Shop around to find the best deal on medications.
More than likely, if you are doing IVF, you will have to get your medications from a specialty pharmacy. Our fertility clinic has a contract with a mail order pharmacy, Conception Pharmacy. So all of our prescriptions were automatically sent to this pharmacy. Just because this was where our prescriptions were sent, it doesn't mean we had to end up using this pharmacy.
Adam decided to contact some other pharmacies and get several different price quotes. We ended up getting some medications from Conception Pharmacy and the rest from Freedom Fertility Pharmacy. While this might have been more work, calling around and coordinating on Adam's part, we did end up saving hundreds of dollars.
Make sure you have everything you need before you start your medication.
After we met with a nurse from our clinic and she showed us how to do all the different injections, she recommended we look through all the supplies we had to make sure we had everything we needed. This turned out to be good, solid advice. In fact, we didn't have a certain type of syringe that we needed. We were able to contact the pharmacy and get what we needed in time, but it was a bit stressful. I'm so glad we looked through everything before the night we were supposed to start.
Take it one step at a time.
One of the feelings I felt most throughout this whole process was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed when I opened up the boxes from the pharmacy and saw all that stuff. I was overwhelmed after listening to the nurse talk to me about all the different injections I would have to give myself. I was overwhelmed when reading through all the different schedules and directions we were given.
I just had to tell myself to take things one day at a time. I tried not to see the whole big picture all at once. I just figured out what I needed to do each day and then tackled that.
Talk to other people who have been there or are there now.
Thankfully, I had the opportunity to talk with several other people who have been through IVF before. Being able to ask them what to expect from the egg retrieval or hear them say that the shots weren't that bad really helped calm my nerves.
There was also a crazy twist of fate that involved a co-worker introducing me to her niece who ended up having her egg retrieval right around the same time as me. We sent lots of texts back and forth and I so appreciated having her there to talk to. She and I knew exactly what the other one was feeling and we definitely helped each other out.
Be there for each other.
This is a crazy, stressful time for not only the person getting injected with hormones, but the partner, as well. I know that Adam felt stressed out and overwhelmed at times too. Thankfully we seemed to time our freakouts so that one of us was freaking out while the other person was having a zen moment.
I can't begin to describe how grateful I was for Adam during this time. He took care of calling the pharmacies and getting the medication I needed. He came to all the big appointments. He took the phone calls from the nurses. He knew when to crack a joke and he knew when to give me a hug. I am a thousand times more grateful that he is my husband having been through this experience with him. If you are the supporting partner, take some notes from Adam because he certainly did all the right things.
Don't be afraid to get professional help.
Adam and I went to a couples counseling session with a counselor who specializes in fertility counseling. She herself has been through IVF 3 times, so she knew exactly what we were going through. I wasn't really sure what to expect when we went to talk to her, but she gave us some of the best advice and it helped carry us through the process. So don't be afraid to go talk to someone or ask for help if you are doing IVF. It is such a crazy, emotional process that it makes sense you might need some help.
Save all your receipts for tax purposes.
The IRS lets you deduct medical expenses on your tax return as long as they are more than 10% of your adjusted gross income. So make sure you save your receipts if this applies to your finances. It can help you out on your taxes.
After it's all said and done, it wasn't that bad.
Was IVF stressful? Yes. Was IVF scary? Yes. Was IVF expensive? Yes. Was IVF time-consuming? Yes. Was IVF the worst experience of your life? No. It's easy to get caught up in the awful parts while you are in the middle of the whole IVF process. But, seriously, it wasn't that bad.
If you are just starting this whole IVF process or in the middle of it, you certainly have my positive thoughts and well wishes. And I'm here if you need someone to talk to or listen.
More than likely, if you are doing IVF, you will have to get your medications from a specialty pharmacy. Our fertility clinic has a contract with a mail order pharmacy, Conception Pharmacy. So all of our prescriptions were automatically sent to this pharmacy. Just because this was where our prescriptions were sent, it doesn't mean we had to end up using this pharmacy.
Adam decided to contact some other pharmacies and get several different price quotes. We ended up getting some medications from Conception Pharmacy and the rest from Freedom Fertility Pharmacy. While this might have been more work, calling around and coordinating on Adam's part, we did end up saving hundreds of dollars.
Make sure you have everything you need before you start your medication.
After we met with a nurse from our clinic and she showed us how to do all the different injections, she recommended we look through all the supplies we had to make sure we had everything we needed. This turned out to be good, solid advice. In fact, we didn't have a certain type of syringe that we needed. We were able to contact the pharmacy and get what we needed in time, but it was a bit stressful. I'm so glad we looked through everything before the night we were supposed to start.
Take it one step at a time.
One of the feelings I felt most throughout this whole process was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed when I opened up the boxes from the pharmacy and saw all that stuff. I was overwhelmed after listening to the nurse talk to me about all the different injections I would have to give myself. I was overwhelmed when reading through all the different schedules and directions we were given.
I just had to tell myself to take things one day at a time. I tried not to see the whole big picture all at once. I just figured out what I needed to do each day and then tackled that.
Talk to other people who have been there or are there now.
Thankfully, I had the opportunity to talk with several other people who have been through IVF before. Being able to ask them what to expect from the egg retrieval or hear them say that the shots weren't that bad really helped calm my nerves.
There was also a crazy twist of fate that involved a co-worker introducing me to her niece who ended up having her egg retrieval right around the same time as me. We sent lots of texts back and forth and I so appreciated having her there to talk to. She and I knew exactly what the other one was feeling and we definitely helped each other out.
Be there for each other.
This is a crazy, stressful time for not only the person getting injected with hormones, but the partner, as well. I know that Adam felt stressed out and overwhelmed at times too. Thankfully we seemed to time our freakouts so that one of us was freaking out while the other person was having a zen moment.
I can't begin to describe how grateful I was for Adam during this time. He took care of calling the pharmacies and getting the medication I needed. He came to all the big appointments. He took the phone calls from the nurses. He knew when to crack a joke and he knew when to give me a hug. I am a thousand times more grateful that he is my husband having been through this experience with him. If you are the supporting partner, take some notes from Adam because he certainly did all the right things.
Don't be afraid to get professional help.
Adam and I went to a couples counseling session with a counselor who specializes in fertility counseling. She herself has been through IVF 3 times, so she knew exactly what we were going through. I wasn't really sure what to expect when we went to talk to her, but she gave us some of the best advice and it helped carry us through the process. So don't be afraid to go talk to someone or ask for help if you are doing IVF. It is such a crazy, emotional process that it makes sense you might need some help.
Save all your receipts for tax purposes.
The IRS lets you deduct medical expenses on your tax return as long as they are more than 10% of your adjusted gross income. So make sure you save your receipts if this applies to your finances. It can help you out on your taxes.
After it's all said and done, it wasn't that bad.
Was IVF stressful? Yes. Was IVF scary? Yes. Was IVF expensive? Yes. Was IVF time-consuming? Yes. Was IVF the worst experience of your life? No. It's easy to get caught up in the awful parts while you are in the middle of the whole IVF process. But, seriously, it wasn't that bad.
If you are just starting this whole IVF process or in the middle of it, you certainly have my positive thoughts and well wishes. And I'm here if you need someone to talk to or listen.
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