Testimonial: Insemination #3: new hormones, new hopes... and emotional fatigue

August 2010, when the Charest government made access to fertility clinics free of charge!

We then change the approach for my next insemination. In addition to Serophen, Gonal-F (a drug that, before being free, could cost between $150 and $1,500 per stimulation cycle) was introduced. This medication is given as an injection, it is a hormone that will stimulate the ovaries and follicles. Well, new reality: I have to learn to prick myself with a syringe. Again, I see the positive side. I have already been told for 2-3 years that I will soon suffer from diabetes, it is a complication that often occurs with cystic fibrosis; the treatment for this pathology is the injection of insulin at every meal. So I tell myself that learning to needle will already be done when I get there!

Well, it seems trivial to say that (“learn to prick yourself”), but in the concrete situation, when you have the syringe in your right hand, and you pinch your belly with your left hand and the nurse in front of you, who is doing your apprenticeship, counts to 3 for at least 10 times, you swear a little after the process that will lead you MAYBE to become a mom.

Well, insemination #3: Gonal-F, + Serophen, + appointment every 2 days to the fertility clinic to follow the evolution of the follicles via an intrauterine ultrasound, until day #14 of the cycle for insemination.

Gonal—F is a fairly powerful hormone that every woman reacts to differently. Personally, I could compare that to a good PMS for the duration of taking this medication (on average 14 days). To specify, me in SPM, I am a “scam”! In addition, in girls with cystic fibrosis, hormonal changes often lead to more lung problems (greater lung infections, longer duration, etc.). (For this reason, the life expectancy of girls with CF is slightly lower than that of boys: in adolescence, girls with CF experience more difficult episodes.) This is also what I experience with taking Gonal-F: I feel superinfected, sicker, with less energy. In short, taking antibiotics is becoming necessary, but luckily I only have staphylococcus in my lungs (a fairly benign bacterium), so I get by with oral antibiotics.

I'll let you get a mental picture of me, on hormones and antibiotics, try to tell my boyfriend, on Saturday, after a busy week at work, that he nailed the 2” x6” wrong and that therefore the hole in the window will not be big enough... I'm not telling you how patient this man had to be with me!

So the third insemination takes place, I dream, I hope... and I'm disenchanted. This 3^E Disappointment makes me realize that I need psychological help. The hops of hope and the downs of disappointment hurt me too much and make me see that I need a short month of hormonal leave.

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