All right, y’all. Time to get knocked up!

If you’ve been following along, I made it through my first round of IVF, successfully retrieved a few eggs, and ended up with 2 viable embryos from the process that were frozen.

Once embryos are frozen, it’s really up to you to decide when to use them. I opted to wait a couple months to let my body get back to some semblance of normal. When I was ready to get back in the saddle, my transfer date was scheduled.

What do you do to prepare for an embryo transfer?

About a month prior, you’ll be back to your old regular schedule of blood tests and ultrasound monitoring. You’ll also start new medications. Joy.

I was given Estrace, which is an estrogen supplement, once a day. There are oral or vaginal options to take this drug, but likely you’ll be doing the vaginal version. It’s a tiny pill so very easy to insert.

After a few days, my dose was upped to two pills a day 12 hours apart. Pro-tip, start wearing panty liners so you don’t stain your underwear a lovely shade of electric green.

Two days later, I was up to 4 pills a day, two in the morning and two at night and did that for about a week. Then it was back down to two a day.

Once my Estrace was dropped, a new drug was added in. Progesterone oil. I was given 1 mg a day in the morning along with my Estrace. This regiment started about a week before my transfer and lasted about 16 weeks total.

Warning, progesterone oil IS HELL. But more on that later.

What to expect on your embryo transfer date

After you’ve been taking your drugs for about two weeks leading up to your date you’ll be scheduled for your transfer. Honestly, the process is pretty easy and very much like doing IUI.

You head into your clinic and change into a hospital gown. This time, however, you need a full bladder for the procedure. Pro-tip, do NOT drink more than what’s recommended. I had an extra glass of water and let me tell you, I regretted it.

The transfer process is again about 15 minutes. Back into the stirrups you go and a doctor will come in to inject your embryo. A speculum will be used to open you up and then a catheter into your cervix is placed. An abdominal ultrasound is used to watch the process to ensure the catheter reaches the right location. When it does, the embryo is injected through the tube and into the endometrial cervical lining. And that’s it. From there, everything is removed from you and you’re asked to lay there for 5 minutes or so while they check that the embryo has been placed properly and didn’t get stuck in the tubes.

Once you get the all clear, it’s off to recover you go where you’re asked to lay still for about 10 minutes. At that point, you’re allowed to go to the washroom.

It’s important when you do go to the washroom that you don’t push or use any pressure as you don’t want to dislodge the very new embryo from its comfy spot. Once done, you’re good to go.

I actually went back to work the day of my transfer, but many women prefer to keep flat that first day.

What happens after a transfer?

Now all you can do is wait. It’s back to the dreaded two week wait until you can get your blood test done to confirm pregnancy, if you’re lucky.

And let me tell you, this two week wait is far worse than the IUI one was. With all the pain and money riding on this transfer, I wanted that stick to turn blue so freaking badly.

For the two weeks, you’ll continue one your Estrace and Progesterone oil injections. It’s also recommended you act as if you’re pregnant which means no alcohol and lower caffeine. Also lay off the sugar if you can as sugar can be detrimental to the transfer.

In two weeks you’ll know if it worked and your pregnant or if you need to start again next month. With only two embryos to use, I was very afraid both would fail and I’d need to start back at the beginning with a new IVF round and another $15K.

But for all the worry and the meds, there’s really nothing to do but wait.

Tick tock, I’ll let you know soon what the verdict is.