Beginning Your IVF Stimulation Cycle
Starting IVF is a big deal. It’s hopeful and emotional — and sometimes a little scary. Once your treatment plan is approved, the stimulation cycle begins. This is when your ovaries get a boost from medication, prompting several eggs to mature instead of just one.
At Hopeful Beginnings IVF, we plan this phase with precision. Every dose is tracked. Every check-in has a purpose. The goal is simple: help your body create strong, healthy eggs while keeping you comfortable.
The small shots you’ll give — called subcutaneous injections — are what drive the cycle forward. They deliver hormones under your skin that guide your ovaries through stimulation safely. It can sound intimidating at first, but by the third or fourth day, most patients find their rhythm and realize it’s much easier than imagined.
What the Stimulation Cycle Actually Does
Under normal circumstances, your body prepares just one egg a month. IVF asks your ovaries to do a bit more. Fertility medications encourage several follicles — the tiny sacs that hold eggs — to grow at once. This gives your care team more eggs to work with, and better odds for fertilization.
Before you start, your physician orders baseline testing: bloodwork and an ultrasound to make sure the ovaries are “quiet.” That means hormone levels are low and ready to respond. Once everything checks out, your customized IVF stimulation protocol begins.
Dr. Nguyen, our medical director, sums it up well:
“We’re not pushing your body beyond its limits. We’re guiding it — gently, safely — so that it can do what it’s designed to do, only with a little more precision.”
