Donor Blog

Feeling Good After 3 Cycles

I had 19 eggs retrieved on my 3rd donation. Everything went smoothly as expected. We stayed in a very comfortable hotel (props to Holiday Inn Express) and I read all four Twilight books that week! I only brought the first one with me thinking we would be too busy taking in more sites, but we pretty much did everything we wanted with the first two trips that there wasn't much else for us to see, plus it snowed pretty heavily so it wasn't a great time to walk and drive around. We mainly visited indoor shopping centers and found a bookstore where I could buy the other three books in the series. It was a good relaxing vacation.

As for OHSS, it didn't show up this time either. The way I understand it, you're at the highest risk of it happening your first time because they have to start you on the average dose, not knowing how you'll respond to it yet. If you do get OHSS with your first donation, you are at much less risk of it happening again since the clinics now know the proper hormone dosage - but only if you tell them that it did cause OHSS for each future cycle.

told my agency that I am taking a break. I did three donations within a year. It's a lot of responsibility and it can drain a person mentally, probably because I take this so seriously. I don't have any physical side effects from doing that many so quickly. I only feel some light cramping for a month after each retrieval, then it goes away after the next period. Otherwise, everything feels normal to me again, like I had never done it at all. My body would be fine to donate again, but I've also run out of vacation time and need to build those up with work again. :)