It’s day 13 of down regulation for me and the side effects are really kicking in. I’m an emotional mess. Not helped by the fact I’ve had a horrible cold that’s been bad enough to keep me in bed, and then yesterday work announced a restructure which will mean redundancies. I get hot flushes, night sweats and sleeplessness (ie I just can’t drop off) on buserelin and tiredness never does anything positive for my mood, but the irrational mood swings seem to have kicked in sooner than on previous rounds. My husband is getting on the wrong side of me all day long and doesn’t know how to cope with me. He’s had the same awful cold too, which doesn’t help.
Help me out guys by telling me your stories of what a witch you’ve been whilst going through treatment... preferably with some proof that it hasn’t driven your partners away forever (or made them refuse to let you ever do fertility treatment again)!
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Lizzielizzielizzie
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I haven’t found fertility Acupuncture much help with the side effects, though I go weekly, but I have found it helpful with other things and would recommend it more generally. Maybe it is helping and I would be even worse (if that’s possible) without it!
Lizzie,
I recognise everyone will likely react to IVF meds differently, but from my own experience, the process itself seems to be the biggest contributor to how you feel. It’s stressful which can leave you struggling to sleep, exhausted by the stress and uncertainty of it all and wanting to withdraw from day to day life. The fact you have also been thrown a work curve ball is going to be confounding it.
Practical, and pro active things that helped me massively (which indirectly helped my relationship) are:
- cycling to work and exercising for as long as I could even during stim. It helped my mood and got me tired enough to sleep at night. I had to force myself but always felt better after. Even a brisk walk with a good podcast as company can work wonders for your sanity I find!
- keeping my evenings / weekends busy, by seeing friends, and discussing anything but IVF.
- in down time I have become a huge jigsaw fan - harder the better. It’s a total distraction and can wile away hours. Also helpful in 2ww.
- accupuncture - it’s relaxing and a cheaper form of therapy where you can vent to someone that isn’t your other half.
- mindfulness (good generally for this journey) - there’s sessions you can download from the App Store called Mindfulness in 8 weeks.
Finally I stopped reading all the leaflets that came with the drugs I took/take which listed side effects. Like early pregnancy symptoms, I think you can drive yourself nuts second guessing what you are feeling and why.
As hard as it is, I think the key is trying to keep life normal and distract yourself as much as possible.
I already have regular Acupuncture and counselling.
For me, though the process is stressful, it’s definitely the buserelin which has a negative effect. I’ve had these side effects on every round, including the first round when I couldn’t understand what was happening to me until I read the leaflet and discovered night sweats are a “thing”! Tiredness is always bad for my mood, so is likely a contributing factor, but I know from past experience that when I start stims (hopefully less than a week away now) all these symptoms will reduce significantly, although I will still get the hot flushes and night sweats to some extent. You’re right though that the work situation is not helping... but that only happened Friday and the lack of sleep ability had kicked in well before then!
Ah i feel for you, I’m a nightmare on buserelin and my hubby definitely gets the brunt of it. I remember on my 2nd cycle during down reg we brought a new blind and it wasn’t the right size so would need to be cut down I was so disappointed that not even getting a blind could be straightforward for me I threw it on the floor and burst out crying - I’m never normally that dramatic so definitely blame it on the emotions and lack of sleep.
Have you tried sleeping with a fan? I know it’s cold out but that’s the only thing that helped me drift off with the hot sweats. Good luck xx
I had a prostap insection back in early November to down reg, which lasts 3 months (due to my endometriomas).due to start stimming on Tuesday if baseline scan goes ok.
I have been an emotional mess since having the injection..& the hot flushes are driving me crazy.
Work must think I'm going barmey.. I'm constantly adding layers because I'm cold one minute then peeling them off five minutes later because I'm red hot. 😂
I do find that being in work helps to keep my mind off the whole thing though. I'm really struggling emotionally at the weekends because we don't have much planned at the moment.
Poor hubby to be has had to put up with my irrational outbursts all over christmas, I was crying the other day and didn't have a clue why 😂
Thank you for reassuring me that it’s not just me! Yes I agree that being at work and being busy helps, I only work three days a week and have also just had holiday over Christmas so will welcome the return of work on Monday to be honest!
I remember being advised to hydrate with lots of water and to take paracetamol as I got awful headaches when I had downregged. I found crocheting helped me be distracted! Good luck xx
Fortunately the headaches aren’t too bad. I usually get headaches when tired though so I’m in the danger zone! Slept a bit better last night thankfully.
We both found that once we remembered the drugs were absolutely screwing us both over one way or another we could drink (decaf) coffee and laugh about it and go for a nice meal and remember the time together is precious x
I was horrific during this phase - it is just down right horrible. The moods are not pleasant and felt I went from 0-10 within the space of 5 secs or less!!!! I was breaking things - whatever happened to be in my hand at the time. A couple of times either me or hubby just had to leave the room to avoid a horrible argument. Thankfully after a couple of times he told me "I know this isn't you - it's the drugs". That actually saved us after that as I started to recognise when I was getting mad and could warn him or I left room. But it is soooooo hard - I've never had moods like it!!!!! Sometimes I just had to cry - total sobbing-like crying - and he would give me a hug then get me a cup of tea or run a bath or something similar.
Gosh, maybe I had it lucky on the drugs then!!
Other than a stinking headache after a massage my partner treated me to during downreg, I noticed no difference. I even allowed myself the odd glass of wine during this phase.
Once on stim, I got super thirsty and again that was it until I started feeling bloated just before egg collection.
Good luck to those of you that get many of the symptoms on the list - I salute you! Also wish Chris realised how fortunate he was - he still thought I stressed too much.
Oh Hun. You’re definitely not alone in this. To be honest, aside from the gut wrenching pain of a failed cycle, the complete change of personality I went through with the drugs is the reason I can’t do any more. I hated feeling out of control of my emotions. I was erratic in my judgements and felt so unwell pretty much all the time while on Burselin. My poor hubby got the brunt of it of course and I felt so awful for him. He felt bad for me that the drugs had such an effect. I was the one who said no more though. He would do more I think but I just can’t bear to put that much strain on us. I’m sure your hubby is incredibly understanding and probably just feels awful for you. I know it doesn’t help much while you’re going through it all but try to remember that with each day you both make it through, your marriage gets stronger. We (hubby and me) may not have the future we’d naively planned but we have so much love for each other and our cats. In a world of such uncertainty I try to be very thankful for that.
In terms of getting through down reg, I found drinking peppermint tea, cutting out sugar, using dreamworks sleep spray on my pillow and acupuncture really helpful. I hope the side effects pass soon. I really feel for you. They are horrendous. xxx
Hi Lizzie, I felt terrible the first couple of weeks. I actually thought something was wrong with me. I too developed some sort of flu type thing and I think it must muck up with your immunity or something.
Anyway the point is that I feel great now. No symptoms at all. I think your body just has to adjust. I had to make sure I rested and that was the only thing that got me through...
Anyway I’m sure you’ll get better soon and just wanted to let you know... rest was my best cure ...
I read your post two weeks ago and thought it sounded like you had a bug on top of everything else. My whole family have had the virus I’ve been suffering with and we have had enough of it! Hopefully it will be over and done with soon!
Hi Liz, I am not stimming as I’m doing a frozen cycle this time, so just on high doses of oestrogen which is another nightmare! The combination of down regging and the progynova (oestrogen) were the worst ever in the first few days. I only really stabilised after a week or so of taking them.
I found the fresh cycle so much easier to be honest. I was also on short protocol at that time, so besides bloating and my eggs feeling like they were going to explode, I didn’t have the light headedness and dizziness I had this time.
I did not have to down reg on the short protocol which probably made it easier.
I am going for my first scan tomorrow to see what my lining is like, so am hoping everything is ok and straightforward. I had to have two surgeries last year to remove adhesions so my lining could be thin which is why I had to take higher doses of oestrogen. Not sure how my body is responding as I’ve not had any scans up until now...
Hopefully when you start stimming your symptoms will ease! This whole process can be such a nightmare, we just have to keep remembering the end goal and that this is not going to last forever... 👍
Lizzie I know exactly how you are feeling. I was down regging for 2 weeks on buserelin & have now been switched over to cetrotide due to my estrogen levels being too high. I pity my poor hubby. I’ve been moody, tearful, tired, clumsy & just downright crazy. It’s got worse since my medication changed. I can’t wait til my treatment is finished. I’ve found that Acupuncture does help with the side effects & really clears my head. X
Going through the same thing but also suffering horrifically with exhaustion which is making me moody come about 7pm Our partners understand more than we think, they know its the drugs and as men they just take a back seat anyway and let things go over there head. Don't panic, he loves you and he will love you until your blue in the face with mood swings because the end goal will be so perfect and precious that this gruelling process will be a distant memory in no time!
Keep your head up and remember to listen to your body. If you need 5 minutes to breath outside, take 5 minutes. When your feeling ok remember to show your partner that you do love him unconditionally and just go give him a hug! I have tried to just shout sorry when im snapping and then hug my partner and he laughs and hugs me back. Remember to talk to one another as well, tell him how the drugs are making you feel and make sure he talks to you - will keep that bond <3
I wish you all the luck and hope the symptoms calm down soon xx Here is you need a chat xx
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Our partners understand more than we think, they know its the drugs and as men they just take a back seat anyway and let things go over there head. Don't panic, he loves you and he will love you until your blue in the face with mood swings because the end goal will be so perfect and precious that this gruelling process will be a distant memory in no time! 
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