The shots

I started my first shot a few days before Christmas 2008. My worst was the mood swing side effects. I was bracing for it to come. But one week into the shots, I felt nothing. No mood swings, no depression, infact, I was quite happy and cheerful!

My shots were Puregon, 250 IU. At that time, I had no clue if this dosage was too high or too low. I just trusted the Professor. I did think though, he did not do any blood test, or take my weight to see how much dosage will suit me. The shots were painless. The needle is very small, and I cou

ld hardly feel it go into my skin. However, if you do inject the Puregon while it is cold, it does feel a bit uncomfortable. So I usually leave it out for a few minutes or the ampule in my hands before loading the puregon pen.

Here are the steps I took for the puregon injections:

1. Load the needle onto the pen.

2. Dial in the dosage  

3. Load the pen with the puregon ampule. Mine was a 300IU ampule. The ampule is loaded last so that there is no spillage when dialing the dosage

4. Clean the area that is to be injected with alcohol swab. This is located 2 inches away from the belly button either left or right side.

5. Pinch the skin and insert the needle slowly. The needle must be 90 degrees from the suface of the skin. The needle has to be completely in before injecting.

6. Inject the puregon in slowly.

7. Count to 5 before removing the needle.

Since my ampule was 300 IU, and my dosage was 250IU I had some left overs, which I kept for my last shot where I will use up all the ampules with the leftovers.

Throughout my ivf treatment, I also took vitamins such as evening primrose oil, vitamin B & C and selenium. Maybe the evening primrose prevented the depression or mood swing symptoms.

The puregon ampules had to be kept in the fridge, in the vegetable case. Even when bring them home from the hospital, it has to be kept in an ice box.