Your journey to becoming a mom is extraordinary. Women who need artificial reproductive treatment (ART) can feel bombarded with all the instructions and all the terminology. With timing being the most imperative cog in the wheel, you can feel lost in a whirlwind full of acronyms and time constraints but what do you do if testing out trigger then BFP?
Testing Out Trigger Then BFP – Am I Pregnant?
Testing out a trigger shot to BFP can be confusing. The trigger shot is used to stimulate your ovaries prior to ovulating allowing you to pinpoint when your fertile window will be. As days pass by, your tests should get progressively lighter, this is known as ‘testing the trigger shot’ if it returns as a darker positive you could be pregnant.
Trigger Shot
The trigger shot can be identified as Pregnyl, Ovidrel, or Novarel. No matter which one you are prescribed they all have one job and that is to insert the pregnancy hormone (hCG) into your body. This hormone is responsible for making the follicles within your ovaries mature and prepares for ovulation.
Who is Suitable?
If you get diagnosed with the trigger shot you are likely to
- Have irregular periods,
- Irregular ovulation,
- Want to identify your fertile window,
- You have had failed attempts of conceiving which is unexplained.
If you are ready to start a family and have had no luck as of yet your doctor may refer you to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) or Intrauterine Insemination (IUI).
Either of these routes to becoming a mom will include a trigger shot and your doctor will be able to give you all relevant information you need such as timings, side effects and testing the trigger.
Timing
After administering the trigger shot it is thought for ovulation to happen 36 – 40 hours after. Depending on what firm if ART you are undergoing will dictate the timing of your trigger shot and the next steps in the process.
Timing is key within the ART process; a woman’s body has been prepared with drugs to induce a ripe uterus ready to accept an embryo. Your doctor will monitor you closely and decide what timings are correct for you.
Side Effects
Of course with every spectacular medicine developed comes nasty side effects. The trigger shot puts you at higher risk for developing Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS).
OHSS is a condition which can be very painful and uncomfortable. After receiving the trigger your ovaries are sent in to override meaning that you may need to pause your IVF/IUI journey momentarily until you are better.
OHSS can cause blood clots, less frequent urine loss and finding it hard to breathe. If you fear any of these side effects, mention it to the doctor at your next appointment or if in severe pain call for an examination.
When Is It Ok To Test?
Generally advice given to women in these situations is to test after two weeks. Cheat testing early can result in giving you a false positive test.
The one thing you have longed for is seeing that big fat positive so be cautious that you can get a false positive. The hCG hormone within the trigger shot is thought to disappear after around two weeks.
If you are going through IVF / IUI procedures you may be asked to have a blood test. The doctor will be able to identify clear markers in the result.
Testing the Trigger Shot
Testing out the trigger shot can be seen as common yet costly practice. By taking a pregnancy test every day at the same time you are building a progressive window of when the hormone is cleared from your system.
In a nutshell the testing strips will get clearer and the become lighter acknowledging that the hormone is becoming less prominent with your urine.
If you find testing out trigger then BFP there is a chance that you could be reading a false result although you should expect the line to get lighter over the next few days. If the line was to suddenly become dark then this can indicate that your hCG levels are getting stronger once more but this would be down to a pregnancy taking place other than anything else.
Success Stories
It is hard to determine how successful the trigger shot is without it being matched with other fertility drugs. The shot is one piece of the overall jigsaw.
My sister had a great experience after having her trigger shot. As she was going through IVF, egg collection was looming. Around 20 eggs were selected but it was intense as she had the awful side effect, OHSS. Once healed, her embryos were frozen and on glance she had 10 successfully fertilized embryos ready for implantation.
It is so difficult to determine how effective the trigger shot is because everyone’s journeys are so different.
Publications have identified that successful ovulation/ egg collection jumped from 5.8% without the trigger shot to a great 18.2% with the trigger shot. The overall pregnancy rate was reported to be a great 30.8%. So to test out the trigger shot it can give you an indication of how long the hormone is in your system before taking a test to know for sure.
Wrapping Up
Testing out trigger then BFP doesn’t have to be as unreliable as you would first think. Keeping in mind that the trigger contains the hormone that can indicate a positive result when you’re not pregnant but seeing that line fade as each day progresses allows you to monitor the effects of the trigger shot and how quickly they disperse from your system.
A false positive can be detrimental to your emotional health. Going through fertility treatment means you have tried for a baby for some time now so longing for the BFP may seem like a lifetime.
It’s best if you hold off testing for at least two weeks if then you are staring at a positive test then you could well be pregnant. To ensure this is not after effects of the trigger your doctor can check your blood work for the levels of hCG in your blood to confirm your pregnancy.
