How to Survive The Two Week Wait
The Two Week Wait (TWW) is one of the most dreaded chapters in an IVF journey. All the hard work of keeping up with appointments and injections is done and now there is nothing left to do but wait. That collection of 11-14 days can seem like an impossible hurdle to clear.
I have had 7 TWWs and they never got any easier.
If anything, I felt the stakes get higher with each one as I knew I was that much older and spent that much more money. I was a “symptom spotter” for the first few of them. Meaning, I would scrutinize every pang, twinge, itch, flutter, cramp, and tingle. Were my breasts sore? Were they sore enough? Were they too sore? Did this headache mean anything? I went to the toilet looking for implantation bleeding so often I almost started taking my meals in the bathroom. I put myself through torture. All for a process I had literally no control over. Once that embryo is transferred there really isn’t anything you can do to guarantee it’s implantation.
Why symptom spotting is bad for you.
As vigilant as I was in searching for a clue from my body that my embryo had implanted, there is really no symptom that you do or don’t have that early on that means anything. You are likely taking progesterone which can mimic pregnancy symptoms. It can make your breasts feel sore, make you bloated, make you tired, make you emotional. All of these things also can be symptoms of pregnancy but you have no way of telling if you are until you have your pregnancy test. By trying to decipher every little thing you are feeling you may only be setting yourself up for more stress and anxiety than you would be experiencing anyway.
Spotting of blood is another symptom that could go either way. Finding a small amount of blood either in your underwear or on toilet paper could indicate implantation. That means that the embryo has implanted into your uterine wall. However bleeding could also just be a side effect of the progesterone. No matter when you see blood during your TWW it is important to keep taking your progesterone and any other medications prescribed to you by your doctor.
For me, my number one symptom I was on the lookout for was sore breasts. I never really had them at any other time in my cycle except during my TWWs and eventual pregnancy. This is another symptom that could go either way. Like pretty much everything else, it could mean the embryo implanted or it could be a side effect of progesterone. Especially if you are injecting the progesterone. If I woke up one morning and I thought my breasts were less sore than they had been the day before I would panic. I drove myself crazy smacking myself in the boobs multiple times an hour. No wonder they were so sore!
The other biggie is cramping. Cramping may mean your embryo implanted, it may be progesterone, it may be a side effect of the actual embryo transfer procedure, it may mean your period is on the way. You just cannot know at this stage.
There are many other symptoms that may mean success, may mean failure, may mean nothing. You may notice tiredness, bloating, moodiness, nausea, changes in your vaginal discharge, the need to urinate more often, or nothing at all. Unfortunately, none of it can tell you anything. Going out of you way to decipher these symptom is a fools errand and will make an already hard time even harder.
What can you do?
Try to relax and keep busy. Easier said than done, I know. If you can find a way to fill your days in a way that doesn’t allow you to obsess over your looming pregnancy test the time will be much easier to manage. If you are working that could be an easy way to keep occupied. If you are not working then this is a good time to work on a project around the house, take up knitting, binge watch a TV show you’ve always wanted to see or revisit a show you love but haven’t watched in a while. For me it was Friday Night Lights.
It’s all about distraction.
Take a long walk, listen to a podcast while reorganizing your spice rack, buy an adult coloring book, read a long novel. Anything to keep your mind occupied will help.
Schedule worry time.
This sounds a bit crazy but go with me on this. By giving yourself a few minutes each day to check the fertility blogs and forums, count down the days on your calendar until your test, Google symptoms, or whatever it is you want to do to focus on your time in TWW limbo, you can minimize the disruption to the rest of your life during that time. It can really help to give yourself that time to obsess and not feel guilty about it. It can be healthier for you to give yourself over to that a few times in a day rather than to have a general baseline anxiety running through your 14 days as you scrutinize everything all day long.
To HPT or not to HPT?
You may be temped to take a home pregnancy test (HPT). That is entirely up to you. Usually your doctor will have you go to the clinic or a lab around 11-14 days after your embryo transfer for a blood test. But you do have the option to test at home before that if you want to.
Just be sure to understand when the best time for that test is. If you are doing a fresh transfer and you test too early you may get a false positive because the trigger shot used before egg collection is human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is the same hormone that a pregnancy test is looking for. If you test too early the test will detect the presence of your trigger shot and give you a positive reading when it’s too early for implantation to have happened and your body starts to produce its own pregnancy hormone.
I always did an HPT on the evening before my beta blood test. I wanted to know in the privacy of my own home what the results were. I knew it was late enough in the process that the results were more likely to be accurate. It was my personal preference.
The most accurate test result will be the blood test your doctor has you do on the date they request you to do it. If you want to feel as secure as possible in the outcome it is best to wait for that.