When your IVF doctor tells you that your follicles (eggs) are ready you will be given an injection of HCG, ‘the trigger’. It is at this point that the dates of your embryo transfer are known. Two calendar days after ‘the trigger’ you will go to the IVF clinic for your oocyte pick-up (OPU) or egg retrieval. Three to five days after the oocyte pick-up (OPU) will be your transfer dates (this depends on the labs opinion of how the embryos are progressing ‘in vitro’, they will keep you posted along the way). However, it is only the day before your actual embryo transfer date that you will be told the precise time your embryo transfer procedure will be. If you are doing a frozen embryo transfer you will not have an egg retrieval and your actual transfer date and time will be given to you well in advance.
Therefore, as far as the administration of acupuncture on embryo transfer day is concerned, there are 2 important times to call or email your acupuncturist;
1. when you know the date of your HCG ‘trigger’ &/or egg retrieval (oocyte pick-up OPU) so that they can schedule you for tentative day 3 or 5 transfer dates
2. when you get the phone call from the IVF clinic telling you the actual embryo transfer date and precise time the procedure will be.
On the day of embryo transfer, you will meet your acupuncturist 1 hr before your scheduled procedure time (i.e. transfer time is 10am, acupuncture is at 9am). This is a 20-30 minute pre-procedure acupuncture treatment. Then, post-embryo transfer procedure, once the nurses have discharged you, a second 20 minute acupuncture treatment is administered. These treatments help calm the woman and optimize uterine receptivity.
***Transfer day bladder regulation:; Drink 500ml the morning of your transfer after you wake. Then, empty your bladder before leaving for the IVF centre. Finally, on your drive to the IVF centre drink another 250-500ml.
