The dreaded 2ww

After 5 failed IUIs, before conceiving and giving birth to her son, Barb offered this advice to fellow Choice Moms in the "Choice Mom Guide to Fertility":

For anyone that is scrutinizing every little twinge and nausea during the two week wait, you should be aware of some timing. It takes the egg a minimum 5-6 days to travel to the uterus and implant. It's usually more like 7-10 days, since the fertilized egg really can't "hatch" and implant itself before about day 6 (which is why day 5 blastocyst IVF transfers are more successful than 3-day IVF transfers).

If you are feeling any "symptoms" before day 6 or 7, they are not necessarily pregnancy symptoms but symptoms of the rising hormone levels in your body that are part of your normal cycle. Progesterone is a hormone that your body naturally produces during the second half of your menstrual cycle and it's responsible for many of the symptoms of PMS... which are the same symptoms of pregnancy.

I know it's excruciating to be waiting for two full weeks, and how much you analyze and scrutinize every little twinge, because I did it too. But really, until about day 6-7, any symptoms you have are not symptoms of pregnancy but symptoms of the rising progesterone in your body.

HCG is the hormone that will spike when the embryo actually implants, and that usually happens around day 7-10, which is why home pregnancies (which measure HCG) don't work before then.

Good luck to anyone in the 2 week wait. I really feel for you because I've been there many, many times and it is one of the hardest parts of this process.