Race against time: Jordan Lambropoulos’ IVF journey weeks before a bone-marrow transplant leaves her infertile

At just 24, Jordan Lambropoulos is going through the “incredibly invasive” process of preparing for an egg retrieval surgery before a bone-marrow transplant leaves her infertile.

At only 24 years old, Jordan Lambropoulos is injecting herself with hormones every night to prepare for an egg retrieval surgery before a bone-marrow transplant leaves her infertile.

She has only two cycles to capture as many eggs as possible before her transplant in January next year or she’ll never be able to have her own children.

Jordan suffers from Crohn’s disease, an incurable inflammatory bowel disease – Australia’s leading invisible illness.

While infertility is not normally associated with Crohn’s disease, the circumstances surrounding Jordan’s health condition make reproduction difficult.

Jordan has only two cycles to capture as many eggs as possible before her bone marrow transplant. Picture: Instagram

Jordan Lambropoulos was diagnosed with Crohn's disease when she was nine-years-old. Picture: Instagram

Over the past six months alone, Jordan has had six surgeries, leaving her abdomen extremely traumatised.

“Because I was sick as a teenager during those developmental years, I was severely malnourished,” she said.

“The period in my life that I was my sickest, when I was a teenager going through puberty, have all impacted my ability to have children,” she said.

In the lead up to a hopefully life-changing bone marrow transplant, Jordan is preparing for oocyte retrieval, a procedure in which eggs are taken from a woman’s ovaries; “doctors are aiming for 10 to 15 eggs,” she said.

The preparation process involves Jordan injecting herself with the highest dosage of hormones to simulate her ovaries.

She injects every night between 7pm and 9pm, and the process is gruelling.

“It does take quite an emotional toll on you, especially the hormonal aspects, injecting these hormones into your body – it makes you feel pretty overwhelmed emotionally,” she said.

There is a lot for Jordan to keep on top of.

“You’ve got to keep track of your medications, you’ve got to inject things at specific times.

“Because I’m quite unwell at the moment, having to keep track of all of this on top of being unwell is really overwhelming,” she said.

Jordan Lambropoulos injects herself with hormones every night, and the process is gruelling. Picture: Instagram

If not for her impending transplant, Jordan would have had more time to process the mental turmoil of IVF.

“It feels very rushed,” she said.

“It’s incredibly invasive. I don’t feel like I’m in a position to even think about having children just yet, so it feels very much like something that I’ve distanced myself from emotionally.”

Jordan is “looking forward to having it over and done with” knowing she has the option to fertilise her eggs down the line.

“I would like to have children in the future but there are a lot of factors to weigh up.

“Whether my body will at any point be physically capable of child-bearing, I’m not sure,” she said.

But one thing Jordan does know is that as long as there are many French bulldogs in her future, she’ll be happy.

Originally published as Race against time: Jordan Lambropoulos’ IVF journey weeks before a bone-marrow transplant leaves her infertile