Most of our patients, especially those doing IVF will need blood draws at almost every visit. The good news is that we are all trained to find tricky veins and those that are hard to see.
You can help us by drinking at least 8 ounces of water before your appointment.
Coffee actually dehydrates you, so try and avoid that before your blood draw. Eating a little something may also make you feel better. Having low blood sugar may make you more likely to feel dizzy or light-headed. Another positive is that we usually only need one small tube to run our blood tests. We can test estrogen, progesterone and hcg (the pregnancy hormone) in our lab. You will get results the same day.
We know that most people do not like needles and we are here to try and make this process as easy as possible for you. Please let us know if you have ever had any problems giving blood and we will be glad to have you lie down while we do it. We also have a trained professional from Lab Corp to draw any other labs that may be needed. Those results usually take anywhere from one day to one week to come back.
In conclusion, knowing your hormone levels is a very important part of successful infertility treatment at Carolina Conceptions. We are all trained, compassionate, and ready to make this process as easy as possible for you. Feel free to ask us any questions or voice concerns before we do the blood draw. We look forward to seeing you and working toward our ultimate goal of a healthy pregnancy!