Nervous about conscious egg collection

[Orttc]

hi everyone, I’ve had 2 egg collections before under sedation administered by an anaesthetist where I have been asleep and not at all conscious of what has been going on and I have found them completely fine. However I have changed clinic and the new one (major NHS hospital in London) has said I will be conscious and talking and given pain relief by a nurse. I’m really nervous about this- has anyone else ever had egg collection under these conditions? I don’t want to be traumatised. I had a coil fitted once and found that extremely painful so I’m worried I’ll be in a lot of pain!

[CyclingAddict]

Hi Orttc, I'll be completely honest with you because I've had one egg collection whilst fully conscious (NHS) and one while under sedation (private). I had quite a lot of eggs both times and I don't think I was fully prepared for the pain when I was conscious. The nurses kept reassuring me that women have even fallen asleep during the procedure but, for me, I was in a tremendous amount of pain. I cried all the way through and one nurse spent the entire time holding my hand, stroking my hair and wiping away my tears. They managed to collect 13 eggs in total. My experience left me wanting to go private, despite having two rounds left on the NHS. I went private and got 21 eggs. I think the fact that I wasn't crying and shaking during that procedure meant that they could get more eggs.

So I think it 1.) Depends on your pain threshold - some women prefer not to be sedated so they can get straight back to work, but I'm told you really have to get into a positive frame of mind before you go in (breath control can help too), 2.) How much pain medication you are given - I wasn't given nearly as much as I should've got (the NHS don't really want you staying in longer than necessary, so are quite conservative when it comes to medicating), so insist that you want to be given the maximum dosage allowed. If you're nervous you can always get a prescription for anti-anxiety medication (which I would've done if I could go back in time). And 3.) If you've had any traumatic experiences in the past when it comes to 'down there' - I found the conscious egg collection to be quite triggering as it immediately put me in a negative space where I was reminded of times when I've experienced vaginal pain.

I don't want to scare you - this is just my experience. Everyone deals with pain differently. My biggest piece of advice is to mentally prepare for it - practice breathing techniques and mindfulness. And be upfront with staff- tell them you're nervous. Hope this helps and wishing you luck X

[Orttc in reply to CyclingAddict]

Thank you very much I’m going to take all of that on board and ask for the max amount of pain relief and sedation. Were you allowed a partner in there or anything? I’m so sorry to hear you were in that much pain - it seems really barbaric and unfair when they can just sedate you and take all the pain away… xx

[CyclingAddict in reply to Orttc]

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed a partner in - even though I was conscious, it was treated like any other surgery where partners weren't allowed in. The nurses were lovely in looking after me though and I was quite glad my husband wasn't in as I don't think he would've reacted well to seeing me in the state I was in X

[Kitkat10]

I had one with conscious sedation, they just gave me midazolam which relaxed me a bit. I didn’t find it painful but was able to listen to them talking about the retrieval and I could talk if I wanted to. I was never ‘asleep’ as such.

Worth asking them exactly what the protocol is. I don’t see a reason they can’t even give you mild sedation?

My first egg collection was under propofol so I was not aware of anything and woke up afterwards like I had been asleep. Like you, I then changed clinics and then they did the conscious sedation with midazolam. Neither were painful but it’s definitely worth asking if they give you any sedation medication at all and maybe what the options are?

Hope everything goes smoothly x

[Orttc in reply to Kitkat10]

Thank you, I’m really feeling anxious about it and going to push for maximum possible amount of sedation as I really really don’t want to go through any more trauma then I absolutely need to and I felt quite traumatised even from having a coil fitted which I think doesn’t bode very well! Thank you for your response x

[Christianbaby]

Why will they not sedate you? Hope all goes well. Sending strength. x

[Twiglet2]

I would push for sedation I wouldn’t want to be awake at all when there is no need to be! I know it’s an option to be awake but there’s no way I could do this! I would feel the exact same as you xx

[Tnthketnf]

I was always sedated and asleep. I find it astonishing that doctors and clinics make the decision that it should be done without anaesthesia. It sounds that it's made on the basis of not using an anaesthetist-saving resources.I wonder if they were the ones going under the same procedure and had the choice what they would opt for. Of course everyone has a different pain threshold but it is an invasive and painful procedure. No need to make an already stressful and difficult experience even worse.

I hope you manage to get sedation.

Good luck!

[Fruitandflowers]

It really does depend on whether you find any procedures in that area painful, how you react to the pain meds and how the procedure goes on the day. My NHS clinic don't do sedation - they say they do light sedation but it's just diclofenac and gas and air. I have a pain condition and find even light touch in that area painful so struggle to use tampons, and all the internal scans were awful and sometimes impossible for me. Despite my clinic knowing this thay said they didn't have the facilities to do proper sedation and it was absolutely not an option. They reassured me that many women just find collection uncomfortable, and I guess that must be the case they deal with hundreds of patients. But I found it extremely painful and traumatic. After the first collection I bled a lot and fainted. But for various reasons I had to have another there, hoping the first experience was just bad luck and it was so bad they had to stop as my BP and pulse went so high they said after they were worried I'd arrest. In between I had a collection at a private clinic using full sedation and it was an absolute breeze - out like a light and zero pain during or after. So personally I would never do conscious again. But then I got eggs and have frosties from those collections, and my situation is pretty unusual and even with the pain condition I managed to go through it twice. Ultimately my mindset was if I had success from either collection then I would have gone with through anything, it's just a shame it doesn't have to be that way and it comes down to money.

[Emjaak]

hi Orttc,

I’ve had three egg collections, all of them conscious. During the first one they couldn’t administer the cannula (I’m difficult to get blood from so that was the issue) for sedation (fentanyl I believe) so they decided to go ahead with gas and air. That was hell. It was so painful. The next time I insisted on the sedation and they got their best cannula nurse ready! That time was with conscious sedation. I won’t say you feel nothing, but it was definitely bearable. To be honest, I can’t really remember which I guess is a good thing. I think it was fentanyl and it did the job! So in short: I don’t think the conscious bit is the issue, it’s the type of pain relief you’re given. Hope that helps and best of luck.

[ColinCat19]

I was awake but asked if I wanted gas and air, which helped. Can you ask if that was an option? Good luck!