You will not find any research answering that question but people get pregnant: they cough, they laugh and there’s no issue with that, so coughing is not a big issue. Don’t be afraid of that.
Coughing cannot influence the implantation of the embryo because implantation of the embryo is a very hard process that includes many small molecules between the embryo, endometrium, and surrounding different factors. So coughing cannot lead to an unsuccessful IVF attempt. So don’t worry, you can cough, you can do everything you like.
Well this one is a really easy one: no – not at all. Coughing has nothing to do with embryo implantation or anything like that.
After the embryo transfers you can have a normal life, normal activities – so If you are coughing after the embryo transfer or going to the toilet or doing all the other activities, it doesn’t have any effect on the embryo. You can have a very normal life and it doesn’t affect the rate of implantation of the embryos inside the womb, so you can coughing and you can do whatever you want because it’s not going to affect the embryo once it’s inside of the uterus.
No – The embryos are nestled between the walls of the uterus after embryo transfer, and will not be affected by your coughing.
Of course, I would say no. But to be honest with you, I don’t think there have been any studies done about coughing. But coughing doesn’t seem to affect even pregnancy. People have asthma, they have respiratory problems, and they are still pregnant, they cough a lot. So it shouldn’t affect implantation, it’s a part of our defense mechanism against germs and yes, it is perfectly fine.
Usually, it doesn’t impact embryo implantation. Coughing can be the result of a respiratory infection. Unfortunately, we can’t avoid it. But in the majority of cases, it doesn’t have any impact on implantation. I don’t think that it is dangerous. Yes, if you have a very strong disease, you are coughing strongly, it can have a negative impact on implantation. But usually, we can’t avoid it.
The patients have to know that when we do the embryo transfer and put the embryo inside of the uterus, only one thing can cause the embryo to come out. Those are uterus contractions. Coughing, peeing, walking, going to the toilet, nothing can cause any falling or losing the embryos. Normally, embryos are stuck to the wall of the uterus, and only with the contractions of the uterus you can lose the embryos. Most of the time, a difficult embryo transfer can cause these contractions. For example, an inexperienced surgeon gynecologist can cause this, or sometimes if the patient has had some surgery on the cervix (e.g. for cervical cancer, etc.), in this case, the way from the outside to the inside can be distorted. Nowadays, we have very good cervical catheters and they will never cause any pain. We can always pass them very easily. So two things: experienced gynecologist and a well-chosen catheter cannot cause any contractions, same with coughing.
I can understand where you’re coming from regarding coughing. Coughing in itself could be worrying – you could be worrying ‘if that could affect my implantation’ or ‘what if something goes wrong’. Let me reassure you that it is not the case. A lot of physiological or pathological stuff that can happen, like coughing, is acceptable to have but it does not affect the actual procedure: the implantation, its success or failure. However, having said that, avoiding coughing as much as we can, is obviously recommended.
But how to avoid coughing? If you have simple coughing, you can have water vapour or some easy remedies for that. You can have some hot drinks to ease your cough. If it is persistent and needs medical attention, then I would rather seek it sooner than later. Coughing can be due to numerous things – it could be allergy, stress. There are a lot of people who have a reflux cough. However, if it becomes of greater significance, together with other symptoms, such as fever or anything worrying, then you should seek advice.
If you have this kind of pathological cough and the doctor recommends you, for example, antibiotics, it is safe. There are safe antibiotics to have after the embryo transfer and you shouldn’t be extremely worried about starting antibiotics.
Another thing is that cough can also be after an anesthetic that you had during egg collection or the sedation that you had from the embryo transfer. I have a proportion of patients who can have this kind of induced cough after this procedure. Also, it can be if you are on some anti-apertensive, like ACE inhibitors. So all these things we have to be considerate of. However, a simple cough, which is not affecting your well-being, is ok to have and you should not worry about it.
