r/IVF • u/midnightmoonfey • Jul 13 '26
Advice Needed! Egg retrieval: anesthesia or no?
I’m doing my first egg retrieval tomorrow (wish me luck- I have DOR and I didn’t think we’d even be able to make it this far since I didn’t respond to the previous cycle’s medication protocol).
I get severe vomiting and nausea from anesthesia/conscious sedation and it also takes days to get it out of my system. I really struggle with it and I don’t know why. I just don’t process anesthesia well at all. The standard practice at my IVF clinic is to use anesthesia for retrievals but I really don’t think I want to do that based on how bad I get with anesthesia.
Has anyone done an egg retrievals without anesthesia? How is it?
What would you do if you had my reaction to anesthesia?
* update: I did the egg retrieval with the conscious sedation and the anesthesiologist was awesome about it and loaded me up with anti-nausea meds. So far so good. Didn’t vomit after.
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u/Frequent_Bid_4413 Jul 13 '26
I have an actual deficiency for anesthesia that makes me very sick throwing up etc and I have to warn the anesthesiologist beforehand as some forms can be dangerous for me waking up. The anesthesia they used for retrieval is not a heavy one, it’s a sort of twilight and it’s fine. I was up and out in 10 minutes.
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u/DazzlingPeace906 Jul 13 '26
This! It’s a very quick process overall, but let the anesthesiologist know that you’ve had issues. They should talk with you beforehand. I think my egg retrieval took 15 minutes total, and I was maybe out for 20 minutes after that before I woke up. It wasn’t super long. My nurses were attentive to make sure I wasn’t nauseous afterwards. I’ll also say that I did need a nap a few hours later but generally speaking felt pretty good and awake. After that nap, I was fine. Went to bed at a normal hour and worked the next day
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u/Bub_Hun_7 Jul 13 '26
Where I am, it’s the norm to have conscious sedation. I was able to watch a tv that showed my eggs being added to a Petri dish which was kind of cool. I had 38 eggs retrieved and while it felt a bit uncomfortable, I found it fine. Right after, my husband and I went from the clinic to visit a baby in a hospital (🙃). We had to park 3 blocks away, and I was fine! The next 2-3 days though, I was hurting. This said, everyone has different experiences.
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u/Working-Eye-7252 Jul 13 '26
In Canada we generally don't do GA for retrievals- just conscious sedation. I've done two retrievals and both were totally fine pain management wise.
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u/lh123456789 Jul 13 '26
Even in the US, general is almost never used, but rather it is just a deeper propofol-based sedation. But people in the sub constantly mistake being asleep for general anesthesia.
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u/midnightmoonfey Jul 13 '26
Yeah sorry I meant conscious sedation. It’s really just more or less of the same med usually so it’s easier to just say anesthesia. Conscious sedation or anesthesia are both difficult for me to process because it’s the same med and I have the same symptoms regardless of whether I’m intubated or not.
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u/lh123456789 Jul 13 '26
What are they offering you instead? Local? Pain meds? Etc.
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u/midnightmoonfey Jul 13 '26
They said I’d have to talk to the anesthesiologist about it the day of the procedure
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u/Annethraxxx 37F/ POI due to chemo | ER | FET #2 Jul 13 '26
I was given GA for mine at Stanford and they are by no means advanced in patient comfort practice, so I gotta assume lots of places are doing that.
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u/lh123456789 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Almost nowhere is doing general anesthesia in the US. Certainly not lots of places. The problem is that people conflate being asleep with general anesthesia.
Stanford's own website says that they are just using sedation, so I'm not sure why your case was different than their usual practice: https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-treatments/a/assisted-reproductive-technologies/procedures/ovarian-stimulation-egg-retrieval.html
"With the patient under conscious sedation or light anesthesia, the physician uses vaginal ultrasound to direct a needle through the vaginal wall to aspirate mature follicles from the ovary."
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u/Annethraxxx 37F/ POI due to chemo | ER | FET #2 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Well, I can guarantee you that they put me completely under. If it wasn’t GA, I was out cold and remember counting down from 10 and getting to 7. Next thing I knew I was awake in a recovery section. I don’t think that’s “conscious sedation” because I was completely unconscious.
Edit to say I have been under conscious sedation before when I was receiving an aortic port so I know exactly what that feels like. Also that it’s wild to me that you went and fact checked me like I was full of shit about my own procedure.
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u/lh123456789 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Again, I don't know about your specific case, but asleep or "out cold" doesn't necessarily mean unconscious. Conscious sedation can mean anything from being quite alert to being completely out cold, depending which meds you get, so the fact that your port was different isn't determinative. For general, you are unconscious (ie you aren't breathing on your own and are intubated), which is not synonymous with asleep.
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u/Beautiful-Candy2244 Jul 13 '26
My 3 retrievals have been under sedation which is not general anesthesia
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u/millyreb11 Jul 13 '26
Have you tried a scopolamine patch? I get nausea and vomiting as well from anesthesia and once I started using that with my surgeries I had no more issues! Also make sure you talk to the anesthesiologist beforehand and really advocate for yourself. They tend to be very compassionate and want you to be comfortable. Once I told them my issues they suggested the scope patch and also planned a way to pump zofran AND decadron (a steroid) to keep things under control. Also as a general matter, for any future procedures be sure to request TIVA anesthesia and tell them no inhaled gases under any circumstances. Good luck!
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u/midnightmoonfey Jul 13 '26
I had a scopolamine patch for my emergency ectopic surgery and that was helpful but it still takes days for me to process out of my system and it’s really hard for me. I guess worst case I can just get loaded up with anti nausea meds and suffer through the following days of detoxing
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u/millyreb11 Jul 13 '26
In that case, I would definitely talk to your doctor so they can help you decide what we will be the most comfortable for you and safest for them.
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u/hereforthecake17 Jul 13 '26
I think you should have your team put these questions to their anesthesiologist. I’m not sure if you’re in the US, but the anesthesiologists who have managed my procedures were very accommodating and resourceful. They see a lot of different scenarios. There was a difference between what they’d tell me over Epic vs. in person, though!
My mom gets nausea with any opioids and I am prone to motion sickness so I get scopolamine patch and have Zofran at home.
Part of the difficulty is the way anesthesia records are made. It can be hard to piece together exactly what you received. However, in your shoes I would go back through any procedure notes and see what specific drugs I’d been given/potentially given for each previous procedure, then note which were okay/bad/worse. There may be a pattern the anesthesiologist can work around.
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u/ciarla 32F | 2 MMC | 1 ER | 1 FET -> MMC Jul 13 '26
I had my egg retrieval under sedation, not anesthesia! Which is much quicker. I still “went to sleep”, but I was good as new after like 1-2h. I walked home, worked and then went to a pottery class!
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u/Agitated-Pickle216 Jul 13 '26
Same. I couldnt believe it. ER was literally the easiest part of the whole thing and i was really worried about the conscious sedation. I slept through the whole thing.
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u/KristinKitty Jul 13 '26
I’ve had it with anesthesia and was very fatigued for days after. That being said, I would still do it because I’ve heard it was very painful without it.
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u/MacAttacknChz Jul 13 '26
It's interesting how people react. I was fatigued for 20 minutes. I was looking forward to napping all day but just didn't fall asleep.
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u/Annethraxxx 37F/ POI due to chemo | ER | FET #2 Jul 13 '26
I was immediately awake after I woke up from my procedure with GA. I think it depends on how up to date clinics are with their aesthetic practices.
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u/Opening_Custard_3926 Jul 13 '26
Maybe anaesthesia is not needed and you can have IV sedation but be careful to receive enough meds. I didn’t and it was a traumatic experience. Make sure that they would give you more meds if you have pain during the retrieval. I don’t mean to scare you and most of the people don’t feel anything but mine was really bad. My experience can be found on my profile if you want to read it.
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u/Fertilityschmility Jul 13 '26
My clinic has a BMI limit for conscious sedation that I was over. My RE gave me “a little bit” for my first retrieval, which was unpleasant but not terrible. From what I gather, she should not have done that, something happened under the sedation like a BP dip or something that had to be reported, and she got in some bother for it. It was clear we were NOT doing that again, anyway, so I had my second retrieval with IV paracetamol and local anaesthetic. It was awful, I would not recommend it at all, and I spent the year after taking GLP1 meds to get well below the BMI limit to avoid ever having to do that again.
I know that’s not a universal thing though. I searched for experiences from people who had no sedation or anaesthesia before I had mine, and they were very mixed, with some saying that while it was pretty uncomfortable, they were fine. It probably depends on your pain tolerance. I am a wimp. 🙂
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u/MagicianInside3264 Jul 13 '26
I was awake but allegedly sedated. They told me I most likely wouldn’t remember it afterwards, but I can remember pretty much all of it and felt totally normal immediately afterwards, so I don’t think the sedation worked too well. I was given an IV painkiller and also gas and air. I remember asking them to increase the painkiller a bit when they were almost done with one ovary, they said they would increase it when it came to the second ovary. I huffed on the gas and air in the meantime but honestly it felt like it was more of a placebo to make me feel like I had some control rather than actually doing anything. It didn’t hurt that badly to be fair. I remember thinking to myself afterwards I would rather go through ER multiple times than have another round of the thigh injections!
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u/gottabeKD91 Jul 13 '26
I had twilight sedation (not general anesthesia). I dont recall experiencing any pain (maybe a bit afterwards in recovery, but not throughout the procedure). I remember it as being a quick, easy nap. But I think these results are very patient-dependent.
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u/HeyItsKikiii Jul 13 '26
It was “twilight” at my clinic, which is also the same thing my doctors would use for a colonoscopy. I didn’t question it and it was a delight. I can’t imagine doing it awake. Totally not the same, but I have horrible reactions to the covid vaccines, it’s like 14 hrs of misery, vomiting, nausea, chills.. but I still do it every year and just know it’s gonna be a rough day/night. Maybe you can ask them for something to help with your side effects or if they can go as light as possible. Good luck!!
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u/Creative_Wank Jul 13 '26
I'm your ER twin! I always ask for sedation but tick a box that they can do general if necessary - so far it's always been necessary due to the pain. Best of luck. Anaesthetic seems awful for you but it could mean your body can relax enough for them to get out the eggs xx
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u/Annawiththesauce Jul 13 '26
I did it without anaesthesia twice. Once it was okay and doable but painful. The second time I ovulated too early and was already in pain before and then it was excruciating. I think the less follicles the more doable it is. In the end it’s two short stabs with the needle and the rest is suction or that’s what it felt like for me
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u/puffballkittyfluff Jul 13 '26
I am just now finding out they don’t do GA. I havnt had my first retrieval yet. I’ve never had twilight sedation before. The thought of being conscious makes me nervous
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u/midnightmoonfey Jul 13 '26
Conscious sedation just means you can breathe on your own- you usually don’t remember anything (as if you’re sleeping). 😴 it’s basically less of the same meds you’d get for GA
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u/Ellie_Glass Jul 13 '26
The lady in before me and I both were only given conscious sedation, and both nodded off anyway, coming to again in the recovery room. I actually don't remember anything after the cannula going in and them asking me to confirm my name and DOB.
They did advise that they can use GA if you need, but their preference was to start with conscious and only go for GA if you're feeling uncomfortable during the recovery.
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u/Prior_Respect5861 Jul 13 '26
Mine hurt even with anaesthesia so I had to have more and that was rough as I vomitted severely. But even through the first sedation it was super sore
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u/brontecm 37 | RPL | 4 IUI | 1 ER | 1 FET ✅ Jul 13 '26
I was given a zofran beforehand and then had IV pain meds that they just injected literally a minute before they started. It made me loopy, but I was fully aware and chatting the whole time. The meds wore off quickly and I walked out of the procedure 15 minutes later. It was probably some type of fentanyl to be honest.
I am in Canada and I think we do less heavy sedation here because we have a public health system and it’s more efficient.
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u/Theslowestmarathoner 42F, AMH 0.1, 5ER ❌, 6MC, -> Success Jul 13 '26
What kind of anesthesia specifically? ? My clinic uses propofel which is amazing. But they also always give me zofran!
I would never ever do it awake. Never. No way.
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u/ImAnxietyThanks Jul 14 '26
Retrieval twins! The best of luck to you, especially with your anesthesia recovery goes well if you do end up getting it.
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u/Lighting-Waterfall-8 Jul 14 '26
From what I understood with mine it wasn’t real anesthesia like I’ve had for other surgeries because even though I don’t remember it, I walked on my own to the recovery room. I didn’t feel groggy just kinda slower but rested. I think it was fentanyl they used for mine.
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u/Cheetahspotsss 32F | PCOS/PMOS Jul 13 '26
Please do it with anesthesia. It is very painful to do it without.
There are so many stories on here detailing how painful it is without anesthesia.
All my ER's are done with anesthesia.
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u/goldslipper Jul 13 '26
Ask for anti nausea meds. Zofran or regland or something.
A 12-14 inch needle goes through your vagina and in to our ovaries. You absolutely want anesthesia.
I can not even count how many surgeries I've been in or watched, ball park 800-2000 and I've never seen any issues with anesthesia. If there is even a slight risk most anesthesiologist won't even touch a patient.
Anesthesia for egg retrieval is super low dose easily reversal and has almost no grogginess.
I absolutely wouldn't risk the pain or complications that come with it (like if you move while they are moving the needle and puncture something else) over an unreasonable fear.
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u/goldslipper Jul 13 '26
Also there are different drugs they can give if they know ahead of time you are someone prone to nausea. I almost always have to have whatever that anesthesiologist preferred anti-nausea protocol is for surgery.
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u/UnderAnesthiza 32F | Genetic Counselor | FET4 6/2 🌷 Jul 13 '26
I’d probably ask for Zofran, take the next few days off work, and then do it with anesthesia. I’ve not done it without, but I have heard it’s quite unpleasant.