# New to whole process- advice and support very much appreciated



## MrsWest2B (Nov 26, 2014)

Hi all. 

We are very new to all this and have made the decision not to tell and friends or family about the journey we are about to embark on unless we reach the destination!  A little bit about us, we are desperate to have a baby together but I was sterilised after my youngest daughter In 2010. I have 4 children from my previous marriage.  We were considering sterilisation reversal but success rates are low and if it failed I would then need ivf anyway. Egg share seems perfect for us and means we can have treatment now instead of a year and a halfs time.  I love the fact I will be giving someone else the chance to become a mother and experience the most amazing feeling in the world. We have decided to go with herts and Essex- have our first consultation booked for next week. I was hoping someone could shed some light on how many appointments etc! I work in a school so getting time off is not easy!!

I'm also a little worried about the emotional strain and we have discussed that if it's too hard we may have to tell someone but then I found you guys and thought this would be perfect for me. 

Hope you don't mind!
Look forward to all your words of wisdom 

Laura x


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## Bubbles12 (Aug 29, 2012)

Hi Laura,

Welcome to FF  I am the moderator for egg share and I look after all egg share threads so if you need anything, just ask.

I am also serial egg sharer (LOL) and have just completed my 4th egg share. There are also plenty of ladies just starting or going through the process at the moment.

Appointment wise, it does vary from clinic to clinic but you obviously will go for your 1st App where I assume they will take bloods from you and go through the process. They may scan you also. They will take bloods for you hormone levels (AMH and FSH) to determine whether your hormone levels fit the criteria of a typical egg sharer and also they will test all your chromosomes and genetics.
These can take up to 6 weeks for the results to come through, the clinic will then let you know if you have been accepted or not. (The AMH and FSH come back after 2 weeks so you may be accepted on the basis that all other bloods come back ok).

Once all have come back, they will start to match you to a recipient and you will have some kind of planning meeting where they will go through what protocol you will be on (this will be determined by your AMH level) what sort of drugs they will use and a vague idea of scan days etc.

They will sync you to a recipient. If it is a short protocol, they will put you on the pill for a minimum of 2 weeks (ish), you will come off the pill, have a period, and on the 2nd/3rd day you will go in for a baseline scan to make sure your lining is thin and there are no cysts. If all ok, you will start stimming that night. (Take you 1st injection)

If you are long protocol (and excuse me but I only did 1 long protocol, so I am not as clued up) You may go on the pill for a certain amount of time but they will then down reg you. This basically shuts your body down, similar to a menopausal way (for anything from 1 week to 1 month). You will then have a withdrawal bleed and go in for a baseline scan and start injecting. I am not 100% on this so if I am wrong, somebody correct me.

Once you start stimming, you will normally do 4 or 5 days before your 1st scan, this will be to see how you are responding to the drug. You will then have scans every other day (or every 3rd day) until you are ready for EC (Egg collection) the average person stims for 10-14 days. So you are looking at around 4 or 5 scans. You may have your dose altered depending on how you are responding.

So then its EC day (very exciting) which you are normally sedated for (or under GA). Then you will go back for transfer either 2,3 5 or 6 days after collection so all in all you will have up to 10 appointments.

We do have egg share threads where women are supporting one another through the process. I will cope the link below.

*CLICK HERE*

There is also useful information about egg sharing, the link is also below

*CLICK HERE*

I wish you all the luck and hope your initial app runs smoothly.

Good Luck

xxxx


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