Keep in mind that any symptoms you felt during the pre-procedure injection phase could stick around for a bit. According to Dr. Yoder, most people feel pretty bloated, swollen, and fatigued for a few days post-op. “Your hormone levels are still high, your ovaries are still bigger than usual, and you haven’t really gotten rid of that extra fluid yet,” she says. That’s also why your doctor may suggest you hold off on intense exercise for another week or so.
Each of the places from which an egg was retrieved also turns into “a little progesterone factory,” Dr. Jackson-Bey says. The subsequent spike in that hormone can cause you to retain more fluid (leading you to feel puffier all over) and trigger a variety of blegh symptoms, like mood disturbances, fatigue, breast tenderness, and bloating. Because progesterone can slow the movements of your gut, it’s also possible to have some constipation, Dr. Yoder adds. Generally speaking, the more eggs you just had removed, the more of these symptoms you can expect to feel, Dr. Ahmad says.
By around day three or four after the retrieval, “people usually turn a corner and start to feel more like their normal selves,” Dr. Yoder says. As your ovaries go back down in size, bloating typically subsides, and you may find you have to pee more often as your body flushes out excess liquid.
Though it’s very rare (and increasingly less common than it used to be), it’s possible to develop a condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) as a complication of the egg retrieval process, in which your ovaries have an exaggerated response to the hormone meds and get very swollen, potentially leaking fluid into your belly or chest cavity; it affects an estimated 5 in 1,000 IVF cycles. It typically occurs about a week after the procedure, Dr. Ahmad says, and you’ll want to be on the lookout for the symptoms: decreased urination, dark or tea-colored pee, shortness of breath, bloating that only gets worse or just won’t quit, nausea, vomiting, and swelling. Reach out to your doctor STAT if you notice any of the above, as OHSS can put you at risk for blood clots, ovarian torsion, and even kidney failure if it progresses.
When your next period rolls around, Dr. Jackson-Bey says it could be a little heavier or crampier than normal. The influx in estrogen from the growth of those extra eggs also stimulates the thickening of your uterine lining, meaning more tissue then has to come out. By the time it’s over, though, any egg-retrieval-related symptoms will have typically let up.
Though there aren’t any clearly defined long-term health risks associated with egg retrieval, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine suggests doing no more than six egg donor cycles (and the ob-gyns SELF spoke with cited the same cap for egg retrievals for any reason) because each retrieval process still adds to your overall potential risk of side effects and uncommon complications such as OHSS. There’s also research to suggest that ovulating more, over the course of your lifetime, puts you at increased risk for ovarian cancer, Dr. Ahmad says, and with egg retrieval, you’re essentially replicating the ovulation process with multiple eggs.
But again, with any one retrieval, it’s important to remember that symptoms are short-term—two to three weeks out of your life, Dr. Jackson-Bey says. And for your ovaries, it’s usually little more than a blip as well. Even the regular ovulation process is pretty “violent,” she says, requiring an egg to “burst out,” so “the ovaries are very capable of mending themselves” relatively quickly when it’s all over. And then, Dr. Jackson-Bey says, they’re back to their regularly scheduled programming for next month.
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