C) Egg collection
If all goes well, egg collection usually takes place between 10 and 17 days after starting the Gonal F injections. You will be admitted to the Day Surgery Ward of the hospital in the morning and have the procedure done under sedation or a general anaesthetic. The procedure is generally pain free and the eggs are retrieved from the follicles through a fine needle inserted through the vagina under ultrasound guidance. There will not be any scars on your body and bleeding is minimal. Generally most patients go home the same day, a few hours after the procedure with some antibiotics to minimise any chance of infection. The nurse will also give you some progesterone pessaries (eg Cyclogest) to insert into the vagina every night. This is a hormone designed to ensure the womb is ready for implantation of the embryo.
On the same morning that the woman goes for the egg collection, the husband has to produce a semen sample by masturbation. To ensure that the specimens are of the best quality he should have abstained from sexual intercourse for 3 to 5 days before the day of collection. Antibiotic tablets would also be prescribed to him to lessen the chance of any bacterial contamination for 2 weeks prior to this. Please remember to collect the sterile specimen bottles the day before the egg collection from the nurse in the Clinic before you go home. The time when the specimen is expected on the day of the egg collection would be made known to you later and confirmed by the nurses. Some husbands have difficulties producing the sperm specimens without their wives' help. These difficulties should be made known to our staff well before starting the programme so that special arrangements can be made to collect and freeze the sperm a few days before hand. It is important that the specimen be kept warm at all times and to reach the clinic as soon as possible in these cases. Occasionally a second specimen might be required and you would be informed of this usually well in advance.
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