While everyone’s treatment plan is different, this is an example of the timing associated with an IVF cycle to get a sense of when you would be required to travel to Olive Fertility Victoria.
Phase 1: Orientation
All IVF cycles start with an orientation, which can be done over the phone, and provides the opportunity for the nursing team to explain the IVF process to you.
After this, a 1-day trip to the clinic is required to obtain your medication and be taught how to take each of the medications.
Phase 2: Prime
This starts on Cycle Day 1 (the first day of your period) of the month prior to your stimulation phase. This does not involve any monitoring and can all be done at home.
Phase 3: Stimulation
Day 1 (home): This is the first day of stimulation. You will begin medication at home. This begins the stimulation phase.
Days 2 – 6 (home): You will continue to take your stimulation medication at home until day 6, at which point a blood test is required. Some patients can request a requestion to have blood drawn at home and their same-day results sent to us to avoid an extra trip.
Days 7 – 15 (Olive Fertility Victoria): On day 7 you will travel to Victoria, BC. You will still be in the stimulation phase, but as each person responds to the medication at their own rate the Olive specialist and fertility nursing team will begin monitoring your ovaries and follicular development via bloodwork and ultrasounds from this day out until egg retrieval day. Typically, stimulation lasts from 9-11 days of injections, and then your egg retrieval is scheduled 36 hours after you have been prescribed the trigger injection. Patients are asked to wait until the day after egg retrieval to travel back home.
Most IVF cycles are now frozen cycles which means we freeze all embryos until you are ready for your Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET). This would require two trips to Olive Fertility in Victoria – one for the ultrasound and another for the embryo transfer.
