Do IVF needles hurt?
Patients are very commonly apprehensive of using the numerous amount of the injections that they get exposed during the IVF treatment. It is important to understand is that there are different kinds of injections being used at different phases of the treatment. Based on your treatment protocol if you are having a down-regulation phase or in the stimulation phase you may be using fertility injections such as:
- Buserelin (also known as Suprefact or Suprecur)
- Menopur
- Gonal-F
- Fostimon
- Merional
Most of these are subcutaneous injections. Subcutaneous injections mean that these injections are administered into the fatty tissue underneath the skin. Therefore most of these injections will be using fine needles, the sensation that the patients would be experiencing would be more like a sharp scratch rather than a deep pain.
However, there are certain injections that the patients might be advised such as Gestone or Prontogest. These are deep intramuscular injections, and these are painful. You can reduce the sensation of pain by using tricks such as using ice packs on to the area and press it just for a little bit longer.
In summary, there are lots of injections as part of the treatment but what is reassuring is that the majority of the patients cope very well with the correct training and technique. If you are unsure of doing your injections, in that case, it would be worthwhile that you speak to your fertility specialist or your fertility clinic. They should be able to retrain you or address the technique that you will perform.
