Taking the time away from a vacation-related post to write about something I went through the past few months. I would probably say it was one of the most challenging periods in my life – physically, mentally and emotionally. I know how important it is for me to write things down because I want to reflect upon the things I’ve gone through. Plus, when I go back and re-read these entries a few months or even years down the road, I want to be able to have fond memories of this time.

It did take me a while to decide whether I wanted to post this publicly or not. I don’t think there should be any stigma or shame in seeking fertility treatment. Women have to unfairly endure so much in life already. In light of things that have been happening in the news, I feel like we have to take back the narrative on our bodies.

For anyone who might be on the fence about seeking fertility treatment, or who might have questions about what it’s like going through the process, I feel like these entries will be helpful. However, because I do value my privacy, I will not be listing out any specific details of my treatment. This will just be a first-hand account of my experience going through an egg freezing cycle.

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I would say my egg freezing journey started back in the summer. I had just gotten out of a relationship and was unsure of what to do about my ticking biological clock. I never really saw myself having kids, but I didn’t want to completely take it out of the equation either. I figured going through the process would give me two options:

1. If they found out I was infertile after going through an initial round of testing, I could accept not having kids in the future. Then any potential partners I meet I could be upfront with them about my decision to be child-free.

2. If I find out I’m suitable to go through with the egg freezing procedure, then I can buy myself a bit more time and delay making a decision right away.

Either way it didn’t seem like I had anything to lose by going through with the initial consultation, so I set up an appointment with an online doctor at the end of August and got a referral to the fertility clinic. My first appointment with the fertility doctor finally came in October.

The consultation was what you would expect. He answered all the questions I had and I made up my mind pretty quickly that I wanted to proceed with an initial round of testing. I was to report back to the clinic for my natural monitoring cycle and given a requisition to get all my blood work done.

The natural monitoring cycle was straightforward – you call the clinic to book an appointment on the first day of your period. You come in roughly on days 3, 8, 12 and 19 for bloodwork and ultrasounds. Day 3 always included a full bladder ultrasound, while the rest of the days are transvaginal ultrasounds. While it wasn’t the most pleasant experience, it didn’t hurt either. It was mostly just a nuisance having to go to the clinic so often.

The day 8 sonohysterogram was probably the most invasive, as it is used to check the inside of your uterus when the lining is at its thinnest. The doctor will insert a catheter with a saline solution that allows them to see everything inside. I would say the level of discomfort is slightly more than a Pap smear, followed by low grade period cramps. However, it’s a fairly quick procedure and the technician who was there with my doctor had her hand on my knee, which helped calm me down.

The cycle ends once you’ve ovulated. Essentially they just want to make sure you’re capable of ovulating naturally, that there’s no blockages in your Fallopian tubes or any polyps or fibroids in your uterus. There’s one blood test that measures your AMH level, which can tell you the size of your ovarian reserve. This obviously diminishes with age, but while it can’t tell you the health of your eggs, having a higher count means you’re more likely to respond to fertility medication. This was the only out of pocket expense I had to pay for this entire time, at a cost of $125.

So if anyone is in the same spot as me and you’re willing to commit to these monitoring appointments, $125 is a low cost to pay to have a peace of mind on your fertility. I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor and he said that I would be a good candidate to go through with an egg freezing cycle. Timing-wise I would be looking to start in January, as I was traveling in November and there were some blackout dates from the clinic during the holidays.

At this point you’re given a quote from the clinic and once everything has been paid, you can essentially start at any time. My quote included an administration fee, oocyte freezing cycle which includes one year of storage, plus something called Violet testing.

Violet is a relatively new technology which uses images of your retrieved eggs to measure the probability of successful fertilization and embryo development. Eggs themselves can’t be tested for genetic abnormalities, so Violet is the closest thing to it. However because it’s new, there’s not a lot of data on its accuracy and it’s a costly test. The good thing is, it’s a flat rate – so whether they retrieve 5 eggs or 20 eggs, you pay the same price. However, as they need to prep the test in advance, it’s not like you can tell them at the time of retrieval, when you already know the number of eggs you have to test. So whether or not you choose to proceed with the Violet testing, that’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself.

So far this has just been the recap of all the preparation I did prior to doing the actual egg freezing cycle. Since this post is extra long already, I will start Part 2 in the next post.