Research shows that one out of every eight couples in the U.S. will struggle with infertility. It’s part of the reason why IVF is on the rise, up 11% within the last two years. But mixing medicine and self-injecting hormones is one of the most stressful and unpleasant parts of the process.
Boston nurse practitioner Alexa Nicholls Costa wants to help couples struggling with infertility by assisting with the numerous injections that are part of in vitro fertilization.
“Just being aware of how kind of crazy it is that we send boxes of medications to patients going through fertility treatments who have never picked up a syringe before. It’s a little crazy to think about from the patient perspective,” board-certified nurse practitioner Costa said.
What is it like to go through IVF?
Costa knows her way around a needle; she’s the co-founder and CEO of LexRx, an aesthetic injectables practice with three locations in Boston and one in Nantucket. She’s also a mom of two. Her daughter, Capri, is an IVF miracle.
“I was always in a panic to get home by a certain time, mix the medications properly, store them properly, show up on time for appointments. It really is a lot to go through – it’s consuming, it can really impact your day-to-day.”
Costa found herself rescheduling many of her own patients to stay on top of her injections and doctors’ appointments. What started as a scheduling headache turned into something incredibly meaningful for Costa and the people she treats.
Helping others access IVF
“They would say, ‘Oh, you have an appointment? What are you doing?’ I became very transparent and open with my customer base that I was going through IVF treatments in the hopes of having a second child. It really opened the conversation for my patient population to say maybe they were going through it, too. A lot of them shared their fears and anxiety around administering the medication. I had two patients who said, ‘I had two rounds fail because I messed up the medications,’ and that just kills you because you know the meds are expensive and it’s incredibly time-consuming. Their heartbreak really spoke to me,” Costa said. “They almost wanted to ask, would I be willing to help with the injections? I do their Botox treatments, I do other services for them. They trust me with a syringe and a needle. For me, it just felt like the best way to pay it forward was to really help my own clients going through this journey.”
So Costa began seeing patients after hours, helping with hormone injections completely free of charge.
To date, she’s helped more than 15 of her patients with their IVF injections – all of them successfully giving birth to happy, healthy babies.
Anxiety around IVF injections
One of them happens to be her cousin, Marisa Penta.
Penta and her wife both went through IVF cycles in hopes of getting pregnant, attempting to handle injections on their own before eventually turning to Alexa.
“Bruising happens when you’re injecting yourself and hit a certain spot in your body. It was very anxiety-provoking, very stressful to have to do it ourselves,” Penta said.
When asked how it felt to have someone else administer the injection, Penta described it as “like a weight being lifted.”
“It’s a lot of shots, a lot of blood draws, a lot of ultrasounds. The number one reason people drop out of the process is that it’s so physically hard,” said Dr. Pietro Bortoletto, co-founder of Dedham-based Terra Fertility.
“To paint you a picture: When patients start the IVF process, they get a box at home that has dozens of needles, syringes, medications. If it’s overwhelming to Alexa, I can’t imagine how it feels for the average patient,” Bortoletto said.
That’s why Bortoletto and Costa are now working on making the process feel a little less overwhelming. Their plan: take the pressure off patients by sending trained nurses to administer injections.
It’s something Penta and her wife certainly would have turned to if they hadn’t had Alexa. They recently celebrated their daughter Ricci’s first birthday, and Penta says she wouldn’t change a thing.
“All the years of infertility-it was worth it for her,” Penta said.
