How do I fit in IVF treatment as a working woman?

Before you start treatment, you and your partner will need to attend the clinic for a pre-treatment appointment. This is where the consent forms are signed and all the medication is explained. The required blood screening tests are also usually done at this appointment for both partners.

The pre-treatment is recommended a week before your 'day 1' beginning of the 7 weeks. It usually lasts one and half hours, and both you and your partner need to attend. After this appointment, your partner does not need to attend the clinic until the day of the egg collection if it is difficult for them.

After the pre-treatment appointment, you will be asked to call on day 1 of your period. This is when all your appointments for the treatment are then arranged.

At TFP Fertility we use a patient portal where you can easily view your appointments and medication information on your phone or other device. We can send you messages and reminders via the portal.

For the first 3 weeks of the 7 weeks, you are not needed at the clinic. You may be asked to take the contraceptive pill each morning but you won’t have any appointments.

At the end of the third week you may have opted to have the endometrial scratch procedure which may help to prepare the lining of the womb to accept an embryo. This is a 20-minute appointment and you can go straight off to work afterwards. It is similar to a smear test—not pleasant, but bearable!

You will then be starting on your first set of injections in the mornings. This is a really easy injection into your tummy which we will show you or your partner how to do at the pre-treatment appointment. 

You will take this little injection every morning for the next two weeks (week 4 and 5) of the 7 weeks. You will have a bleed like a period during this time.

At the end of week 5, you will come into the clinic for a quick scan so that we can check the lining of the womb is thin and that your ovaries are nice and quiet.

If your womb lining is thin, you will start an injection every evening for weeks 6 and 7, continuing with the injection in the morning. You may experience some mild side effects, but most people reportedly feel no different at all and people continue to work as normal.

During weeks 6 and 7, you will need to attend the clinic for scans to check how the follicles on your ovaries are developing. You may need to come in 3-4 times. They are quick 10-minute appointments and we try to work around your work schedule. 

We start scanning early in the morning and lots of people manage to have a scan and then go straight off to work. There are some side effects of the medication but often people do not experience these and women carry on their normal lives throughout treatment.

At the end of week 7 your egg collection will take place. You will need to have the day off work for this. It is done under heavy sedation so you do not feel any pain at all. You will recover and go home within a couple of hours. Some people have the next day off work, others return to work.