Injecting your IVF or IUI medications can be really daunting.
Watch our top tips to help you thrive through your stimulation phase and master the needles!
Often the thought of the daily needles is much worse than it actually is and in the
Tips for IUI or IVF Injections:
1. Be prepared and organised
Take your time to prepare all your medications once they have arrived and if possible organise them into a system that will help you remember what you need to do each day.
Prepare your mindset that this is an important part of your IVF or IUI protocol and have faith in the medications and how they can work well in your body.
If you are strongly needle-phobic, consider preparing your mind with some hypnosis to help you feel more calm and relaxed.
2. Make a regular time and place
It can help if you have a regular time in the day when you are doing your injections and even a regular space where you do it. This can provide comfort and also helps by providing a bit of structure amongst all the craziness of fertility treatment.
To help you remember, you can use your phone reminders or diary reminders.
3. Get a needle buddy
You don’t have to do this alone! Involve your partner or grab a close friend or family member to be with you and help you with the injections. Eventually you may choose to do them yourself, but at first whilst you get used to them it’s good to have someone with you walking through step-by-step.
You can even take it a step further and use the daily injection time as a time to connect with your partner. A time to chat with no screens on and listen to how each other is doing about everything.
4. Ice the injection site
It can help to use a cold pack or even a coin you put in the freezer beforehand to place on your skin where you are injecting to naturally numb the skin a little. Make sure afterwards you sterilise the injection site with an alcohol wipe or something similar before you do the injection.
If you are really needle phobic, talk to your doctor about getting some topical anaesthetic cream to use instead.
5. Breathe!
It’s easy to hold your breath during your injection, but the best thing you can do is to breathe fully and deeply. It can help you to concentrate on something else and also stops you from tensing up your muscles (which you don’t want).
Use 7:11 breathing to count your breath in for 7 seconds and your breath out for 11 seconds. This helps you to focus on the counting and to employ a long exhale. When we breathe out for longer, we elicit our body’s natural relaxation response
6. Use a specific meditation
Meditations are not only deeply relaxing, they can also be used to optimise your body’s natural processes by using the power of the mind-body connection.
In IVF Thrive, our unique online IVF Support Course we have a specific stimulation phase meditation which helps you optimise the stimulation of the ovaries to just the right amount. Listened to daily, it’s a great way to find some ‘fertility calm’ and to help your body to work optimally with the medications.
7. Travelling with your medications
Sometimes you need to take your medications out the house if you have to travel for work or do shift work. Whatever the reason, it can feel stressful travelling with your medications.
Buy an insulated lunch box or separate cool packs to transport your medications at the right temperature. Also if you use a standard lunchbox, no one is any the wiser what you have in the fridge at work!
8. You can do this!!!
Remember why you are doing these injections. Keep the end goal of a successful cycle in your mind when you’re doing the daily meds.
You are so strong, you’ve come so far on your fertility journey already and you will rock this stimulation phase and hopefully have a fabulous number of eggs to show for it!
If you need more emotional support and tips for IVF, check out our online emotional support guide – IVF Thrive. Packed with videos, tailored meditations and downloads for just $97
Karenna Wood
Fertility Coach, Founder of Your Fertility Hub
Karenna Wood is an international fertility coach, founder of Your Fertility Hub and passionate advocate for more emotional support and information for women trying to get pregnant. She’s an expert in mind-body tools and when not blogging, podcasting, coaching or speaking is…fast asleep!
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