Remember the fact that any signs you felt in the course of the pre-procedure injection section may stick round for a bit. In line with Dr. Yoder, most individuals really feel fairly bloated, swollen, and fatigued for a couple of days post-op. “Your hormone ranges are nonetheless excessive, your ovaries are nonetheless larger than regular, and also you haven’t actually gotten rid of that additional fluid but,” she says. That’s additionally why your physician could counsel you maintain off on intense train for one more week or so.
Every of the locations from which an egg was retrieved additionally turns into “just a little progesterone manufacturing facility,” Dr. Jackson-Bey says. The next spike in that hormone could cause you to retain extra fluid (main you to really feel puffier throughout) and set off a wide range of blegh signs, like temper disturbances, fatigue, breast tenderness, and bloating. As a result of progesterone can sluggish the actions of your intestine, it’s additionally potential to have some constipation, Dr. Yoder provides. Usually talking, the extra eggs you simply had eliminated, the extra of those signs you possibly can anticipate to really feel, Dr. Ahmad says.
By round day three or 4 after the retrieval, “individuals often flip a nook and begin to really feel extra like their regular selves,” Dr. Yoder says. As your ovaries return down in dimension, bloating sometimes subsides, and it’s possible you’ll discover you must pee extra typically as your physique flushes out extra liquid.
Although it’s very uncommon (and more and more much less widespread than it was), it’s potential to develop a situation known as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) as a complication of the egg retrieval course of, by which your ovaries have an exaggerated response to the hormone meds and get very swollen, doubtlessly leaking fluid into your stomach or chest cavity; it impacts an estimated 5 in 1,000 IVF cycles. It sometimes happens a couple of week after the process, Dr. Ahmad says, and also you’ll need to be looking out for the signs: decreased urination, darkish or tea-colored pee, shortness of breath, bloating that solely will get worse or simply gained’t stop, nausea, vomiting, and swelling. Attain out to your physician STAT in case you discover any of the above, as OHSS can put you in danger for blood clots, ovarian torsion, and even kidney failure if it progresses.
When your subsequent interval rolls round, Dr. Jackson-Bey says it could possibly be just a little heavier or crampier than regular. The inflow in estrogen from the expansion of these additional eggs additionally stimulates the thickening of your uterine lining, which means extra tissue then has to come back out. By the point it’s over, although, any egg-retrieval-related signs may have sometimes let up.
Although there aren’t any clearly outlined long-term well being dangers related to egg retrieval, the American Society of Reproductive Drugs suggests doing not more than six egg donor cycles (and the ob-gyns SELF spoke with cited the identical cap for egg retrievals for any cause) as a result of every retrieval course of nonetheless provides to your general potential danger of unwanted effects and unusual problems comparable to OHSS. There’s additionally analysis to counsel that ovulating extra, over the course of your lifetime, places you at elevated danger for ovarian most cancers, Dr. Ahmad says, and with egg retrieval, you’re basically replicating the ovulation course of with a number of eggs.
However once more, with anyone retrieval, it’s necessary to keep in mind that signs are short-term—two to 3 weeks out of your life, Dr. Jackson-Bey says. And to your ovaries, it’s often little greater than a blip as properly. Even the common ovulation course of is fairly “violent,” she says, requiring an egg to “burst out,” so “the ovaries are very able to mending themselves” comparatively rapidly when it’s throughout. After which, Dr. Jackson-Bey says, they’re again to their usually scheduled programming for subsequent month.
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