Lupron – Hello! Menopause

It has begun.  Day 1.  First Lupron shot was at 8am, thus the start of this cycle.  Let me explain a little about Lupron and its lovely nickname, ‘Loopy Lupron’.  This ghastly injection makes me feel, and act, a bit like Jekyll & Hyde.  Lupron is used in the early stages of IVF cycles and works by suppressing the pituitary gland (the gland which is normally responsible for triggering ovulation) and the joy of this suppression, is that it sends your body into a pseudo-menopausal state.  And like women in menopause, all the wonderful side effects come along with it: hot flashes, insomnia, bitchiness and god-awful headaches.  These headaches are different from typical headaches because these bad boys do not go away with medication, no matter how many bottles of Excedrin you attempt to swallow, because it is a hormone (well, lack of hormone) headache and the only way these headaches go away is with the introduction of FSH meds … which are not started until 11 days later.  Joy, Joy!!  Due to Lupron rapidly decreasing your estrogen levels, it also causes the same uber-grouchiness and mood swings that you would expect for those menopausal psychos.  In my case, Lupron does not make me feel sad or weepy, it makes me feel like punching everyone who breaths too loud, drives too slow, or takes their sweet ass time in the commissary isle when I am obviously in a ginormous hurry.  **Note to self: do not go to the commissary on Tuesday, when it typically is retiree stockpile day.  I am bound to end up playing bummer cars with my cart or Nancy Kerrigan-ing a person with their own cane.  Just kidding people, I wouldn’t actually do that … but I would play out the scene in my head while flashing them an innocent white smile.  Lets just face it, Im going to want to punch pretty much anyone who is generally alive and in my immediate area.  So since I am still in my right mind I will apologize to everyone now, because you wont get apologizes from me later, just rolls of the eye and mean-mugging’ smirk smiles - I don’t take any responsibility for the person who will be living in my house or wearing my clothes!


This cycle is a little different from my last, with my last cycle I was on Lupron for about a week, then switched over to Cetrotide for the rest of the cycle.  Cetrotide is a similar drug to Lupron, also suppresses the pituatry gland and helps prevent premature ovulation, but Cetrotide is newer drug and offer less side effects, much less – and it is so true, the side effect were not near that of being on a ‘long-lupron’ protocol.  The reason for the minor change is we are hoping it gives us better embryo quality.  Not sure how the Cetrotide vs. Lupron helps in that area, but apparently it does.  So fingers crossed this happens.