said my name and the procedure we were performing. They were going to get all the eggs they could, but could only freeze the mature ones. The embryologist would test the same day, and send a message by end of day confirming how many eggs were frozen.

The anesthesia kicked in and I remember drifting off. When I awoke I was still in the chair and really out of it. They had me move into a large rolling chair and wheeled me into the recovery area. I was shaking from the anesthesia, but coherent. The nurse was talking to me, I think partly to help me focus, and I drank some water and had a snack. Before they could let me go, we would need to walk around. At one point in monitoring my vitals post procedure, the anesthesiologist turned to me and said, “Are you really into fitness?”. I mentioned that I was getting my butt kicked in physical therapy on a weekly basis, does that constitute? Apparently I have a low resting heart rate (a lot of athletes do), because if you’re fit, the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood through the body. Woohoo! The body doesn’t lie, all the hard work you put in at the gym has a lot of benefits. I didn’t realize I was also strengthening my heart at the same time I was strengthening my leg in rehab.

They had told me to take it easy the rest of the day as the anesthesia would still be wearing off. By the time I got home, I physically felt fine, there was no discomfort, and I went for a walk after lunch. I was pretty tired by late afternoon, however, and I’m glad the procedure was on a weekend, if it had been on a weekday I would have taken that day off to focus on recovery. 

I had a follow up call with the clinic a week after, just to check in on how I was feeling. At that point I was feeling fine and wanted to get back to working out but they said it was best to wait until I started my next period, as by that point, the ovaries had returned back closer to their normal size. That was a little frustrating to hear as I wanted to restart knee rehab ASAP, but didn’t want to risk any complications, so continued to take it easy until that next cycle. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall the procedure was pretty straightforward and painless. Looking back, I wish I had frozen my eggs earlier, to give myself the best options (egg quality is better when you’re younger), but I wasn’t in that head space. I think if you’re financially able to do it, you haven’t met your person yet and you know you’d like to have a family one day, my advice would be to look into freezing your eggs by your early 30’s latest, just to have that insurance to fall back on. The doctors are pretty clear they cannot guarantee anything, as they cannot test the quality of the eggs until they are fused with sperm to create an embryo, and every step of the IVF process may result in loss of embryos, but having been on a lot of awful dates during Covid and feeling the biological clock counting down, I have to say I feel a lot less pressure to force myself out into the dating field now. I would like a family at some point, however that may look like, but am just prioritizing being the best version of myself, doing what I love, and trusting that what is meant for me will find me. 

I hope this helps those out there considering egg freezing and nervous about what to expect. There’s been a shift culturally, with many companies supporting egg freezing and IVF/ IUI as part of insurance plans, so egg freezing and infertility treatments will only become more accessible and mainstream. I think we still have a long way to go, but at least we’re heading in the right direction. Cheers!