OHSS questions and help needed

[sspp]

Hi friends

i just went in today signed ppr work and we r doing the shared risk which is a huge amount and also drugs not included, and in ppr work it says about OHSS and it may be serious and ivf fee not cover it? i am deadly scared, how serious is OHSS? do many experience it? Is it severe and need hospital treatment? will insurance cover since mine does not cover IVF fully out of pocket if insurance not cover and if hospital bills high OMG no way we can make it , this stress me a lot, any advice guys, really feeing down after hearing all this.....................help needed......

[thesearmsofmine]

sspp - sorry you are feeling so stressed about this. Many people go thru ivf without OHSS, but there is a significant percentage (I don't know what it is) that get mild to moderate OHSS which is very uncomfortable, but doesn't require a lot of medical treatment for which there would be additional charges (often they treat it with just rest and dietary/fluid changes, but sometimes will drain fluid from your abdomen which would probably be an additional charge). Only severe and very severe cases (about .1 to .2 percent of ivf cycles according to my clinic) require hospitalization. My clinic estimated that additional charges if OHSS occurred and required medical treatment would be $1300 - $2000. I was told that often your insurance will consider it part of the IVF treatment and will not cover it if they are not covering the ivf. Luckily I didn't get OHSS, so I didn't have to deal with any of this. I think usually risk of OHSS is when there are lots and lots of eggs retrieved or your estrogen is super high before retrieval. Keep in mind that RE's really don't want to endanger your health, so when there is danger you could develop a severe case, they sometimes cancel your cycle or "coast" you a few days during stimming. I hope I didn't just create information overload for you. Basically, many people don't get any OHSS, some people get mild to moderate OHSS for which costs would be up to $2000 (at my clinic), and only .1 to .2 percent of cycles involve hospitalization. Hope this helps. I did the shared risk program as well and had a little freakout after I signed the contract and sent the check, because it is SO MUCH MONEY!! But, it really helped to have the program in place because once it was done I didn't have to stress about the money side of things if it didn't work. We were successful on our first cycle, so they pocketed a huge chunk of change from us, but it was really worth it for me. I hope your cycle goes well and you get a BFP!!

[sspp]

thanks a miliion ..........thesearsmofsmine, makes me feel a lot better , i truely appreciate the info...u know even small thing make me stressed, but thanks anyways and congrats on ur BFP

[mangopuppy]

I had mild / moderate OHSS after egg retrieval (19 eggs). I was bloated as though I were 6 months pregnant, in a lot of pain, and very uncomfortable. I drank about 20 bottles of gatorade and was peeing every 20 minutes -- that's really all you can do do get rid of it. The discomfort lasted a couple of days, and the bloating went down little by little and was gone by 10 days. So the best thing you can do is be prepared: before your egg retrieval, stock up on gatorade and protein bars, so that if you do get a touch of OHSS, you can deal with it right away.

[rjconte]

Hi there. I'm new to this forum and have been reading alot of posts. Very helpful thank you! This is our first IVF attempt. I had 18 eggs retrieved on 3/29. I was feeling very bloated with some abdominal pain afterwards. Transfer was done on 4/1. Immediately after I began to suffer from severe abdominal pain until i had to return to the clinic on 4/3 due to the severity of the pain and bloating. They had to drain fluid from my abdomen on that day (1200). back again two days later to drain again (1500) and i began to feel better after that. I keep reading that if you're pregnant, OHSS could last weeks. Although I am content to feel better from the effects of OHSS (i'm still drinking gatorade like its going out of style!!) ...i'm a bit upset as I feel this means the transfer wasn't successful.

Has anyone experienced OHSS early on, recovered and still had a successful IVF??

[AshRS]

sspp - like thesearms said, the REs are really watching out for OHSS and will try to avoid it at all costs. You will only get OHSS if you have a ton of eggies, and therefore super high estrogen. Women with PCOS are more susceptible to it, fyi. My fresh IVF transfer was canceled because my estrogen was too high. In all...I wouldn't worry too much about it.