It was such a whirlwind experience that when procedure day came on Sunday, July 21, I could hardly believe it. I didn't have to be there until 11 a.m., and by 12:30 p.m., I was in recovery and had learned that they had retrieved eight eggs. You're under anesthesia while your eggs are retrieved, so I really wouldn't have known whether it took five minutes or five hours, but the entire procedure actually only lasted 14 minutes, based on the time stamps of my videos from that day.
My friend Nanette Miranda was there when I woke up to help me get home, and by 2 p.m., I was resting on my couch back in Brooklyn while she went to the market to buy me snacks.
Extend Fertility recommends that you take at least the day that you have the procedure off from work to recuperate. I took two days, just to be safe, but honestly had minimal discomfort and could have been back in the office the next day if I had to be. Physically, I had just the smallest amount of cramping and a bit of a full feeling but really didn't suffer many of the side effects I had been warned about. Based on tips from friends who had already gone through the process, I knew to stock up on salty snacks and Pedialyte to help fend off things like ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (swollen, enlarged ovaries and the collection of fluid in the abdominal cavity). That worked out great for me because I basically live on cashews anyway, so I was happy to take that extra precaution.
The one thing that did catch me off guard was a slight case of postoperative depression, which is apparently a side effect of anesthesia. I got really sad talking about my results with Chelsea that afternoon, even though I learned that all eight of my eggs were mature enough to be frozen, which was the best possible outcome given that eight had been retrieved. I burst into tears for no reason at all as she was telling me a friend of hers who had frozen 10 eggs had just gotten pregnant with twins. After a few hours, the sadness passed and I was feeling back to normal by the next day.
All in all, I think the scariest part of the egg freezing process for me was the not knowing. There was not knowing whether my AMH level would come up, then not knowing what it would be like to give myself injections, followed by not knowing how long I'd have to do it. Then came not knowing how many eggs I would end up with, followed by not knowing how many would be mature enough to actually be frozen.
As I made it through each stage, once I knew the answers to the questions I had at the start, the entire process became very easy. I would recommend egg freezing for anyone who is in a financial position to afford it outright or through financing and thinks they may want to start a family one day.