Getting into the butt shots

So, this is the first cycle (out ouf 7!) where I’ve done the progesterone shots.  There’s no scientific evidence that I could find that suggests the butt shots are better than the suppositories, and many labs are moving away from the shots because they’re so painful—and hard to do without a partner!  (http://3yearwait.blogspot.com/2015/02/to-ass-shot-or-not-to-ass-shot.html)  My doctor still generally prefers the shots, especially for older patients and especially for frozen cycles, so this time we agreed to do them.  (Just to switch things up, since we’re not having a great deal of success.)  Well, as the countdown to shots loomed closer, I regretted my decision to do them, especially because my husband does travel and I REALLY don’t want to give them to myself.

I called the doc’s office again to see if I could at least alternate shots and suppositories (that’s what CCRM suggested they would do).  He came back to me and said let’s do shots for the first 10 days.  I said SOUNDS GOOD!  Then, on my transfer day, the doctor (a different one) suggested that she would prefer progesterone shots until the pregnancy test.  Since that only meant I had to do shots for 15 days (it would be 14, but no blood tests on Thanksgiving), I said okay. 

So far the shots are going okay.  I’m following my technique to the letter (http://3yearwait.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-best-way-to-stick-toothpick-into.html) and have had very little pain, no knots, and no bruising.  So that’s good, right??  The downside is that it’s a major process that takes about an hour total, the shot does hurt a bit, and the next day the spot where the shot was feels pretty sore.  I can do this for a few more days.  As the nurse noted, eventually people run out of “good space” to do the shots (unless they have a really, really big butt) and it starts to really hurt to put a new shot in the same place where an old one was.  So I’m glad I’ll be done with shots before that point, one way or the other.